@adrian-otoiu.bsky.social
Award-winning writer. Sometimes also a translator. Associate Professor of English Literature(s). Keen taker and keeper of photos. Tentative traveler. Occasional caricaturist and meme maker. Transylvania, Romania.
Sad, at this particular moment in time, very sad.
12.11.2025 11:09 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Good for you! And for the readers too. Congratulations!
12.11.2025 11:06 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Markovits' ”The Rest of Our Lives” was like a more intellectual version of ”All Fours” by Miranda July. Noisy family reunion, followed the empty nest syndrome, them full-blast mid-life crisis, cross-America solo journey, reassessment of one's priorities, abrupt grinding to halt.
Sad, smart, plain.
”Audition” is one of those novels with a final twist which, like the detective novels, relies on withdrawing/limiting information to the reader, & to shock them with a final surprise.
The protagonist's descent into delusion was a bit too brusque. I anticipated the twist some 5 pages before the end.
I still have less than 200 pages to read from ”The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny.” The premise might be interesting: the loneliness induced by the condition of an immigrant, but also by one's disastrous choices in the past.
The execution suffers from overrelying on Kiran's own life story & musings.
”The Land in Winter” was also my favourite.
Andrew Miller gets to the grain of matter in a writing manner that may seem neutral & observational, just to surprise you with tiny flashes of splendidly written observations that suddenly cast light on the whole. Intimate, sensitive, never judgmental.
I read ”Flesh” and was unimpressed. I understand its appeal to some, with its promise to focus on the ”flesh” of a person while ignoring their psychological motivations. But that's not new. Behaviorist novels, some of Nouveau Roman of the 60s had already done it.
Flat rags-to-riches-to-rags story.
My reading of the Booker shortlist shy 200 pages of completion, here're my preferences:
1. The Loneliness of Sonia & Sunny -Kiran Desai
& The Land in Winter -Andrew Miller
2. Flashlight - Susan Choi
& Audition - K. Kitamura
3. The Rest of Our Lives - B Markovits
4. Flesh - D Szalay
The 30-Day Book Challenge
Day 30: The Book You're Reading Right Now
"The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny" by Kiran Desai
(collage © Adrian Oțoiu)
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A few years ago we looked for Albert Camus in the cemetery in Lourmarin, in Provence. It took us a while. When we finally found it, we were surprised how inconspicuous and modest it was.
I have some photos of it somewhere.
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Challenge for myself this autumn: to read all the six books that made it to the shortlist for the Booker prize 2025. And to do that until November 10, the date when the winner is to be announced.
Here's the current situation: 5 books finished, and one last —the longest— still in progress.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
08.11.2025 09:55 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
My long-due update to
The 30-Day Book Challenge
Day 29: Book Cover You Love
"Bluebeard" by Kurt Vonnegut
"Under the Volcano” by Malcolm Lowry
(the second is © Adrian Oțoiu)
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Just learned that the Czech writer Ivan Klíma died. I read several of his books, from "Love and Garbage" to "My Golden Trades" & I loved his mix of realism and uncompromising critique of communism, his melancholic meditation and sweet irony.
Here's a collage-homage I made for him earlier this year:
How sad! I read several of his books, from "Love and Garbage" to "My Golden Trades" and I loved his mix of realism and uncompromising critique of communism, alongside with his melancholic meditation and sweet irony.
Here's a collage-homage I made for him earlier this year:
I have read Kiran Desai's ”The Inheritance of Loss” and that would make me try this new novel by this interesting novelist.
09.09.2025 20:23 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0You you care about book covers and science fiction, this survey will be online for another two days:
bsky.app/profile/adri...
Hi, If you like book covers so much, maybe you could take part in this survey, which is all about covers of recent fantasy and SF books:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
30-Day Book Challenge
Day 28: Classic book you haven't read but plan to
"Women in Love" by D. H. Lawrence
Having read most of his books, this is top on my TBR list.
(Collage/homage © Adrian Oțoiu)
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Besides favorite authors, beautiful book covers are my #autobuy 😍📚
What's your favorite book cover?
[🎨Graphic by Krysten Winkler]
#BookSky #BookCover #BookDesign #Illustration #BookLovers #CoverArt
Nice cover. Reminiscent of Man Ray's "Ingres's Violin".
04.08.2025 13:13 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
v.2, some tinkering with the collage...
04.08.2025 10:09 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
30-Day Book Challenge
Day 27: Book you read every year
"The Rose and the Ring" by William Makepeace Thackeray.
As we do this book in class, a memory refresh of this complicated quiproquo-ridden fairy tale is badly needed yearly.
(Collage/homage © Adrian Oțoiu)
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If you are into literary fiction, and you don't snub science fiction, and you care about cover design, here's a short survey to help an MA student assess the recent dynamics of the genre.
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
... as are our preferences about this or that type of Science fiction:
bsky.app/profile/did:...
30-Day Book Challenge
Day 26: Biography everyone should read
"The Dream of the Celt" by Mario Vargas Llosa.
The life of Sir Roger Casement, colonial agent in the Congo turned human rights activist in Amazonia, Irish nationalist executed as traitor, gay icon.
(Collage/homage © Adrian Oțoiu)
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Lovers of Sci Fi, you are invited to participate in a survey on your preferences. This consists of pairs of book covers to choose from. It all takes 10-15 minutes.
This way you will help a Publishing MA student's work on the dynamics of nowadays Sci Fi. Thanks!
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
30-Day Book Challenge
Day 25: A villain you actually loved
The unnamed General in Gabriel García Márquez's "The Autumn of the Patriarch"... I liked the unforgiving way this fictional dictator was constructed, but... love? no way! Too similar to those at home!
(Collage/homage © Adrian Oțoiu)
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Same issue here. I too tend to draw the line at the end of the month and count the books.
(Which, of course, is ridiculous, as books should be left free to occupy our time, even if this means ”boiling over” the end of the month)
Artificial Intelligence remains what it has always been, a matter of science fiction. What is marketed as “AI” or “LLM” does not possess intelligence nor the ability to reason. The big lie concerning AI is that it understands language and outputs a linguistic response: it does not. AI cannot comprehend language, but rather renders language into a mathematical representation. AI then applies its algorithms to the mathematical representation of language that it created, compares the transformed language input to its database of copyrighted material, and then outputs something mathematically corresponding to the “answer” within the copyrighted material. AI does not understand what it is saying, which is why it so often says such bizarre things: to the AI, it’s all just math. Why this amounts to copyright infringement is that the mathematical representations of language found within its databases are, in essence, translations of copyrighted material. When the AI extracts and recombines fragments of copyrighted material, to create its output, it is, in fact, creating a species of anthology, reproducing the amalgamated work of human authors—without our consent. There is no such thing as Artificial Intelligence.
I think, as science-fiction authors, we can help to explain the misconceptions and misappropriations so often seen in regard to what is disingenuously named, "AI."
Here's my take.
#cyberpunk #scifibooks #booksky #sciencefiction #WritingCommunity #Indieauthor @sfwa.bsky.social
