Nosemonkey > Recent Status Updates

Seventy pages about a woman trying to get her baby to go to sleep, yet somehow I'm hooked. This is *excellent* so far - and the meat (in the form of Fielding's Tom Jones, which I've never read) has only just arrived.

Picked as a tranquil Saturday morning dog walking listen, as it's currently part of the Audible catalogue, and so far very engaging indeed. Keep skipping back for bits I've missed due to canine distraction, which is rare for me for audiobooks.

This is very strange - somehow feels like I've read this before, but I haven't...

Tory party conference and general anger at the state of the country reminded me I'd never read this. The sheer abject horror of poverty may have lessened considerably over the last 85 years, but so much of this still feels current it's astonishing.

I do like a good retelling of a myth. This is quite a challenging one so far - hard to follow at times, with the footnotes sometimes distracting, sometimes essential - but it's picking up.

This is pretty interesting so far. Helping me realise how little I actually know about the Bauhaus, despite having been aware of its importance and influence for years.

The war is over and we're onto the aftermath. I still found the war itself impossible to follow. Too many moving parts. But the explanations and analysis that followed the narrative descriptions were all very helpful.
As a reference book, this would be invaluable.

Somewhat pretentious, but good fun so far.

It takes a full third of this loooong book before the Thirty Years War even starts. Impressive. Makes a confusing period even more confusing by going back a good 70+ years to explain the underlying causes. Nice. (But actually kinda necessary, TBH...)

This continues to entertain despite me knowing nothing about Sri Lanka or cricket, let alone Sri Lankan cricket, and despite me not usually enjoying detective stories - which this effectively is.

Nearly a fifth of the way in, and the war hasn't even started yet... It's good, this. Context!

Have been meaning to read this one for a while. From the early stages, Wilson very firmly understands its place in the (extensive) historiography, and the challenge he's set himself: To show how all the different interpretations of this insanely complex period connect. We'll see if he succeeds - promising so far, though.

This is really rather good, a biography that brings out some key themes of Montaigne's essays in a way that can make it kinda function as a self-help book. Much like Montaigne's Essays can, according to their fans. So far, it's making me want to return to them - they've been gathering dust for a while now.

This is definitely not a novel, despite what Thirlwell professes. It is, however, about what a novel *is*, as well as what novelty is, and how to define writerly style - especially across cultures and languages. Quite fun, so far. Whimsical. Relaxing.

A bit like a Wikipedia entry at the moment thanks to how rapidly it's skipping around the place (up to the French Revolution already, so the whole "from Ancient Rome" bit is a bit of an over-sell), but still decent enough as a summary of the etymological evolution of the term "liberal". It's meant to be accessible, after all.

I know nothing about Sri Lanka, and am not interested in cricket. So why am I reading a novel about Sri Lankan cricket? Well, it's meant to be good. And so far it's certainly good fun.

Enard has become one of my favourite novelists. This is, so far, my favourite so far. Like Zone's Proustian stream of consciousness, but with sentences and paragraphs and more culture to go with the obscure history. Nice.

This is really rather good.