User Profile

Matthew Royal

masyukun@books.theunseen.city

Joined 3 years, 4 months ago

Reading, Programming, Cooking, Renaissance Music

This link opens in a pop-up window

Rob Shepperson: The sandman (1989, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)

One night, instead of going to sleep, Jay stays awake to see if the sandman …

Review of 'The sandman' on 'Goodreads'

I'm happy to finish this original series of Sandman comics right before the television series starts tomorrow on Netflix. It's remarkable timing, given I didn't read the comics on a schedule.

"Life is no play. We meet people once, and never see them again. There is no shape to events, no point at which we turn to the audience for their praise. No time at which we step behind the stage, to see the actors changing their wigs, and painting their faces, and muttering their lines."

Neil Gaiman has a pattern to what he writes. He rides a line of greatness and self-confidence/cringe that I'm afraid I'll get sick of, but never do -- even if someday I figure out how the magic works enough to do it myself, I'll still come back and re-read, re-watch, and re-feel what he's made.

Jean Little: The Cat Who Could Read Backwards (2003, Berkley Trade)

Review of 'The Cat Who Could Read Backwards' on 'Goodreads'

This is a delightful cozy murder mystery series! I love the premise that the newspaperman lives in a town obsessed with art. It's just the sort of fantasy world I'd want to live in -- close to our own, but with marked improvements.

This was a revisit to this series. I intend to listen to all the audiobooks in order while doing housework for the next year or so.

Kevin Burrows: Fuck yeah menswear (2012, Touchstone Book)

Collection of anonymous blogs on men's fashion.

Review of 'Fuck yeah menswear' on 'Goodreads'

This is a survey of and meditation on the "douche-bro" subculture of men's fashion. It does not feel complete for this reason. It is an oddly prescriptive guide, but is not disciplined enough to be a complete guide. Rather, it reads like an idea notebook with a mix of great ideas and crude inside jokes.

There are occasionally clever riffs on fashion photography, but there is far more noise than signal in this book -- it needs to be tightened up and reissued.

Darrell Frey, Michelle Czolba: The Food Forest Handbook (Paperback, 2017, New Society Publishers)

Review of 'The Food Forest Handbook' on 'Goodreads'

Lots of interesting bits of information in this book, yet I have the feeling it's not complete -- it's not everything you would need to know to create your own polyculture food system. Still one I feel I'll keep around for reference, or until I can completely adsorb everything presented.