Ferret in the Bedroom, Lizards in the Fridge.

I read it when I was in 6th grade. I saw a lot of myself in the main character and identified with her struggles. It taught me it’s okay to be different. It’s what makes you you. Middle school was rough and this book meant a lot to me.

This explains a lot about myself

The Redwall series! It taught me the values that I want to exemplify and the cruelties of others. I went back and read one recently, and they hold up beautifully.

Who’s this ISBN guy?!

Shadow Divers by Kurson

I think its like in moby dick how many chapters are dedicated to long rants about whaling which seem boring but beneath the surface is a man taking the only greater power he can actually comprehend (whales/music) and using that to try and interpret the wider world. But because Patrick is only dedicating himself to pop music and surface level concerns he's never going to discover his sense of humanity.

Keep reading! You're doing great

I like your take as well. thanks for the response !

The "what" is just as important as the "why" in this. Consider that he's isn't talking about the kind of music that hipsters of his day would discuss (Punk, New Wave etc), he's going on about the most middle-of-the-road, superficial, mass-market pop music. More or less the equivalent of using hard-core foodie terminology to discuss instant noodles in that he understands the form but none of the content. There's even a scene where somehow he gets tickets to see what I understand was meant to be U2 (before they went fully mass-market pop) and he doesn't get it at all, all he can talk about is the singers poor muscle tone and having to be around working-class people.

This might not be so immediately obvious to us now because there has been a trend in music criticism to take "disposable" pop more seriously and discuss it in the way that "serious" rock music writers did. But I think at the time of writing this would have read as much more jarring and as more evidence of Bateman's emptiness.

My point was why dedicate multiple chapters to music? There are no entire chapters (iirc) dedicated to clothes, stereo equipment or evem restaurant reservations. When he talks about music, everything else seems to evaporate away, unlike the rest of his consumer bullshit. But apparently he was memorizing other music reviews and regurgitating them which makes way more sense in the fitting in terms.

If you have seen the movie, yes.

If you have not seen the movie, YES.

It's in my top 3 stand alone novels of all time. I have reread it maybe 5-10 times over the past 15 years.

Any time I want to get back into reading I pickup one of three books: American Psycho, I Am Legend, or Fight Club. 3 of the greatest stand alone novels in my dumb opinion. The stories, prose, and subtlety is fucking genius. I love them with a burning passion.

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Patrick lives an extremely hollow life and i think those chapters are him taking the things he knows lots of regular people look up to and value and attempting to pull higher meaning out of them

Audiobooks :

I just try to find anything someone kind of thought might be enjoyable.

Currently listening to all Hugo award winners since the 50s.

I think it’s a combination of both these things; the only non-violent thing that really stirs any sort of response that’s remotely emotional is pop music that’s catchy, but only exists at surface level; it’s a reflection of him in a way. His charisma and image mirrors the catchiness of commercial pop music, but when you dig under the surface there’s nothing there, just a hollow emptiness. He can only engage emotionally with something that reflects his shallow pool of emotional triggers.

I love memoirs but I am craving something relatable. I want to know what it’s like to have lived through someone else’s life. I’m looking for a true story (or even based on a true story) of someone’s life. BUT I want this person to be an everyday person. Meaning, not a celebrity. Not someone who escaped war and . Not a rags to riches story etc. I want to read about someone middle class or lower, and their life. Stories about what it was like growing up, and how they changed. Shit they went through that I may be able to relate with. Realizations they’ve had as they became wiser. Bonus points if the author is BIPOC and/or female and/or has a disability. Does this exist??

Because her books are shoved down everyone’s throats; best seller lists, booktok/tube/gram content, every bookstore has them on display. Coupled with the fact that her books are poorly written and read like a 12 year olds wattpad account.

I think for me that was Harry Potter

Fairly early on in Eragon, he is given a fortune/riddle and the final part of the fortune only comes to fruition near the end of the final book

Yes, exactly. I perhaps didn’t articulate it in the best way. Thank you.

Haha entirely probable! Oops

Salad fingers prototype

> scenes of his home were annotated like an IKEA catalog.

Wasn't that Fight Club?

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As a lifelong reader and lover of books it breaks my heart to see people say that they don’t want to mention the books they read and enjoy for fear of the hateful comments they receive in response. Expository or explicative responses offering counter viewpoints is one thing but vitriol is another. There is just no excuse for trying to shame someone for reading. Offer other options. Recommend other authors. Encourage people to expand their choices… but really, if you have to be an asshole to express your point, you’ve lost that literary high ground you think you occupy.