Short Reintroduction to my Bookshelf

Two out of my three slots in the shared bookshelf in my apartment. (Photo cred: Surya Quentacinema)

Another Semester another list of books I would love to read but probably won't get around to because of all my class readings, quite sad but reality

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

My first step into James Joyce thanks to the recommendation from a good friend and a free copy I got from my aunt with a note that I would probably enjoy it because I'm a "nerd like that." And she is correct I am enjoying this book greatly. Following Stephan Dedalus, a young, and then older, boy's life in Ireland focusing on his relationships with the church and sexual desire. Now! I will say I have only read about 105 pages and I am going in decently blind so I will not be giving a full summary only for the part I've read, which had been mostly Stephan observing conversations about the church, going to school and getting an unfair punishment (the most fascinating section to me so far), and having a very awkward interaction with a very overwhelming peer. The book is five chapters, and I've just breached chapter 3, so we shall see what happens there.

Bob Dylan as a Filmmaker: No Time to Think

An impulse buy after I learned about Eat the Document, an analysis of Bob Dylan's body of film work, as a director, actor, and writer. Okay so most people do not know about his film work, sure Don't Look Back but that's a pure documentary, some real vérité stuff, and he didn't direct. There is his directorial debut Eat the Document, which he edited while recovering from his 1966 motorcycle accident, his second go-around for Renaldo and Clara, which eventually became a large portion of Scorsese's Rolling Thunder Revue. I've cracked it open a bit, enjoying the image of Bob Dylan speaking in a way that is akin to myself, a writer and reluctant director. He speaks with the cinephile cadence I'm fond of, with talks of German auteurs and dislike for American schooling of Thought, he is like many a good friend I know. As my personal film study for the foreseeable future, I'm very excited to continue reading this one.

Born to Run

Embarrassingly, this has been on my shelf for closer to a few years than a few months. Bruce Springsteen's memoir, a graduation gift from the summer of 2024, which I intended to read before the release of the 2025 biopic and then didn't is still a prized possession. I've heard good things about it from other fans of Springsteen, and I've been obsessed with the narrative of Nebraska lately which has me holding back immensely from dropping all my class readings and devoting a week to this only.

On the Road

My old curiosity about the Beat Generation has wormed its way in again with Jack Kerouac's On the Road, a book I've always heard about but never read. I picked it up to read after I finish Naked Lunch, another Beat novel I still have sitting somewhere untouched since earlier in the summer. I once listened to a spoken word album of Kerouac's and enjoyed it so I'm quite excited for this, I also really like the book cover.

Collected Fictions of Jorge Luis Borges

Originally recommended to me by a good friend while we talked about hit videogame Deltarune, Borges' then appeared in my English course readings, so I've been able to read a little without fighting with my assignments. I've so far only read The Immortal which was an amazing experience I highly recommend just go in blind it's so fascinating. I've also been told the Circular Ruins is very good, I will be reading that one next.