Alexandra > Recent Status Updates

Finally reached the final act and I'm excited to meet THE Smaug! Gonna force myself to finish this book by tonight.

I’m genuinely amazed at what people are making popular nowadays… even for these type of books, this was embarrassingly awful, my goodness.. Yeah, I’m giving this one up.

Okay.... I did NOT expect this book to be anywhere near as good as this has been so far ??? Am I about to not be burned by a fantasy romance book this year FINALLY ????!!!?!

I meant to read this book like almost two months ago but I’m just cracking it open now and you know what… Talk about timing, because I desperately needed to read this specific book at this particular moment of my life my goodness…

I actually love it when Tolkien gets reverent of nature tbh — it feels like he holds it to the same magical regard as that of the high fantasy aspects he’s imagined

Finally picking up this gem again after months of stalling not just because of my reading rut but because the subject matter was getting heavier to read while I was stressing out with day to day matters too. Sigh. But there’s nothing like the healing powers of a good book so I’m here to finally see this journey through with Roth’s magical prose

Oh my god, this one is immediately insufferable I'm actually in shock lol

I had no clue the sequel was already out?!!??!?! But some of the reviews I scanned prior to reading have me concerned... because now that I'm deep in it, I'm looking at the page count and I'm getting antsy about the story's pacing and finale bc what do you mean I'm already more than halfway finished?? There's no way all of this is going to be wrapped up in a neat bow with the small number of pages left to read....

I really just chose this book to get back into the swing of reading after such a busy last two months for me with work and while it’s awful, it did its job as a springboard to get me back into the mood for reading!

So I’m giving this up now because … yeah… this isn’t proving to be some hidden dark romance treasure—just more rapid pace, nonsensical trope-driven plot and shoehorned edginess.

That makes it three strikes for me in a row finding duds 😪

If you love yourselves, don’t even think about opening this one up, not even out of morbid curiosity.

……Still on my quest to find even a simple gem in the rough, but this ain’t it. Giving it up.

I don't know anything about LOTR other than what was in the film trilogy from years ago and even then I didn't pay much attention—but heck yeah I remembered some character names and !!! It's just so cool to see the story the way it was originally told and seeing it all unfold. Loving the world so far!

The story is genuinely so heavy, it’s tough to read in large chunks but the writing is hypnotic and painfully realistic so it keeps me entranced to keep pushing forward even if means traversing over land mines. I’m finally at the final third of the book, aptly titled “Paradise Lost,” so let’s see how in tact I come out by the end lol

I genuinely had no idea this was Bilbo's story or that he even had a whole adventure that would set up the rest of the trilogy! Like duh of course that would explain the very start of the famous movie franchise, but it never clicked for me lol

...So,... Simple isn't actually all that simple.

Jot that down.

(Things just got very serious and quite heavy, but the history of these imagined characters is SO rich and colorful and the writing so tragic and beautiful I can't help but marvel in wonder how such a story—no matter how unfairly depressing in its premise and conclusion—came to be.)

Can't lie, a lot of the offered suggestions for changes is tough to implement! Thankfully, I don't have muuuch to change, but still. Like I never noticed how despite both uppercase O and Q letters start as ovals, I start them in different clock directions! Totally unnoticed by me for who knows how many years. Real interesting stuff I'm taking into account, hm.

Actually surreal to see what language is capable of... How can someone mortal write this? The figure and words feel eternal, the poetic vision just as brilliant today as what I imagine it was like when first written... I just finished "Songs of Myself" and what do you mean there's more? Most people—no, EVERY WRITER IN THE WORLD—would kill to have come up with something so transcendental... I am astounded, honestly.

...

This is what language was invented for—the creation of something SO spectacular you can only marvel bewilderedly at how someone human nad not divine could have ever constructed these sentences and thought of these words and connected all thought, emotion, philosophy, mysticism, and politics with such reverance... I am so utterly enraptured by this book already, I fear reaching the end. I do not want this to end.

I think I'm officially wrung dry of modern romantic fantasies and their anachronistic tendencies... I honestly want to give this book up not because it's atrocious or offensive, but I'd rather be spending whatever free time I am able to find throughout my days reading something more substantial and fresh than regurgitated tropes :/

Pretty cool so far! My one nitpick (seems the case for many romantasies at this point) has to be how the curse words take me out of the world. It’s not even that I’m against explicit language in stories. No lol. But it’s so odd to see modern words used in clearly historical-inspired fantasy worlds. Especially when they’re actually pretty realized! Eh, things could be worse I suppose.

I'm not ready to leave this bygone world or the characters behind, gooood lord......

"Simple is never that simple" (68).

I don't really know what to say every time I pick up this book and read further along.... Every sentence is a journey in the best way possible and the lasting influence the Swede has imparted on Nathan since childhood is craaazyyyyy enigmatic and amazing

Interesting, interesting tidbits hmm

"The moon is backing away from us / an inch and a half each year . That means / if you're like me and were born / around fifty years ago the moon / was a full six feet closer to the earth. / What's a person to do?"

The titular poem is stunning and, so far, showing why it was chosen as the title for all the poems collected within, tying all the lunar strengths and brutal pulls of human emotion together...

The tenderness that is threatening to strangle my heart as I read about this twisted, adorable, confusing, co-dependent, charming, nerve-wracking, BEAUTIFUL, totally tragically-fated friendship (which is too weak of a noun to use for this relationship dynamic actually) is unreal.

Okay I need a ~moment~

God… how does one even go about “reviewing” a philosophy book

If I could withstand the pain that getting the entirety of "The Ravens of Denali" tattooed on my body would bring me, I would totally go for it because I need to carry these words with me forever, wherever. Love love LOVE when poetry makes you feel like you just got an updated vision prescription that allows you to see more of this Earth you never saw fully before!! That feeling of "clarity" feeds my soul, truly.

....I am beyond myself....

Originally, I didn't want to mark up the book because it's so old, but gahhhhh I have to! I can't resist or wait for a newer copy to arrive I feel that I can desecrate with pen! I have to give this book a proper welcome after all these decades its pages went dismissed of ownership and wonderment!!! Because oh my goodness this story has ensnared my heart wholly, I'm thrilled AND upset!