Any Direction > Recent Status Updates

TIL something about myself and that is that my tolerance for nonsense goes way up if your setting is a a boat. Bonus points if the water is cold. More bonus points if there are birds. However, if all the birds are dead by the end of this, I will be filing all my petty complaints and using them as an excuse to say that the book is objectively bad when the real problem is my refusal to tolerate gratuitous sadness.

Still don’t hate it, but this is the first chapter actually written for adults. Adding “the Good Place” to things are like other things list. Also, we hit a pet peeve. That is an author explaining his (it’s always his) symbolism to you. “Look how clever I am naming my characters after obscure Greek mythology references and having a character point it out.” You know what’s actually clever- subtlety.

“There’s music everywhere, you just have to learn to listen for it” could be inspiring if it wasn’t just a slightly altered phrase from another property, one entirely about music, so the quote makes sense. This book is not about music, so why is this here? Also, the time jump at the beginning of this chapter… atrocious. Despite my best efforts and knit-picking, I don’t hate this book yet.

The things are like other things energy of this is strong. A blurb said umbrella academy, 1984, and Douglas Adams. So those, but I have also thought of Lemony Snicket, X-men, Good Omens, Raul Dahl, and Harry Potter. All authors are writing under the influence of other author, so I don’t know if it’s good or bad. There’s some nice descriptive writing.

That interaction wasn’t winning me points with Linus. Yes your neighbor is obnoxious, but if your cat was in my yard chasing my squirrels, I’d be pissed too. Also, if you don’t want your neighbor watching you, buy a curtain.

Deborah Harkness is not a biologist.

What a way to open a novel! For every book, I want an accompanying children’s book about what the animals are up too, starring Patricia. If a tortoise wedding was not enough there was also a critique of cancel culture, an interesting representation of the fainting woman trope, an appearance of my favorite underutilized character, Lady Cordelia, and multiple potential cases to solve! Here for all of it!

TIL the expression “cool as a cucumber” is older than this book.

Every chapter in this book has been short, (2-5 pages) which really helps with the supposed tedium. Then suddenly we have a chapter that’s 21 pages (a rambling story of mutiny and WHALES), and now we are back closer to our regularly scheduled programming… Ismael criticizing whale paintings, which is silly, but also relatable.

My investment in this couple is very confused as there are so many problems. However, the gifting of exceptional amounts of mini muffins is genuinely cute.

Otto Chreik: I thought he was just a photographer extraordinaire and vegetarian vampire before it was cool. Turns out, he is also a terror to racist capitalists.

Well, the last dozen pages have had multiple quotes that could have been taken directly out of a politicians mouth today short of swapping out city names. Is it shocking? Yes. Is Terry Pratchett psychic? That would be comforting; what seems more likely is that rhetoric hasn’t changed in 25 years. Sigh.

Book 3 and 4 are the ones I remember the least. I used to be fond of a pandemic plot, but have not read any since actually living through a pandemic. I’m curious to see how this holds up. Opening chapter mentions the importance of free school lunches and good for Collins taking every opportunity to make important points.

This was the first book I read that dealt with what-comes-after in a Realist(ic) way. It was a shock to middle schooler me to learn that actually being held prisoner is not a bad experience that you can just forget. Writing is better when we consider traumatic events meaningfully instead of brushing them off as part of the adventure. But I guess we can’t all write as well as Suzanne Collins.

I’ve forgotten more than I thought, but the prophecies I remember. I printed them all out off and memorized large chunks of them because that was how obsessed with these books I was. This knowing that part of the cast is going to die, but not knowing who was just the best form of suspense back then. Now, I know who’s going to die, and it’s a bit of a power trip.

Plutarch be like “why aren’t you fighting back?” Haymitch be like “because I don’t want to die, dumbass.” and Plutarch be like “but aren’t you dying anyway?”

This is very on the nose for how I feel about the world right now. Neither Plutarch or Haymitch appear to have a solution. That’s also unfortunately relatable.

I once read a post from someone saying they strived to be like Vimes. Though he is my favorite Discworld character, I disagree. What Pratchett wants to do with Vimes becomes clear when we see him from other perspectives like here. De Worde likes Vimes but is also critical and cautious. Blindly praising the police head because he is sometimes the mc is not great, but also misses some nuance in Pratchett’s work.

Sometimes books read your mind. Here I was thinking that Ishmael was making things up, and then he hits me with a whole chapter telling me that he is, in fact, not making things up, reminding me that he knows more about whales than me, and giving me a very persuasive speech with a blend of personal experience and cited additional sources. The note disparaging allegory made me laugh. Melville be meta.

I now have many questions about this world’s sheep population.

I like to talk about the meaning of colors! This was fascinating, as among other things, it shows how humans can pack so much arbitrary meaning into something like color, and ultimately how having multiple arbitrary meanings becomes contradictory when considered as whole. Which then makes me think about how symbolism should be considered within the bonds of a text because otherwise anything can mean anything. Oh no.