Antti Värtö > Recent Status Updates

Openlibrary is having some sort of glitch, so no Downbelow Station for me tonight. A shame, too: at first I want sure if I liked the book or not, but it has steadily growed on me, and now I would've been eager to continue with the story.

I decided to finally try to read a book in German; I studied German for four years in upper elementary and high school, but after that I haven't really used the language at all, so it's rusted pretty much all the way through. So, what could be a better way to revive it than to read this "Austrian Ulysses", a modernist doorstopper from 1930? Can't think of anything that could go wrong!

The narrator pronounces some words weird: he keeps calling one character "Craig": it took me awhile to understood this is the titular "Crake". Also there is a neologism about the cities outside gated communities that he keeps pronouncing "plea-blands": from the context I'm pretty sure they are "pleblands" (like, lands of the plebs). Doesn't the narrator understand what he's reading? It's distracting.

Over the halfway point!

Varsin lupaava alku!

Tässä on niin paljon pureskeltavaa, että luen tätä kirjaa vain pieniä pätkiä kerrallaan. Ehkä joskus kesään mennessä saan tämän luettua loppuun.

This is totally excellent: if you have 8-12 yo kids (or even older), I will already recommend this so hard. I love it, my kids love it, it's simply great. The narrator is a gorilla that works in a steam ship: do you even want more? Oh, you do? Well, this book's got it, and then some! IT'S GOOD.

Yes! I'm past the halfway point! Perhaps this jest isn't as infinite as the title might suggest?

Puoliväli ylitetty!

Ok, kaikki ne arviot, joissa tidettiin tämän olevan todella tiukkaa ja hankalasti sulavaa tekstiä, eivät valehdelleet. Pitää lukea tähän väliin joku yleistajuisempi esitys Suomen esihistoriasta, jotta pysyn näiden kaikkien nuorakeramiikkojen ja Seiman-Turbinon kulttuurien kanssa matkassa mukana.

Reading this introduction to Lean for work. These business books are kind of adorable: very little text with big font on each page, small page count and even cute drawings on every other page. Books aimed for first-grade kids and CEO's are surprisingly similar.

Reading both the original and the Finnish translation 60-70 pages at the time for my book club. This way I get to compare the translation to the original - and read all the passages two times, which helps comprehension a lot.

"Kirjailijan vastuu: kertoa ihmisille, keitä muita kirjailijoita ei kannata lukea. Pyrin varaamaan tälle aikaa haastatteluistani."

"Kirjailijoita boikotoidaan liian vähän. "Lukematta paskaa" on alikäytetty argumentti. "

Tämä on ihan hillittömän hauska kirja.

No nyt on aloitettu tämän tiiliskiven lukeminen. Alussa kappaleet ovat lyhyitä eivätkä lainkaan raskaslukuisia, vaikka niistä ei postmoderniin tyyliin koostukaan (ainakaan vielä) minkäänlaista kokonaisuutta. Vaikuttaa lupaavalta.

Yllättävää kyllä pidän tästä aika lailla. Olin varma ensimmäiset pari sivua luettuani, että jättäisin koko kirjan kesken, mutta tämähän onkin oikein viihdyttävä ja kiinnostava.

He actually found the lost time! It had slipped between the couch pillows! Well, not really, but that's not as far from the truth as you might expect.

Oh nooo the authors are now referring to studies about priming and stereotype threat: studies that have suffered so much during the replication crisis that they could be called discredited, if not outright debunked.

Well, my library loan expired, avaa I'm still just halfway through. Oh well, at least the book is good enough for me to want to continue listening to it, but not SO good I couldn't wait for a month or two until I can return to it.

It feels so good to be reading this - like I'm back in a place I've only visited once but missed dearly ever since.

I can't remember any side characters other than Dr. Mensah. I can't even tell which Preservation characters are new to this book and who have appeared in the novellas. Oh well.

I don't know what it is with me and this book. This is my second time trying to read it: the first time my library loan expired before I could even really start. This time I managed to reach page 125 until my loan expired. Sigh.

And it's really good book, too! I can't understand why I always postpone starting it until it's almost too late.

Oh well. I'll put another hold and perhaps next time I'm a bit wiser.

Nearly done. There is way too much repetion due to very similar stories: if this had had seven days and seven youths (Heptamerone?) this would've been half as long and twice as good.

This book is called "The Philosopher's Stone", but we don't hear a peep about said stone until something like 75% in the story.