nacholas’s Reviews > The Pillow Book > Status Update

thank god i brought this during the tea ceremony part of the wedding... cba to read another 10 pages bc it's 12am rn and im exhausted. may finish it tomorrow? god willing... but yeah, i'm gonna miss this a a lot

50 more pages and i'm gonna be done... i feel sadness bc of its immersion into the world, despite it being so old a work.

this part, while i still love sei's writing... some of her points are so off-base it's kinda entitled at parts; but hey, who'd say any different when you're a gentlewoman for an empress in 10th century japan? sometimes, all we need is sass and sei encompasses that

is this gonna be an absolute 5 stars? :)))

sei is so sassy sometimes, i see that aspect of talking back to their 'elders' and is shocked but also makes me feel seen; on a real note, she also has inspired me to write in prose of different senses (hearing or seeing) whenever i journal for the day; it's also insane that although it's just 120 pages, because of looking up stuff mentioned or the notes providing context, it feels so, lived-in?

the more i flip, the more i just find that besides her bickering at poor people, i think on surface level, we could've been friends; her turmoil regarding stuff, feels so tangible and relatable, although it's been a 1000 years gap

as advised by redditors and other websites that has opinions of this book, 15 pages of this, that took me 2 hours (searching up the various bugs, pools was so fun) and being exhausted; best to call it a day than mindlessly reading. i'm really loving how it's a portal into 10th century japanese bubble

the fact that the door being dragged noisily on the floor infuriates her in 10th century, is essentially the modern day 'door being slammed or closed too-loud' makes me love aspects of sei; queen stuff