The Dice Man by Luke Reinhardt. Supposedly a cult book that was recommended to me by someone who knew I liked books like Fight Club etc.

There are some vaguely interesting ideas in it about psychology and supressing the ego, and whether it’s possible to live authentically etc, but all these ideas are explored elsewhere and in more interesting ways. This is just childish and seems like the power fantasy of a boring man having a mid-life crisis.

I just found it vile and misogynistic, honestly. I’m surprised it hasn’t become like an Incel staple.

It’s got a main character with “galaxy brain that normies can’t understand” syndrome (a self-insert with the same name as the author) and the inciting incident is him being bored and saying “If this dice lands on a one I’m going to rape my neighbour”.

I know this book has its fans, and I’m sorry if you like it…but I don’t trust you.

That’s a very apt comparison. I read a fair whack of Benjamin at University and ended up getting a tattoo of Le Flâneur by Paul Gavarni after reading some of his stuff as a kind of trbute to him and Baudelaire.

Bruno Schulz is one of my favourite short story authors and I think he deserves to be remembered with as much reverence as Kafka (who he translated into Polish for the first time).

He was Jewish and was shot dead in the street by an SS officer in 1942.

From Hell by Alan Moore

Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd

Lud Heat by Iain Sinclair

All 3 of these books feature psychogeography and the occult history of London, with special reference to architect Nicholas Hawksmoor and the 7 churches he built around London following the great fire. Reading all 3 at once is a trip, and the second is my favourite novel of all time.

Vladimir Nabokov