some books I finished in limbo

time isn't real, but good books are

Does anyone else write themselves fantastical to-do lists for the liminal time between Christmas and New Years? One item on my list this year was ‘read three books’, and I am proud to say that I completed that task in the most limbo-like, what-even-is-this-time-period way: I finished three books that I had already been reading.

Let’s discuss:

The Ancient Guide to Modern Life, by Natalie Haynes, is book about how ancient history shapes our present. It was first published in 2010 and I have a feeling the rather self-help-y title was meant to help sell a lovely little ancient history overview. After all, this was 13 years before we found out men think about the Roman Empire every day and history books — much to my sincere shock — are not an easy sell. I enjoyed reading this book, I enjoyed learning new things about ancient Greece and Rome, and I enjoy a book with an index for future reference.

Hot take: I think all books should have indexes. In fact, I made my own attempt at an indexing method of annotating the next book:

Rouge, by Mona Awad. You know, I thought I had written about one of her other novels that I’ve read, called Bunny, but honestly it’s not even worth linking the post.¹ Both Bunny and Rouge take place in ultra-heightened realities, the former linking the violent act of creating art with very real violence, and the latter linking modern beauty standards and routines with classic fairytales we all grew up on. Once upon a time there were beautiful men who piloted planes in sunglasses and played beach volleyball shirtless, and they took our breath away.²

It always feels like Awad has fun while writing her novels, and I really like how she reveals the story along the way. Bunny I found oddly joyful. Rouge is more of a winking smile. This is another hot take, but I really loved the role Tom Cruise played in the main character’s life. And how Awad played with us by invoking his hero roles in Legend and Top Gun. Oooh also Jerry Maguire and Eyes Wide Shut. Yes, I know, Scientology blah blah. In this instance, I don’t care. Awad perfectly captured what it was like to experience Tom Cruise as a pre-teen. I mean perfectly. She is fantastic.

The last book I finished is one I began in the summer, when I was deep in my Saltburn obsession; it is small enough to fit in a large coat pocket for reading on public transportation; and I got myself an edition from 1959 for the amazing cover: Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh. What else is there to say about a classic expect that it is good, because they are classics for a reason, and that you feel like you already know the characters, because of how many more modern characters are based on these originals. I can clearly see which bits of this book inspired Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, and which inspired Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn. But it is more fun to consider how each woman used and transformed this example into something more resonant for their stories.

The only other original thing to say about Brideshead Revisited is that it was much more interested in examining Catholicism than I expected.

Finishing these three books in quick succession was the best thing I could have done for my reading habit. Keeping this kind of momentum is so, so much easier than starting it up again. I’m so excited for my to-be-read list, which grew by three-ish for Christmas! My aunt got me Intermezzo, by Sally Rooney and Emily Wilson’s new translation of The Iliad, and my husband got me Karel Čapek’s RUR (a short story) and War with the Newts (a novel). He also got me a subscription to The Paris Review! (The ‘ish’).

I hope you were able to rest and find fresh inspiration for whatever you love to do. Thanks for reading this week’s hot mushrooms — see you next week.

1. All I said was that it was my second favourite of the year and that I wasn’t going to explain why I thought it was so good.

2. Top Gun. Obviously.