Category: Book of the Week

My interest in computers and technology is more so rooted in the pre-2010s, so generative AI, ray-tracing graphics, and other mainstream elements of late-2010s and post-2020 technology are pretty unremarkable to my neo-luddite self. One thing that has not changed too much in the last few decades is the CPU, other than becoming more powerful,…

Architecture is something I have always had a fondness for since childhood, even if my younger self barely understood anything about it. Still, it never stopped eight-year-old me from proclaiming that I would become an architect one day… Handlin’s American Architecture provides an interesting overview of America’s most notable architecture, alongside a history of designs…

My interest in this book should not really come as a surprise: I’m European and I quite enjoy a relaxing, scenic train ride. Out of all the methods of transportation, the train is hard to beat, especially across European nations who often boast some of the best train infrastructure in the West. There’s a romanticism…

Just like last week, I’m giving attention to another Japanese novel. However, this one may be even more gruesome and depressing, which is not what I was expecting from its rather serene cover art that led me to believe it would be touching and perhaps even about romance. Instead, Lion Cross Point follows ten-year-old Takeru…

Having watched the rather cheesy, but still entertaining, 2000 film adaption of Battle Royale, I figured it may be time I read the 1999 novel to see how it differs in terms of tone and execution. This Japanese dystopian-horror hybrid focuses on a peculiar concept where, under a fascists and totalitarian government, a select group…

Like many people (possibly including yourself), I have a lifelong ambition to see around our wondrous planet and marvel at the diverse cultures, architecture, and scenery each locale offers. So, naturally, I would possess an interest in reading about travel. Having read some of Lonely Planet‘s publications before, I figured putting their informative and ranked…

I’m quite the fan of comedian Paul Whitehouse, and Bob Mortimer is fairly tolerable (if a bit more hit and miss with his jokes). However, the two of them make quite an amusing pair on their long-running show Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing. Naturally, I’d like to see what the two write about following their…

Sally Rooney is an author who has grown on me, and is probably one of Ireland’s best standouts of the modern literary world. Her fourth novel, Intermezzo is set in Dublin and rural Ireland, following brothers Peter and Ivan Koubek. The former is the eldest and a lawyer, the latter in his twenties competing in…

It’s been a little while since I brought up a Japanese novel, even though that is sort of my speciality here on The Steady Read. So why not mention a novel where Japan is quite literally gone, swallowed by the sea? Scattered All Over the Earth primarily follows Hiruko, a former Japanese citizen now living…

I think this constitutes as one of those books everyone must read at some point in their life; its continual referencing in popular culture seems to affirm such a sentiment. This satirical and quite short novel follows a group of schoolboys who become stranded on an uncharted island following a plane crash. At first, without…