Fiona > Recent Status Updates

“Gatekeeping around the classics is most often performed by those who are not classicists. By contrast, actual scholars of ancient literature, often like the idea of making the discipline more inclusive without necessarily knowing how.“ Maybe you could start by not shitting on people like Mary Beard or Stephen Fry who actually make the classics more accessible?

“Many of the finest scholars are somewhere between mediocre and abysmal when it comes to prose style.” Yes, you are.

I love when a preorder arrives early!

I’m finding the writing a little bit cringe: “crawled under the skin of his brain”?! And so heavy-handed: literally “the Empire didn’t care about its citizens”.

Temporary dnf until I can get it back from the library (which bought the book upon my suggestion but now a bunch of other jerks want to read it too. Argh.)

I love Daphne duMaurier more with every book I read. This was a hell of a ride and very entertaining. Rather more melodramatic than I usually enjoy, but I was hooked from the start.

Very quote-heavy, possibly 30% of the book is extensive quotations. The audiobook narration was okay but there was no vocal characterization to denote when someone was being quoted.

This ought to have been written as 1st person with Hallelujah as narrator.

I’m 15 minutes into the audiobook and I’m fucking crying. I may need to revisit this at a later date when I can cope with this much emotion.

Temporary dnf as it's due back at the library but I have requested it again.

DNF because it is so heavy-handed and repetitive that I’m irritated after only 3 chapters. Other reviews indicate this won’t improve.

DNF. Despite the intriguing premise, writing does not deliver.

Due back at the library before I finished; requested again.

Too academic for my current level of knowledge on this subject. Dude knows all about the internal machinations but its going over my head.

Meh. Relies on absurdity for gags. Not really liking the narrator.

Meh. Relies on absurdity for gags. Not really liking the narrator.