I was just thinking about reading that Dan Wang book (I've read his blog since 2020), so was surprised to see the mention at the end of the caro review. curious what you'll think of it

i don't know if i even need to read it now because i swear i've read like 8 lengthy reviews of it already, all from before it came out, seems like everyone and their mother got an advance copy. btw the way i found out about "wanghong architecture" is because he brought it up in an interview i read

I like his writing and think he's really inciteful about a bunch of stuff, but I don't really trust his Chinese pop-culture commentary. I feel like he's even more of a square than I am... I do suspect his book might have a lot in it that the reviews and interviews don't focus on though. I want to read more contemp. non-fiction in 2026, so might start with him

u have way too much time if u read all of these... 30 books mentioned twice, 4 books mentioned 3 times. "notes from underground" is a great pick tho.

perhaps i should clarify - i've read most but not all of these books, these are just themed reading lists i've been curating, if a book is a good fit for multiple lists then it appears multiple times. there are also many books i've read that i haven't been able to put into one of these lists yet...

i also have a list i'm still working on that will mention notes from underground yet again

Seeing both The Book of Disquiet and No Longer Human in the «literally me» category makes me think we might be the same person... these are quite the fine suggestions. Giggled at the mention of the Holy Bible, though it is not incorrect.

uh, well, the name of that list is in quotation marks because those are supposed to be books people commonly say that in reference to... i have a separate "literarily me" list on the homepage

more importantly, Yokosuka is the setting of Shenmue; you really should have walked around asking where you could find some sailors...

nice site. I read your old Yesterweb analysis post btw. I know that was a long time ago but I still laughed because I remember that absolutely ridiculous document and went through the same experience of unraveling it that you did!

i think a lot of people were bamboozled into thinking it had substance by the lofty academic obscurantist style and excessive length... i guess the medium is the message, as they say

i hate that it's the most popular post ever on my site, it disappoints me that nothing plays better online than discussing internet drama (sometimes it feels like that's the main function of the internet), but i guess if that piece lured in just one person who then read the rest of my bs too then maybe it's worth it...

one might say the state of the internet is suboptimal

Sorry then for contributing to that feeling. I wouldn't say it was what drew me it, but it's just nice to know I wasn't the only one that went through that thought process when that happened. I'll be following your site and paying attention to you in the future though in any case.