Fatin > Recent Status Updates

absolutely loving Seneca, He quotes Epicurus often and I'm really vibing with all those quotes so I may pick up some Epicurus after this. Definitely in my philosophy era these days.

I remember being a young girl, on the brink of atheism, enamored by Ivan. He spoke with such (madding) eloquence and he articulated all I hated about God (the world God created).

Now though, he seems so young himself. Where I saw intellect, I now see pain (as Dostoevsky intended). I looked up to him then and now I just want to gather him in my arms and tell him it is okay to exist in all these contradictions.

Enjoying this slow reading process instead of inhaling a book in 24 hours

I had forgotten how much Fyodor Pavlovich irked me

I have decided to start this year by revisiting my favourite novel, which I read as a teenager.

Idk I expected to be charmed by this but I actually found that I don't immediately love the writing style? or well, the translation style. Maybe it will grow on me.

Lowkey annoyed by how many of the sci-fi nominations in Goodreads Choice Awards are about America. That culture, that land, that way of being, however it is stretched to extremities - good or bad - is not something that interests me 😩

I'll continue searching for good sci-fi sigh.

I enjoyed the third short story though I did not resonate with it much. I was reading it while waiting for an appointment so I think I wasn't fully able to immerse myself in it. There are lots of themes of change and growth and inner self that are resonating with me in this novel.

the second story in this anthology made me weepy in a beautiful way. it's funny that stories that are meant to find you always find you. I've been making so many excuses about what I'm supposed to do and here comes a story about a man doing the same but also gently, with love and delicate care, being told he can start now. Perhaps I too can start now and pull on the threads around me.

this one feels so cozy as well! I guess I'm in my Japanese cozy book era? the first short story is very much about how we perceive so differently from one another. it's also about quiet joy and feeling seen.

I accidentally read part of a review that said they don't like the second arc of the book and incidentally it's the part I have begun reading. I'm trying not to be influenced but I fear I am?

It is definitely not as enjoyable as the first arc but I still love how this author writes.

I'm enjoying this so very much. I'm in a transformative, slow phase of life. Somehow this is the kind of book I knew I had to read so its wonderful that it made its way to me.

"I think maybe I've been wasting my time, just doing nothing"
"I don't think so. it's important to stand still sometimes. Think of it as a little rest in the long journey of your life."

To all those hours I, too, spent sleeping and healing.

Absolutely stellar. I wish I'd read this when I was younger, I feel my journey in love and communal belonging would've been less painful and a lot faster.

This is really helping give shape to my existing beliefs by providing a structure I was currently missing.
Leaving you with an amazing quote "Organised religion has failed to satisfy spiritual hunger because it has accommodated secular demands, interpreting spiritual life in ways that uphold the values of a production-centered commodity culture."

On to my second reread. So it goes.

Enjoying this reread more than I thought I would

I'm almost sad to wrap up this book, it's so fucking good!

Douglas Adams made me realise I enjoyed comedy. Before him I had such disdain for the genre. Bless him.

Decided it was time I read this Great Novel once again. Just the opening is enough to have me smiling ear to ear.

I just finished Seventy Two Letters and coincidentally I was watching Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood. Both stories are about creating homunculus and I have to believe inspire one another in some way because the similarities are outstandingly present. State controlled science makes the best stories! I'm glad to be back to reading and can't wait to finish off this collection.

I'm still don't like Essun or her daughter

Still not over a prophetic saviour, a messiah named Paul

I'm loving this! I see the seeds of an epic story, I see why it is considered a classic, I see why it spawned decades of inspired literature.
But I don't understand why his name is Paul. That is just so...unremarkable.

At first I was annoyed, the three stories I read were more philosophical and historical than science-y & modern, reminiscent of Scheherazade's One Thousand and One Nights. Then I read Exhalation and suddenly I completely understand all the fuss around Ted Chiang.

Somehow the anxiety of this moment we are alive in combined with my previous novel that was horror stories about pandemics halted my reading progress completely. Slowly getting back into it with short stories!

I really want to love this book, man. It's talking about a fever that spreads from China which has symptoms similar to flu, it's talking about N-95 masks. It's all soooo familiar to our current epidemic. But it's not edited well maybe? The chapters splice weirdly between the present and the past. I don't know if this non-linear storytelling is working. I think it's actually getting in the way instead.