High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies by Erik Davis
The book is weird. It is also long. Over an hour into the audiobook, it was still telling me what it was going to tell me. The focus is 1974 and thereabouts with psychedelic weirdness. Phillip K. Dick is the one that stood out. He claimed to have special visions while still clinging to Christianity. There were also other more typical people that would trip out. Jesus freaks were an interesting category of weirdos who adopted a hippie infused form of Christianity. The book could really use some editing. Perhaps it was intended to be consumed while tripping out on a psychedelic substance.
John Donne was an important literary figure from a few centuries ago. He wrote amorous work and sired many children. He also wrote about death and suicide and has been identified as a source for other suicides. (He portrayed suicide as an act of bravery at a time when it was condemned as cowardly.) He also enjoyed hyperboles like super-infinite, hence the title of the book. 
In German Universities from two centuries ago, students paid tuition directly to their professors. Just imagine how different things would be today.
I really wanted to like this collection of short works by Borges, but I just could not get in to it. Maybe I should try to read in Spanish rather than listen to the English audiobook. Every now and then I would perk up and catch something of interest, but for the most part it just flowed in one ear and out the other. 
I need to read more Borges. He loved to "mock" literature by creating some of the major works. I love the idea of creating a response or a summary to fictional work. Just get to the point instead of wasting time with all the work. This short work has piqued my interested to seek out more of Borges' works.
A girl's father is dying on her 40th birthday. Her mother had abandoned her when she was young, leaving her to be permissively raised by her father. She has not had much to do with other people in her life (other than her best friend), and has even turned down a marriage proposal. Her father was a science fiction writer, known for his time travel book.
All the King's Men provides a historical fiction account of the life of Louisiana governor Huey Long. But it doesn't. The character was very much inspired by Long. However, the novel takes great pains to not tie the events to any real event. The location is southern and could very well be Louisiana, but it is never called out. The character goes to "state" college. They go to the capital. It could theoretically take place anywhere.
Harold Bloom knows Shakespeare well. In these lectures he drops minor bits about the actors that originally played certain roles as if it were common knowledge. He has strong opinions about Shakespeare's works and shares them in a non-confrontational manner.
Back in the days, people could carry out long term letter-writing relationships. The slow pace of the communication allows for a more deep level of contact than is present in the more instantaneous forms of communication. 
Klara and the Sun takes place in a world that is almost like our own. The few differences are the key to the story. Klara is not a human, but an "Artificial Friend". She begins the book in a store. She is picked by a girl to be the artificial friend. As an artificial friend she gradually learns to be a resident of the world. She also learns her true purpose.
Some people do stuff. Bad things happen. Then they die. The kid ends up doing well for himself at the end. There is a lot of detail in the middle.
Why do I bother reading Dickens? I had to read a few of his works in school and never really grasped any. Hard Times is now different. There is a girl who's dad is in the circus. There are some other poor people. They do a bunch of stuff. Luckily the book is short for a Dickens book.
I try to avoid reading reviews before reading a book. However, this was a long audiobook, so I decided to take a peak. The first 
An older illustrator is called by his daughter to babysit his grandson while she and her husband are away at an academic conference. He runs into challenges watching this 4 year old boy. The boy demands his attention and makes it difficult for him to work. The difficulty culminates when the boy locks him outside on the balcony in the rain. They struggle to find ways to help the boy to call for assistance before finally getting back inside. Eventually, the boy is able to open the door and they return together in the house. 
Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom was the star of his high school basketball team. Now he is in a marriage he does not like. His pregnant wife finally pushes him over the edge with her vices. He decides to leave. However, he has trouble carrying it out. He is self conscious in his drive away. So, he goes to some place of comfort - his basketball coach's house. He ends up spending time with a woman of questionable character, but makes it back to see his wife and return the car. He continues to have some conflicts with his desires and the poor state of his life. A minister takes him under his wing to try to help. (The minister is very "human" with his own family squabbles.) Eventually, he returns home to his wife as the child is born. However, the child drowns in a tub and he is more concerned with his lack of guilt. Though he is an adult, Rabbit has trouble taking on responsibility with the vagaries of life. There are many people that want to help him. He is somewhat willing to accept the help, but still struggles with his own personal decisions. 
William Stoner grows up on a farm in rural Missouri. He is expected to continue working there. However, his father things it will be valuable for him to study agriculture at the university. He goes off to school does acceptable in his classes, but then takes the required English class. He struggles in the class. However, he eventually comes to appreciate the liberal arts and begins his life in academia.
Infinite Jest is a long novel that takes place in a time somewhat similar to our own. Years no longer are known by numbers, but instead by their sponsors. Most of the book takes place in the Year of the Depend Undergarment. Things are somewhat different. It is part alternate history and part futuristic work (that is now in the past.) 
I read a biography of Plath before reading The Bell Jar. It is difficult to determine where real life ends and fiction begins. It feels the book is a "pure" autobiography. Names of others have been changed to allow her to put out her true feelings without regards to the actual facts. 
Moll Flanders has been attributed to Daniel Defoe, the 18th century author of Robinson Crusoe. However, it was never published under his name. Instead, it was published as if it were a memoir of a woman with the pseudonym of Moll Flanders. She has quite the life. Her mother was a criminal, and she was raised as an orphan. She is married multiple times, has a large number of children, travels to the new world and back and gets involved with a criminal element. She realizes that men are often after marrying somebody with money, so she feigns being a wealthy heiress, but in the process, also plays hard to get, getting men to commit to marry her even if she does not have money. In one case, it turned out that both she and her husband were pretending to have great wealth. In another case, she married a man and then went off to join him in the new world. Once there, she met his mother. She later discovered that his mother was also her mother, and that they were half-siblings. She struggled to eventually find a way to break off the marriage without getting anybody in trouble. When joining up with the criminal element, she keeps telling herself she will shortly leave, but keeps with it until she is finally caught.