Mark Minyard > Recent Status Updates

Man what

Stark. Painful. I love it.

Everything hits harder the 2nd time through. Things really start to unwind when Anna and Vronsky's return to Petersburg after being abroad. Anna's visit with Seryozha...so many emotions...

Tore through another 100 pages in the last week. Almost done with Book 4. I've had such a hard time understanding Causabon but the current chapter is making him more clear. Very curious how Eliot is going to play this out as I could see it becoming bleak or wholesome.

Worldbuilding is still cool but I wish Witherow kept things more hidden until near the end. Not sure how the end is going to be interesting with so much explained 70% through.

Wince-inducing but I'm sticking around for Witherow to flesh out this "evil-purgatory" world. Feels like "A Short Stay in Hell" meets "Animal Farm" so far.

Struggling to take in all the details but really enjoying the scene and worldbuilding Dickens is doing now that the Dedlocks have met Esther and Co.

Super eerie. Ligotti matches Lovecraft in that department.

It’s just a wondrous book. Likely to be my #1 read of 2024. Just finished “Waiting for Death”. I think I know what the “Three Love Problems” will be in book 4 but I’ll have to catch up in Bleak House to find out! Ugh. Trying not to binge these big classics…

I’ve been picking up Middlemarch more but now I’m too far ahead so back to Dickens. Esther’s Narrative is much more “accessible” than the Dedlock saga but the book is good. Dickens humor is fun and he sprinkles in insight just enough to keep me engaged. I’ll be consulting cliff notes every few chapters so I don’t miss too many details.

Pavear and Volokhonsky's translation of one character's death in the middle of this book was way more gut wrenching than Garnett's translation. Enjoying P&V more.

In a tough slog of a section right now but I know it'll be worth it. Some of BH has been breathtaking so far.

Still hooked. I could see myself reading all of her work someday.

Reads like Schopenhauer in the 21st century. Benatar took a long hard look around and was like: "This isn't it gang."

"...the injunction to count one’s blessings is much less compelling when it entails deceiving oneself into thinking that one was actually lucky to have come into existence. It is like being grateful that one is in a first-class cabin on the Titanic as one awaits descent to one’s watery grave."

Excited to start this one alongside Bleak House and Middlemarch.

Picked this back up. Continues to be fascinating and bizarre. His discussion on disability/inability was great.

The Dorothea Brooke sequence in Rome was incredible.

A highlight:

"Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure."

"I quite agree with you," said Will, determined to change the situation—"so much so that I have made up my mind not to run that risk of never attaining a failure."

Still getting Harry Potter vibes. Enjoyable!

In love with this book. I can already tell it will be a re-read like Anna Karenina. Anxious for more updates on Ms. Brooke! Eliot's spending ALOT of time on Dr. Lydgate after leaving Dorothea on a cliffhanger.

The middle section of this book is SO GOOD.

Officially in Book 2.

Finished book 1. Eliot did well to create anticipation for book 2. I’m adopting a slow reading schedule for this and Bleak House. Doing 1 book every 2-3 weeks June-Oct/Nov

Very excited to meet Lydgate!

Re-read. I read this when Auerbach released it in short installments on Reddit.

Ugh this is so good! I don’t know if it’s just British fiction but Bleak House is giving me major Harry Potter vibes. No magic but the characters are decidedly “characters” and not *real people*. Whimsy and quirk abound.

I heard this about Dickens and was a little worried because Tolstoy set the bar so high for realism. But you can like vanilla and chocolate ice cream I guess. :)