Justin's Notes

I really loved this book. It was intense, brutal and honestly at times pretty difficult to read. It isn't a very good feeling book, but what book about war is? It has provided me with some characters and scenes that I think I will always remember. It may be sending me into a pretty overwhelming fascination with the Vietnam war. I wrote about it more in length here.

I thought this was a pretty solid book. I think it is often a high school English class book, but I actually never read it in school. The story follows a fireman named Guy Montag, whose job it is to find people with books and start fires to destroy them. He finds himself being drawn to the books he is supposed to destroy, which throws his whole world into chaos.

I think the main premise, and some of the main themes, are still applicable today. There will always be censorship to various degrees in the world. Whether that's "banned" books no longer allowed to be read in schools, or any kind of political or religious leaning material not allowed in different contexts. Technology has and still does distract, causing a desire to be constantly stimulated and consume easily digestible information. I spent years and years not reading, mainly because it didn't stimulate me enough mentally. I just got bored and distracted so quickly that I had to re-teach myself how to actually read a book and enjoy it.

You could read this book, but if you didn't, I wouldn't try to convince you to. I did think it was good, but I feel mostly indifferent to it from a "people need to read this" standpoint. I respect its place in literature, though; it just isn't my favorite.

Think Like a Street Photographer is a pretty short book on tips and lessons learned by Matt during his street photography career. It is very similar to Find My Frame, a book by Craig Whitehead that I read back in January. Both are practical books aiming to inspire photographers to think differently and go take photos. A few of the thoughts in this book I really enjoyed were thinking about whether the photo you are taking is ethical and has a purpose, how to engage with subjects if confronted or if there is awkward tension, and of course, always have your camera so you can be a street photographer everywhere you are.

There was nothing truly eye-opening or spectacular in this book, but it made me excited to go take photos, so it absolutely did its job. If you enjoy photography, especially street photography, check it out.

Warbreaker was a solid read. As far as Sanderson goes, it was more in the same lane as Elantris for me. Great world-building as always, a pretty cool magic system, good characters and enough plot twists to keep you engaged the majority of the story. It did start off a little slow, but I felt like even early on in the story, the pacing was still pretty solid, and it only picked up as the story went on, in true Sanderson fashion. Mistborn is definitely better, but I still enjoyed this one.

The story follows Siri, a princess sent off to marry the God King of Hallendren, and her sister Vivenna who follows to try and rescue her. Hallandren has many "gods" that are worshiped, who are all "Returned" beings that died in a past life but came back to life. They continue to live off of receiving Breath, the life force of humans. The more Breath someone has, human or god, the more powerful they can become. The story has a pretty large cast of characters, and the role they all played in the political and religious tension within the book was enjoyable for me. I especially liked how much my view of different characters changed as I learned more about them and their role in the story as a whole.

Honestly, unless you are really into Sanderson and the Cosmere, I don't know if I would totally recommend this book. While it is pretty good, I really only read it because book YouTubers (and Sanderson himself) say it's important to read it before reading the Stormlight Archives, or at least before reading book two of that series. So you should really only read this if you plan to dive into Stormlight.

Reading Haruki Murakami is such a unique (and immensely enjoyable) experience for me. The way he writes feels so different from anything else I have read. I still don't have enough evidence to know if it is just the style of Eastern literature, Murakami's style itself, or a mixture of both. My friend Clayton said it best when talking to him about another one of Murakami's books, that is almost feels like you are reading a dream. His writing makes me feel like I am floating, like I am watching a dream unfold instead of listening to a story be told.

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki was a fascinating book. It dealt with rejection, reconciliation, introspection, and the growth and difference in life that come from broken relationships. You follow a 36-year-old man seeking closure from a loss in his past and his own self-examination, both from his past and current self. It is a unique story that really focuses on making you feel the pain and heartache Tsukuru experienced. I found myself excited to continue reading because of my hope for reconciliation and resolution in his heart.

Similarly to Killing Commendatore (another Murakami novel), here is a disclaimer that there are a couple explicit scenes in the book. And similarly, it felt like it had a purpose for the story and the characters. I also feel it is safe to assume now that that is just part of Murakami's style. So I probably won't mention it again when talking about any of his other books if they have similar scenes.

I quite enjoyed this book. If you want an emotionally dense story of self-discovery and reconciliation, this is the book for you. It isn't exciting, there isn't any kind of action or really much suspense. It is just a human story, and it made me feel, which I always enjoy.