I purchased this book after hearing Brian Koppelman recommend it on the Ringer’s JFK Rewatchables episode. I’d heard of it before, but safe to say it was never on my radar. It sat on my shelf for a few months and as I was winding down the final chapters of Moby-Dick I walked over and stared at the shelf and picked it up. It’s hard to argue with a first page that starts like this: ...
Sometimes a classic is a classic for a reason. I remember picking up Moby-Dick sometime in elementary or maybe middle school and bouncing off of it instantly. Hardly surprising. I doubt I thought about the book at all between then and a few months ago, reading that Cormac McCarthy drew some inspiration for Blood Meridian from Melville’s work, and apparently this was McCarthy’s favorite novel. Not difficult to see why, or to see the parallels. ...
I bought this because the trailer for Laika’s adaptation dropped a few weeks ago. The trailer is one of the best I have ever seen, so I felt inclined to read the source before the movie. The book is somewhat a kid’s book, I would put it alongside A Series of Unfortunate Events or Spiderwick. A major difference is most of those books are pretty short, and this one is some 500 pages. I do think it is a little too long for what it is doing and I ended up skimming through some parts because they felt a little rote and a little overwritten. Still, it’s a fanciful world and I liked the characters. While I doubt I continue the series, I’m very much looking forward to the film. ...
Quick disclaimer to say that I am woefully unqualified to review Arendt. I am not well read philosophically. I picked this up alongside Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling because 1) it kept showing up in other books I read, notably GHAM and The Long Form; and 2) I am interested in ideas around “goodness” – what it is, how to be it, what it means to be it. Arendt speaks relatively little about goodness. ...
Note from 8/27/26— I’m adding this review here, but it is from 2023 and predates my review style now. Posting it here to establish the ripreads tag. This review is reposted from elsewhere and primarily about ROTK: I deeply enjoyed reading the first two LOTR books, after an encounter in my youth that put me off of them. Yet, for whatever reason, ROTK stands alone. I inhaled this book. I basically didn’t put it down once I’d picked it up. Did I spend my holiday Monday off of work, drinking wine, following my cat around my apartment, reading it to her out loud, and in character? None will ever know for sure. ...