Christopher > Recent Status Updates

A really good read, I am enjoying it much more than the only other Solzhenitsyn I've read. But it is fairly depressing and probably not the best time to read such a book. I look forward to reaching the end and moving on to slightly more cheerful literature.

10 pages in 70 minutes. 900 pages to go. About a hundred more hours before I can start on the next 武侠小说.

As expected, the first chapter is far better than the prelude. Visually rich, psychologically penetrating, slow-moving (but what can you expect in a 1500 page book?). I am enjoying this more than I even expected.

That prelude. I certainly hope the next 1450 pages can't compare to it.

There is a certain facet of the human experience which has never and likely never shall be accessible to me: Religious sensibility. I have never cherished any belief whatsoever in the supernatural, and so there's a tedium in religious discussion that I can rarely get through.

Even having a personal connection to the translator, I just can't get into this book. A page a day is all I can endure. The translation is so terrible, I almost wanna go back to my Old Norse studies and use my literary skill (it couldn't possibly be worse than this) to give the world something readable.

I have not laughed once. I don't find this book funny at all (maybe the translation?). Nor do I find the message well conveyed, not that it is even a worthy message. Perhaps you need to have belief in the supernatural to enjoy? I don't find that to be the case with ghost stories and the like, but this book is in its own class.

Suggesties are advertisements. Tichy is relieved to discover that there still are people who need suggesting in this bizarre new world.

I almost feel bad about reading this, like I'm depriving Margaret of her position in Ontario literature by embracing what is turning out to be the best novel ever written in my province.

Somebody should have told Mr. Lem that an author is supposed to show, not tell. Too much of this book feels like lists of vague ideas explained in very few words before jumping on to the next. They are interesting ideas and it would have been nice to see them more fully developed, but as it is there's too much bluster and little bite.

A really strong start. The shock of entering a new world, from power and "respect" to being just another sick old bag of bones, where nobody cares what you have to say, is portrayed with some feeling. The devastation of the sickness itself seems largely lacking so far, though, save for a few fleeting mentions of how hard it is for him to turn his neck with its growing tumor.