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Mike
Mike is 11% done with Of Mice and Men
Oh jeez. This is going to be depressing, for one reason or another.
Apr 26, 2018 08:08AM Add a comment
Of Mice and Men

Mike
Mike is on page 102 of 444 of Struggle and Survival in the Modern Middle East
I just read the last story in the book, and it was rather nice. There are a lot of remarkable people whose stories are documented here.
Apr 25, 2018 09:16PM Add a comment
Struggle and Survival in the Modern Middle East

Mike
Mike is 87% done with Frankenstein: The 1818 Text
Shelley sure does know how to do melodrama. I guess your enjoyment of this book will depend on your enjoyment of overdramatic emotionality.
Apr 23, 2018 11:17PM Add a comment
Frankenstein: The 1818 Text

Mike
Mike is on page 87 of 444 of Struggle and Survival in the Modern Middle East
I would love to read more detailed interviews with all of these people. Obviously, the historians are working with what they have, but I wish we had so much more.
Apr 23, 2018 09:51PM Add a comment
Struggle and Survival in the Modern Middle East

Mike
Mike is on page 130 of 368 of The Modern Middle East: A History
Ah, another story where every government involved is the bad guy. Fun times!
Apr 22, 2018 07:42PM Add a comment
The Modern Middle East: A History

Mike
Mike is 75% done with Frankenstein: The 1818 Text
I guess this plothole kind of bothers me. The doctor is afraid of what happens if he builds a companion monster, but he doesn't seem to consider AT ALL that this will result in the monster taking revenge. Like, why doesn't that even factor into his decision-making?
Apr 22, 2018 07:41PM Add a comment
Frankenstein: The 1818 Text

Mike
Mike is on page 200 of 416 of If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho
I honestly have no idea why this is even read. It only makes me wish that we had more of the actual poems - these fragments do nothing for me at all.
Apr 22, 2018 10:33AM Add a comment
If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

Mike
Mike is 62% done with Frankenstein: The 1818 Text
The monster's story is so sad and so well-written. Easily the highlight of this book. I have to write an essay about why the doctor is the modern Prometheus, but I would honestly much rather write about why people relate to the monster, which I think is the reason people still like this book.
Apr 21, 2018 01:17PM Add a comment
Frankenstein: The 1818 Text

Mike
Mike is on page 72 of 444 of Struggle and Survival in the Modern Middle East
I think it means a lot, in terms of getting an understanding of Middle Eastern history, to actually hear the voices behind it. I'm glad that this last story I read was actually co-written by the person who lived through it. Very useful.
Apr 21, 2018 11:08AM Add a comment
Struggle and Survival in the Modern Middle East

Mike
Mike is 50% done with Frankenstein: The 1818 Text
I honestly think this book might've been more interesting if it had been told entirely from the perspective of the monster. His section is the most riveting in this book.
Apr 19, 2018 09:17AM Add a comment
Frankenstein: The 1818 Text

Mike
Mike is on page 200 of 232 of Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
I am very curious as to what this would be like as a Broadway show. I find this profoundly difficult to picture.
Apr 19, 2018 08:44AM Add a comment
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

Mike
Mike is on page 150 of 232 of Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
This is one of the best autobiographies I've ever read. There's so much to discuss here - you rarely see memoirs with this much symbolism and so much care put into the order the events are presented in.
Apr 18, 2018 07:58AM Add a comment
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

Mike
Mike is on page 50 of 232 of Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
This is not at all what I was expecting, but I'm enjoying it a fair bit. It's kind of an odd mix of a serious, semi-literary autobiography and newspaper cartoon style artwork. I'm not sure if the combination works, exactly, but each of the elements are certainly great on their own.
Apr 17, 2018 06:14PM Add a comment
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

Mike
Mike is on page 240 of 288 of Never Let Me Go
I am really struggling to fathom why this book has had such an impact on people. Like, even if I liked it, I would still think that it's so low-key and underwhelming.
Apr 13, 2018 08:43PM Add a comment
Never Let Me Go

Mike
Mike is on page 60 of 444 of Struggle and Survival in the Modern Middle East
The story about the Palestinian man was interesting, although I think the author skimmed over the best parts - I wanted to hear more about the various jobs he worked.
Apr 11, 2018 09:05PM Add a comment
Struggle and Survival in the Modern Middle East

Mike
Mike is 37% done with Frankenstein: The 1818 Text
It's so weird to me that Shelley thinks this story is about fate. This disaster was so completely avoidable by Frankenstein at nearly every stage of the monster's creation.
Apr 11, 2018 08:38AM Add a comment
Frankenstein: The 1818 Text

Mike
Mike is 12% done with Frankenstein: The 1818 Text
I think I'm finally starting to understand why some people love Victorian novels so much. The unironic melodrama is honestly a little thrilling. I really do love this book - it's just as good now as when I first read it.
Apr 10, 2018 01:40PM Add a comment
Frankenstein: The 1818 Text

Mike
Mike is on page 210 of 288 of Never Let Me Go
Is this really it? I really thought there was some kind of big shift in mood coming, but over halfway through the book, it's not here yet, and I'm starting to think it's not coming. If this is all that this book has to offer, I'm forced to conclude that it's way too subtle to be in any way effective.
Apr 10, 2018 09:27AM Add a comment
Never Let Me Go

Mike
Mike is on page 120 of 288 of Never Let Me Go
Alright, there are still more twists coming, but I know a little more now. Yeah, I really do think this book's reveals are just too gradual for its own good. There's not enough to keep me intrigued - honestly, if I didn't have to read this for school, I don't know if I'd be still reading.
Apr 09, 2018 08:34AM Add a comment
Never Let Me Go

Mike
Mike is on page 80 of 288 of Never Let Me Go
I think this book might just be too subtle for its own good. It seems to be going for something like opening of The Giver, half trying to trick the reader into a false sense of normalcy, half giving hints that something is off in this world and there's going to be a twist later. But the sense that things are off here just isn't strong enough, and I'm not intrigued to learn more like I was in The Giver.
Apr 08, 2018 02:27PM Add a comment
Never Let Me Go

Mike
Mike is on page 40 of 288 of Never Let Me Go
I assume something interesting must happen at some point, because so many people like this book. But I'm really, really struggling to imagine how this could possibly be leading up to anything interesting. It's not boring exactly, it's just... so ridiculously low stakes, by every metric possible. I hope the payoff is worth it - it's rarely a good sign when a book's early chapters strike me as pointless.
Apr 07, 2018 08:20PM Add a comment
Never Let Me Go

Mike
Mike is 75% done with Prometheus Bound
I guess this is short enough that it's not a problem that literally nothing happens in this play. It is pretty philosophically interesting, and I've never seen any classic work that so openly acknowledges how tyrannic Zeus was.
Apr 07, 2018 08:02AM Add a comment
Prometheus Bound

Mike
Mike is 38% done with Prometheus Bound
So this is pretty interesting so far, but like... Prometheus doesn't literally stay chained to this rock the whole play, does he? Because I imagine this would get old quickly.
Apr 06, 2018 02:57PM Add a comment
Prometheus Bound

Mike
Mike is on page 20 of 288 of Never Let Me Go
I feel like this is going to be either exceptionally interesting or exceptionally boring. I sense a twist coming, and it all depends on how good the twist is.
Apr 05, 2018 07:04PM Add a comment
Never Let Me Go

Mike
Mike is on page 48 of 444 of Struggle and Survival in the Modern Middle East
The chapter about the truck driver is really fascinating. I feel like I could write a story based on that guy's life.
Apr 05, 2018 07:02PM Add a comment
Struggle and Survival in the Modern Middle East

Mike
Mike is on page 40 of 128 of We the Animals
Yeah, this is really good, in a way that's very difficult to describe. I feel like I should find this hack-y, but no, it's really getting to me.
Mar 29, 2018 07:43AM Add a comment
We the Animals

Mike
Mike is on page 20 of 128 of We the Animals
I think I like this a lot, even though I feel like I've read a lot of things with a very similar writing style. Maybe I'm just a sucker for slightly surreal suburban postmodern stories.
Mar 28, 2018 08:31PM Add a comment
We the Animals

Mike
Mike is on page 200 of 212 of The Greek Way
What's the point of this book? Does Hamilton have a thesis, other than 'Ancient Greece was great'? If that is the thesis, how is it proven by pointing to a couple of playwrights as if they're representative of over a thousand years of history, in which most of the people weren't as educated as these playwrights?
Mar 23, 2018 11:14AM Add a comment
The Greek Way

Mike
Mike is on page 160 of 212 of The Greek Way
In a different context, Hamilton's analysis of why tragedies are important and the styles of different tragic playwrights would work pretty well - it isn't great or anything, but she does have some insight. But in the context of a book that's supposed to reveal something significant about Greek culture and thought, it's almost completely useless.
Mar 22, 2018 12:34PM Add a comment
The Greek Way

Mike
Mike is on page 140 of 212 of The Greek Way
To think that you can make a meaningful statement about the literature of two cultures by finding commonalities between a single author from each one is beyond asinine. But then again, this is the first time in this book where Hamilton has actually attempted to explain why a certain culture is the way it is, and to contextualize the kind of thought on display from a culture, so I'll call this a stronger chapter.
Mar 21, 2018 07:33PM Add a comment
The Greek Way

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