Lisa > Recent Status Updates

So, I've been giving it another try. Once Kvothe gets into actually telling his story, it is perfectly enjoyable as a bed time story. Little vignettes, separate but accumulating, like in life. And our hero is interesting, because while he is amazing in his skills and abilities, he is so very human in his immaturity. Nice touch.

She is putting me to sleep. When she is not annoying me with racism and sexism. Not bad enough to put down, not good enough to keep me awake.

I'm torn. At once too PC and too violent for my tastes. But perfectly readable.

DNF. I was primarily interested in the section on the science.

These are mostly exceedingly odd stories. Which, as a collection of the most important, makes sense. This is distinctly not the same as the most fun. Probably also not best read in snippets before sleep, but rather at a time, in whole.

TIL that a Hebrew religious text that did not make it into the Jewish canon for most Jewish groups, nor into the Christian Bible, has the stories most hell-fire and damnation preachers as well as a great many horror movies seem to be drawing on. I Enoch.

The plot is fine. His characters are thin but mysterious. The writing is appalling.

Weird is a good description. Unsettling. Arranged chronologically, the early stories are not exactly captivating for this modern reader. But yeah, atmosphere.

A long introduction explaining that short stories should be short, complete, immediate and something I forgot.

Fascinating that the first two stories are ghost stories. Daniel Defoe's The Apparition of Mrs. Vale, and The Ettrick Shepherd's The Mysterious Bride.

The subjects and objects are drawn from Asian culture, but I am not getting that "we need to attend to subtle cues to understand what others are really saying" vibe I associate with real Asian cultural products.
And the story is far too much action tv, too little relationships and plans.
The writing is straightforward and clearly done. Location is adequate. Personalities shallow.

Stuck. Book without end. Boring! Which is odd, because I really liked a different book of his;

Stuck. He's gross. Sexist. And I am so tired of the first person narrative.

Stuck. Looks like nothing but misery from here on out, so why should I read it? I'm not a masochist.

The Other Side - too weird :)
The Screaming Skull - old fashioned horror
The Willows - weird, unusual, not satisfying

I like this. It is fun to read the sentences, because they are well made and surprising. It is delightful to read the sections, because they give you things to think about. Ideas and new perspectives on the characters themselves.

And nowhere is she mean in any sense of the word.

This book covers the same as Decker's "Hexen" but in far more scholarly depth.

I've learned an enormous amount in just these few pages. Basically, the idea of a cult or sect worshipping the Devil in opposition to God got developed during the heretic persecution. By the time they ran out of Waldenser and Kathars, the commoners and nobles believed there must be somebody in cahoots with the Devil. And voila! Witches! A conspiracy theory is born.

Woah. Ok, never started a book before with graphic gay sex for money before. Does ground one in a particular milieu, though, and was really nicely written. Good as a movie.