Libby > Recent Status Updates

reading this section is honestly really unpleasant. incredibly interesting and confusing but ... also so explicitly horrible.

d’une cote, je la lis lentement parce que mon niveau de français est pas exactement « couramment » mais d’un l’autre … cette livre est hyper!!!! captivant et je peux pas arrêter. (quelle est la « raison » pour les meurtres???)

first part of this book was not at all what I was expecting (in a bad way). it felt like reading a satire of that kind of brooklyn novel. second part got a bit more ... interesting? experimental? right now I'm continuing with it because I feel like I should rather than because I want to but hopefully that will change? or are my expectations too high!

I'm only on the third chapter of this book & ... how is the world so evil.

read a fair bit this summer but so much has been BAD and BORING and made me feel so stuck inside my own head. binging YA to cleanse my palette and then i'm going to jump headfirst into a bit of hefty non-fiction & something by annie ernaux. WHERE HAVE ALL THE GOOD BOOKS GONE

one day i will learn that my lecturer recommending a book to me does not mean i have to read every page of suggested book. today is not that day.

pumped to be reading this & so relieved that it's a much easier (or, at least, more engaging/more readable) read than The Art of Describing

i have three 'academic' art books to read for my module already, but reading this is such a treat! the joy and interest in barnes' writing is lovely

"Hardness is not the absence of emotion, but a different emotional orientation towards others"

I'm the same age now as PLF was when he embarked on his walk across Europe. And obviously we're 19 in completely different times but it strikes me just how politically unaware he seems - very historically aware, and very smart, but just so ignorant of what was happening around him. I have some ~theories~ on why, but at this point I'm just very struck by how jarring this ignorance seems.

oof. I don't know how I managed to get through the last two years without actually gaining any real understanding of what this book is about beyond the hype and the tote bag. but i'm about 1/4 the way through and it's so emotional and more graphic (is this the right word?) than I was expecting.

but just as engrossing as I anticipated.

there are so many well-written sentences and interesting concepts being explored in this book but the plot feels so lacking? & usually i love meandering almost plot-less books and films, but with this it's making the book harder to get properly into? there's still over half the book to go, so maybe all of these things that currently seem disparate/unexplained will come together nicely as the novel continues.

partway thru the second essay I was struck by how much I felt like I'd read this before (I guess that's the problem with a very distinctive way of writing, calmness and specific verbs) - I remembered reading this --> http://www.lennyletter.com/relationsh... & it's interesting to see how that was shaped into a 23 page essay.

usually if i want to hear about rich people, cocaine, and poor life choices i get in touch with private school kids from my hometown but this book is proving a good alternative so far !!!

this book is an unprecedented level of bizarre and i love it

i was expecting something a little more like Olivia Laing or Rebecca Solnit or even Kate Zambreno but it just feels kind of whingey so far. but - What Did You Expect From A Memoir!

reading a book about talented young people that inevitably mess up their lives is, like, maybe not what i should be reading right now.

I'm enjoying this, but can't shake the feeling I'd be enjoying it far more if I'd read it at 15.

of course the book i pick up to take a break from french starts with a story in paris. of course. (it's a beautifully written story though)

some bits of this book are absolutely beautifully written and some bits are literally hilarious (He went up to his room. He wanted to die) and I'm not sure how I feel about it all as a story but I like it as writing about a specific time/place/zeitgeist

I love Granta, except that the introductions always leave with another list of books I need to read.

got one of my textbooks for the new school year, A World History Of Art, today. Nearly 1000 pages. Hoping I don't have to bring this one into classes.

the short stories were fab, yeah, but the real gem here is Plath's writings about Cambridge. it's really wonderful to read about the places I walk around now being the places she wrote about then.