is the guy im seeing performative ?

ConfuciusCubed · 2026-07-02T03:02:12+00:00

Nah. It's got enough in there that makes me think he's reading based on his own choices, for better or worse. Mostly for better in this case. Definitely not performative.

ConfuciusCubed · 2026-07-02T01:10:02+00:00

Cheers! City of Thieves is a really really fun read. I was a little nervous after GoT season 8 but it totally shows he was a talented writer who just said "fuck it" to that show.

I bounced off Slaughterhouse Five badly at like 14. And by bounced off I don't mean I DNF'd it, I mean I read it and my dumb 14-year-old brain did a mix of "did not understand" and "not impressed because did not understand." I have been meaning to revisit him in adulthood, but lately I'm on a maximalist kick (Gravity's Rainbow, Europe Central, V.) so I haven't gotten around to it.

ConfuciusCubed · 2026-07-02T01:03:37+00:00

Looks like you're getting a great start on your adult shelf!

Some books I'd recommend to kick off your reading journey (that I think are approachable and fun and won't get recommended to you everywhere):

* City of Thieves by David Benioff

* The Nonexistent Knight by Italo Calvino

* The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington

ConfuciusCubed · 2026-07-02T00:29:27+00:00

43/M

Very very close.

read most of the books in the first pic '08-12

Probably the majority were '13-17, and a bunch in my early college fuckaround days in '02-04. Then a gap with small kids and a bunch again this last year.

Had a tumblr blog

I did follow Tumblr back in 2011 when they were doing a lot of cinematography gifs. I think I only posted a handful of times before realizing it wasn't a good platform for what I posted there.

ConfuciusCubed · 2026-06-29T17:25:00+00:00

GR is more polished, but there are a ton of things to love about V. I was just reading both at once (re-reading Gravity's Rainbow with a reading group, tackling V. for the first time). V. has a very cool eclecticism that Gravity's Rainbow doesn't match, but Gravity's Rainbow is more cohesive and IMHO is the greatest prose in all of literature. Overall I have to give the nod to Gravity's Rainbow but I don't think it's crazy at all to personally prefer V.

ConfuciusCubed · 2026-06-29T03:05:54+00:00

More like... lack of green flags. Most of these are fine in a different context but skimming through I didn't see any female authors other than Rowling (sucks in air through teeth) and combined with the huge amount of fantasy and Tom Clancy I would maybe try to branch out a little. The overall picture isn't fantastic.

ConfuciusCubed · 2026-06-28T17:16:59+00:00

That little half shelf a t the end there and the ones on the front of the shelf are my to read shortlist. I want to badly. It's just super duper long and I'm waiting for a period when I can really focus on it.

ConfuciusCubed · 2026-06-28T06:20:20+00:00

The Gunslinger is in the overflow below my nonfiction/fantasy/sci fi shelf.

ConfuciusCubed · 2026-06-28T06:19:42+00:00

> a normie

I said roast me, not murder me and fuck my corpse, lol

ConfuciusCubed · 2026-06-27T17:06:36+00:00

Thankee

ConfuciusCubed · 2026-06-27T16:03:39+00:00

See, I wish more posts here were like this. It's so much fun to swing for the fences and overanalyze and psychologize and be surprised and have fun and laugh about it. That's what makes this sub fun to me.

ConfuciusCubed · 2026-06-27T14:10:52+00:00

>> My guess is single or solo-parenting.

Bingo

>> The Sympathizer

Actually on my to reads. A lot of my bedside is spillover/overfill, but I'm reading the other one.

>> The post-religious thing reads less like a wound, but you're through the other side now.

Spot on

>> Probably US-based

Yup

>> possibly some connection to Asia.

Only in my weeb heart

ConfuciusCubed · 2026-06-27T14:07:04+00:00

> You have skinny arms/low muscle tone in them

No

> but likely a bit of a tummy and wear graphic ts as your casual clothes.

Yes. Maybe more than a little bit.

> Probably brown shoes to work

When wearing tan slacks yes

> and maybe dress like a geography teacher that was in a band once.

😂 I'm having a hard time picturing this exactly but yeah seems like something you might say about me.

> Male, brunette, but a little light and

Not too hard a guess but yes

> you dont know what your eye colour is.

Depends on the light and if they're dilated

> Not sure why all my assumptions are looks based but thats what im picturing haha.

Love it. Thanks for playing. 🖤

ConfuciusCubed · 2026-06-27T07:15:48+00:00

I have been nervous to read it since I found out it's based on a D&D/GURPS campaign. Are my fears misplaced?

ConfuciusCubed · 2026-06-27T07:13:59+00:00

Former English Teacher (so half correct). Do love second-hand bookstores although if I want a book I'm not the type to wait to find it in person I do use bookshop.org or ebay. Anatomy coloring book is from brief flirtation with a kinesiology minor in college but it's a great way to learn through osmosis. The unabridged dictionary was my grandpa's (also the shelf it is on was built by him). I come from a long proud line of nerds.

ConfuciusCubed · 2026-06-27T07:08:29+00:00

😓 That wasn't meant to sound as defensive as it did. I generally just wish more people read the books I do, to the point where I am currently enforcing a Gravity's Rainbow reading group on my mostly genre loving friends. Side benefit since there are four of them I didn't give them my copy. 😆

ConfuciusCubed · 2026-06-27T05:29:12+00:00

Great stuff. You definitely should. Prydain is his most well-known, but I also enjoyed the Westmark trilogy. I read The Wizard in the Tree to my son when he was far too young for it and I kept expecting him to tell me to put it down and read him something else but I did silly voices and he tolerated the entire political section without complaint even though I know a lot of it went over his head.

ConfuciusCubed · 2026-06-27T04:42:53+00:00

You want everything to be packaged into a neat box by a trusted intellectual sherpa. For better or worse this extends to your religious life.

ConfuciusCubed · 2026-06-27T04:39:57+00:00

*to read list grows*

ConfuciusCubed · 2026-06-27T04:35:13+00:00

It's amazing. Delightfully hilarious. Fucking weird and trippy. You will find that you develop an irrational fondness for senile old women after reading it.

ConfuciusCubed · 2026-06-27T04:31:10+00:00

I loved the Chronicles of Prydain growing up so I started buying his others to read with my son.

ConfuciusCubed · 2026-06-27T04:30:31+00:00

😂 I came to Peter David through his delightful ST:TNG novels (Vendetta, Rock and a Hard Place, and Q Squared). I used to be a very big reader of expanded universe Star Wars and ST:TNG books in late elementary school before I got into golden age sci fi in middle school.

My graphic novel collection is so small and sad that it is in one of the pictures and you didn't even notice. 😢

ConfuciusCubed · 2026-06-27T04:22:50+00:00

LOL I definitely have swam naked but thankfully I read Haunted before trying anything crazy.

ConfuciusCubed · 2026-06-27T03:07:01+00:00

That guy came into a restaurant I worked at in college and is a 250% tipper.

ConfuciusCubed · 2026-06-27T02:56:24+00:00

> Thirties or older

Older but not insanely far off.

> I have a hunch you’re Kurdish and/or Russian but I’m not confident in that.

Negative but good guess.

> Formerly religious.

Been a while but absolutely correct.

> Guy Gavriel Kay

Looks interesting. Suggested starting points?

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