David Rice > Recent Status Updates

Dorian has discovered one should be careful what one wishes for.

So right out of right out of the starting gate he mentions the setting of a studio filled with pleasant smells from the garden but then mentions Lord Henry was smoking innumerable cigarettes as he sat in the studio. Seems to me all you’d be smelling if you were in the room was the cigarette smoke.

I’m 6 chapters in and it doesn’t really feel like anything substantive has been said yet.

I’m a little past his visit with Sonya. What wonderful, insightful writing of their interactions and descriptions of their inner thoughts during the meeting.

Between the cold weather and the growing tension in the story I am progressing at an uncharacteristically fast pace for me. Dostoevsky is the storyteller of storytellers.

Classic Dostoevsky writing so far. Getting into Raskolnikov wrestling with his mother’s letter has a bit of a manic feel like some characters in his other books.

Read the 16 page introduction which was interesting and I’m sure will prove helpful contextualizing things as I read.

Since Christmas season officially lasts until Epiphany I thought I was still good to read this. I’ve only ever watched it before until now.

Lot’s of interesting history so far but still all of it is set up for the Irish saving civilization. He made some allusions to ‘The Tain’ which has rekindled my desire to read that work of Irish folklore.

The book starts around the time of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. The authors style is engaging and very readable. Not deep enough in to say much else.

This book is feeling like a 19th century soap opera. However, There are many good thoughts to chew on along the way. I have a harder time with the manic characters of which Dmitri is and I’m right in the middle of a narrative of which he is the main character.

I got a bit stuck toward the end of book three. I have a hard time with Dostoevsky’s manic characters like Fyodor Pavlovich and he was very prominent in that section. I found the same thing in the main character in Notes from Underground toward the end. Both characters are somewhat disturbing to me as I try to process their thoughts and actions.

Not sure Goodread’s update but switching to Everyman’s Library version.

After consulting with my Dostoevsky expert I decided to switch to different translation since I’m not that far in.

I am enjoying his writing and it flows very well so far. The thing I haven’t worked out and I’ve been retracing to see if I missed something is Who is the narrator? Is this first person narrative or third person? It seems like first person but I haven’t seen anything yet as to how he fits in the story?

These have a bit different feel than some of the classics but interesting and the accompanying pictures are very nicely done.

“One cannot be a good conversationalist if one lacks a sense of humor.”