Bite-Sized Reviews for Tired Corporate Girls

The Lady with the Little Dog and Other Stories: Perhaps my most rewarding read of 2023. I maintain that Chekhov is the hottest writer — a man who heals the poor, rejects marriage and understands sentiment.

Postcapitalist Desire: The Final Lectures: Really sad book since you know from the get-go he’s not gonna make it to the last lecture. I forgot how lovely it feels to read transcribed lectures. Being exposed to different theories and critics through conversation is wonderful, like having someone hold your hand through it.

2120 + Curses: I am unsure whether I want to live in the George Wylesol universe, or if I am already in it. It is winter, which means the portuguese sun outside my house is but a conjecture and my current day job is to take care of servers. 2120 is a fun labyrinthine adventure, and Curses is a collection of works that interrupts itself to advertise other books.

Asterios Polyp: At last I have read and studied this book, it is now, unapologetically, my bible. The formal properties of the comic are explored almost to perfection here. Pairs nicely with lectures by Mazzucchelli available here, here and here.

Getting Lost: A sweaty book, filled with emotion, lust, obsession.

Lenços Pretos, chapéus de palha e brincos de ouro + O que é ser uma escritora negra hoje, de acordo comigo: Book series have never been of my interest, I do not consider myself a completionist either. The first two titles on the Não-ficção Literária collection have me reconsidering my stance — I am a very moderate enjoyer of contemporary portuguese writing but I have liked both these books to an unexpected extent.

Hotel du Lac: Anita Brookner you are one to watch, you speak in the secret language of women, so much so that I question whether men do/could ever understand you.

Na Presença da Ausência: The stunning translation of Darwish’s work left me speechless. Beautiful book on things not quite tangible, frequently absent, such as memory and nationality. (ed. Flaneur)

The Work of Art in The Age of Mechanical Reproduction: To my shame, I do not remember anything else other than the fact I enjoyed this.

There is No Antimemetics Division: I do not consider this to be extremely consistent from start to finish, but the presentation of such interesting ideas won me over.

Stoner: I will not cave in to the counter-hype, I did in fact enjoy the process of reading Stoner, but I am struggling to find the words to describe why.

Time Shelter: A book on memory, ideology and the use of nostalgia as a political weapon. I did attempt to chat with Georgi but the autograph line was so long behind me the last person in line could smell the piss on the streets of Bairro Alto.

The System of Objects: Found this through twitter. Had a blast reading it. Objects, credit, advertising, atmosphere, collecting. A framework to think about all these things and how they relate to consumption and desire.

New means of obsession: University Challenge and portuguese podcast Cubinho.

Sadness: the demise of Sem Moderação podcast/series.

Things 2024 awaits:

• website redesign (in progress! remember the web in the 2000’s? things were not strictly css, gradients, fonts, surgically separated into “components”; there were images, textures, the pixel was still a unit, nothing scaled, div positioning was sacred.)

• after 2023, the year of the roadtrip, in which I visited many places — Abrantes, Portalegre, Amarante, Pte de Lima, Viana do Castelo, Guimarães, Soajo, Arcos de Valdevez, Valença do Minho, Porto (three times, because I am insane), Tomar and hopefully Sabugueiro, the highest point in continental Portugal, where I will be spending my last days of the year — I hope 2024 will bring more roadtrips or train rides — to Évora, Braga, Ericeira, Aveiro, Vila Franca de Xira, Chaves, Viseu — and visits to the traditional festivities of Campo Maior or Podence.

• the long overdue organisation of my collection of film negatives

• the year of the jacket: I have been steadily increasing my sewing skills and by the end of 2024 I hope to have completed a simple jacket project. I am not yet capable of attaching sleeves or collars but I hope to turn all my vests into shirts or jackets by December.

Since you have found your way to this page, alongside a bunch of robots, I wish you a lovely 2024.