Kyle > Recent Status Updates

this shit is good, turns out! (always going into sci-fi/fantasy a little skeptical, so Leckie's confident voice and detailed yet somehow grounded world is very much a relief)

this book is this shit, just so y'all know

cause apparently I've become a dad. need my regular injection of men being depressed and involving themselves with crime

Kind of struggling through the beginning of this, figuring out if I'm actually interested or if I merely feel obligated to read a well-respected author. I'll get back to you.

This is a friendly reminder that long books are pretty great, and even I don't give some authors due credit for creating these massively elaborate works that somehow manage to remind me that life is pretty crazy and cool sometimes

I kinda assumed this would be mediocre because it's popular on such a massive scale, but I'm enjoying this in the way I've only enjoyed long 19th century novels, which is to say immensely

Longer than I think it should be, but I'm enjoying the hell out of it. So nice to have something that you can read for as long as you physically can. Maybe this will be my big entrance into mystery and thriller.

Already a strangely fun jaunt through Leningrad. I agree with reviews that the book makes a fantastic balance between the holistic horrors of life and the everyday humor.

An extremely tumultuous read for me -- I keep hitting points in which I feel like I have an insatiable bone to pick with DFW, and yet I always continue and always find more to enjoy about the book as a whole.

Classic Le Guin stuff -- but that's a bit misleading, because what I mean to say is that it's completely novel, provocative, and self-questioning.

Oof. oof oof oof

Oh maaaaan I knew this would be good but of course Nabokov again took me off guard. It's so damn good.

Ohmagawd it

Actually getting really into this. O self-Will! Create for oneself!

I've been going off and on reading this, but recently I've been reading it more often, which indeed makes it easier to get into. I've really loved some passages in terms of its philosophy, and sometimes I get very into it just as a philosophical text, and other times I'm struck with how it is actually a narrative, telling a story of a man. It feels like a tougher, denser version of Hesse's Siddhartha.

Awesome awesome awesome. She addresses Thoreau, Melville, Whitman, Hawthorne, Stevens, Dickinson -- it's like these essays were tailored for me. I can't wait to finish just so I can look up some of her other work.

The adventure continues. Strether is a little less cute, less overwhelmed by everything in Europe, and beginning to actually get a sense of himself making waves in the plot. The Maria moments continue in their cuteness, as Strether has no ability to see his position in her eyes and heart. As always, the real joy of reading it is just stringing together the vague sentiments that the narrator is trying to express.

Thought that I was just re-reading the first paragraph. Nope. This shit is just too good. If I end up rereading The Ambassadors for two months out of every year for the rest of my life it will have been worth it.

I'm enjoying it enough to finish it, though sometimes I get caught in a hole while reading -- sometimes its just trying a little too hard in the wrong direction. Gosh that's vague. More explanation to come.

Pretty good! Love some of the imagery and sense of imagination, and of course Lyra's character and her daemon-interactions, however I of course feel the YAness of it and find myself a little preoccupied with it.

Currently reading, for a second time. It has been a slow and beautiful experience, and has absolutely convinced me of the value of rereading and of trying more earnestly to delve into those books that we call our favorties.

On Volume II, woot! I absolutely love it, and for the first time in a while am not bothered by the length. It's as if it's 3 or 4 19th-century novels wrapped into one, all intersecting and sharing common things. The narrator has the same comedic edge as works by Austen but it has an entirely different philosophical edge as well that brings something really great to the table.