Brent Woo > Recent Status Updates

"Jane wished Dick did not have an accent. After living in Los Angeles for five years, she was a racist."

how come i’m not rich yet?

this is b o n k e r s

almost entirely a constant stream of barely punctuated dialog, a mystery unfolding—and I don't mean about who forged the dictator's letter—, and surprisingly, some horror

funky. that episode of black mirror with social scores, plus talking animals, plus unexpected casually trans characters, plus noir. suspiciously lacking references to brooklyn, also lacking music

oh noooo I didn't read the blurb is this a feels book??

hm

hm

this better not put me on some gross lobster daddy list

getting a bit samey, but I like the tidbits of cultural points: "The scorn for cyclists comes from the characterization of it being somehow frivolous—unlike the serious, adult business of driving a car". this rings similar to culture that stigmatizes buses and subway ("for poor people!"), which does more harm than any safety/traffic stats or powerpoint can fix

"But the mating of Dr. Mitford's ancestors had been carried on with such wanton disregard for principles that no bench of judges could have admitted his claim to be well bred or have allowed him to perpetuate his kind"

S A V A G E

how to be healthy
1) don't sit, ever
2) don't not bike

this is maybe like 3 novellas rather than 1 novel

"No, Chinese characters do not offer a magical ride to the land of pure ideas. Just a fucking hard slog to the city of words. " BOOK OF THE YEAR

frustrating. in a blue ball way, not holden caulfield

what comes to mind is a sinister Wes Anderson. budapest hotel but painted black. part 1 of 4 was pretty austere and slow, but part 2 is suuuuuper weird and stressful

great so far! instead of just interviewing klingon speakers okrent is tackling surprisingly big questions like the common hubris behind making universal languages, and just how many semantic primitives are there

this is friggin weird! death has ceased in the country so naturally the republicans and dems are fighting, saramago doesn't know any punctuation besides a comma

all the interesting parts are yet to come, i'm sure

waiting for the tom hanks cameo

sad sailor walks a sad town for sad o clock

it turns out I, the chipotle king, know even less about food than I thought

i love this already: "I don't care much for [them] but I go bc that's what people do. People go to other people's houses to eat food and talk about themselves for a few hours and then hug each other and return home where they talk about what other people do or do not do"

We'll never be a family. We're just the wreckage of other families.

"In the 1960s, Noam Chomsky developed the Extended Theory of the Owls... truly an ad hoc solution, confuted perceptively by Snoopy, Snoopy, and Snoopy (1978)" hahahah

what could warm an old lonely curmudgeonly sailor's heart? why, a CHARMING YOUNG BOY

swashbuckling, but sad

wow great. 10-page review forthcoming

The introduction "On a bright April morning 30 years ago, I stood on the balcony of my upper-story apartment in SOMERVILLE MASSACHUSETTS, looking out on a plume...". This portends well.

literary masochism. i'm just nearly through the foreward and I already know i'm going to be destroyed

this could use a Wide Sargasso Sea / Bean's Shadow / alternate perspective sequel of 'what Ala was up to' for 500 pages