curating a reading list before I conclude my Ph.D.
This summer’s trip to India rescued me from a lamentable collapse that I feared I would be fated to live with for the rest of my days. In those few months, I found my former self who lived for and loved intellectual conjecture, artistic ideations, and theoretical discussions with the hope that it would amount to some elegant ideals. Reading, which was such an integral part of my identity ever since the tender age of six, came back to me—almost magically. I was however not as lucky in terms of literary creativity and kept myself limited to lengthy journal entries. But by the end of it, I did decide to curate a reading list that I would try to get through as I got through the last leg of my dissertation. So here it is:
The Illogic of Kassel by Enrique Vila-Matas
The Undercurrents by Kirsty Bell
Pleasures and Regrets by Marcel Proust
The Encyclopedia of the Dead by Danilo Kiš
On Time and Water by Andri Snær Magnason
Locus Solus by Raymond Roussel
Being and Time by Martin Heidegger
Eye Level by Jenny Xie
The Artist’s Reality: Philosophies of Art by Mark Rothko
For Strasbourg by Jaques Derrida
Outlive by Peter Attia
A Sorrow Beyond Dreams by Peter Handke
Parallel Worlds by Michio Kaku
Flights by Olga Tokarczuk
A screenshot of my Apple Books Library.
