Matthew Hodge > Recent Status Updates

This is my longest reading project (except maybe for Stephen King novels), which I've been doing off and on for 15 years. But I want to try and finish it in the next decade. Each volume of the 22 is a facsimile copy of two volumes of an English translation from the 1800s which ran close to 500 pages each. (Making it nearly 1000 pages per volume in this format.) Mid-way through Isaiah at the moment.

I was about halfway through this book when I suddenly realised - never mind my son (who is the person I'm trying to help by reading this) - *I* need to start working on my *own* anxiety. Geez, how many things in life am I missing out on because I'm telling myself catastrophe stories in my head?

Well, there were about 30 albums I couldn't track down and listen to but otherwise, I'm up to 500. Press on!

Quote of the week:

To young men of a studious mind, who did not desire to go into the Church or the Law, magic was very appealing, particularly since Strange had triumphed on the battlefields of Europe. It is, after all, many centuries since clergymen distinguished themselves on the field of war, and lawyers never have.

This book is mind-bending! While I work with data for a living (and studied maths in the dim dark past), this guy takes it to a whole new level. And all in Excel!

Reading the chapter about Bruneseau exploring and disinfecting the sewers of Paris. An almost completely unnecessary side-tangent to the main story but WHAT a tangent. Who would want to cut stuff like this out of the novel?

"The eye of the spirit can nowhere find more dazzling brilliance and more shadow than in man; it can fix itself on no other thing which is more formidable, more complicated, more mysterious, and more infinite. There is a spectacle more grand than the sea; it is heaven: there is a spectacle more grand than heaven; it is the inmost recesses of the soul."

Never read it before and obviously there is much that gets lost on a non-French reader but the impact of Hugo's unabashedly bold contrast of utter misery with life-transforming kindness is jolting. It shines down the many years since he wrote it and stirs something in us even today. (And this is even when we have a famous musical to give us the short version of the story.)

Finished the Cs. Highlights include James Carr, Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs and Englishmen, Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison and George Crumb's Black Angels (played by Kronos Quartet).

If you're a fan of the 7th Son trilogy, this is a reasonably clever prequel novella, but not great as a stand-alone concept.

Just read "I Am The Doorway". I feel slightly ill. What can I say? King knows what he's doing.

Just finished the Bs. Over a hundred albums under that letter but no Bon Jovi to be seen... Sorry, Jon, I think Tom Moon has snubbed you!

"She concluded with many good wishes that Lady Lucas might soon be equally fortunate, though evidently and triumphantly believing there was no chance of it." Good old Mrs Bennet...

"When a man dreams his own dream, he is the sport of his dream; when Another gives it him, that Other is able to fulfil it."

"Thou doubtest because thou lovest the truth. Some would willingly believe life but a phantasm, if only it might for ever afford them a world of pleasant dreams: thou art not of such!"

"Thou doubtest because thou lovest the truth. Some would willingly believe life but a phantasm, if only it might for ever afford them a world of pleasant dreams: thou art not of such!"

Leviticus and Numbers are tougher to sit through than Genesis / Exodus, but Richard Dreyfuss is still great as Moses.

Part 2 of the book was almost like a novella that King thought up that he decided to insert into the rest of the book... this is going to be a *really* slow burn. Lucky he's a great storyteller.

Can tell this one is going to be slow and deliberate but what a great set-up! Gotta love time-travel stories.

This book now is *vaguely* starting to make some sense. But still completely trippy. One can only wonder what went on in George MacDonald's head.

Just worked through the As. Fantastic resource for trying new types of music. You get such a mix if genres just working through the book alphabetically and with the help of a Spotify account, you can track down the vast majority of the repertoire.

Genesis-Exodus. Probably the biggest-budget audio Bible out there. It's not particularly subtle, so may be considered cheesy by some but at least it's not dry. Highlight so far is Richard Dreyfuss as Moses.

This book is starting to do my head in. I'm sure it's deeply symbolic, but I can't quite work out its symbolism... Still hoping it'll all come together in the end...

One of the rare books that makes me wonder whether I'm awake when I'm reading it. Quite surreal. Have no idea where the author is heading but I'll hang in for the ride.

Habit 6 - Synergy. Without doubt, one of the most abused words in the English language and I'm not sure how often I've experienced the real thing myself. But, wow, what a thing to aim for ...

Habit 5 - Seek First To Understand, Then To Be Understood. This chapter is surely one of the greatest pieces on communication ever written.

Love this quote! "Integrity includes but goes beyond honesty. Honesty is telling the truth - in other words, *conforming our words to reality*. Integrity is *conforming reality to our words* - in other words, keeping promises and fulfilling expectations. This requires an integrated character, a oneness, primarily with self but also with life."