Alexandra > Recent Status Updates

I always looooove Harold Bloom's introductions!!! It sounds so cheesy but I seriously do aspire to one day be as well-read as him and just as in possession of deep knowledge of the literary canon.

Anyway, first chapter down! I loved the humor. I think I'm gonna keep it this way going forward: read one chapter in English before re-reading it in Spanish so I have context in mind and don't trip up too much over words.

So much is happening… getting set into motion…. My brain’s hurting

WHAT?!?!?!! That last sentence of the chapter.... WHAT?!?!!

I can only WISH that the legendary myth of Jaufre Rudel’s vida was true!!!

“Jaufre Rudel… fell in love with the Countess of Tripoli without ever having seen her, simply because of the good things he had heard the pilgrims retiring from Antioch tell of her, and for her he wrote many fine poems, rich in melody and poor in words” (60).

Legendary fictional devotions haven’t reached the same heights since tbh

I've been avoiding this for so long, I just gotta take the plunge and challenge my spanish skills. I figure why not tackle both the classic book in its native language AND also the translation just for extra support in case some words or context fly over my head... I'm excited!!!

Hey, if it's gonna be a bad read, at least there's parts to laugh at!

Okay wow— gotta make this note to myself to remember the first time I felt compelled by Them™️

“He wasn’t even looking at his wife anymore. His gaze passed over Aurelia’s head, staring at a mirror that reflected himself and Helena” (158).

Looooooove that there’s nothing more, nothing less. LET WHAT IS UNSAID FILL OUT THE REST!

The atmosphere is crazyyyyyyyyyyyyy chilling wow

Eh… I don’t know if it’s just because the previous book was the definitive ending for this main character and this feels unnecessary or if it’s because I’m just disconnected from the dark romance genre right now, but I’m struggling to get through this one. Sigh.

The ending............ THE ENDING!!!!!............. I have no words

"'Life in this world,' he said, 'is, as it were, a sojourn in a cave. What can we know of reality? For all we can see of the true nature of existence is, shall we say, no more than bewildering & amusing shadows cast upon the inner wall of the cave by the light of truth... and we as troglodyte seekers of wisdom can only lift our voices to the unseen and say, humbly, ‘Go on, do the Deformed Rabbit… it’s my favorite.’’”

Sooooo rich in history already so far, I'm loving this! To think there's so little saved and far more lost to time we'll never get to know from the named troubadors/trobairitz deeply saddens me 🥺

"515 Madison Avenue
door to heaven? portal
stopped realities and eternal licentiousness
or at least the jungle of impossible eagerness
your marble is bronze and your lianas elevator cables
swinging from the myth of ascending" (Rhapsody, p.37)

I need to go to New York and experience the city through O'Hara's eyes soon :(

(Side note—a bit random but these poems make me think of Caroline Polachek's lyrics!! LOVE this)

I LOVE OM AND BRUTHA!!!

Okay but seriously this is such a perfect read to start 2026 with—it's absolutely hilarious and charming. I can't put it down!

I'm LOVING this story so much so that I looked up fan art (since Discworld is so popular) and discovered there was a Folio Society edition that came out in 2016 that is all sold out.... and now used copies are selling for the thousands! 😩 I will simply have to keep using my imagination <3

I'm just not feeling this tbh.

"Where did this start? What is the beginning of something that is not a story? There is only the palce I always return to in my mind" (50).


Yup. Teared up at the end or the beginning or the middle or nowhere. It's a mystery and yet not. Grief is all over the place.

I have not been able to put this book down at all. Finally reached a point where it managed to make me tear up. Happy holidays. Thank all the stars for literature and poetry <3

"I have a crow inside me and no one can know. I can feel it all the time. It is like the entire night sky and all the stars and every beautiful sound you can imagine. It is like being too excited to sleep. It is like being twelve years old and stripping off my clothes outside in the rain. Savage. Girl. Suddenly awake to the deviance available in every ordinary moment" (14). Once more I find myself wading thru a dream

This……… is terrible….. I don’t know why I keep holding out hope for so many of these types of books :/

"Self-Portrait at 28" just shifted something fundamental within me, my god

I had to get over my hesitation in scribbling on my hardcover copy just bc I feel like I don't want to encroach on anything David Berman ever had to say... But my goodness does he make it difficicult not to sing praises in chickenscratch ink on the margins and among lines I have to underline twice and sketch a star next to. It also took me a bit to prepare myself for this read. His absence still weighs heavily for me

Devouring this but I’m feeling conflicted after this newest chapter.. everything was going fine!! But gahhh… this sudden change in pacing?? I’m not sure I’m feeling it and I’m terrified it’s sucked out all the momentum

It’s been a while since I’ve read Emery Rose, but I remember loving Wild Love and how lush and crazy it was. In the years since, I hadn’t kept up with her bc I couldn’t get into Until August, so when I saw this new book I thought “why not!” It’s like she took the time away to hone her skills. This story is beautifully atmospheric that not even the pop culture refs annoy me much—this world is BUZZING

Fini.

I loved this glimpse into the mind of a teenage girl born in 1953. "Instead of leaving for Chile with a bunch of gangsters, one stays in Paris and writes a novel. That seems to me the great adventure." (from The Paris Review Interview with Françoise Sagan in August 1956).

She is fascinatingggg to me!!!

"She gently stroked my hair and neck... My one wish was to give up all my plans and put myself entirely into her hands for the rest of my life" (79).

"She stroked my cheek... Sometimes when I am groping for a match, I find myself thinking of that strange moment when my hands no longer seemed to belong to me, and again I recall the intensity of Anne's look, and the emptiness around me—the vast emptiness" (86).

:(

This is insufferable.... I am suffering.

I want to read something light this holiday season so I was excited to finallyyyy pick this book up after so long. Five pages in and well... I just hope it gets better quickly lol

The last page.......... The lase SENTENCE.... I should've seen it coming!!! Gahhh that was clever lol

I need to know what crazy shrooms Roger Zelazny was on when he decided to write this book……… because I would like to try some to unleash my imagination this insane way. This is soooooo good!!!!! I’m literally rooting for Jack the dang Ripper and his cursed canine companion to make it out of Halloween unscathed 😭