Buying Books

Wolf gave me an ancient butcher knife
to pose with my books, 😆! It was
too rusty to cut, though, no worries.

Let's face it; my to-be-read list is hopeless, as everybody's is probably too. It is off the charts and yet I find myself over and over again joyfully discovering new titles which all sound better than the other and I want to read all of them. But for the majority of the time I struggle to keep up with my own reading plan. I am my worst nemesis.

So I was at the bookstore yesterday and picked up a few new titles I ordered. Since I have so much to read already I don't know when I will be able to finish these, but I still wanted to quickly pitch them here anyway because I just know they are good and maybe someone may discover them here.

The book I'm most happy about is Joseph Laycock's Speak of the Devil - How the Satanic Temple is Changing the Way We Talk About Religion, which I have been wishing to read ever since I saw the ZDF documentary Hail Satan? Amerika und seine Satanisten about The Satanic Temple movement who currently seems to be the only important oppositional force challenging the ever-growing dogmatic religious fanaticism meddling with politics in the States. It is published by the Oxford University Press and presents a serious academic look at this provocative and seemingly fun movement.

The Specters of Algeria by Korean author Hwang Yeo Jung revolves around a group of dramatists and a fictional stage play by Karl Marx, the only he's supposed to have written, also entitled The Specters of Algeria. Apparently, this is a very controversial book, looking at the ratings they are scattered all around from one to four. Good! Let's see what I'll think about it. I give the cover and title five stars already.

I know you shouldn't do that but I often buy and judge books by their covers. If a book with a nice cover turns out to be lousy it's still not a loss for me if the cover is pretty enough, I think a good cover art can save that book for me.

Another book I decided to purchase judging by its cover is Concerning Those Who Have Fallen Asleep: Ghost Stories by Adam Soto.

I have no idea where I first saw this, but I remember completely accidentally clicking on the cover and only then realizing that it depicts masses of people interrupted / parted by big chunks of void.

These voids look so uncanny that I decided I want this book and only realized later that it is also a short story collection that has the potential to be genuinely interesting for me. Look at the cover text which also constitutes the connection to the voids on the cover: "The stories in Concerning Those Who Have Fallen Asleep explore the spaces where we haunt each other and ourselves through our choices, dreams and institutions."

Last but not least, there is Extended Stay by Juan Martinez, which has been among my most anticipated books for the year 2023. Alvaro is a refugee from Colombia who works as a cook and stays rent-free in the rundown Alicia Hotel in Las Vegas. Wonky, nightmarish things start happening, though, and he discovers that the hotel is an appendage of a gigantic creature which wants to take as much as it gives to the people in need. How much will it want?

At the risk of repeating myself over and over like a broken record, I can't wait to get to this, as I do with every book in my shelves and on my readers. Even though the cover isn't as exciting as the previous two, the story sounds really original and great.

I was going to visit the Leipzig Book Fair next weekend with Miriam after the Kristopher Triana signing, but I'm not sure anymore since at this point it could realistically bring about my financial ruin, which is highly undesirable for me. Stay tuned though, maybe I'll go after all.

I also wish that every book I buy came with the time to read it...