tachiyomi (立ち読み): (lit. standing reading) – the act of standing at a bookstore and reading through books or magazines before/without purchasing them.

synopsis

book I: emiel, the narrator, dives into his memories to trace back the roots of his depression. we then follow him through the mountains of spain, where he climbs out of it. on this increasingly absurd quest, emiel meets intriguing figures and moves through wondrous landscapes; all while he questions everything he ever thought he knew.

book II: having accomplished his goal, emiel now faces an empty world. the second book in this volume sees him grappling with the enormous change this process brought along. simultaneously, he reflects on the big topics that occupy humanity – including truth, delusion, ego, fear, logic, and more – while tying it back to his own experience with depression. these meditations are mostly presented through dialogue with people emiel meets along the way.

additional information
  • the process to complete this book start to publish, took exactly 3 years.
  • an earlier version of this manuscript was stolen, rewritten – AI, by the looks of it – and put for sale on amazon. it’s still up, under the title: universal delusions. they even sent me a copy, along with some weak attempts to scare me.
  • this was the first proper thing i ever started writing. i left the amateur-ish feeling of the very first draft intact at the beginning, and gradually ironed it out. for me, it adds to the idea of the character maturing and growing into themselves. (sorry if it starts as a tough read…)
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