Reviews and Comments

The Lord of The Rings has been on my radar for many years. It’s definitely one of the greatest fantasy classics, if not the greatest, so as a fan of the genre I wanted to get around to reading it at some point and get enchanted by the magic of Middle-Earth, like millions of other readers throughout the decades. Now, at the end of this journey, after turning over the last page of "The Return of the King" I can confidently say that my expectations were exceeded and I loved every page of this fantastic trilogy.

Tolkien had a great gift of crafting a world full of detailed mythology, great wonders and noble characters going into a battle not only against the forces of evil in general, but also emotions like dread, hopelessness or betrayal. That is to say, despite all the incredible magic, the characters feel real. The hobbits, the men, the elves, the wizards – even if they have a great deal of history behind them, even if they know the ancient words, even if they hold powerful artifacts, they are ultimately driven by their selflessness, aspirations, despair or greed.

I also admire how every journey undertaken in the book holds its ground if terms of travelled distance, time and supplies consumed by the adventurers. It’s really immersive and adds weight to the obstacles characters stumble upon on the way to their destination. It’s not about just moving from point A to point B, but solving troubles along the way, changing paths, avoid being spotted, encountering fascinating inhabitants of the land – all of this playing out in a way that makes you feel like a part of the company, sharing their problems and their path.

I think these aspects are what makes The Lord of The Rings such a beloved series, which I too, will hold close to my heart.

Lastly, I’m really glad that Tolkien took time to give us some sort of closure at the end of The Return of The King. Many fantasy books end shortly after the concluding events, with some short epilogue at best, but here we got to see what the Fellowship of the Ring was up to after fighting against Sauron, we got “The Scouring of the Shire”, “Grey Havens” and reading those final chapters really made me at peace, for which I’m grateful.

The Lord of The Rings has been on my radar for many years. It’s definitely one of the greatest fantasy classics, if not the greatest, so as a fan of the genre I wanted to get around to reading it at some point and get enchanted by the magic of Middle-Earth, like millions of other readers throughout the decades. Now, at the end of this journey, after turning over the last page of "The Return of the King" I can confidently say that my expectations were exceeded and I loved every page of this fantastic trilogy.

Tolkien had a great gift of crafting a world full of detailed mythology, great wonders and noble characters going into a battle not only against the forces of evil in general, but also emotions like dread, hopelessness or betrayal. That is to say, despite all the incredible magic, the characters feel real. The hobbits, the men, the elves, the wizards – even if they have a great deal of history behind them, even if they know the ancient words, even if they hold powerful artifacts, they are ultimately driven by their selflessness, aspirations, despair or greed.

I also admire how every journey undertaken in the book holds its ground if terms of travelled distance, time and supplies consumed by the adventurers. It’s really immersive and adds weight to the obstacles characters stumble upon on the way to their destination. It’s not about just moving from point A to point B, but solving troubles along the way, changing paths, avoid being spotted, encountering fascinating inhabitants of the land – all of this playing out in a way that makes you feel like a part of the company, sharing their problems and their path.

I think these aspects are what makes The Lord of The Rings such a beloved series, which I too, will hold close to my heart.

Lastly, I’m really glad that Tolkien took time to give us some sort of closure at the end of The Return of The King. Many fantasy books end shortly after the concluding events, with some short epilogue at best, but here we got to see what the Fellowship of the Ring was up to after fighting against Sauron, we got “The Scouring of the Shire”, “Grey Havens” and reading those final chapters really made me at peace, for which I’m grateful.

One of the things that I absolutely adore about "The Shadow of the Torturer" is definitely the setting. The story takes place in the far future, after humans built enormous cities, walls, citadels and most importantly spaceships that could reach other stars. It's mostly a mystery of what happened since then, but during the timeline of the book we're left with a planet that's full of marvelous technologies, bordering on magic and a class of nobility that can still somehow utilize it. Yet, the vast majority of the population are simple folk, cast back to an equivalent of the middle ages, who don't understand the world around them at all and to them, technology is more akin to myth and legend.

The story itself follows Severian - an apprentice in the guild of torturers, who due to some certain events leaves his home to perform his work somewhere else (I'm trying to spoil too much alright?). He sees many wonders along his path of life and he's trying to understand the world around him, but in the end he experiences first hand how cruel life can be.

Now, I think the prologue itself is quite amazing, but after that the book lost a lot of its charm in my eyes. The characters Severian meets since then are rather flat and just leave (or die) after fulfilling their purpose. Somehow Severian ends up with multiple lovers and he's a guy who just can't look at a woman and not desire them, which I guess can be natural, but I can't help but cringe on such descriptions in most books. It made my remember why I disliked the Witcher. Another issue is that the language in the book is stylized as ancient. It means there are a ton of Latin and archaic words, plus a lot more made-up ones. I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing, it enhances the atmosphere, but it did make the book hard to follow.

Overall I quite liked "The Shadow of the Torturer", all things considered, but I'm still not sure if I'm going to come back to the series.

(Read as part of a book club) I'm conflicted about "The Lost Bookshop". Looking back at it, it's not bad and I was able to finish it without giving up. However, as it usually is, a book that you didn't have high hopes for, but it turns out okayish leaves a better impression than one which you really liked the premise of, but it falls short. "The Lost Bookshop" is the latter for me. Let me explain.

The book follows a story across two different timelines, which are interconnected. About 100 years in the past there is Opaline - a woman running away from home and his abusive brother to work as a book dealer, traveling around, while being hunted, trying to find a place for herself. In the present the story follows two people. The first one is Martha - a woman who also runs away from her home, from an abusive husband, to work as a servant for a mysterious character. The other person is Henry - an university graduate, hunting for a lost manuscript, one that he suspects, could've been stored in the titular lost bookshop.

Now, I thought that the premise of the book is amazing. However, my problem with the execution is that, the bookshop is not that important really. 4/5th of the book just follows the character's intertwined stories and, while it has some amazing or really terrifying moments, most of it plays out like a telenovela. The characters are pretty one-dimensional. There are plenty of serious topics involved, but none truly developed. Hearts are constantly being broken, everyone has to get in terms with their pasts, there is love, kissing, sex, abuse, murder, constant misunderstandings, that made me roll my eyes in so many cases. While I understand that relationships aren't that easy in real life, especially when there are elements like past abuse involved, I just couldn't stomach most of this drama that just dragged on and on. Another issue is that you can usually see the plot twists coming from the mile away, since there is an insight from the past and many patterns repeat themselves. I'm disappointed because it could've really been a better book.

Edit: My book club came to the almost unanimous conclusion that the book is mostly trash, so it's not just a me problem

“Less is More” is an eye-opening book that goes in detail about the rise, mechanisms and threat of capitalism. As people, governments and corporations continue their business as usual - ploughing through forests, extracting copious amounts of resources and accelerating mindless consumerism, the threat of our civilization’s downfall through the irreversible effects of climate change looms closer. Is it possible to stop it? Perhaps, but it will require for us to move away from the ever-unsustainable ideas of endless growth, Jason Hickel argues and establishes “degrowth” as the new model countries around the world should follow and gives examples of a few already successful transformations. Ideas of equality, healthcare, ecology and post-consumerism, among many others, contribute to “degrowth” and are going to be essential for creating sustainable future. It is not about asceticism, as one may fear, but about flourishing.

I hope this book finds its way to as many people around the world as possible. For me, it destroyed many assumptions I had about how our economy and our relation with the environment works. It highlighted the issues of the ever-present chase for more GDP growth, consumerism and how capitalism often creates and feeds on artificial scarcity to unnecessarily produce and sell more things.

I hope humanity can address all of these issues in this century. However, there is still doubt at the back of my mind. To implement the ideas “Less is More” presents, it basically requires that mythical world peace, in order for countries to stop growing, producing so much military hardware and flexing their muscles on the international stage. And as things stand right now, we’re unfortunately not headed in that direction.

Aoyama goes to an elementary school in a small, but rapidly expanding town, with its back towards a mountainside. Even though he’s just a child, he already made plans on how to become a full-grown adult. He decided, at the age of 5, to never get mad again. He’s always calm, calculating and disciplined, waking earlier than his parents or his sister. He’s busy every day with research projects, writing and sketching in his notebook, exploring the town with his friend Uchida, going to the cafe and the dentists’ office. It is in the dentists’ office that he first met “the lady” – a mysterious woman that eventually becomes a topic of his research, perhaps the most difficult research of his life. That is saying a lot, considering that one day Aoyama, along with his friends who join him later - Uchida and Hamamoto - decide to investigate a mysterious phenomena that started happening in their city recently – penguins and other unusual creatures appearing in random places and a strange object floating in the forest. Will these science kids be able to solve this mystery and learn along the way? Well, I read the book so I already know the ending. I won’t say much but it my opinion it delivers a great, even if open-ended, conclusion to the story.

Once again, Tomohiko Morimi manages to deliver a fantastic light novel that hooks you on since the very beginning. I absolutely love the atmosphere, I could vividly paint the town Aoyama lives in when reading the book, I constantly made elaborate solutions to Aoyama’s problems, I smiled when he and “the lady” talked, and I felt anger whenever the bully Suzuki messed with Aoyama and Uchida. I adore these kids. It could easily become one of my favourite books.

"I made a record in my notebook of how it felt sitting alone at that window, but reading it over now, I don’t feel like it captured those feelings at all. I wasn’t able to reproduce it accurately. I’ve only felt like that once in my entire life. I have learned it is extremely difficult to write proper account of once-in-a-lifetime experiences."

I think this book has a ton of valuable insights into how you can extract value from online services and improve your lifestyle, by setting rules in place about access to "new tech", recalculating if social media really gives you the promised value or have you fallen into its addiction trap, taking walks and getting bored again to boost creativity and many more. Everyone can pick up this book, read it, and start applying at least some of it's rules in everyday life, which I did too, and I think it's amazing.

However, some ideas presented seem to me like more of a hit or miss and a few come from questionable sources, like financial independence communities or religious groups. On top of that, I think social media giants aren't put through rigorous research and blamed enough. They know about what happens with users and choose not to act up on it. If this point was expanded upon more I think the book would have a bigger impact.

I think Johann Hari did a great job at researching and covering the topic of how the way we currently live in the modern world does a great deal of harm to our minds. We are addicted to the constant flow of information, miserable, often unable to focus on tasks and involuntarily reaching for our smartphones for the so much craved shots of dopamine. It turns out that it's not really an individual issue anymore. In part thanks to our consumerist society, social media giants, food companies, pharmaceutical industry etc. which all have a financial incentive to have the world this way + other environmental factors outside of our control, it's impossible to come out clean out of this mess. As the author states, there isn't a simple solution to this problem. However, there are still certain strategies and techniques that you as an individual can employ to stay happy, healthy and actually focused on what's important, which are also covered here.

The book isn't exactly perfect. Still, in my opinion, more attention should be given to the issues presented in this work. I feel how on personal level it's harder for me to just stop looking at social media or youtube (all of which actually became less social are more like platforms for advertising) and do things that actually matter. I notice that others experience a similar thing themselves and this book is a great start to actually notice and understand the problem. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

Carrying on the legacy of "The Tatami Galaxy", "The Night is Short, Walk on Girl" is yet another of Tomohiko Morimi’s masterfully crafted novels telling an absurd and magical story of a university student living a quite miserable life of his own in Kyoto. This time however, the story is told from two perspectives – one of our protagonist, and the other one of a black-haired maiden, the target of protagonist’s secret affections. There are many fantastical and bizarre things that happen to our couple throughout the book. Elements of witty humour, Japanese culture, total absurdity, amusing coincidences, philosophy and romance clash together to produce this beautiful novel. The city of Kyoto is described in great detail. Every character is an extremely fascinating individual with their own unique quirks, traits and problems, elevating the story and saturating its colours.

As our couple constantly cross paths with each another, a brave and fortunate gal discovering adulthood and an often unlucky but dedicated guy, who slowly tries to fill the moat to her crush’s heart, to strike at the right time that never comes, will they ever manage to fell into each another’s arms? Seems like the universe will try everything to prevent them from doing that, but at the end of the day there’s nothing else but “Do all you can and then wait for providence”.

I had high expectations for this book at the beginning. It starts off as a beatiful story of a cementary keeper, Violette, living in a small house in the French countryside, tending to graves, plants in the garden, selling flowers to visitors and quietly but thoroughly observing the funerals and people attending them. We slowly learn about the backstory of Violette and the lives of people surrounding her - gravediggers, the priest, morticians etc. - it's beautiful, well-paced and very often moving.

However, at some point we learn about a tragedy in Violette's past and from then on things really start going downhill. We no longer only get the perspective of Violette now and Violette in the past, but of so many different random characters she encountered in her life. Be ready to keep notes of the dates and character's names because I really coudn't at one point. What's more, the book gets so obnoxious when it comes to love and sex. Practically every chracter is cheating at one point. So many scenes of one-night stands in hotels, sex on the side of the road, or my favourite - nephew inviting his aunt to to the garden so that she could watch him making love with his girlfriend, which was supposed to be some kind of revenge for her rejecting him? Who even thought of that? Shortly after that I stopped reading because all of this was just getting ridiculous. Such a letdown in my opinion.