What I Read: 2023

I'm planning on doing a buddy read of Ulysses this year, and much as I love and patronize libraries, some books are impossible to read unless you own them and have access to them at your leisure. (How many times did I try reading a library copy of The Second Sex, for example?) I spent the afternoon in town browsing The English Bookshop, and while I ended up having to special order Ulysses from their Uppsala store, the chance to browse the random selection led to me finding books I wouldn't have otherwise. 2023: A Trilogy was one of them.

A boy I had a crush on in high school thought the Illuminatus! trilogy was one of the best books ever written and so I devoted a summer to trying to read it. I made it halfway through and never finished, but it was enough that even years later I can recognize the countercultural significance of things like 23, 17, and fnords.

This is important because 2023 is full of Illuminatus! references (mixed in with nods to pop music and other literature). If I hadn't been able to call back to those particular references, I might well have been too lost to appreciate the book.

It's a fun read if you're either in the know or thirsty for meta, slightly experimental satirical science fiction. If you're not, then you're probably going to enjoy it as much as Jake Arnott.