mysterious secret project reading list (issue 1)
read to the end for an NYC-based live event (band-related, not book-related)
In a fit of absolute panic wanting to brush up on a pitch for a secret project, I suddenly felt the need to read a bunch of books I had lying around, as though in wait for this exact thing. I did not get through them all, obviously. Turns out there is no reason to do this to yourself. Welcome to my blog about reading that’s secretly about anxiety.
It’s easy to always feel as though you’ve neglected your reading list, especially with physical media, but not even not not especially with the shadow of digital media spread out across devices and platforms and such. Then again, while working on this secret project, I realized, well, even books I have read before are very applicable to what I’m trying to brush up on, and I don’t remember them so well that off the top of my head I can say, yes, I took xyz away from this. Backlogs are fake.
Part one! Because research takes time! And because secret project - which is a real secret project - will be announced in, like, 2026 or 2027.
A Series of Lil’ One-Off Books About Individual Video Games
I read a handful of Boss Fight Books, including Gabe Durham’s Bible Adventures, Darius Kazemi’s Jagged Alliance 2, and Mike Drucker’s Silent Hill 2. I’ve read a few of these in the past, finding them ranging from pleasant bedtime and/or insomnia reads (shout out to Philip J Reed’s Resident Evil for being my NYC-London jet lag companion in 2022 lol) to surprise mindblowing works of critical analysis (Matt Margini’s Red Dead Redemption, which compares the empty promise of the open world genre with the empty promise of American exceptionalism, which, jesus, you went so hard on this one dude)
Sometimes the little books are research-heavy histories, sometimes they’re analytical. Sometimes someone complains on Goodreads that the book is off topic but I’ve literally never read a particularly literate review on Goodreads and I cannot fathom the idea of one line of inquiry not leading to another, which brings me to…
A Lil’ One-Off Book About Eggs
My girlfriend directed me towards another series of teeny tiny books about single topics that unfold into larger discussions, and I’ve read about half of Egg by Nicole Walker in the Object Lessons series. Not every book in the series is about eggs. Just the one titled Egg. But you get the idea, right?
So what I like about this one is that it is, obviously, not exactly about eggs. The physical, cultural, and/or culinary properties of the egg as a lens for exploring the human condition. You kinda gotta let the idea of the egg wash over you to engage with this journey. I also like that the chapters, as they were, are all really short. Like a few pages, often further composed of short page or so sections. I like this fragmentary writing style, both in nonfiction and in fiction (one of my favorite novels is Joey Comeau’s Malagash, also a series of 1- or 2-page-long chapters on average). I don’t know if it works for everything, but you know what else is small? Eggs. It works for eggs.
I Did Not Read Any 33 1/3 Books
I mean I have in the past, but I haven’t for this secret project. They’re kind of hit or miss and I haven’t had any strong feelings about them, but I do think it’s wild that no one talks about how John Darnielle’s Master of Reality is more prototype than not of his first novel Wolf in White Van and that’s kinda beautiful.
Standard Plugs Zone
I’m playing with the update schedule for ReadOnly now that wtf is Pedro Páramo exists. That’ll roll out on a weekly basis on Tuesdays, like ReadOnly used to, and I’ll play around with another day for ReadOnly, which might keep an every other week schedule. Anyway, you should check out my new book recap blog wtf is Pedro Páramo. It’s like if Bad Books Good Times confused me.
NYC-based folks, my band Good Cry is playing our next show! June 12 at Rubulad in Brooklyn. Advance tickets here.
Shout out to my friend Ariana for the poster rock and roll