I finally hit 50 books read for the year! Very happy I could keep up a resolution this long.
This month I could feel myself slowly getting back up to speed. Though I still get mental (and physical) exhaustion from time to time, my mind is much clearer now compare to how it was in March.
The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells - 3/5. Such good setup wasted on rambling narrative :( I can’t help but wonder how it would have been had Sir Doyle been the author instead…
The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson - 3/5. To be fair, it is a very good book for those looking to learn about the body with no or little prior biology knowledge. Bryson has a charming way of making complicated things easy to understand. For me however, it was boring as it was mostly things I already knew… I picked it up simply because a friend of mine was reading it and she really likes Bryson’s books. Remind to self to only read things I myself am interested in.
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx - 3/5. Because I missed out on Đường lối cách mạng Đảng from not studying uni in VN. #fomo
The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa, Stephen Snyder (Translator) - 4/5. The ending left me in a… misty… state of mind. Much like the characters in the book. Perhaps that was the purpose all along. In any case, I thought it was a good original story - one that left me thinking a bit afterwards about the literal/theoretical value of memories.
Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond by Sonia Shah - 3/5. The prologue was the best part of the book imo lol. The author must have spent like 2/3 of the book discussing cholera alone. Granted, she’s an expert on that, but still, I expected a more rounded point of view… It does have some eerily good points that happen to coincide with the COVID-19 outbreak, of course, unfortunately to some, in hindsight.
Letters From An Astrophysicist by Neil deGrasse Tyson - 4/5. Hm. I didn’t enjoy this as much as Astrophysics for People in a Hurry. Tyson sounds arrogant, at times, which I don’t like, and lacks of emotions, which I don’t particularly not like, but it’s a quality I find hard to resonate in someone.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl - 5/5. Is there a Roald Dahl story I will come to hate one day? Hopefully not.
Atlas Obscura: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Hidden Wonders by Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras, Ella Morton, Maciej Potulny (Translator) - 5/5. A guilty pleasure book of sorts, when I’m stuck in my house with 2 trips cancelled. A few (dozen) places noted down from the book into my bucket list.