Books of 2023, part 1

It’s not even June yet, and I’ve already read 25 books. If I keep this up, I might reach the unprecedented count of 50 books in a year! This is the first time I’ve had reason to split my yearly reading report in two parts, and it feels good.

As Meat Loves Salt: On the meaning of the title

This is the second post in the series about the book As Meat Loves Salt by M. McCann, which has wounded me so deeply that months after reading it, I still can’t pass a full hour awake without thinking about it. In the first post, I made some introductory remarks and then talked about the cover and the blurb. In this one, I’ll talk about the title, and what it means.

As Meat Loves Salt: On the cover and the blurb

I read As Meat Loves Salt, a historical novel by M. McCann, in December last year, finishing it (unwisely) on Christmas, so that I found myself barely able to communicate with the merry aliens around me during the family feast. The book confused me, shocked me, charmed me, warmed me through, worried me sick and in the end, shattered me. For a while I was so distraught that I wasn’t even sure if I liked it or not.

But I have since come to my senses. As Meat Loves Salt (AMLS from now on) is the best book of my adult life. No other has affected me this profoundly, nor stayed on my mind so long. Three months into this new obsession, I’m almost done reading it the second time; I’m drawing fanart, and writing fanfiction for it. Yet somehow I’ve not yet managed to put my thoughts and feelings in sufficient order to blog about it. And I may never write a comprehensive essay: there’s just too much to say, and I lack the patience, and my writing time and energy are better invested elsewhere. But there are some relatively standalone bits and pieces for a series of shorter posts.

One thing I do not plan to do in any of them is retell the book. I will also make no attempt to avoid spoilers. These posts are addressed to fellow fans.

I’ll start with front and back matter: the amazing cover and the dismal blurb.

My 2022 in Books

The last year wasn’t as great for my reading as the previous few. Having read 30 books in 2021, I set myself the goal of reading 36 in 2022, and fell short by a dozen. Mostly I blame my Darksiders obsession, which rendered me unable to focus on most other things throughout the first half of the year. But a part of the blame lies on the poor choice of books as well. Most of them simply bored me to varying degrees, with a few striking exceptions.

The Annoying Antagonism in The Golem and the Jinni

The Golem and the Jinni, a novel by H. Wecker, achieved a fair bit of fame. I picked it up after getting recommendations from several different websites and people (though in the end, it was the marvelous cover that made me click the buy button); and I’m glad, because it’s a great book. It’s fresh both in terms of content and presentation. The wonderfully flawed lead characters and the devotion that develops between them out of kinship and mutual respect rather than some mindless instant attraction pressed all the right buttons. For the most part, I couldn’t put it down. But then, on a couple occasions, it annoyed me so severely I had to put it down and found it difficult to pick it up again.

The Abomination Vault: A Summary

The Abomination Vault is the official Darksiders novel written by A. Marmell. My newest Darksiders fanfiction story, Death’s Blessing, picks up immediately after it and leans quite heavily on some details of its plot, so I made this summary to aid the readers who either never read the novel or don’t remember it well. Beware of spoilers!