thegreatcrate:

Today I finished reading “The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch” by Philip K. Dick. I gotta say, as a huge fan of PKD’s other works, this one simply blew me away. You come to expect craziness, drug use, and confusion in his novels but “Three Stigmata” brings it to a whole new level and covers it in sweet, chocolately philiosophy. I almost want to say it was my favorite PKD book…I’ll say it’s definitely next to UBIK (my favorite) and Man in the High Castle (stunning classic), in my opinion of course.

Next I plan on reading “Boneshaker” by Cherie Priest, a steampunk story that features zombies and airships. Sounds pretty amazing, right?

I realize this post is ancient as far as the internet is concerned, but I will not be silenced. This is a matter of utmost importance. Utmost. Importance.

        So I started reading Crate’s tumblr as I was “working” on concluding my valedictorian speech (the rest of the speech is going quite well - my initial goal was 800 words, but reading 700 words at 1/10th my usual speaking speed only took me three minutes, so I’m now up to 1200 words without a 200-300+ word conclusion) and now I’ve spent an entire hour reading interesting things and looking back at series of books that I started as a kid, then decided I had outgrown by the time they concluded.

        I’ll post links to stuff later, but my folder of bookmarks for things I plan to buy has grown considerably. Absolutely everything by Garth Nix, for example, and Scott Westerfeld’s other stuff because I seriously enjoyed his steampunk version of WW I in Leviathan. Look, the British and etc. are Darwinists and they breed airships and other awesome mutant things to do stuff, while the Germans and etc. are Clankers and they do the usual mechanical steampunk stuff. It was really fun to read, especially because it had pictures in it.

        Don’t look at me like that. Grown-ups can read picture books too.

        Boneshaker sounds so amazing, like you have no idea how fast I opened a tab to chapters.ca (look, I’m Canadian, I’ve only ever had access to one bookstore in my entire life, and frankly amazon.ca is an asshole compared to amazon.com) after I read “steampunk story that features zombies and airships.” The sound barrier may very well have broken, and my mother got out of bed shortly after. Coincidence? No, I think not.

        I’m kinda sad that I gave away all of my books I didn’t plan on reading again (basically all of them, as much as I love thousand page fantasy books, I just don’t have the time to remind myself why - especially when I have other giant fantasy books to read) because now I don’t have an awesome collection of books to share/brag about, but when I have the space and have settled down for a while, I’m going to start building my library back up again. I’ve got a suitcase dedicated to all of my video games, so what’s wrong with having one full of books? Some day.

        Overall though I still feel pretty good about the fact that in the future, others will get to read all the awesome books I read during high school without having to shell out hundreds of dollars like I did. I totally got my money’s worth out of them, and I went to the bookstore first because the selection in our school’s library was lacking, and that problem has been rectified. At least if they like the same books as I do.