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200 out of 289
Not liking it, unfortunately. Too bad too because this was a Birthday gift from my sister. Bram Stoker definitely doesn't do a good job at creating believable, real characters. A very sexist book, too.

Better than the movie so far

I'm seeing the number 8 everywhere in this book

Elly Brand appears... So does Holger.

RIP Pieter, thou wilt be missed

Oh yeah, romance subplots take the cake! I would never read a romance book, yet here I am gushing over Clavdia and Hans and the way they kiss by the firelight...
Also Myhneer Peeperkorn? Man's got personality. He is personality according to Hans.

Cult of personality!

Can I just say? I'm crying on the inside (gross).
This book makes me so happy/sad. It's like listening to the Smiths or graduating from college.
This book answers so many questions I have about the meaning of life, and how that is intrinsically related to time. This element, the element of our experience. This book hurt me in its beginning and I gave up on it. Boy am I glad I picked it back up.
Only I know my pain.

Who should be put in a dunce cap for having doubted this is the best Bildungsroman ever written? Me, me, me!

The ambience of this book... God! Masterpiece!
Chapter Snow, for reference.

What a pleasant day of reading! I read a lot and plan to knock out a few more pages before I inevitably fall asleep. Book's been great, especially the chapters where Naphta isn't in them. I'm much more interested in the plot than in the philosophical discussion. I like the latter, but the former is what I'm here for. Other than that, the future's looking grim. No plans for the future, ladies and gent, no plans at all

This book is my life. If all goes wrong, I'll take a whole year to stay in bed and just read.

The world's a mess, don't you know?

I'm loving this debate between Naphta and Herr Settembrini!

Birthday was on a Friday. Naturally, this weekend was dedicated to two things: celebrating my life with family and friends; so fitting in the context of this book—and voting in the federal elections.
Even more naturally, very little reading was accomplished.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Turn and face the strange
Ch-ch-changes!

I was foolish for doubting the perfection of this book. I am sorry Thomas Mann. Your work is beautiful.

Chap 5 Walpurgis Night
Brilliant and full of passion! Finally, a Mardi Gras holiday to celebrate and dance. Alors on danse! Despite everything, on danse!
And so he finally speaks to her. At this point of the book I, myself, am in love with Clavdia. Don't we all have our own Chauchats? And after such a wretched chapter, too. Walpurgis Night was so great. I was giddy in this chapter, intoxicated the same way(continued

Finished Danse Macabre. Hans Castorp and his weeks of priesthood. Joachim, his eternal, loyal squire. Karen Karstedt is a sweetheart, and I'm glad they spent some time together. That last paragraph was touching and somber. She sees her grave and accepts it demurely. I think this was one of the saddest chapters so far. Onto Walpurgis Night.

Continued in the comments.
Okay, after dinner backtracking, we now know it's Winter at the Berghof. We start to perceive the deaths at the Sanatorium, which I believe up until this point we didn't. Will and Perception. It's quite cold, Behrens' son Knut is visiting with his friends, Hans keeps away from them, like a good melancholy introvert, the cousins get Christmas gifts, just like they were kids again and

After this, I'm going to read the most cheerful, hopeful, optimistic book known to man. I know I'm learning a lot and I'm grateful for the process. But one can only stand so much of this. I'm constantly thinking about death, as I'm reading this, how I'm going to die, how my loved ones are going to die; how death itself is a part of life. It sounds obvious, but this book makes it evident to an extreme.

Behrens and Castorp compare cig sizes.
The engineer asks to be invited over to check his painting of Chauchat, who's Hans sole motivator in this whole book. Doesn't this man have any other motivation?
Settembrini is part of the Order for Good of the World. It has an Ubermensch vibe; I don't know what to think of it yet. It's been fun to read this, ngl.

Really this is just a big downer of a book. Every time I read it I feel terrible... Oh well, can't wait to continue to read this and update you guys!

Ohwow, I think I'm enjoying this? It's still much too morbid and sad. It puts everything into perspective: your time on this Earth, the certainty of death, diseases, the body which carries us through this life and its frailness. All of that. I'm warming up to Berghof, to the Sanatorium; I'm understanding more of what the book is telling me, what I should be taking from it, and I'm even noticing the 7s all throughout

Aw, shit, here we go again

Kind of tiresome at this point

A true page turner. Tragic little page turner.

I'm totally invested at this point. Athey and Troy, the patient versus the greedy.

Feels odd to read this on a Kindle... It feels sacrilegious.