I don’t know why you’re getting downvoted. Thanks for this summary. I do think this sounds like a good read.

This comment has made me want to read it. Sounds like notes from the underground. “Masochistic Glee” would be a great album name

You phrased this beautifully. To me, the way the author wanted to be interpreted is the least interesting reading.

This is dangerous knowledge for me to have. I have limited shelf space but unlimited desire for more books.

To answer the reverse of the question, back when you could get charity shop books for £1, my mum bought about 40 for my birthday and gave them to me in a shoebox. It’s one of the best presents I’ve received. About 7 Terry Pratchett books, the night circus, and a handful of others I really enjoyed at the time. One accidentally very disturbing book that freaked me out so much I hid it, but otherwise a perfect present.

A Latin dictionary. A Bible, about five times. A book of biblical women’s biographies. Biographies of missionaries. My parents don’t pick up on hints, if you couldn’t tell.

Any le Guin would get me interested in a first date. I’d also be happy to have a polite but heated debate about why I prefer The Word for World is Forest

And he’s fun to hate because he’s so stupid about it! There were so many ways he could have been just as bad, but he was too incompetent to not piss people enough to get murdered, meaning even more suffering for the realms. If you’re a legalist, which I’m not, there’s an argument that even if he ruled with an iron first but competently, the damage would be more limited to those unhappy enough to be around him, more simple opportunistic sadism. There were many crueler characters in ASOIAF, but he’s probably the easiest to loathe.

I’d rather date a non-reader than people whose favourite book is any of those. At least a non-reader has other interests we can share, whereas I’ve had these books pushed down my throat for so long now. Especially Jordan Peterson. If I hear the sodding word lobster one more time I swear to god…

I love that book! But yes, it’s bleak. To me it was about what happens when people are made monstrous by misery and obsession.

I remember entire paragraphs of Sharp Objects whenever I smell amaretto sours. I read it while working as a bartender