It's a rom-com, which I don't generally read, so I can't judge if it was actually good or not. Personally, it felt too much like one of those K-Dramas, where a poor girl meets super rich guy, who is super handsome, and she keeps thinking about her all the time. Except this one has a Vampire. Not a big fan, but overall it was a fine time pass.

Bingo squares: Jude a book by its cover.

What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?

For details on the c/Books bingo challenge that just restarted for the year, you can checkout the initial Book Bingo, and its Recommendation Post. Links are also present in our community sidebar.

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[–] banazir@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I'm reading Stalin: New Biography of a Dictator by Oleg Khlevniuk. Dictators feel timely, but also I felt like I didn't know Stalin's life well enough, despite how important he is in the story of the 20th century.

I also just finished Henry David Thoreau's essay Civil Disobedience. My local library had put it on display and it felt like a bit of a cheeky gesture. Unfortunately, I didn't like the essay all that much, as I find Thoreau's writing disagreeable - even when I agree with him. Perhaps he's just not my cup of tea.

[–] dresden@discuss.online 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Did you finish One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich? Or still reading it?

[–] banazir@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Yes, I finished it. It's not a long story, given that it's just a typical day from one prisoner's perspective. It was a good book, but also didn't have a lot to sink your teeth into. In this sense, even if it was written a 100 years earlier, The Dead House gives a more in-depth look into Russian/Soviet prison camps. Anyway, turns out prison camps are miserable places, where you have to scheme to get enough (and still too little) food and clothes and pretty much everything else you need. Russian winters are cold, and prison personnel cruel and prone to make arbitrary decisions. Yeah. Though I have to say, how this got published in Soviet Russia is a bit of a mystery to me, since it's pretty critical of the state.

I do intend to read more on Gulags, but I'll save that for another time.

[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Though I have to say, how this got published in Soviet Russia is a bit of a mystery to me, since it’s pretty critical of the state.

It was during a brief thaw of destalinization. After Kruschechev's removal, the writer was persecuted and eventually expelled from the Soviet Union.