I fell into the pandemic trap of watching fellow bibliophiles post lengthy book reviews in video formats that encourage the content creator to make the experience of reading the book all about themselves.

Which is fine, I guess. You're welcome to have a third party mediate your experience of any text. It's a really popular thing to do, especially when reading has gone out of vogue. 

Burying my nose in a book is something that (sight-permitting) I will never give up. I figured out a long time ago that I require about 10-20 pages of reading for every one that I write myself. I have an appetite for the written word and I have needs. 

FrontierGoth was intended as a catalog for the ideas I encountered along the way. Originally built as Behemoth's Book Club in a nod to The Master and The Margarita, FrontierGoth has no ratings, no reviews, no opinions, and no value judgements. Individual books are posted as photos and accompanied by a single quote (not always the most inspiring, thought-provoking, or laugh-inducing sample from the text) that serves as incentive for other readers to pick up the book themselves and encounter it on their own terms. Imagine that. 

As an LA-based writer, I was always inspired by the Richard deBury quote etched in relief along the northern face of the central library: 

"Books alone are liberal and free; they give to all who ask; they emancipate all who serve them faithfully."

This coaxed or partially fabricated Aristotle quote also rings true: 

"It is the mark of an educated mind to entertain an idea without accepting it." 

These are noble cornerstones of intellectual freedom and the onus of restorative responsibility that comes with it. FrontierGoth is both a reliquary of that mindset and an attempt to build off to it to account for and cope with the postmodern world.