Chris’s Comments (group member since Mar 16, 2013)

Chris’s comments from the r/books group.

I've finished uni for the semester, but these holidays i'll be moving house and looking for new work, so fingers crossed that I have time on my hand. I have quite a few things I want to tackle!

I tried my hand at some creative writing during NanoWrimo and wrote some short stories. I'll be polishing them up and reading short stories from some great authors (Chekhov, Maupassant, Salinger, Hemingway, Joyce).

I'm halfway through Don Quixote and will finish it this month. It's been a blast.

A friend gave me The First Circle by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn for my birthday last week, so I want to go on a Russian kick and read things like Crime and Punishment, Darkness at Noon, and We.

I read this at least a year ago and don't remember many of the details. It's the only Gaiman i've read. It dragged a little, but was mostly an enjoyable read. Most of the things that stuck were information tidbits about mythology, eg: the day Wednesday is named after the god Odin. I found an interesting site that gives background on most of the characters.

I liked the book because of the whole overarching metaphor about how humans create gods, but I didn't like Shadow's character either, and I remember disliking how he portrayed technology and 'the new gods'. I also agree that Shadow is essentially an empty character, a 'shadow' of a man. I think at the beginning his wife had died, but it didn't seem like a good enough excuse. It was like Shadow was created as the protagonist because he had all the qualities of Gaiman's ideal reader: passive, calm, not asking too many questions.

What did everybody think about the portrayal of technology in the book?

I thought that the old gods were always portrayed as wise and cunning, whereas the new gods were portrayed as vain or foolish or evil, sitting in limo's smoking cigars, sinister giggling .etc. I thought this was strange because I interpret technology ('the new gods') as being pervasive and overwhelmingly distracting, rather than something that is lurking in a dark corner.

Haven't read it but I recently finished Gravity's Rainbow so I feel your pain.

Check out the wiki. It's a great resource, I used it a lot reading GR. Pynchon is big on the pop culture references.

I lurk here occasionally, but I don't vote on polls.

But r/bookclub has the same problems around this time of year and are looking at ways to increase participation as well. Lots of lurkers but not many participants. Sometimes a person will nominate a book, it gets chosen, and they drop off the radar. I don't understand it, it's just one of the realities of an anonymous bookclub.

I thought it would be easier for you guys on goodreads because it's more 'personalized'.

Act 3 is when it starts getting really good! We start to realize how terrible of a king Richard really is, and as his ability to rule diminishes his poetics become more grandiose.