Small books to read when when the reading slump hits! 📚

I often find myself struggling to pick up a book. I work full time, and I love movies (and TV shows tbh) a bit too much!

This year I've not read as much as I usually do, part of that is because I'm not a student anymore and I don't have to read 1 million books to pass an exam, and it's also because I'm a slow reader and I get tired of reading long books.

So in an effort to re-ignite the reading spark, I've started reading short books and here I will share some old faves and some recent discoveries and also somehow talk about movies again...FFS.

December Books + Top 5 Reads of 2020

These are my final reads of the year and a Top 5 of the best books I read in 2020.

December Books

The Invention of Love by Sara Schaff

This Ok, but completely forgettable collection of short stories was an advance copy I got from Netgalley, and tbh I feel like maybe one story out of the lot was interesting. I feel like recently my reading choices are very hit and miss. Schaff’s stories focus on women, and quite a few of them have no dimensions at all, and some are just completely dull, like the story about siblings trying to sell a rundown house. Yawn.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Das Parfum. Die Geschichte eines Mörders) by Patrick Süskind

What a disappointment. I felt like my expectations of this book couldn’t be further from what it actually was. I thought I would get a creepy Paris set novel that follows a warped murderer as he terrorises the city. Instead, it was a boring story that flirted slightly with the creepiness but felt more like something Flaubert would write (which isn’t necessarily bad in itself I just didn't expect this tone). I nearly gave up when he was in the cave for years, and then the weird perfume induced orgy was a massive eye roll moment. All in all, I don’t get the hype it was a complete waste of my time, and I could probably have read a few other books in the time it took me to force myself to finish this one!

The Englishman by Douglas Stuart

I read this short story by recent Man Booker Prize winner Douglas Stuart for the very reason of seeing whether I like his writing style enough to read his award-winning book Shuggie Bain. Short answer, Yes, I do. The Englishman was published in The New Yorker and follows a young gay Scottish man who takes a trip down to London to stay with the eponymous Englishman as part of an “arrangement”. The short story is beautifully written and explores the naivety of the narrator wonderfully. I will most likely be picking up Shuggie Bain very soon as a result.

I Have the Right to Destroy Myself (나는 나를 파괴할 권리가 있다) by Kim Young-ha

This is my 3rd re-read. I don’t normally re-read books very often, but this concise book fascinates me. I love Kim’s writing, his imagination and how dark this story is. If you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend it but be warned it is very dark.

Best Books of 2020

Last year I read 58 books, some of them were short stories (do they even count?) and others were absolute mammoths! Overall, these are the 5 books that stood out above the rest, the books that had me hooked and voraciously consuming page after page.

Seasons of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih

This book was introduced to me through Uni as it was on my year 3 reading list, which I will forever be grateful for as this novel blew me away. It’s dark, unexpected and beautifully written and has helped me expose how ignorant I was (and still am) about colonialism. I will forever continue to re-read this book and recommend it to everyone as it’s not only an important portrait of Black Arab culture in Post-Colonial Sudan; it’s a stunningly realised novel.

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

This book is hardcore sci-fi but infinitely readable that in itself is a feat. I found The Three-Body Problem unputdownable and being a slow reader that can take weeks, months or sometimes a year to finish a book this is high praise. I love how it mixed past and present and how the layers of mystery unfolded as you read on. I have the rest of the trilogy ready and waiting, and I have actually made a start on the next book The Dark Forest.

Heroes and Villains by Angela Carter

I’ve been a fan of Carter ever since reading and studying The Bloody Chamber back in school for A-Level literature. I think she will forever be one of this country’s greatest writers. Heroes and Villains is set in a post-apocalyptic world and reads like a dreamy, nightmarish fairytale.

Untold Night and Day by Bae Suah

This book unravels like a strange dream or a fragmented film where recurring motifs become unsettling and have you guessing where the boundaries between reality and fantasy merge within the narrative. Suah’s prose is also rather magical, and this is perhaps my favourite work of hers that I’ve read so far.

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

I really enjoyed Madame Bovary, and that’s probably mostly down to Flaubert’s wit, and perhaps to a certain degree, the translation by Magaret Mauldon as this book reads very easily which isn’t always the case when it comes to classics. I also think Emma is a fascinating protagonist. She almost feels quite modern the way her imperfections are laid bare and her distaste for the banality of marriage and provincial life.

Honourable mentions: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Naiv. Super. by Erlend Loe and The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro.

March Books

March was very strange month for the entire world but reading is one of the best ways to escape this craziness for a few hours. Here are the books I read this March

My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

I listened to this short book on audible, and I can say that it immersed me so much into the story as the narrator Weruche Opia did such a wonderful job of inhabiting the different characters. It’s an interesting tale of a woman who knows her sister is a serial killer, and just how far you will go for family. If my sister was a serial killer I don’t think I would be as loyal as Korede.

Counting Stars, Like a Chicken on a Folding Screen and The Human Arachnid by Kye Yong-muk

I read 3 of Kye Yong-muk’s short stories this month all of which are available to read for free thanks to the LTI Korea via Buk.io. These short stories were all written during or just after the Japanese occupation of Korea and as such reflect this troublesome time in the countries history, one of upheaval, political disarray and poverty. These short stories are a part of history, a part of world history that is often unknown to most in the west. And it’s rather powerful stuff, especially when you read The Human Arachnid which is full of censorship as it was written in 1929 about the working conditions that many Koreans found themselves under the tyranny of Empirical Japanese rule.

Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf

Woolf is one of the most iconic writers of the modern period, her use of stream of consciousness is absolutely iconic at this point. Between the Acts is rife with comedic social commentary and it is also representative of Woolf’s interest in literary history. It’s an interesting read but you have to pay close attention to fully uncover each carefully crafted layer.

Untold Night and Day by Bae Suah

This book is very dreamlike and bizarre. If you love surrealism and fragmented narratives then give this one a read, Bae Suah never disappoints with her beautiful yet strange prose.

Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys

This is one of the bleakest and darkest books I’ve ever read, it’s so excruciating to read Rhys’s novel of a woman in despair just before the second world war. This is a uni book that I’m glad to have read but can safely that I will never read it again because it just made me feel so deflated and sad.

Photo Shop Murder by Kim Young-ha

I finally managed to get a hold of this collection of two short stories by Kim Young-ha second hand from AbeBooks. The two stories are ‘Photo Shop Murder’ (which easily feels like it could be a Korean movie with its subversion of expectations) and ‘Whatever Happened to the Guy in the Elevator’ a surreal and almost Kafkaesque exploration of one man’s commute to and from work. I love Kim’s writing and this little book didn’t disappoint.