Ryan Berger > Recent Status Updates

Hm. I have a take brewing.

I have been coming back to this reading all over the place and I think I'm REALLY ready for it now and having so much fun. Love a Barthelme story like nothing else.

"And certainly, when the power of God shows up in your swing, and the people start to notice, you could always stop swinging, or at least swing worse: That'll get them off your back, won't it? But you won't do that now, will you. If you were that sort of power wouldn't have shown up in the first place."

My GOD this book is so good and I'm a month behind for no reason other than laziness.

It's fucking April!

Amazing but scary and demoralizing in that "I will never, ever be this good a writer if I had 100 years to practice" sort of way

Had this thought while reading one of Gallant's short stories and again here that not only is "show don't tell" one of the most misunderstood pieces of advice in all of storytelling-- but I'll take it a step further and say what we call "telling" (which is already tricky because ask 10 people-- get 10 definitions of what "telling" is in fiction), when done well, is as good as prose gets.

Reading this for the McNalley Jackson's "Reading for Craft" book club-- the first book club I'll partake in since swearing them off about four~ years ago.

"Vibrant in swords and in passion
and asleep in the ivy,
only life exists."

RTC gonna write about this on substack to gain the attention of someone who does not care if I live or die

Squandering a killer premise so far

Who up Beholding They Man ?

[overheated Southern Belle voice] I got the Troubles! (Sorry, trying to delete)

Hmm. No, no I don't think that's true.

Wanted to cram this because I'd heard that Science Fiction as a literary form turns 100 years old in April, but now I have at least three conflicting dates as to when that was. So!

"The Ice Wagon Goes Down The Street" - I would not say that I haven't read anything fantastic lately (far from it!) but this reminded me it's been a while since I have been reading with a gigantic smile on my face. I was hooting and hollering the whole time. A MAGNIFICENT story.

Buy this for your dad for Christmas. You can direct him to me if he doesn't like it. But he will.

Already one of the best craft books on writing ever ever ever ever ever.

I set this down for almost a complete year. I desperately need it now. I have completely lost my reviewing mojo. I'm piling up RTC's. Hoping this will shock my system.

Reading Clute is a pleasure. I don't even think it's hyperbole to say he's probably the best book reviewer alive. What a privilege to have had him cover SFF for so long. Need more of his ilk in the genre space-- someone who takes the work seriously.

This is turning out to be the single biggest disappointment in my journey through SF's landmark works. Dud after dud after dud after dud. Very few bright spots.

Do I, a 30-year-old man, have menopause?

Reading this on the L-Train and nodding vigorously

Part one was MAGNIFICENT

Save me, George

Trying to be objective about this because I am being forced to throw out the unit I'd been planning and have to teach this on a week's notice and that's going to take a bit out of the enjoyment of any book.

Up and down. Verbose to the max. Sometimes it's what you want-- it's certainly why I picked it up!

Reading so I can win an argument

Another attempt!

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL

(((((White Noise is my favorite book of all time and yet I'm only, close to five years later, reading my second DeLillo because I was so scared the next one wouldn't live up to the hype but this is fucking incredible))))

Ended up sticking with this off a weird hunch that much of it was, if you can believe it, kind of bad on purpose and I feel like I was kind of right? Also not sure it completely saves it. More to be revealed.