2026 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr.

Pages: 626 pages

Length: 1 month (July)

Participants: Lina, Lulo

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

Hi Lulo! Looking forward to reading this together with you!
Do you know when you will be starting? Then I will try to read it at approximately the same time :)

Hi Lina!
Sorry for the delay, but I have missed the post of the opening of the July Buddy reads threads. Also, on friday night had a college exam so I was a little away from Goodreads.

I'm finisihing a book soon (probably this afternoon), so i could start tonight or later in this month, as you like.

Hey, no worries!
I hope your exam went well.

I would prefer starting a bit later as I already packed the book into my moving boxes and am not quite sure where exactly it is. I will be unpacking them after moving on Saturday.

So, if that works for you, maybe we could start next week? (or sometime after that, if you prefer)

How would you like to go about reading and discussing the book?

I am looking forward to it!

The exam went well, got the curse aproved so i officialy on rest till mid August.

I hope the move goes well. I've been through them and I know how stressful they are.

Next week it's perfect for me, that's no problem.

My reading pace is something like 40/50 minutes per day (read on my way to work and back home everyday). I just watch the book index. There are 24 chapters, so maybe we can have a contact every 5 chapters (At the end of 5, 10, 15, 20 and at the end of the book) to share some feelings and thoughts about it.

Have you read any Anthony Doerr books? This will be my first, bue have All the Light We Cannot See in my TBR list for a while coz my godmother recomended it.

Very nice! What course was it for? And have fun on vacations!

Yes, I hope so, too. I finished college so I am now moving to a different town for work (big changes upcoming).

Okay, thanks.
I read a ton - but the 5 chapter check-in sounds good to me! Then I can wait whenever I finish those and it will make it easier to discuss together :) (keeps me from binge-reading the entire book).

This will also be my first book by Doerr, but I also have All the Light We Cannot See on my TBR, so if we both like this one I would be up for reading that in one of the upcoming months.

What is your time zone? (If you do not mind me asking) - nvm, your profile says Buenos Aires, so 5 hours time difference. (I just got back from South America (and also parts of Argentina) 4 weeks ago actually, but sadly did not get to visit Buenos Aires this time).

Was Mathematical analysis. With that finished the first year. I'm studying to be an Accountant. (Went back to college to get a degree after working almost 20 years as an administrative in finance of different companys coz realize that if I could back up my experience with a degree, better job offer will arribe).

You're moving far away where you studied?

My time zone is +3. If we have 5 hours difference that means you're in US Weat coast or somewhere between Finland and South Africa.

What parts of Argentina (and South America) did you visite?

US or Canada west coast

That sounds like a good plan, I hope college will go well for you!

No, just an hour.
I live in the South of Germany, so I am 5 hours ahead of you.

I went to Bolivia (La Paz, Titicaca Lake, the Amazon, Salar de Uyuni, Sucre), then Northern Argentina (road trip in the Salta region), then to Puerto Iguazu and the Iguazu Falls and to Paraguay. In total I spent 6.5 weeks there.
I have also been to Chile before, but that was a while ago.

I've never been so far north in Argentina.
The northern I went is the city of San Juan (1000 km south of Salta) and it was almost 30 years ago (December of 1995) and it's a lovely place.
In my 20s went in holidays to the patagonia a few years in a row and felt in love with the place (specially a little welsh town called Trevelin).

I would really love to travel to Patagonia and Buenos Aires next time. I hope I get the chance to take a couple months off again sometime in the future (hopefully sometime soon!). Ill try to remember that city till then!

I would be ready to start now, if that also fits for you.

Yes, I'm ready to start right away!

Great- then I’ll be starting the first five chapters!

I finished chapter 5 this morning.
(view spoiler)[So far, it's a little hard to read for me, but allways happens to me in this type of books with several story developing each one far away from the other and no interrelation (at least by now).
I'm mostly intrigued by the story of Omeir, that's the one more exited about. Also the part of Seymour, because I see him as an autistic kid, and my son has Asperger syndrome so I empathize with him. (hide spoiler)]
Hit me with your opinion

Very sorry for the late reply - somehow I can not open spoilers on my phone and I didn't have my laptop available.
I hope it gets better for you soon and that you will enjoy it more! I am glad you do like some of the perspectives, though!
My thoughts (on chapters 1-5):
A Summary of my feelings so far would be: "intriguing".
I actually enjoy the time jumps and find the chapter titles interesting. I like the perspectives you mentioned as well, but also really enjoy Anna's (quote from chapter 2: (view spoiler)[
Before she turns fourteen, every person she knows will be either enslaved or dead.
or
A half-dozen times she has stared at this painting, and each time something stirs inside her, some inarticulable sense of the pull of distant places, of the immensity of the world and her own smallness inside it. (I think that is a feeling I also oftentimes get when travelling) (hide spoiler)]
and the ones from Konstance (e.g. Farm 4 - and: what happened to everyone else on the ship? (regarding the prologue)).
I really like the way he sets up scene settings/countries/cities.
But so far I don't really have much of an idea where the book is going. Excited to hear your thoughts on the next parts!
Some other quotes I liked:
(view spoiler)[ But books, like people, die. They die in fires or floods or in the mouths of worms or at the whims of tyrants. If they are not safeguarded, they go out of the world. And when a book goes out of the world, the memory dies a second death.
-----------------------
The owl blinks into the fading light. His head is the size of a volleyball. He looks like the souls of ten thousand trees distilled into a single form.
-----------------------
Beyond the library windows, beyond the storm, the horizon eats the sun. (hide spoiler)]

I have absolutely no idea where the book is going, just like you. And the different stories are so far away one from the other that is more difficult to find a middle point where all going to converge.

I've finished chapter 10 this morning.

Now the book is a LOT more interesting than the first 5 chapters.
Still have no idea how all the different series will converge (except Omeir and Anna, which are in the same timeline).

Also, the chapter 9 with Konstance and the Argos story (one I didn't like to much at the begining) (view spoiler)[had a very interesting twist, where I found this quote i'd love “You said that what’s so beautiful about a fool is that a fool never knows when to give up.” (hide spoiler)]

In Chapter 8, I found a sentence which can be applied to my work every single day. (view spoiler)["For Omeir each day offers a new lesson in how careless men can be" (hide spoiler)]

Also, the parts of Zeno (view spoiler)[being a war prisioner in the Korea War is algo very interesting in the way he get's a bond with Rex. (hide spoiler)]

I have also finished chapter 10.

The story of Cloud Cuckoo Land seems to connect them all - but I am also looking forward to learning more about all of it.

I really enjoy the writing style; there are many examples of quotes I liked, but this is one: "He settles the oars into their locks and waits a moment and the blades of the oars drip drip drip and a cormorant passes overhead and both boy and girl watch it come out of the fog and disappear again."

I also liked: "The ark has hit the rocks, child. And the tide is washing in."

I loved that quote in Konstances part, too! The library seems really interesting (I would like to be able to look at it)- and I really like the descriptions of her trip into the Atlas.
"Each of these books, child, is a door, a gateway to another place and time." (view spoiler)[ Like Konstance, I would also be a bit disappointed with knowing that in your life you will never be able to wander around another place - just work towards someone else being able to (the just looking forward, instead of wondering at all the beautiful places/things/nature humans destroyed on earth wouldn't work for me).

Plus - the "And why can't Sybil, who knows all things, solve it?" was very intriguing as well. I mean, either Sybil doesn't know all things (which seems most likely, as she is just a compilation of earths data/experiences), or she somehow doesn't mind that many of them are dying. (which would go against her supposed main objective of keeping them all alive) (hide spoiler)]

What do you work as?
I also marked that quote - so many instances where that rings true. (view spoiler)[ And I am very sorry for Tree and Moonlight (and all the other animals) - and for Omeir, who suffers, because he has to treat them so. (hide spoiler)]
from Omeir's part I really liked this: "... Grandfather would say that the littlest streams, high on the mountain, small enough to dam with your hand, would eventually join the river, and that the river, though quick and violent, was but a drop in the eye of the great Ocean that encircles all lands of the world, and contains every dream everyone has ever dreamed."

I am not sure why but so far Zeno's parts are a bit less interesting to me. I do like that he is somewhat of a flawed character though.
Rex's "Antiquity was invented to be the bread of librarians and schoolmasters." reminded me of how thoroughly we always had to interpret books in school - the fact that the curtains might have just been blue, and not meant to signifiy melancholy, ... always struck me as funny.

(view spoiler)[For Seymour's parts I am looking forward to knowing who or what Bishop is. They seem to have manipulated him a lot and I feel like they will definitely not send help but instead leave him hanging... (hide spoiler)]

I hope all of you like it better than I did--some of my GR friends loved it.

This covers some of the main reasons I didn't end up liking it even though I loved another one of his books https://www.goodreads.com/review/show.... - NO spoilers unless they are hidden.

Lina wrote: "I really like the descriptions of her trip into the Atlas.
"Each of these books, child, is a door, a gateway to another place and time."

That's a GREAT quote, coz books is just that, a quick and easy way to explore world and stories we don't know.

(view spoiler)[I agree on Konstance situation. Being told that you are confined in a place and not going have the chance to exit there for your whole life is really tough.

Lina wrote: "either Sybil doesn't know all things (which seems most likely, as she is just a compilation of earths data/experiences), or she somehow doesn't mind that many of them are dying. (which would go against her supposed main objective of keeping them all alive)"

I think that Sybil know all thing in the moment they exit the earth. But after that, things has evolved, improved and changed. I don't know if Sybil has any posibilities of being updated or anything like that.
In the sickness case that has provoked at least 2 confirmed deaths (and probably the rest of the Argos crew), I think that is a dissease not in Sybil database.
Also, Sybil if focused in keep Konstance safe and alive as the only hope. (hide spoiler)]

Lina wrote: What do you work as?

I work in a fish and sea food importer and distribuitor in an administrative position. Is an small work team and there's a lot of flaws in the staff, a lot of them because they do things just for doing it and don't control if they're OK.

(view spoiler)[Lina wrote: [For Seymour's parts I am looking forward to knowing who or what Bishop is. They seem to have manipulated him a lot and I feel like they will definitely not send help but instead leave him hanging...

They're gonna leave him hanging, i'm pretty sure about that. (hide spoiler)]

i'm definitely enjoying this book.
Once a can catch up with the different characters and stories, is great. Also, Today I got till the 20th chapter (16 to 20 are a lot shorter and probably I'm gonna finish the book tonight or tomorrow morning)

(view spoiler)[You're right about the book being the connection between all stories, and also love the turn around that the Konstance story did. Very curious to see the ending of that.

The meet between Anna and Omeir was a lil bit predecisable, but is well developed.

About the Zeno story, I like the reunion with Rex, altough I think that it wasn't so good for him (He had such bad luck in his life!).

And with Seymour, I definitly think what they will leave him hanging alone this everything. (hide spoiler)]

I am very sorry for my late reply- I still don't have internet at my house (which sucks), and I had a sudden deadline for my thesis so sadly had to prioritize working on that. I am not yet done with the book, so I will reply to your last message later - will probably finish by tomorrow).
I see that you rated it 5 stars - very glad you enjoyed it! Feel like reading another book together? (e.g. All the Light We Cannot See) Doesn't have to be in August, whenever you want :)

Regarding your message prior to that one:
yes, that is why I loved the quote :)

(view spoiler)[Yeah, I can not even imagine. Would be very hard on the psyche. At least they have the program as a mental escape; still, that would definitely also get boring at some point. Plus, no fresh air! (and no fresh air after it rains - and least she wouldn't miss it because she has never experienced it)
(hide spoiler)]

Ah I am sorry, that sounds annoying - especially if you hold an administrative position and have to try to make sure everything runs smoothly...

Lina wrote: "I am very sorry for my late reply- I still don't have internet at my house (which sucks), and I had a sudden deadline for my thesis so sadly had to prioritize working on that."

That's not a problem at all, hope you'll be able to finish it on time and the right way.

I finished on past weekend and forgot to check in.
Really liked it, finished really good all the stories (Omeir, anna and Konstance especially)

I would love to read another book together, and also wanna to read sometime soon All the Light We Cannot See. Whenever you can, let me know. I didn't join any buddy read in august (didn't finished a july one and the july twin buddy read to be honest).


Lina wrote: "Ah I am sorry, that sounds annoying - especially if you hold an administrative position and have to try to make sure everything runs smoothly..."

I'm not in charge or have people on my watch. I'm kind of an odd man out (something like a problem fixer besides my job), coz I know all the administrative process and can replace any absense, but at the same time, don't have someone to replace me if i'm not there.

I finished the book yesterday - so cut it pretty close, but was still on time.
I would love to read All the Light We Cannot See together with you! I have purchased the book and would be ready to start whenever you are.

My reply regarding your last Cloud Cuckoo Land messages:

I agree with you - I really liked how the stories were connected, the twist in Konstances story (view spoiler)[ I had been wondering about it ever since they mentioned that guy (I forgot his name... something with E and then Fischerbach or something as last name) spending a long time in the Atlas and then trying to hack his way outside.... (and the fact that there were absolutely no windows / video of the outside etc.) - such a horrible experiment though! And then it seemed to have been completely abandoned? And do you think someone brought the plague into the ship (like through vents or something? was this a sick way of trying out what happens (or maybe they were trying to tie up lose ends while ending the experiment?)? Or were they just super unlucky- I think its odd that a plague develops on an island in a ship where all the people have been for over 80 years- seems like foul play)

- I thought the phone ringing/bomb scene from Zeno's perspective was very well written as well - the:

He runs through the snow, and for the fifth time the phone rin

(hide spoiler)] (and that being the end of the paragraph)

I felt so sorry for Seymour.

I loved this quote (again about reading):

Turn a page, walk the lines of sentences : the singer steps out, and conjures a world of color and noise in the space inside your head.

Aw, so you can not really go on vacations? (That would be sad)

(view spoiler)[

Lina wrote: "I had been wondering about it ever since they mentioned that guy (I forgot his name... something with E and then Fischerbach or something as last name) spending a long time in the Atlas and then trying to hack his way outside"

The kid was Elliot Fischbacher. And never thought that they weren't really traveling in outer space.

Lina wrote: "And then it seemed to have been completely abandoned?"

I think that maybe they're were something like a cult, so everyone involved in it where inside the ship. When the Flu got in, there's nobody out who can help them (or knew they were there also.

Lina wrote: "And do you think someone brought the plague into the ship (like through vents or something? was this a sick way of trying out what happens (or maybe they were trying to tie up lose ends while ending the experiment?)? Or were they just super unlucky- I think its odd that a plague develops on an island in a ship where all the people have been for over 80 years- seems like foul play)"

If any foul play happened, it didn't was good executed. If was someone on the inside, didn't survive (or at least is it what seems), and if it was someone on the outside of the ship, didn't check if all where dead. Think it was most an unexpected virus or something like that and not foul play.


All the closure of the Zeno's perspective was great, and felt the same way about Seymour. (hide spoiler)]

Yes, I can go out on vacations, but when I return to work got a big part of my duties accumulated to do. They only do the urgent part (international payments mostly)

About reading All the Light We Cannot See. We could be starting something like August 10th? Right now I'm finishing to books (big books) and would like to at least get one of those finished before start this one (it would be great to have finished both, but don't wanna keep you waiting)

(view spoiler)[It cannot just have been a cult as they were drugged for take-off- to make them think they really left earth. (hide spoiler)]

Interesting to also read your thoughts on those parts :)

Yes, I also think both of their perspectives was well done.

Aw- yeah, that sucks. Same in my line of work - when one gets back one has to cover more night shifts etc so pretty soon the holiday feeling is used up :D

Just let me know when you finished those - maybe in private message? (Or we could ask Sarah about creating a tab for All The Light We cannot see...) I can wait, I also have other books on my tbr. Have fun reading till then :)