Alex Marshall > Recent Status Updates

Constantly reading this. Very useful at the start of the day

Interesting, but I’m done with the Caribbean bit. Maybe I’ll get round to the rest

I’ll get into this next time I’m on a Latin America trip

The library took it back. Damn

This account of the making of The Portrait of a a Lady is easy to read and full of insights into James and his world. If this is Lit Crit, I’m for it!

No idea what I’m doing with this, but I’m curious

This is like a Lord of the Rings set in the old USSR. Unflagging pace so far—let’s see how he keeps it up across three volumes.

Maybe I'll get to this after Eamonn Duffy's book. It'll be a useful counterweight

The sexual practices of the Greek gods, catalogued here in some detail, confirm the suspicion that sex is another area that Twerp knows nothing about.

Very interesting, if only for his exhaustive catalogue of religious practices before the Reformation. If you're not into Christian symbolism it might be too pungent--the section in the wounds of Christ shdnt be read while eating--but there are great insights into the way folk lived in the 15C

I don't mind

Still haven't finished the third in the trilogy

The first part is sort of economics 101, which is useful since I never did Economics 101 but not gripping. Gets into his stride in part 3 -- but I fear it's gong to end in anticlimax...

Halfway through Chourmo. It's slow going, in French, but worth the effort for the flavour of the city.

I got bogged down--it's neither as fast nor as funny as his original steampunk epic, Infernal Devices. Or maybe he just ran out of steam.

I've got 53 books on my Amazon wish list, a dozen downloaded samples and a pile of actual books winking at me. Then there's Sam Harris on the kitchen table because it was in the library 25c basement. And I can't figure out how to add or delete anything to any of the lists on here. Scrabble!

I've spent the whole summer reading Stendhal, Le Rouge et le Noir. It's a long book, and I was trying to read it in French. What's your excuse?