i wanted to use the next lyrics i heard as a title but i'm listening to radiohead and can't figure out the words

[sic], joshua cody
a hipster nerd memoir about having cancer and oral mucositis (vomiting black crystals via your thin white porcelain alimentary tract), writing in tangents like and fanboying out about david foster wallace. thank god there were very few footnotes. the page numbers were on the side margins. the font had that thing with the 2-letter combination changing to a different fused character.

farther away, jonathan franzen
every time i see an overblown blurb about jonathan franzen (e.g. “There are about twenty great American novelists in the generations that follow me. The greatest is Jonathan Franzen.” by who else by philip roth, bah whatever) i get very skeptical and think, 'but really, really, is he reallllly soooo much better than everyone else?? especially with freedom which i did not love.' and then i think mostly his essays in this collection are pretty great. it's like investigative journalism with some personal drudgery and moping and bird watching.

a short history of tractors in ukrainian
this was ok, it was initially interesting because all the characters were annoying and caricatured. they got less annoying but no less caricatured and the plot twists became more predictable. i got it for a dollar but i probably won't read it again.

making scenes, adrienne eisen
the author penelope trunk has admitted this is mostly memoir and this makes it very interesting. it's more like a bunch of vignettes than a linear story about the protagonist. whose objective approach to everything is fascinating; not much processing of feelings happens but the events that happen are in themselves are interesting in their frank descriptions and also frankly their combination. being a stock trading clerk, buying a hundred bagels, working in a bookshop, wondering if one might be a lesbian, needing male attention in order to avoid bulimic habits, being a professional beach volleyball player, being sent to a psychiatrist as a kid because their parents are crazy and think the kid is the abnormal one, it's allll in there. plus more. there's a lot of funny in it too, like making menstrual blood art and then accidentally washing it all out, and then using that material to line underpants. then there is this interview with the author where she ponders why she was shocked to hear that the protagonist wasn't likeable. soooo interesting.

one more! for the people!

one more for the people, martha grover
i do believe this was the first contemporary book i have read on my kindle! i love the personal essay genre in general, particularly when there is cynicism and mundaneness (? apparently this is a word, an ugly one) involved, plus endearing family routines, trivial details and a touch of personal trial. i really liked it, there were lists and toilet humour involved as well.

examined lives, james miller
never having studied any form of philosophy this was a great introduction for me, a potted history if you will. in fact the 12 philosophers profiled seem to represent somewhat connected leaps and developments in introspection and walking as well as talking the talk. overall it seems certain situations and ideas were a product of their times and situations. anyway it takes a lot of ego and a little crazy maybe to believe that you hear voices or had a vision or a life-changing dream, and not only that but that these are thoughts and thought experiments you want to change the world with.
one quote in particular that struck me was that nietzsche had thought along with darwin's theory of evolution, in contrast with marx and others, that it means possibly that the environment itself in which humans live is also a product of natural selection, as is the undetermined reality or illusion of 'free will'. verrrrry interesting.
also here is one of the back cover quotes: 'Examined Lives is like watching Roger Federer play tennis. The graceful movement of his mind is a joy to behold.' oh really now.