Sigo Paolini > Recent Status Updates

Covering the same time and place, Hemingway's Moveable Feast is far better, but written 30 years later. Wilder's story was penned in 1926 when he was 29 and written about when he was 25. More of a diary then a novella. No plot. Heavy on characterization and sketches. It is now part of a collection of Wilder's first two books -- this and Woman of Andros.

Interesting that she sees commitment to one's writing not as a duty, oh no that makes it an onerous job. Instead it is a belief in one's essential life force.

True Balzac. Very evocative with a dollop of sneer on top.

90 pages in and all I get is antecdotes. This does nothing for me. Maybe it will improve.

Pastoral Tale by AC Doyle. No Sherlock but its a crime mystery, nonetheless. It is a tale of a mad psychopathic killer that haunts a small Tyrolean town. Narrator was very Holmesy.

The Fall of the House of Usher. Narrator is excellent. Haven't heard this story in years, and the Vinny Price movie is far different, so if that's all you've seen, I'd recommend this one. Included is one of Poe's poems.

Alot of cruft after Lovecraft...and then there is the Yellow Wallpaper which I hadn't read in a while. Made me want to learn more about that short, but all there is Julie Dock's feminist history of its publication. Pity.

Lucky cards for your destiny spreads
Major Cards: The Chariot, the Wheel of Fortune, the Star,
the Moon, the Sun, the World.
Minor Cards: The Aces of Pentacles, Cups, and Wands;
the Threes of Cups and Wands; the Six of Wands; the
Eight of Pentacles and Wands; the Tens of Pentacles and
Wands.
Then there is a spread I guess she created, and when is the best time of day or weather to use it.

Some of the comments about astrology are incorrect. Other than that fine.

I've learnt one thing from this.........compilations suck. They don't have chapters, no liner notes just one story that runs into another. No way to skip around.

7 - The Diary of a God by Barry Pain humourous 5/4

8 - Brothers by Sherwood Anderson pass. Yes he, the other narrator, is crazy, but no one cares.

9 - The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe
The narrator has an appropriately menacing tone of a sick alcholic. Cat lovers may enjoy this one, revenge is sweet :-) 5/5

It's warm and 75 so the windows are down and at a stop light someone heard Herlihy and Cthulu and backed up and asked, What is that? Lovecraft. Waved thanks and goodbye. I wish I could tell you more but it's best you don't know:-) 5/5

I'm up to Tales of Ctulthu. He doesn't start out mad but once he decides to follow the Norwegian from Providence to Auckland to Sydney to Oslo, he sure it. Good narration; I think its John Herlihy -- well it sounds like him.. 5 for madness/5 for narrator.

I am listening to this, not reading it, on my daily walks with my GSD.I got this from the library sale and I knew nothing about MacDonald. It's an odd tale -- that's fer sure.

3. Le Horla. Mausspant takes the descent to its conclusion, but I disagree about the ultimate ending. Still a 5. He's mad. The narrator is Ian Holm. He is superb. 5.

So far the madness rating is 3.6. The narration is 4.34

Well it seems GR lost my first update. Let's try it again.

1. Pit and Pendulum. Not really a story on madness, but the thought that one was. 2. Narrator. Exquisite. 5. I think the Cask of Amontillado would have been a better choice.
2. Diary of a Madman. With a nod to Gogol's Diary of a Madman, later in the book, Tolstoy is obviously describing his own descent into madness. 4. Narrator. 3.

Two ratings. One on the madness rating/the narration
1. PIt and Pendulum 2/5 Narrator is perfect.
2. Diary of a Madman 4/3 Narrator is ok.
3/ The Horla 5/5 -- Ian Holm does a superb job.
4.

Uneven

I don't like that the tracks are not numbered and there aren't any notes to tell me who is reading what though sometimes a different narrator helps. Still, I'm on a set now that seems to just keep flowing into one another, and I think it's by Washington Irving, but cannot be sure. That aggravates me.

She had already helped a lot. I didn't think my handwriting was that bad, but others cannot read it so leaving notes is problematic. RS has given me lots of pointers and exercises that started working immediately. I dusted out the Levenger writing desk I've had for years and use that though she admits any slanted board , try a pillow, would work as well.

Ezra Pound wrote, and I paraphrase, Pikers borrow; Professionals Steal, and if ever a story was stolen and wildly embellish it is Camille. I have seen the movie, I had to. It was my mil's favorite and the whole reason we had Camellias at our wedding, but i never had time to read the book. Ah now I can, and I wish I had earlier so I could tell her the parallels -- she would have been in her glory.

Second time through. I had some questions I did not think of the first time so I'm re-reading it to see what I missed.

A great soap......full of melodrama.......Not for me.

When you publish your memoir, you will make it clear to your readers that your material is REMEMBERED experience, not verified facts. Amen sister.

She's terrific. She's got me writing everyday. I know she uses Peter Elbow's Freewriting as her basis -- and that's ok because Elbow tells you it is all about facing the blank page and just writing. I have found writing on looseleaf — i can throw it out and act like it never happened -- works for me. I've tried expensive (Tomoe River, Maruman and Designworks) and cheap journals - zip.

This is one boring book, but I have to continue to see if it doesn't pick up. Let's hope.

Platycephalus refers to fish. Flat headed. Not people. I could not imagine how someone could like that............Froehlich's disease is not genetic but caused by tumours.