Patrick > Recent Status Updates

Took this on a recent trip with me, and I've been working my way through it in airports and hotel rooms. I've been consistently pleasantly surprised. Fun and easy to read. Familiar enough to be comfortable, different enough to be interesting.

Really hope it sticks the landing.

I've had a lot of people recommend this to me over the last year. The one particularly good friend tipped the scale by buying the book for me.

And I have to say, I'm surprised. It's a very easy read. Good language, good phrasing, good pacing. Remarkably fast start.

I'm glad I picked it up an interested in where it's going....

A comic I enjoy this much, I'd normally burn through as quickly as possible. But I keep getting interrupted. It's not so bad though, as now I'm getting to savor it...

It's so good, y'all. So. Good.

10 pages in and I'm fucking LOVING this comic. I'm honestly amazed. It's brilliant.

I love Murderbot

Oh my god. This was recommended to me by a friend. But it's so much better than I was expecting.

After getting over my initial difficulties with the Flashback and POV changes, I'm back into loving the book.

Kerr has a wonderful way of portraying a world. And the setting of this book is so much more realistic that so many of the fantasy books I've read. Especially given that it was written 30 years ago. It must have been groundbreaking. Small wonder that this book is a classic.

What threw me (In addition to the flashback itself) was the fact that there was a POV shift *in* the flashback. And I'll be honest, I got confused.

That said, I was reading in little snippets. Distracted. Busy. In a better time, I just would've rolled with it.

But the fact remains, I got confused. lost. Less interested.

This is the hell of being a writer. You never know how your reader is going to read.

I started off loving this book. The writing and storytelling are amazingly good.

Then it went into an extended flashback, and I was pissed. I didn't want to hear about these people and this different setting four hundred years ago. I wanted to follow the main character. She's the one I'm invested in.

(And yes, I'm aware of the irony in me complaining about a book having a long flashback.)

It sounds awful, but it's been a long time since I picked up a book just for fun.

I'm enjoying this one so much. And I'm so impressed with it. It's as good as anything written today, and better than so many things that I've read recently.

My boy asked me if we could read another Narnia book, so with some trepidation, we're jumping in to the fourth book in the series. And I would like to make it abundantly clear that this is the FOURTH book in the series, not the sixth.

I've been hearing good things about these books for years, so I finally decided to give them a try.

Unfortunately, I'm having a hard time getting into the story. I'm not sure if this isn't my kind of story, or if I'm missing something and that's keeping me from getting into it in the proper way...

So... Prince Caspian's love interest in this book is called "Ramandu's daughter."

Odd thing is? She actually shows up first in the book. And she's a more important character, too. If Caspian completes his quest, the implication is that he'll get to marry her.

But yeah. No name. Apparently Caspian doesn't even think to ask.

Pretty icky.

"Don't tell anyone there's a pool on this island where the water turns things into gold," says Prince Caspian. "It's a state secret."

"By the way, I'm going to call this place Goldwater Island." - Prince Caspian, two paragraphs later.

I never thought I'd say this, as Reepicheep has always been a favorite characters in the series. But he's getting on my nerves. He's very one-note. Wants to fight all the time.

Oot doesn't like him as much as I expected either, which makes sense. I've worked hard to keep my boy away from bullshit machismo and senseless violence. And as a result, he kinda doesn't get Reepicheep nattering on about honor and such.

I will admit, I'm enjoying this a little less than I'd anticipated. I'd forgotten that the kids are kidnapped by slavers early on in the book. I'd been planning on having a fun read with my kid, not having to explain what slavery is....

It's not a huge thing, more of a quibble. But as I continue along, I don't think it's the only quibble I'm going to have....

I'm going to be reading this one next with Oot.

This book has a particular sentimental attachment to me, as I read from in in Forensics back when I was in the 6th grade.

I'm hoping my boy will like it as well. I think there's more straight-up adventure in this one than there was in Prince Caspian. More exploring cool places and seeing new magical things...

Reepicheep looses his tail, then all the other mice get ready to cut off their tails too, because they refuse to keep the honor of a tail if their leader doesn't have his. Honestly? It's the best scene in the book. Reepicheep might be the best character in the book. Or maybe that's just me....

The scene I remembered most from this book before I started to read it was the one where Nikabrik the dwarf brought in a werewolf and a hag and tried to convince Caspian to call on the White Witch for help.

The scene is actually as dark and scary as I remember it, which isn't always the case. It's really good writing. Very dramatic. Really good language.

Reading through as an adult, I realized that structurally, this story is vastly more complicated than The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

Lewis has a story-in-a-story that spans about a third of the book. Then later on, he splits the boys and Caspian into one group, and girls and Aslan, into another, giving the story a non-linear Chronology.

It works. But I don't think that happens in the other books....

Reepicheep is a badass.

Oot is digging the second book of the series. Very actively engaged in the story, remembering character's names and details better than I do sometimes....

Reading the section with the stone table to my little boy wasn't nearly as bad as I'd feared it would be....

Interesting development. Oot and I started reading the Graveyard book. But after a chapter or so, he said he'd like to go back to reading about Narnia.

'It was only spooky in parts," he said. "It was really interesting."

I asked my son if he wanted to keep reading this book, or if he'd prefer to read something else. We could always come back to it later. (We did this with the Hobbit back in the day.)

He thought about it for a moment, then said, "Why don't we put this one on hold for a while."

He seemed relieved when he said it. I'm glad I asked.

Oot is only 6, and I'm worried that this book might be too emotionally stressful for him. When we read the part where Peter fought the Wolf, he reached out and held my hand with both of his. I'll have to ask him if he wants to keep reading this with me, or if he'd like to read a different book....

I am crying all the way through this book. Not even at the sad parts. My boy is very tolerant of this, though who knows what he's really thinking about the fact that I can't talk about Aslan without getting teary.

I haven't even gotten to the stone table yet. I have no idea what I'm going to do when I hit that.

Having recently read the Hobbit to my boy, I have to say, this is a better children's book. The writing is much tighter. The story moves faster. The language is cleaner.

I feel a little disloyal saying that. I'm a huge Tolkien fan. But it's true.

Edmund is such a little prat.

I tried reading this with my boy a couple years ago when he was 4. But we stopped early on. The vocabulary was a problem.

He's 6 now, so we're trying again. I didn't think he'd remember our first read. But early on we hit an unfamiliar word.

Me: Do you know what a wardrobe is?
He nods.
Me: What is it?
He hesitates, uncertain, then brightens up and says: It's what you go through to get into Narnia!

Indeed.