things change

I asked chatGPT “What do you make of the books I have queued to read?”

• Cradle to Cradle – Braungart & McDonough {NF}
• Do Not Deny Me – Jean Thompson
• The Less Dead – Denise Mina
• The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price Purveyor of Superior Funerals – Wendy Jones
• 501 Minutes to Christ – Poe Ballantine
• The Toy Maker – Liam Pieper
• Neverhome – Laird Hunt
• Luster – Raven Leilani
• Fateless – Imre Kertesz
• Wild Houses – Colin Barrett
• Elisabeth Bowers – No Forwarding Address
• The Kiss – Kathryn Harrison
• No More Mr Nice Guy – Howard Jacobson
• The Plea – Steve Cavanagh
• My Bags Are Big – Tibor Fischer
• Decoded – Mai Jia
• A Dictator Calls – Ismail Kadare

chatGPT came back and I was particularly amused by

• There isn’t much comfort reading here. Even the potentially comic books tend toward the eccentric, melancholic, or unsettling.
• Almost every book concerns people who are displaced, marginal, damaged, lonely, or socially awkward.
• If you read (selection…..) back-to-back, you may find yourself in a prolonged stretch of grimness, trauma, alienation, and moral discomfort.

I’ll see how this matches up as I work through the list!

The full response from chatGPT

This is a fascinating queue because it doesn’t look curated around a single goal. It looks more like the reading life of someone who values literary discovery and unusual voices over optimization.A few patterns jump out:

1. You’re heavily tilted toward literary fiction with dark edges

Books like:

• Luster
• Neverhome
• Fateless
• Wild Houses
• The Kiss
• The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price Purveyor of Superior Funerals

all sit in that space where character, voice, and moral ambiguity matter more than plot.

There isn’t much comfort reading here. Even the potentially comic books tend toward the eccentric, melancholic, or unsettling.

2. You’re attracted to outsiders

Almost every book concerns people who are displaced, marginal, damaged, lonely, or socially awkward.

• The Holocaust survivor perspective in Fateless
• The runaway wife-soldier in Neverhome
• The dysfunctional relationships of Luster
• The social misfits of My Bags Are Big
• The isolated funeral director of The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price Purveyor of Superior Funerals

That suggests you tend to prefer psychological complexity over stories about competent, successful people getting things done.

3. You seem willing to follow literary reputation into uncomfortable territory

The biggest example is probably The Kiss.

Many readers avoid books like that because the subject matter is disturbing. Your queue suggests you’re interested in books that attempt something difficult, whether morally, emotionally, or stylistically.

Likewise with Fateless and A Dictator Calls.

4. The non-fiction choice is revealing

Cradle to Cradle is not mainstream self-help, business productivity, history, or biography.

It’s a systems-thinking book. It suggests you’re interested in ideas that challenge assumptions and redesign structures rather than simply improving individual behaviour.

It fits surprisingly well with the fiction choices: both are concerned with seeing beneath surface appearances.

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The books I’d move toward first

Highest literary upside

1. Fateless
2. Luster
3. Wild Houses
4. Neverhome
5. A Dictator Calls

These are the books I’d most expect to stay with you years later.

Most intriguing wildcards

• Decoded
• 501 Minutes to Christ
• The Toy Maker

I could imagine loving or merely liking them, but I’d be very surprised if they were boring.

Most likely pure entertainment

• The Plea
• The Less Dead

Useful palate cleansers among the heavier literary works.

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One thing I’d watch out for

This queue is emotionally dense.

If you read:

• Fateless
• The Kiss
• Neverhome
• Luster
• A Dictator Calls

back-to-back, you may find yourself in a prolonged stretch of grimness, trauma, alienation, and moral discomfort.

I’d interleave them with:

• Wilfred Price
• My Bags Are Big
• The Plea
• Decoded

to keep the reading experience fresh.

My overall impression

The queue feels intelligent, curious, slightly contrarian, and refreshingly unconcerned with bestseller culture. It looks like someone who discovers books through reviews, prize lists, second-hand shops, recommendations from serious readers, and literary rabbit holes rather than BookTok or airport displays.

The title that most makes me think, “Yes, this belongs in this queue,” is Fateless. The title that makes me think, “This could end up being the surprise favourite,” is Wild Houses. And the title I’d be most eager to hear your reaction to afterwards is The Kiss.