avatar

Rigatoni

I like horror and lit mainly with some scifi, history, and anthropology scattered about

1955 points

0% overlap
Classic Literature from the United States
British & Irish Classic Literature
Whispers in the Walls
My Taste
Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell
Books of Blood: Volumes One to Three (Books of Blood, #1-3)
The Remains of the Day
The Gone World
Prophet Song
Reading...
Lost in the Garden
0%
Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War
40%
avatar

Rigatoni commented...

11h

I’ll look at sometimes read reviews when adding something to my tbr, but I’ll forget about that by the time I get to actually read it.

  • Book expectations and enjoyment

    Ever feel you set yourself up for success or failure of expectations before you've even started reading the book? Like you've decided that's my kinda thing and your brain just.... decides to agree?

    I love checking out star ratings before I read a book, and sometimes I'll even take a cheeky sneak peak at reviews while desperately trying to avoid spoilers (doesn't always work!). Sometimes this is valuable, as it shows me if a novel is going to be worth my time, and highly rated books sometimes do end up being a 5 star read!

    But sometimes, especially with books that float towards the 3 star for a lot of folks, I wonder if I would've enjoyed the book more if I'd just gone in completely blind to public opinion.

    I read Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh recently and ate up every word. From the description it was exactly my kind of novel, and I loved it. But looking at it objectively? I know it's maybe not the best example of the genre, but I'd gone in thinking - even "knowing" - that I'd love it.

    On the flip side, I read How High We Go In The Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu after seeing a couple of reviews thay shared a more negative point of view, and I realised very quickly while reading that yes I agreed with those reviews, and I wasn't having a good time.

    What are your thoughts? Do we let public perception interrupt and influence our enjoyment without even really meaning to? Do you fully avoid opinions of books before reading them because of this?

    16
    13
  • avatar

    Rigatoni commented...

    1d

    I think it can make sense to say something on a social platform like this because people may see a dnf in their feed as a red flag for a book.

  • Can DNFing be anyone's "fault"?

    I don't know why, but I keep hearing people say "It's not the book's fault I couldn't finish it, there was just x y z going on," after soft DNFing. Now, this is interesting to me because there's an implication that, if you can't bring yourself to finish a text, there has to be some level of blame attached to either you or the work itself for you being unable to complete it.

    Now, full disclosure: I don't think like this at all currently, but I definitely had this kind of mentality when I was a lot younger than I am now, especially if it received a lot of buzz or critical acclaim. Now I kind of approach reading a book kind of like going out with somebody: if you click immediately, great. If you don't click immediately, that's okay, give it another try. If you're both clearly not on the same page about anything? There's no shame in calling it quits.

    Anyway, do you place blame on either yourself or the book when you DNF? Did you used to, like me? Do you even DNF books to begin with?

    40
    23
  • Coup de Grâce
    Sep 11, 2026
    Coup de GrâceSofia Ajram
    3.0
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:
    0
  • In the Company of Men
    Sep 11, 2026
    In the Company of MenVéronique Tadjo
    3.0
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:
    0
  • avatar

    Rigatoni finished a book

    2d

    In the Company of Men

    In the Company of Men

    Véronique Tadjo

    Drawing on real accounts of the Ebola outbreak that devastated West Africa, this poignant, timely fable reflects on both the strength and the fragility of life and humanity’s place in the world. Two boys venture from their village to hunt in a nearby forest, where they shoot down bats with glee, and cook their prey over an open fire. Within a month, they are dead, bodies ravaged by an insidious disease that neither the local healer’s potions nor the medical team’s treatments could cure. Compounding the family’s grief, experts warn against touching the sick. But this caution comes too late: the virus spreads rapidly, and the boys’ father is barely able to send his eldest daughter away for a chance at survival. In a series of moving snapshots, Véronique Tadjo illustrates the terrible extent of the Ebola epidemic, through the eyes of those affected in myriad ways: the doctor who tirelessly treats patients day after day in a sweltering tent, protected from the virus only by a plastic suit; the student who volunteers to work as a gravedigger while universities are closed, helping the teams overwhelmed by the sheer number of bodies; the grandmother who agrees to take in an orphaned boy cast out of his village for fear of infection. And watching over them all is the ancient and wise Baobab tree, mourning the dire state of the earth yet providing a sense of hope for the future. Acutely relevant to our times in light of the coronavirus pandemic, In the Company of Men explores critical questions about how we cope with a global crisis and how we can combat fear and prejudice.

    0
    avatar

    Rigatoni commented...

    4d

  • Klara and the Sun

    Klara and the Sun

    Kazuo Ishiguro

    Thoughts from 23% (page 70) (divided into boxea)
    4
    3
  • avatar

    Rigatoni is interested in reading...

    4d

    A Brutal Design

    A Brutal Design

    Zachary C. Solomon

    “There were moments in Solomon’s novel that truly frightened me, and yet, like its narrator, Samuel Zelnik, I found myself obsessively compelled to uncover its mysteries. This is a haunting, thought-provoking novel that shows a place where the senseless meets reality.” — Gabe Habash, author of Stephen Florida “Keenly political, rich with implications for both the past and the future. This is an exhilarating and boldly original debut.” — Helen Phillips, author of The Need "A BRUTAL DESIGN is a deft blend of sci-fi, noir, and a dash of Sebald that examines our yearning for utopia. It is propelled by unease, yet funny and beautiful, too. Once I started reading it, I could not stop." — Erin Somers, author of Stay Up With Hugo Best “An uncompromising portrait of the human psyche.” — Soon Wiley, author of When We Fell Apart After the fascist takeover of his homeland and the murder of his parents, Jewish architecture student Samuel Zelnik thinks that he and his friends are bound for the gulag—or worse. Instead, he receives an unexpected offer of freedom working in the experimental utopian city of Duma. Awed by the city’s dramatic architecture but confused by the other residents’ strange behavior, Zelnik searches for his long-lost uncle who emigrated to Duma before him. His wanderings reunite him with Miriana Grannoff, an exiled avant-garde artist who was once his teacher. Her memorial installations hidden around the city equally enchant and repel him. And gradually, they begin to reveal a Duma is not the workers’ paradise it pretends to be.

    0
    avatar

    Rigatoni started reading...

    5d

    In the Company of Men

    In the Company of Men

    Véronique Tadjo

    Drawing on real accounts of the Ebola outbreak that devastated West Africa, this poignant, timely fable reflects on both the strength and the fragility of life and humanity’s place in the world. Two boys venture from their village to hunt in a nearby forest, where they shoot down bats with glee, and cook their prey over an open fire. Within a month, they are dead, bodies ravaged by an insidious disease that neither the local healer’s potions nor the medical team’s treatments could cure. Compounding the family’s grief, experts warn against touching the sick. But this caution comes too late: the virus spreads rapidly, and the boys’ father is barely able to send his eldest daughter away for a chance at survival. In a series of moving snapshots, Véronique Tadjo illustrates the terrible extent of the Ebola epidemic, through the eyes of those affected in myriad ways: the doctor who tirelessly treats patients day after day in a sweltering tent, protected from the virus only by a plastic suit; the student who volunteers to work as a gravedigger while universities are closed, helping the teams overwhelmed by the sheer number of bodies; the grandmother who agrees to take in an orphaned boy cast out of his village for fear of infection. And watching over them all is the ancient and wise Baobab tree, mourning the dire state of the earth yet providing a sense of hope for the future. Acutely relevant to our times in light of the coronavirus pandemic, In the Company of Men explores critical questions about how we cope with a global crisis and how we can combat fear and prejudice.

    0
  • The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
    Sep 07, 2026
    The Buffalo Hunter HunterStephen Graham Jones
    4.0
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:
    0