Brian > Recent Status Updates

(It seems to me that every thing in the light and air ought to be happy,
Whoever is not in his coffin and the dark grave let him know he has enough.)

Took a long break from this but have been getting back into it lately.
"I perceive I have not really understood any thing, not a single object, and that no man ever can"

Just 50 pages in and it's already had me tearing up.
"...she practices her letters on the thousand blank pages of her mind. Each sign signifies a sound, and to link sounds is to form words, and to link words is to construct worlds."

Finished with the main story. Now to see if I want to bother with the additional 50+ pages of back matter...

Getting nearer the end. This is turning more into an audio book that I listen to on my way to and from work. It's a nice way to fit it in and still make my way through it while I have other reading priorities.

Progress is slow. The language is a bit laborious at times, but I feel rewarded for my effort with wonderful descriptions and sentences like this one:
"And, considering that the hour-glass they turned from year to year was filled with the earthiest and coarsest sand, the Bleeding Heart Yarders had reason enough for objecting to be despoiled of the one little golden grain of poetry that sparkled in it."

Only in the mid-nineteenth century, after the growth of industrial cities and a rash of urban riots--after dread of the so-called dangerous classes surpassed dread of the state-- did police departments emerge in the United States. p.25

Done with first edition and well into "death-bed" edition. It's quite a read!

Taking me longer than I'd expected!

I made a goal to play and sing through the whole hymn book in order this year. I decided I would count it as one of my books for the year to help me stay on track. No page #s, so I'll just use hymn #s for updates. A couple less known ones I've enjoyed so far: 18 & 24 (which I realized was obviously written to go to the tune of God Save the King).

"Foolish is the mind of man to make bogeys for itself and to live in terrors of fear for things which lack the substance of truth"

Interesting enough read so far. Pretty slow going.

I feel like I slowed down quite a bit after finishing book1, but I've just finished book 2 and imagine that the narrative pace is going to swing back up for the final section.

this book really dumps you right in to the deep end! Lots of the politics feel over my head, but maybe that's intentional to put me in Paul's place. He probably feels the same way. It has definitely drawn me in, and the action is starting to pick up more and more. Happy to be making good headway, as I was quite daunted by the size of this book. It's bigger than anything I've read in a while!

"Water is necessary to us, but a waterfall is not. Where it is to be found it is something extra, a beautiful ornament. We need daylight and to that extent it is utilitarian, but moonlight we do not need.... it is something added to the down, to give it, for only a little time, a singular and marvelous quality that we should admire while we can, for soon it will be gone again."

Been meaning to pick up my sherlock holmes collection ever since reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time last month, since it was referenced often. Started this tonight and read "The Silver Blaze" in which I was surprised to read this exchange:
(Inspector) "Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"
(Holmes) "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."
Uncanny.

Softened by Time's consummate plush,
How sleek the woe appears
That threatened childhood's citadel
And undermined the years!

Bisected now by bleaker griefs,
We envy the despair
That devastated childhood's realm,
So easy to repair.

Finding this story to be very engaging and hard to put down!