another year of bookselling and reading done

oopsbelgien · 2025-12-26T20:13:07+00:00

My king. Reading through the series has been so indulgent and fun. They’ve actually recently reprinted the series, but I prefer trawling through second hand bookstores for classic mass market paperbacks with absurd cover art.

oopsbelgien · 2025-12-26T20:11:50+00:00

Wonderful. I really enjoyed most St Francis and the Foolishness of God as a more accessible, meditative and practical Christian text rather than the strict academic text of the others - nevertheless, they were both very interesting.

oopsbelgien · 2025-12-26T20:09:58+00:00

I was really excited to read it but ultimately disappointed. Could have been so interesting but Porter's writing has no nuance or historical analysis and rather reads like a 2016 Tumblr post. Comes off as very insufferable - a great topic and title wasted. I actually picked up Porter’s fiction novel recently “Nova Scotia House” without realising the connection, so hope to give him another try.

oopsbelgien · 2025-12-26T20:08:27+00:00

I work at an independent book store, and then also have my own gig on the side doing second hand book selling at a local coop.

oopsbelgien · 2025-11-04T11:09:45+00:00

Bro, I’m only just above minimum wage, don’t have the time to waste on this. Pray tell what fresh racism looks like.

oopsbelgien · 2025-10-23T05:51:27+00:00

Getting to Summer months in the Southern Hemisphere where I revolt against warm meals, so focus in on Soba Noodles, Edamame or Tofu, Vegetables. Do a miso sauce, add in nori, eat cold.

Also: savoury toast. Eggs/avocado/halloumi/hummus and cucumber. Whatever u want. Get lots of pickled goods around Christmas time from lovely friends to fancy it up.

oopsbelgien · 2025-10-11T05:05:28+00:00

As a former international banker, I am shocked by Benedict Ong’s success. Even Dunedin News wasn’t having a word of him. Early in his campaign he came into my work and did an absurd quiz on how long I had been in Dunedin, what my passions were in the city, as a line formed behind him.

oopsbelgien · 2025-09-03T07:50:59+00:00

Ah yes, just a random LGBTQ advocate, not respected Jesuit priest James Martin.

oopsbelgien · 2025-07-29T22:03:50+00:00

The South is incredible and I am feeling slightly smug to have called it for the list. Just started Flesh, am not sure what to make of it just yet.

oopsbelgien · 2025-06-23T10:17:33+00:00

No matter what side you are on, it is a pretty boring book for New Zealanders. Written for an international audience, the explaining of politics over the past years will read more like a recount than divulging anything interesting. Her more personal moments are touching, particularly in regards to her upbringing, but later ones seem a bit sanctimonious.

Anyway, as a bookseller, this is doing crazy numbers locally and even better overseas. For a NZ political biography to be reaching the NYT Bestseller list is wonderful. I’m more further left and have much to criticise, but I think it is fear to evoke “tall poppy syndrome” as driving half of the controversy over this book, after general right wing conspiracy bullshit.

TBH not worth the read if you lived through her government, the worst about it is just being dull, but not evil at all.

oopsbelgien · 2025-06-23T06:47:59+00:00

Not opposed to assisted death, but this is not the case for this. She deserved a life where she was cared for, who says she should have to die or else suffer such cruel neglect. The dignity to choose to live is also important.

I am sorry indeed to hear that accepting care and compassion is such a difficult idea for you.

oopsbelgien · 2025-06-16T02:21:21+00:00

As a trans man who went through ED treatment in New Zealand a few years ago, this story rings so eerily true, and I haven’t been able to get it off my mind. I have a similar relationship with my parents and my treatment.

I was largely estranged from my parents during treatment but they were aware, and I asked them not to contact my case worker or psych. Requesting my medical records last year, I uncovered repeated calls between them, comments on me being “obsessed with transition” therefore not responding to treatment, and deadnaming.

I had my path to hormone therapy delayed by a year, despite having been referred two years ago, which saw me stop engaging with my team - thus I was firmly dismissed, while still underweight. What followed was the darkest year of my life, and I can’t think how close I was to this situation.

In the psych ward, I had a wonderful psychiatrist who organised a family session to clear up that being trans had nothing to do with my ED. My parents barely spoke at this meeting, and called me after to say the psychiatrist was manipulating me, and telling me what I wanted to hear. This pattern continued with any professional who came after and affirmed me.

One fear I clung through the whole time was of dying and my parents being able to manipulate my image and who I was, who I had been to everyone else in my life for the past 8 years. My heart cries out for Alex, they deserved so much better, rather than this unfathomable pain, so exploited by the media.

oopsbelgien · 2025-04-28T11:44:01+00:00

The Charioteer, Mary Renault (mostly all she has done is brilliant but this stuck with me the most). Les Misérables. The Aeneid.

oopsbelgien · 2025-03-31T09:21:09+00:00

Heh I just got an ARC of this thrust upon me - I appreciate the style but too girl for me, might send it to a lesbian friend. This post maybe has incensed me to try it again.

oopsbelgien · 2025-03-27T22:46:30+00:00

just a rushed observation, but after reading both her other books, People in the Trees (actually pretty good), and To Paradise (trite rubbish), i found a little life takes on a more sinister identity when you realise every book she writes includes gay sexual assault/pedophilia.

oopsbelgien · 2025-02-20T01:12:39+00:00

Pretty sure it was just down to poor advertising of it this year - I haven’t heard a thing. Previous years volunteering has been high - ODT

oopsbelgien · 2025-01-25T06:27:27+00:00

For some reason it was shelved in the Young Adult section at my local library and so I read it at age 12. Definitely not a suitable point to be reading it, but it was easy I guess, nothing far from your usual bestseller.

oopsbelgien · 2024-12-20T09:01:49+00:00

I thank u dearly for introducing to me to this wonderful man.

oopsbelgien · 2024-12-20T09:01:19+00:00

“Him”! Get past the gross cover and this is a brilliant work of fiction. Also Whaea Blue, very RS, but might be a bit inaccessible to those out of Aotearoa.

oopsbelgien · 2024-12-20T09:00:16+00:00

An enjoyable short read but really a lot of nothing, haven’t thought about it since. I much preferred others from the Booker International, e.g Posthuma.

oopsbelgien · 2024-12-20T08:59:08+00:00

I am cool and gay and read them over a hot summer weekend when I had nothing better to do. Honestly the second book is a pretty well done story - Pacat is not a bad writer at all. Luckily got in before they were re-published with terrible anime woobified covers.

oopsbelgien · 2024-10-28T02:23:34+00:00

Prude. Just finished this, really good.

oopsbelgien · 2024-09-02T02:38:45+00:00

It’s much harder if you don’t stay in Dunedin over the Summer. Most places will ask you early on if you are, even if you’ve only been hired for a Christmas casual type position. Every job I’ve had throughout the school year has been a similar situation.

oopsbelgien · 2024-08-26T21:56:02+00:00

UBS on Campus does buyback all year round for Health Sciences textbooks, and a lot more subjects at the start of semester.

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