nacholas > Recent Status Updates

my ass is so unprepared for the amount of referring to the dictionary and then the Notes embedded within. this is gonna take awhile to finish, but, i remain steadfast this is actually gonna be fun. granted, i lock in all the times of reading, as i have a habit to doze off and snooze for 10 minutes, then continue the other half.

introduction was going in circles about Ivanhoe being a romance and also a history; but also was insightful in preparing me for this read + loved the history of Scott as a person and his involvement in terms of publishing and printing. i would've soldiered on but 40 pages after, my mind is exhausted. nonetheless, i am excited!

amidst how horrible this was in terms of the vividness of the chaos and just people dying, the writing can get a little repetitive at times. but still, it's interesting to see parallels of this and covid and how much we have not changed, however advanced our medical stuff got.

again, technically 30 but the introduction doesn't "count". i do love that it prepares the readers to constantly flip back and fourth to the appendixes (it has like 4) to be locked into the story while acknowledging its non linear structure. this is gonna be funnnn

some are hits, some are misses; still, intriguing to read how he tries to come up with pretty ngarly stuff, Hell Screen is by far like the best of the ones i've read. we push on as id normally be finished by now but real life has been a pain and i've also been sick, but finally, im back

with intro, ard 30 i think, but murakami's intro felt so stretched out and while good, feels like empty calorie. the first story was interesting, Rashōmon. calling it a day however, mentally exhausted but quite hyped for the following stories!

tapping out; sorry virginia :/

hmm... while i'm not the 'biggest' fan of the flow, i still can't get over how vivid woolf's descriptions are, how the dialogue flows or this being the literal "flow of consciousness" if it was a book. i'll chug on because while it just seems like a simple story, woolf has shit she wanna spill and i'm just here for the tea

introduction was 30 pages, very insightful and makes me excited to read the texts itself!

the further it goes, the more untrustworthy almost everyone seemed; ultimate gaslighter, one of them were! i love how subtle the texts are too, seemingly like a precursor to 1984 but just with way more width and of a totally different, albeit more realistic manner when it deals with a group. i'm so excited to read on

just realised i haven't done an update since last week; again, really good progress, great chunky dialogues that humanises every pov. just past the chapter that may set off a chain reaction... but i am so glad to be enjoying it so far. i just love how smooth the pace is as well

sorry sir, imma dnf you because good lord was this kinda meandering, kinda incomprehensible because of the methods of description, kinda also confusing bc why is the person introduced, only to not be used further in the story? sorry king but the editor is right, you're good in parts but it's a slog to read

reading the interaction so far, kinda inviting into the 19th century world even tho it's a little hard to grasp. hope this will make the trip fun during the downtime as the book is relatively short (220 pages). quite hype to read something like this

shit sucks because i have to leave this at home from tomorrow till wednesday 😭 i am having such a wonderful time reading it so far and while it still is laying a lot of ground for characters to have an eventual twist, im so here for it. the characters are so alive in this.

technically 37, when including the intro, but i digress. it's really immersive so far, with how it feels like a brush stroke, but be warned that the notes, while of vital importance, are at lengths. do prepare your mental fortitude. as always, will only update once a week as im doing them mostly on the reading journal these days :)

extremely in-depth, well-written introduction. i'll be back when i finish it or have some other stuff of note... kinda just sad on the vincent van gogh thing :/

sad to say, i have to dnf this. gave this a 2 week, daily chapter run and it was so dull and wordy. maybe in the future? sorry melville.

midway through; interesting to read of how his mind works, what's he's been put through, the back and forth of the family dynamics, the dangers of being so isolated and filled with all kinds of thought that it kinda distracts you.

i'll report back in a week :p

i still do not understand why, other than the one chapter about the type of whales exists, do people consider this a good read. like it's a slog to read, even on a chapter a day basis. whatever, we keep on pushing.

reading it a chapter a day really helps to slow the shit down, making it better than feeling sluggish. i'll probably update when i get to the halfway point

for the one person who cares, i've decided to just write the reviews when i'm done with book as i've also decided to start a reading journal.

but for the record, this book... such a new low for penguin, particularly for Julia being so lazy and gen z-ifying the work. imagine a penguin with zero notes? zero appendixes? esp for a well-known chinese lit. you can tell what i'll be giving this.

interesting start; but i hope this cannibal is just some cannibal and not a derogatory way of calling some native american

technically 0, but technically, 50 pages of introduction; really really insightful esp about Melville's thought-process during his writing. i am already really excited!

Politics & the English Language - bro literally calls out the letterboxd people for using big words in their review (i loved it, while also felt attacked)

Some Thoughts on the Common Toad - the range Orwell has amazes me; he is known for his political commentary but here? he admires spring and talks about his love of nature.

Shooting an Elephant / A Hanging - morbid stuff about his time serving in Burma.

✅ The Lion and the Unicorn - in short, fascism bad. but in broader context, this should be read as um, a certain country's leader is actively carrying out acts of a fascist country.
✅ The Ruin of Germany - about the fallout after the Nazi's fall; how they have to start from scratch.

✅ my country right or left
✅ the lion and the unicorn (1/2)

goddamn i just easily fall in love with how orwell writes; not unnecessarily inaccessible with big words but rather of simplistic words that are amplified with the occasional terms. although he commentates of UK, being in 2026, when he wrote what he did in 1940/41, he would be rolling in his grave if he saw the modern world.

for an early 14th century work, thanks to translator, it's relatively easy to understand as the prose, if you're at all familiar with the christian faith; it is however unique to read of julian and her hyper fixation on wanting to witness the crucifixion; but colour me intrigued as it also has great ways of personalising such things.

technically page 30, but intro/translator's note don't count so :/ but man, such a thoroughly insightful way to usher us into the text. giving context of the 14the century landscape and how women were perceived back then.

again, i do feel bad for dropping gaskell suddenly but i had to. i will come back to it at a later time; but we continue.

i am so sorry gaskell; but ig i don't connect bc im reading this, right after crime and punishment 💀 maybe another time a couple months later :/ it isn't even bad one, on the contrary, its simple to read but im just not connecting with the characters :/