Daniel Nguyen > Recent Status Updates

Ursula K Le Guin is so awesome bro

Tell me, Genry, what is known? What is sure, predictable, inevitable—the one certain thing you know concerning your future, and mine?”
“That we shall die.”
“Yes. There’s really only one question that can be answered, Genry, and we already know the answer.... The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.”

Back to the GOAT

It’s still good when I read it but lowkey I think I stopped caring about the story lol

I saw a comment saying all the men and women in this book fucking love each other and its been very amusing to read it under this lense

Lowkey pretty scary, fair play

Been a while since I read a book that doesn’t try to be philosophical but just has an interesting story and tells it well. Good stuff.

Strong start, slightly surprised by how early on we meet Dracula.

Didn’t know what the author’s name was before reading, but “Bram Stoker” was not what I had in mind lmao

Started the reread thinking that this book deserves a more detailed review than the one liner “Like White Nights, but good” I gave it (and I’ll write a longer review when I’m done), but god damn was that a perfect summary of how I feel

Rereading this because a wise man once said a person can’t become your best friend if you only meet them once

I finally realised what this book reminded me of - that scene in HIMYM when Barney meets his daughter for the first time

My fucking god, I don’t think I’ve felt this way about a book, ever.

In books (and well, in life) it’s not often announced that you’ll never meet a character again - you just read the story not knowing if it’s the last time you’ll see them. But here we are told that we will never hear from Nina again, and it’s a strange feeling to read the rest of the book with this certainty in mind.

Halfway done, how fun to get to go into the second half already knowing this is going to be my favourite book of all time

“Do you really think that silence would suit you?” Helena would ask.
“Like deafness suited Beethoven.”

I don’t understand how the tone of this book can be so witty and unafraid yet so quietly desperate all at once. Like a caged bird that sings in defiance, but you hear melancholy in every note.