october book club pick!

alright, so, if maybe you saw my post about it or maybe you didn’t but i decided to start a little book club, and in the post i made i talked about my thoughts on it and how i think the process should go, as well as a poll between three books for the october pick (read here). some of you guys voted on it, but “notes of a crocodile” and “a breath of life” ended up tied. i’ve been meaning to make a post about this for a while but i couldn’t decide what to do— have you guys do another poll or choose myself? i decided to choose myself just because another poll is a whole hassle, but then i spend days in indecision of what book to pick. i know it’s not that big of a deal, but oh, i struggle with these things.

at this moment i’m forcing myself in the decision of “notes of a crocodile” as the pick for a few reasons. for those of you rooting for the lispector— don’t worry haha, she’ll definitely be an option to vote for again in the future; i love her too much. in the end, i think i just worried that “a breath of life” specifically might not be the best introduction for those of you who aren’t familiar at all with her work. of course i don’t know for sure since i haven’t read it, but i’ve definitely seen it described as one of her more complex works. additionally i think that, with her ideas being so abstract and deep, it might be a bit easier on my part for when i provide my extra thoughts and research; a bit less pressure for my first go at this.

however, i hope you’re excited about “notes of a crocodile” by qiu miaojin! i know i am— i’ve been meaning to read miaojin for too long. if you’re interested in participating for october i would recommend getting a book within the next week or two. for probably the cheapest option i’d recommend thriftbooks if copies are available on there (right now there are a few), or you can support the publisher nyrb directly, or find it / order it at a local indie bookstore!

around the beginning of the october i will make my first post of thoughts to consider before starting the book, a quick confirmation/reiteration of how it all works, and hopefully a way to get a group chat together (leaning towards instagram— unless anyone is uncomfortable with this which if so please lmk— because i don’t think i can do a groupchat through substack without including all subscribers).

still from taiwanese filmmaker tsai ming liang’s film vive l’amour (1994)