Sankara Jayanth S > Recent Status Updates

Wow. So much has happened already. Jesus Christ! I feel claustrophobic and my heart is aching. The end of chapter 21. ****!

Just when things were settling, again with the "good boy" out of nowhere. Dog lovers, and animal lovers in general, are going to have such an emotional experience reading this book.

I'm glad that the author did what he did with the story hardly 50 pages in. Actually, it was even there just a couple of pages in. I could easily see other authors dragging the story so that the same thing happens at the end of book #1. Because this event or this transition is so huge, both for the story and the reader who is invested in it, doing it just at 50 pages into the book makes me excited for what's to come.

F***! The "good boy" expressions are getting me good. I hope I don't end up bawling by the end. Damn. This is a high-stakes adult story even though the premise of dogs and other animals being engineered to be super-soldiers sounds like something that belongs to a kids tv show.

Interesting! I don't know if I will get tired of the 'good boy', 'bad boy' feedback loop being mentioned so much.

Rex is a GOOD BOY. He kills enemies for his master. He is a super-soldier, mounted with BIG BOYS (guns) on his shoulder. He is the leader of a pack of animals used in battle, all trained, genetic-modified for killing enemies. The feedback loop in his heads say he is a good boy after killing enemies. But.

"There was also that big commotion soon after I started primary school, when some boys started fighting during the break time. The other kids started wailing, “Get a teacher!” and “Someone stop them!” And so I went to the tool shed, took out a spade, ran over to the unruly boys, and bashed one of them over the head."

So far, this has been a family drama with faint fantasy elements, but I have to say I never lost interest having gone in expecting a full on Fantasy story set in Russia. That says a lot about how good this book is. The story just flows and I keep up with, nevermind where it goes or what it was meant to be.

"But there are some things, no matter if they’re true, you can’t live with them. You have to refuse them. You turn your eyes away from whatever’s squatting right there in front of you and not only pretend it isn’t there now, but that you never saw it in the first place. You do so because your soul is a frail thing that can’t stand the blast-furnace heat of revelation, and truth be damned."

"Skydiving is definitely the scariest thing I've done. What's the point of the helmet? I think if you jump out of a plane, and the chute doesn't open, the helmet is now wearing you for protection. Later on, the helmet's talking with other helmets going,
"It's a good thing he was there or I would've hit the ground directly. You never jump out of a plane unless you've a human strapped underneath you. Basic safety."
"

"What's the deal with books? Why do you need them, after you read them?"

I'm going to have fun reading Jerry Seinfeld's stand-up written material that he preserved for his 30+ years of career in comedy.

After the initial high tension setup for all introduced characters and setting, the story did not move forward at all. Kenan is walking through the city but that's it, too much description of railroad and city layouts, etc which is starting to irritate me. Too much "inside of the head" stuff about the past instead of taking the current story forward.

The book starts with a chilling atmospheric first chapter. It starts and ends with this:

"It screams downward, splitting air and sky without effort. A target expands in size, brought into focus by time and velocity. There is a moment before impact that is the last instant of things as they are. Then the visible world explodes."

My first Pratchett novel and I'm having fun so far.

"He’d kicked the tail of the dinosaur, but it would be some time before the other end realized it was time to say 'ouch.' "

"A city slid below them, clustered around a castle built on a rock outcrop that poked up out of the plain like a geological pimple."

"People don’t alter history any more than birds alter the sky, they just make brief patterns in it."

I lost my interest halfway through. Abandoning.

Do any of you keep a journal or take notes while reading novels? What do these notes usually contain? Summaries of plot/characters/acts etc or analysis of the events, themes, etc.

I'm a lazy reader but I want to improve my writing. So I need to bea more attentive, dedicated reader and for that I need to take notes. But I suck at note taking. But looking at systems that work for others might help me get started.

I would have never believed that I would read a very very lengthy book multiple times, always fondly without being bored. This book is a masterpiece. I urge anyone who hasn't read it to read it. Don't let the "classical literature for 1000+ pages would start being dull" be an aspect that keeps you away from this book.

The author takes his liberties and time in laying out the story. But it is enchanting, mesmerizing

Listening to Tim Curry's narration passively as I work or play games or when I decide to sleep. So not exactly 'reading' with full attention. But having already read this series, the audiobook is a treat to listen to the depressing saga of the Baudelaire children.
.....................

Dear Beatrice,

My heart flutters when I think of you ...

... until I remember your's stopped.

.....................

Anyone read this, scary?

Only my 2nd Stephen King novel. Somehow I never got to reading his books other than The Shining. I tried reading Doctor Sleep and couldn't get into it. Even with The Shining I had some trouble getting into the writing style.

Anyway, I keep seeing Stephen King's On Writing recommended when I search for books about writing(though I don't write or read books about writing).