Christopher > Recent Status Updates

So quick. I'm almost done and I can't say I really understand the experience of Manzanar. The descriptions feel more superficial, it lacks the depth I would have most cherished in such a book as this.

The introduction is over and I am sad. The book itself is interesting enough, but I really loved that intro.

Such emotional depth that comes forth through interminable lamentations.

Quite repetitious, a bit tedious, mildly suspect at times (especially the idea that an autism-vaccine link deserves mention even if it's acknowledged to be based on fraudulent research which has been studied to death subsequently and shown to be a myth), but an important read nonetheless.

One of the best ancient stories I have yet read. I suppose it could be taken as an allegory of sorts, Milarepa growing up lacking a father figure, he (at his mother's wrathful command) commits all sorts of evils, killing many sentient beings, but then he is taken in by a lama and his wife, the lama requiring great austerities before accepting him as his disciple so to make right his balance of merit.

This introduction is so incredibly fascinating, I'm sad that it is approaching the end. Hopefully the text itself can match it.

Meandering, compelling, though far too light on the ethnography.

Simply phenomenal. Makes me want to learn Tibetan.

A little dull, repetitious, but important. A lot of the vital information seems to be buried in the minutiae, with some of the most important stuff being relegated to footnotes.

A slow start after the crazy action of the first book, but still great.

The last few chapters are nowhere near as interesting as the first few. I am very hopeful for the next chapter, the one about Thailand, since I've been going through a SE Asia phase this month.

This book feels like it was written specifically for me.

The first two stories were terrific. Roy Meadow is the face of evil. His arrogance and blind faith in his own deeply flawed mind led to dozens of grieving mothers being wrongly sentenced for the natural deaths of their babies.

The last chapter wasn't so good, but I have higher hopes for the next few. I am glad they've finally mentioned how unreliable forensics is, according to the 2009 report. I've been arguing this for years.

I really liked the first 70 pages. But now I'm suddenly a little disturbed by the turn it's taking. Buddhism seems now to be a dual theology of "truth" for those who are ready and lies for the masses of "idiots," like Jack. There's something unsettling about a religion that isn't a religion except in its popular garb for the stupid folks who need religion.

Better than Inoue's Furin Kazan on a number of counts, and having language as a major idea throughout the book certainly doesn't serve to repel me in any way. But still not nearly amazing enough for me to be convinced to learn Japanese.

Ali should have been gutsier, could've prevented a lot of damage by that villain Mu'awiya.

Such a ridiculous relationship between two fundamentally incompatible nations, each besotted with their fundamentalist philosophies.

Chapter one was pretty interesting, chapter two was extraordinarily fascinating, chapter three was a total bore. Chapter four is turning out to offer a mix of one and three. I have very high hopes for some of the later chapters, though.

The first 75ish pages were told from the tiger's perspective and I really enjoyed that. But now, all of a sudden, it seems like a typical impersonal narrator.

I've a five page list of characters, most of whom appear once. It seems like the kind of book that should be closer to 600 pages. The plot is hard to follow, showing up in between dozens of pages of description and countless side stories which at least so far seem to have little to do with the plot. Is there even a plot?