The Goldfinch

I guess the main themes are fate/randomness and the things people do for love. It wasn't a fun read for me. Heartbreaking, actually. I thought it was too long and there's maybe only 5-6 passages (near the the end) that are worth re reading/ underlining.

From almost start the finish the book was a descent into the abyss. I could relate to quite a few things in his adolescence which kept me reading until the end, otherwise I wouldn't have finished it.

The Goldfinch is one of the few books I gave up on because of the narration. I was enjoying the story but not enough to read it with my eyes. The Orphan Master's Son was excellent if you ignore the two paragraphs on Christianity (one of them so laughably bad it made me say, "what the ****?" out loud.)

The 1st story really mind fd me

I loved the book but this is a fair assessment. There are only 2 action scenes, one of which is making soap. A reductive approach (she has OCD and collects trash) renders all the magic out of the book. Auri loves things and cares for them and attends to their needs. Rilke says in Letters to a Young Poet that if you can't be close to people, be close to things.

That Rilke was pretty sharp.

Started and finished All Quiet on the Western Front this week.

Really liked it. Was brutal.

What? Is he done book 3 of his name of the wind series yet? His publisher shouldn't let him out until he finished that series. Unless this was an earlier work?

Just finished Embers by Sandor Marai. A fairly short story about two former friends meeting at the end of their lives in an attempt to get some closure on their ruined friendship.

Takes place over the course of their lives as a flashback with about the last 1/4 being their meeting in their present (I think it takes place after WW2.) I don't want to ruin it but it's a very well written period piece that covers a lot of themes you appreciate as you get older as it's these two men reminiscing about the past 80+ years of their lives.

The hype is that this authors work was just recently discovered as it was lost when he escaped nazi Controlled Hungary and came to the U.S. This book was recently picked up by a french publisher and then translated into English. Great descriptions of the Hungarian empire and I am sure I would have got more out of it if I knew more about the historical period as it was written for a Hungarian audience and it seems like it assumes you are as familiar with Hungarian history as the target audience would have been.

It's a quick read and worth a look.

It was supposed to be a short story and turned into a weird short book. No one let him out of anything, Doors of Stone is coming.

I can't remember the last time I looked forward to a book coming out as much as I am for the third Name of the Wind book. If anyone hasn't read the first two, I highly recommend them.

EDIT: "Someone's parents have been singing entirely the wrong sort of songs."

Finished Missing Person by Patrick Modiano.
It examines the extent to which personality is independent/dependent on environment, man's need to have an identity and larger issues analogous to the individual. It's well written and the plot is developed in such a way as to always leave you wanting to read the next chapter.
It finishes nicely though I was left wondering if the translation of the last paragraph did justice to the original French.

Cool, I still haven't gotten around to the second book so I am not in a rush or anything. It's just funny that he would detour when so many people are waiting for him to finish his first trilogy.

Yeah. I mean how dare he do what he wants creatively?? So selfish.

GRRM spends half his time blogging about football and eating lard sandwiches so I'm willing to cut Rothfuss a break.

Finished reading "The Book of Sand" by Jorge Luis Borges. Could anyone recommend literature similarly transfixed on the concept of infinity?

I've never read anything like this. I thought it was really abstract. It was something I should just experience in the present and then analyze later if I wanted.

Dream like, bizarre, yet soothing. There isn't a single normal character in the book, so you're just unanchored, floating (which ties into the themes of time and space), gently bumping into whatever comes.


I think there's lots of possible interpretations about the connection between the film viewer and the film maker (just like a dream, unanchored, floating) I don't think there's a right answer

Not sure I love Red Harvest. I don't understand the protagonist's motivation to clean up Poisonville at all and great swaths of action sometimes happen in a line or two. I've found the book confusing and frankly boring.

And line by line it's not exactly Raymond Chandler is it.

From what I've read the book's written. The delay is him fine tuning it. Focusing on one character is probably his way of dealing with writers block/clearing his mind to look over everything with fresh eyes. When he's finished it'll still be 6 months before the book is released.

I couldn't think of a less interesting character to focus on though.

Perhaps you would enjoy better his story The Lightning Tree in GRRM's anthology Rogues, which focuses on Bast.

Thanks!

Swimming with Piranhas at Feeding Time: My Life Doing Dumb Stuff with Animals, by Richard Conniff.

Just finished this book which is a compilation of articles the author wrote for a variety of magazines. All the articles are well done, interesting and many have a comedic character. It is a wonderful book that you can start and stop with and browse through at your leisure. It is combination science, travel, and personal adventure story. Lively writing and fun topics: everything from studying primates in Madagascar, wild dogs in Botswana, to searching for the Yeti in Bhutan. It was right up my alley and I give it 5 wild dogs with a slice of Yeti on the side.

Checked out this book after seeing it mentioned itt; very good 2/3 in and has further piqued my interest in Buddhism. Thanks for the rec.

Yeah Lightning Tree in Rogues was pretty entertaining. Most of that book was. I certainly don't hate Slow Regard of Silent Things, it's just puzzling.

Started Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson. I started this twenty years ago and set it aside for some reason I no longer remember. This time it will get read.

Finished Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson. Beat influenced, slumming, middle class fantasy of drug life; while occasionally touching the humanity of that culture, it is marred by too many overly-insightful, fantastic metaphors that the stoner narrator could not have recorded. Still worthy of a read.