Books Read In 2018: The Secret History

books read in 2018: the secret history

Forgive me, for all the things I did but mostly for the ones that I did not.

there’s something very offputting, to me, about books where you can tell that it’s plotted after a dramatic model, that the characters have been developed from lists and sheets, all the writing advice is obeyed.

they’re following all the rules. they’re colouring inside the lines. they’re inside the box.

they’re boring.

Becca | @beccasbookishlife

shit tier: the song of achilles is the best book of a generation and is absolutely perfect and can do no wrong uwu

also shit tier: tsoa is pure shit it should be burnt

better tier: tsoa has flaws, especially in its portrayal of patrocles which reduces him to solely achilles’ lover, incapable of fighting or even standing up for himself, as well as villainisation of many female characters but it is still a good story and a fairly well-written book

even better tier: tsoa is focused almost wholly on achilles and patrocles’ relationship, perhaps at the expense of developing their characters outside of each other, and although it has flaws it is an interpretation of the iliad and is allowed to differ from the source material

god tier: the song of achilles definitely has its flaws but it should not be wholly discarded as it is an important book for the lgbt community by showing a well-developed and pretty well-written mlm relationship, as well as having the effect of introducing people to the classical world in a more accessible format than the 24 books of homer’s iliad, which people may however be inspired to go on to read after reading tsoa.

for someone i adore / my writing

Love some of these and need to read the others

I start back at uni on Monday, and I’m excited and nervous all at once. This is the stack I’ll be reading for my English class (Novels of Love and War) this semester. Looking forward to getting stuck in. I’ll be picking up Regeneration first to discuss next week in class in between watching lectures for my sociology course.