endIndex: Southeast Asian myths, postcolonial epics, and a massive yet engaging story about foolish English magicians. Photos by JL JAVIER
Reading Life is a monthly column where writers talk about the books they ve read good or bad.
Like many of you, I had hoped that the insane amount of indoor time during the pandemic would mean that my tsundoku pile would finally shrink and my small bedroom would finally be free of some books. Alas, it was not quite. The pandemic has affected the way we read, and along with the numerous cultural shifts that happened, there was a reckoning to be had with our habits and choices. I found myself looking for more books written by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) during the George Floyd protests and as the cultural consumption of my part of the Twittersphere tended towards K-pop and Boys Love (and, eventually, pop music) from Thailand and, motivated me to look for more Southeast Asian books. In bookshops here, books from Japan, South