David > Recent Status Updates

Oh I love this stuff... Getting such great ideas for stories

What can I say? The story continues with writing just as beautiful as we found in Wolf Hall. There is not so much drama here as one would expect after 153 pages... or rather, there is drama, but it is always filtered through the calculating mind of Cromwell, who does not allow himself to perceive it as drama. If you're looking for a thrill, look elsewhere. If you're looking for bloody good writing, here is your book.

Very clear, uncomplicated life of Robespierre, along with a very palatable summary of the French Revolution. Those who either already know about the revolution or who know nothing about it would benefit from reading this book.

The author is the very epitome of an ingenue: she makes ridiculous situations and emotional reactions appear plausible, mixing high-romantic feelings with youthful insouciance and bad-assery. This could not be the work of a practiced veteran, which is why it is both laughable and highly entertaining, like the best of fan fictions.

Impeccable writing

I can't get over how amazing a writer Hilary Mantel is. I don't think I have been ever so impressed by a living author before. I just love every page of this.

Looks like 3rd grade reading level. I'm trying to find more of these to add to the transition reading basket at my library, so this is a good find!

Though there isn't much interesting about the style of this book, the chapters are very well done in that they each present a clear situation, very vividly described, and also has brightly colored and memorable characters. I suppose that in middle grade novels style is rarely a significant consideration, which means that this book has done a very good job of engrossing me in its story.

A very strange book... but wonderfully, fascinatingly strange. Strange in that way walking into a foreign landscape is strange. Strange in that way that a new lover holds your hand. I am so unfamiliar with the culture of this time period that reading a novel has also become reading a history.

Make work your love, do not settle for less.

My first look into the world of ancient Japan. Fascinated, curious to read more.

Some academics should really try writing novels before they start writing about them.

Tell me - who else rhymes like Spenser?

I always love a mysterious, slightly mad fortune teller!

"Stories aren't souvenir tee-shirts or GameBoys. Stories are relics, part of an undiscovered pre-existing world. The writer's job is to use the tools in his or her toolbox to get as much of each one out of the ground intact as possible. Sometimes the fossil you uncover is small; a seashell. Sometimes it's enormous, a T-Rex with all those gigantic ribs and grinning teeth."

Alastor, the ultimate quest poem. One must dwell in the darkness, if one is to understand the depths of things.

So sad =(

Write with the door closed... or at least with headphones on. That way, someone *knows* they are interrupting you.

Even in Henry James' criticism, he writes with what feels like the unwieldy trunk of an old elephant. That said, Grahm Greene's thoughts on Oliver Twist are the most compelling thus far, including his observation that "If the creative writer perceives his world once and for all in childhood, then his whole career is an effort to illustrate his private world in terms of the great public world we all share."

Chilling! There has not been suspense of this kind since the days of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

This is essential reading for anyone who wants to know what it would have been like to travel France and Switzerland just after the Napoleanic Wars ended. And what could be more amusing than reading a description of Shelley knocking down another boat passenger who was being rude?

Beautiful writing...

Despite my earlier protestations, King obviously knows what he is doing, and is good at it. Discipline is the single most important attribute of a writer.

Note: the text of the novel ends on page 360 - the rest is supplemental material. I suppose I could mark this as completed, but I will probably read some of the critical essays before I return it to the library.

I only got this because I had a gift card (which, incidentally, I wont at a literary quiz contest sponsored by Goodreads!) to Book Passage, where they, unfortunately, only had new books. Perhaps I should have gotten 1Q84, but at $30 I thought it would be better to get two $15 books (this and Arguably by Hitchens). King is altogether too simple a thinker for me to fully enjoy this book, although it is inspiring.

Poor Nancy - I am amazed at writers that are able to write a character that reflects the truth of the human heart, even when that truth is distressing, horrifying to think on. She speaks truly about her love for Bill Sikes: "Pity us, lady - pity us for having only one feeling of the woman left, and for having that turned.. from a comfort and a pride, into a new means of violence and suffering."