Tag: Wolfgang Hilbig

June 2025 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

June was a pretty good month for reading, considering the almost complete lack of free time, thanks to an intense work project and the arrival of summer with all of its related activities. I think the standout was Zig Zag Claybourne’s Breath, Warmth, and Dream, which was absolutely beautiful. I backed the Kickstarter campaign for book two of the trilogy, and am eagerly awaiting its arrival.

It was interesting to dive into Heavy Metal, which I first read in the early eighties, I think, when I was probably a little too young to be reading things which were DEFINITELY aimed at an older audience. The writing and artwork for this new generation of Heavy Metal compares quite favorably to the original run from more than forty years ago.

Acquisitions

Books and reading material acquired in June 2025

  1. Voices 2025 [2025.06.07] – Picked up at the Dyer-Ives Poetry Competition winner’s celebration.
  2. Inque Magazine #3 [2025.06.24]

Reading List

Books I read in June 2025.

Books

  1. Heavy Metal #001 [2025.06.01]
  2. Metal Hurlant #1 [2025.06.02]
  3. Voices 2025 [2025.06.07]
  4. Zig Zag Claybourne, Breath, Warmth, and Dream [2025.06.18]
  5. Wolfgang Hilbig (Isabel Fargo Cole, translator) , Old Rendering Plant [2025.06.25]

Short Prose

  1. Kameron Hurley, “Not My City” (Patreon post)

March 2024 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

After reading one gigantic book (Demons, Dostoevsky), and well over a dozen shorter books and journals, I have settled into a more sedate reading pace, with a few novels and nonfiction titles for this month. Feels like I have found my reading groove after a chaotic reading start to the reading year. Also, reading would be a good adjective modifier, like “fucking” or “smurfing.”

Acquisitions

Books acquired in March 2024.

  1. Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Mexican Gothic [2024.03.13] – Purchased from Books and Mortar bookstore in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
  2. Jason McBride, Eat Your Mind: The Radical Life and Work of Kathy Acker [2024.03.23] – Ordered and purchased from Books and Mortar bookstore.
  3. Edward W. Said, Orientalism [2024.03.23] – Ordered and purchased from Books and Mortar bookstore.
  4. Nikole Hannah-Jones (creator), The 1619 Project [2024.03.23] – Purchased at Harmony Brewing Company in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Books and Mortar had a popup sale of banned books in the bar, and this one caught my eye. It had been on my radar for a while, and this seemed like a good opportunity to add it to the library.

Reading List

Book Read in March 2024

Books and Journals

  1. R.F. Kuang, Babel [2024.03.11]
  2. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment [2024.03.16]
  3. Kai Ashante Wilson, The Devil in America [2024.03.17]
  4. Jazmina Barrera (Christina MacSweeney, translator), Linea Nigra [2024.03.18]
  5. Bjørn Rasmussen (Martin Aitken, translator), The Skin is the Elastic Covering That Encases the Entire Body [2024.03.20]
  6. Herman Melville, Bartleby [2024.03.23]
  7. William Meikle, The Plasm [2024.03.24]
  8. Wolfgang Hilbig, The Females [2024.03.26]
  9. Jung Young Moon (Jung Yewon, translator), Seven Samurai Swept Away in a River [2024.03.29]

Short Prose

  1. Herman Melville, “Bartleby”, Bartleby [2024.03.23]
  2. Herman Melville, “The Lightning-Rod Man”, Bartleby [2024.03.23]
  3. Jim C. Hines, “In the Line of Duty”, Patreon post [2024.03.31]

February 2024 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

Now that I am no longer trapped under a volume of Dostoevsky I can resume my normal reading pace. In February I completed 16 books and journals. Sure, that sounds like a lot, but I purposefully picked the shorted unread books on my bookshelves. The combined word-count of these 16 books is probably less than a third of what I read in Dostoevsky’s Demons, which took almost two months to finish. And a lot of that was not because of the length of the book, but because it was Dostoevsky, and 1,000 words of Dostoevsky is, like, at least 1,500 words of anyone else.

A lot of these shorter works are graphic novels, or works in translations from works-in-translation publishers like Deep Vellum, And Other Stories, Open Letter Books, and Two Lines Press.

Acquisitions

Reading material acquired in the month of February 2024

  1. Andrzej Tichý (Nichola Smalley, translator), Purity (And Other Stories) [2024.02.24] – The newest arrival from my subscription to And Other Stories.

Reading List

The books I read in February 2024

Books

  1. Wolfgang Hilbig (Isabel Fargo Cole, translator), The Tidings of the Trees [2024.02.01] – Well written and well-translated, but just couldn’t get into this one. Fortunately I have more Hilbig in my library so I can give him another chance.
  2. Saladin Ahmed and Dave Acosta, Dragon [2024.02.01] – Fantastically written and beautifully-illustrated graphic novel. I will now need to seek out more of Ahmed’s comic writings.
  3. Elizabeth A. Trembley, Look Again: A Memoir [2024.02.01] – An amazing memoir about how the stories we tell ourselves (and about ourselves) change over time, and with the telling.
  4. Duanwad Pimwana (Mui Poopoksakul, translator), Bright [2024.02.05]
  5. Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #41 [2024.02.08]
  6. Andy Duncan and Ellen Klages, Wakulla Springs [2024.02.10]
  7. Chris Abani, The Face: Cartography of the Void [2024.02.10]
  8. Ruth Ozeki, The Face: A Time Code [2024.02.11]
  9. Tash Aw, The Face: Strangers on a Pier [2024.02.11]
  10. Oleg Sentsov (Uilleam Blacker, translator), Life Went On Anyway [2024.02.12]
  11. Maurice Broaddus, Buffalo Soldiers [2024.02.15] – Excellent novella in the steampunk tradition. Truly enjoyable reading experience. My only complaint is that this wasn’t a full-size novel.
  12. Anne Garréta (Emma Ramadan, translator), Not One Day [2024.02.17]
  13. Kim Sagwa (Sunhee Jeong, translator), b, Book, and Me [2024.02.21]
  14. Fouad Laroui (Emma Ramadan, translator), The Curious Case of Dassoukine’s Trousers [2024.02.25]
  15. Carmen Boullosa (Peter Bush, translator), Before [2024.02.26]
  16. Valérie Mréjen (Katie Shireen Assef, translator), Black Forest [2024.02.27]

Short Prose

  1. Rachel Ayers, “Magicians & Grotesques”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #41 [2024.02.07]
  2. Nicole Kimberling, “Quarantine Pantry Challenge”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #41 [2024.02.07]
  3. Holly Tamsin, “Fogdog Films”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #41 [2024.02.08]
  4. David Fawkes, “Letterghost”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #41 [2024.02.08]
  5. Oleg Sentsov, “Autobiography (In Literary Form)”, Life Went On Anyway [2024.02.11]
  6. Oleg Sentsov, “Dog”, Life Went On Anyway [2024.02.11]
  7. Oleg Sentsov, “Childhood”, Life Went On Anyway [2024.02.11]
  8. Oleg Sentsov, “Hospital”, Life Went On Anyway [2024.02.12]
  9. Oleg Sentsov, “School”, Life Went On Anyway [2024.02.12]
  10. Oleg Sentsov, “Testament”, Life Went On Anyway [2024.02.12]
  11. Oleg Sentsov, “Grandma”, Life Went On Anyway [2024.02.12]
  12. Oleg Sentsov, “The Makars”, Life Went On Anyway [2024.02.12]
  13. Jim C. Hines, “The Blue Corpse Corps” (Patreon subscriber story) [2024.12.15]
  14. Fouad Laroui, “The Curious Case of Dassoukine’s Trousers”, The Curious Case of Dassoukine’s Trousers [2024.02.21]
  15. Fouad Laroui, “Dislocation”, The Curious Case of Dassoukine’s Trousers [2024.02.22]
  16. Fouad Laroui, “Born Nowhere”, The Curious Case of Dassoukine’s Trousers [2024.02.22]
  17. Fouad Laroui, “Khouribga, or the Laws of the Universe”, The Curious Case of Dassoukine’s Trousers [2024.02.25]
  18. Fouad Laroui, “What’s Not Said in Brussels”, The Curious Case of Dassoukine’s Trousers [2024.02.25]
  19. Fouad Laroui, “Bennani’s Bodyguard”, The Curious Case of Dassoukine’s Trousers [2024.02.25]
  20. Fouad Laroui, “The Invention of Dry Swimming”, The Curious Case of Dassoukine’s Trousers [2024.02.25]
  21. Fouad Laroui, “Fifteen Minutes as Philosophers”, The Curious Case of Dassoukine’s Trousers [2024.02.25]
  22. Fouad Laroui, “The Night Before”, The Curious Case of Dassoukine’s Trousers [2024.02.25]