Mads > Recent Status Updates

It's a bit slow sometimes, and I find myself a bit muddled by the goings-on in the West. I think it's just the sheer amount of names and titles to keep up with there, but I'm trusting I won't need to remember EVERYONE to follow along. I'm proven right, I think.

Having just finished Eight, I'm hoping this is where the action kind of starts to pick up.

So like. Y'know. Atonement (by Ian McEwan) is one of those books that's like raised my bar for reading.

Some irony in the closing scene of Part Three.

Things between Briony and Robbie become more complex by this point, in a way that fascinates me.

At the turn of events in this book, the writer in me is delighted; the human, though, is horrified.

Throwing this one on as an audiobook because it seems easy enough to follow while Minecrafting or drawing.

This books makes great use of dramatic irony alongside the limited perspectives. I am consistently reminded of Briony's revelation that writing isn't so much about what's good and what's evil, but more so about showing different perspectives. I think that bit worked as a subtle instruction to the reader, too.

I wanna put chapter Eight under a microscope and study how it so effectively delivers its tone.

There seems to be an ongoing theme surrounding manipulation, and how that impacts the people in the story. I wonder what this has to say about Christianity? Because that's not lost on me, the consistent references to the 'good, Christian lifestyle'. It's not direct, but it is ever present.

There were some delightful little nuggets about writing as an artform in the third chapter!

The second chapter deals with Cecilia, who is on the surface quite the opposite of Briony. But in the ways that matter, they are much the same. I'll be interested in seeing how this plays out.

Something the first chapter does very well is capture the mentality of a child. The sort of self-centered perspective, the way everything is so Big and Important. This is particularly interesting, because of the way Lola and Briony brush against each other.

I find myself relating very much to Briony's fixation with order and how that translates into what she gets out of writing.

One of the things I love so much about James McBride's writing is how he's able to bring environments to life, painting a whole history and character into the surroundings. One of my favorite examples is the opening bit of Chapter 10, which almost feels like the location was introduced the way you might a character.

This book is helping me understand on a deeper level how Black history was (and still is) warped and erased. I think if you're white and willing to sit with the discomfort, it's worth a read for that understanding alone.

There were two things by James McBride available on Libby the other night, and this was one of them. "Hypnotizing" is definitely an apt description!

This book is actually kind of difficult for me to read. It's not bad, very well written in fact. But it touches on maternal abuse in a way that feels very raw, real, and harrowing. I'm definitely having to take my time with it.

I'm not one to dock for formatting too much but. I read through the epistolary section, and I wish it were formatted better. At least on the e-pub version I'm reading on Libby, having no significant breaks between the letters made it difficult to keep track of where one ended and one began.

That said, things are getting more complicated now and I am intrigued.

I like it fine enough so far. It's well written and has some profound moments, but overall it's not grabbing me like some other books in the same or similar genres have been.

There is this ever present feeling, at least to me, that there is something psychologically off with Magos, and it's not just because of what she did in the opening.

I'm not quite sure where it's going, but I love the prose so far. Poetic and provocative.

I love the way he describes the weirdness, point blank. It's a weird story, a weird book, and it's lovely.

God, I love the Luggage so much.

Did I spend a full hour reading like three pages? Maybe. But there was so much philosophy jam packed into those three or four pages or so that I had to take copious notes.

There is magical about the way Terry Pratchett can utilize what I can only call the literary equivalent of negative space (as in: visual art) to his advantage.

I'm going to keep going on and on about Terry Pratchett's metaphors, but they're so damn GOOD. My favorite might be the way he described an oppressive silence sweeping over a crowd (page 95 in the edition I'm reading). My favorite micro-metaphor came shortly after: "the ongoing life expectancy of a glass cymbal."

His writing is so evocative, I see why it's so cherished.

There is something lifelike and captivating about the way the world and characters are brought to life!

This is my first time reading a Discworld novel, so I'm very curious to see why they're so loved. I've no doubt it'll be good, mind - but I am curious.

Right off the bat, the writing style is charming and fun to read, even if I don't always know what's going on, and the way transitions are used create a lovely cinematic effect.

I wonder what I should read next...

Well that particular scene was a pleasant surprise. This one's so risque compared to the other books of his I've read and I fuck with it. It's weird and bold and calls to mind the Everyone's Beautiful But No One's Horny article (in a good way).