Strange Library, Reluctant Fundamentalist, Number 9 Dream

 Strange Library:

    I have some friends who've told me stories about dreams they had while stoned/tripping on acid that sounded really similar to this one. I liked it. Feel like it would work well as an adult-swim animated short or something. Also thought the packaging was neat; not matching the eccentricity of a story like this in its marketing would be both unfortunate for the story and a missed opportunity to enhance the reading experience. Personally, the packaging of the story made me appreciate it even more than I would have just reading it off a PDF on my laptop.

"Why the hell did they make all the text in this book font size 800 with double-spacing? What a massive waste of paper................................................................................................................................I love it!"'

(Probably not the way I should react to things like this given the urgency of environmental matters in today's world, but I confess, I'm a sucker for novelty)

Not a critic but I liked it / 10

Reluctant Fundamentalist:

    Thought it was near 1-1 with Norwegian Wood (the excerpt we read at least), yet still found it pretty interesting. Have never read or heard the perspective of someone originally from a heavily Islamic country on the 9/11 attacks before, was pretty intriguing. Liked the author's writing style too. Maybe I'm just a sucker for more traditional, more formal writing, I don't know though. Made me curious about the rest of the book, might try and read it over the summer if I have time.

Not a critic but I liked it / 10

Number 9 Dream:

    Had a hard time following what was going on in this book. In that way, reminded me a bit of the text from Gibson that we read earlier. Once the pieces started coming together though, thought it was neat. In my head at least, the atmosphere gradually became more and more threatening and unsettling as the author wrote more about Daimon, thought he was a very neat character (not one that I would want to be friends with in real life though).

Not a critic but I liked it / 10

 

Dylan