<commit_before>---
title: "A Psalm For The Wild Built"
authorname: "<NAME>"
favorite: true
categories:
  - reading
tags:
  - English
  - novel
  - scifi
---
<span style="color:gray">[← All books](https://www.kaito.co/reading/)</span>  

![image-left](/images/reading/psalm_wild_built.jpeg){: width="500px" .align-left} 
I picked up this book somewhat randomly, encouraged by its pretty cover and backcover reviews that mentioned words like "optimistic", "kind", and "felt like a warm cup of tea". I can confirm that all of the above were all very much true and reading *Psalm* was one of the most therapeutic things I've done in a long time.  


<commit_msg>edit Psalm of the Wild Built review<commit_after>---
title: "A Psalm For The Wild Built"
authorname: "<NAME>"
favorite: true
categories:
  - reading
tags:
  - English
  - novel
  - scifi
---
<span style="color:gray">[← All books](https://www.kaito.co/reading/)</span>  

![image-left](/images/reading/psalm_wild_built.jpeg){: width="500px" .align-left} 
I picked up this book somewhat randomly, encouraged by its pretty cover and backcover reviews that mentioned words like "optimistic", "kind", and "felt like a warm cup of tea". I can confirm that all of the above were all very much true and reading *Psalm* was one of the most therapeutic things I've done in a long time.  

I'm sure everyone had a touch of burnout and soul-searching during the past two years of global pandemic. I sure have, and I immediately identified with the serious but whimsical protagonist Dex and their quest to find "purpose" in life. Oh by the way, *Psalm* was the first book that I read with a gender nonbinary character as the protagonist and I enjoyed how much it was a nonissue in the storytelling. One of the many ways the world is "an optimistic vision" as <NAME> writes in the cover. But back to my point, this book felt particularly poignant as I prepare to defend my PhD and move beyond the academic path that I was so sure of treading on. This book reminded me that we don't need our work to be *enough*, it is enough to exist in the world and marvel at it. That we are allowed to just *live*.

<NAME> has a special gift in writing sentences that make you smile, giggle softly, and feel warm all over. And making us realize that all we need is a happy robot friend.



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