Kārlis > Recent Status Updates

I'm sorry Tyler, I tried, but I just can't continue this. I expected something along the lines of Snow Crash but with less tech geekiness, but what I got was more like We Were Liars but with classics students. It's boring, it's disjoint, it's drawn out, and it's just not worth it. Dropping this.

Just finished a chapter with a weird misogynistic narrative about women and their history/role in diplomacy. What was maybe 3 stars has become, at best, 2.

"But perhaps no parent can truly see their child. When we look we see only the mirror of our faults."

*swoon*

"It is youth's gift not to feel its debts."

Struck me dumb, Madeline Miller is an artiste.

This is an absolutely inspiring tale about a goddess who hates the arrogance of gods and sees the beauty of the human condition. So excited to read on!

"[...] monoglot pundits wish to brag that they can understand one element on a page of Japanese text." - High and Mighty Jonathan

The exposition never stops.

Incredibly funny, if a bit repetitive at the start, though it's getting more interesting with new characters appearing and seeing Quixote's insanity

Just done with The Assemblywomen. As warned in the intro, the second half is not nearly as strong and completely all over the place, but I still got some chuckles out of it. Also, a modern translation should change "In on the plot" - instead of "In on the pot", since it's about having multiple mistresses, it should be "In on the thot", a much more apt translation. Love all the slander jokes that need long footnotes.

Just finished The Birds. Really absurd humour, I love it. The humongous amount of well-researched puns as well, you'd think Aristie was an ornithologist.

[Book 5, para. 35] Really interesting continuation of the history with a lot of descriptions about tribes, some of which are extremely funny and absurd.

Just finished The Acharnians after the intro. This is absolutely hilarious, there's so many good pun scenes: different ages of wine as metaphors for different durations of a possible peace treaty, an uncomfortable but language-wise genius scene about "porkers", and it all feels very on the nose of Aristie just trying to say "War is bad". Intro is incredibly useful for historical context and a summary of Aristophanes.

Watchmaker is my favourite chapter so far - it's absolutely beautiful and has a chilling idea behind its narrative that really makes your head spin.

"I guess most women are like that. They crave attention all the time. They're very babyish that way."
There is never any sort of payoff for these "character traits", so it feels like the author just inserts his weird views into the book, which makes me uncomfortable.

"Interesting book, he thought. Odd nobody thought of writing it before."
Dick patting himself on the back.

With this Baynes' whole thought process, I was hoping for something more than just a thinly veiled (with great and powerful similes) 'us' vs 'them' mentality.

Full of great and gripping stories of kings and tyrants, fascinating insights into how the Greeks viewed the world, and wonderful explanatory notes that help a lot, which is all hard to find in the abundance of geographic descriptions, which, although I understand was necessary at the time, bores me to death.

Extremely frustrating protagonist to read.

The audiobook read by Jay O. Sanders is exceptionally good! He sounds very passionate when appropriate, does very different voices for different characters, and the way he says "hm hm" for the space in Major ––– de Coverley's name is utterly hilarious!

This is almost literally 'Malec: The Trilogy'. I'm not complaining though <3

I'm really glad that the main character of a popular book series represents us, coffee abstainers. Thank you, Cassandra Clare.

Warning: Includes paid promotion of Uber :D

Definitely not what I was expecting. A private island for rich kids, all with problems of their own? Seems like a murder mystery at first. But nope. That is NOT it.

Gulliver: We humans commit "murder, theft, poysoning, robbery, perjury, forgery, [...] rapes"
Every foreign leader: You seem like a "most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth"
Gulliver: *surprised pikachu face*

I hadn't thought of this before but installing Virtual Reality devices in schools (i.e., bringing schools to VR) would make for a hell of a more engaging and worthwhile experience than it is now. For example, teachers could bring the class on school trips to Egypt in 1334 BC and AD 1922, the human organism, Louvre, the solar system, etc. All of this could be done with VR.

Mary Shelley is the queen of gothic drama (both in real life and in Frankenstein). Meelis Friedenthal tried to replicate that but his Willow King was always the same, the constant ramblings of an ever melancholic man becoming too boring too quick. But this - this happiness and then horror, tranquility and then tragedy - takes you on a roller coaster of emotions with so many loop-the-loops.

I hate how almost every switch from one perspective/side story to another must be a cliffhanger. "Something dug into ***'s throat - something long and sharp." I mean, seriously? This is becoming very frustrating.

Something finally is happening. It was almost all drama before this (although, I do concede that the drama has been very compelling).

I don't like how sad this book makes me.

Why do I always learn information in pairs? Whenever I learn something new, during the following week I'll see it again. For example, last week I watched an episode of Legion where the Hindu milk miracle was mentioned. And then, a quote from the book - "why [...] that one of Ganesh drinks milk". HWHY?