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| 0824525434
| 9780824525439
| 0824525434
| 4.26
| 4,731
| Sep 01, 2009
| Sep 01, 2009
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liked it
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"The Naked Now: Learning to See As the Mystics See" by Richard Rohr is a compelling and well-rounded argument for a kind of Christianity that would be
"The Naked Now: Learning to See As the Mystics See" by Richard Rohr is a compelling and well-rounded argument for a kind of Christianity that would be unrecognisable to many Western Christians today. The book is an appeal to let go of either-or duality thinking and turn to the nondual kind of "knowing" that is essential to understanding Jesus' teachings and, ultimately, the universe. This has been called mysticism, contemplation, meditation, prayer, and more throughout history, and it's described as a worldview much wider and more functional than the Greek logic-based one that most of Western culture has never even thought to question. Rohr argues that most, if not all, of the problems in modern Christianity, on levels from individual to global, lead back to its integration into this black and white Western philosophy, and he strongly advocates for a return to what it was before. Rohr's case is laid out well, but does move frequently into territory that many will consider epistemologically unsound - something that he, of course, would argue is just another symptom of the reductionist thinking of the West, but which could just as well be argued to be more of spirituality's inconsistencies with reason. In between, though, there's a powerful defense of the kind of philosophy that appreciates the complexity of the truth - and one that Christians and non-Christians alike will find valuable. ✍️ Quote of the Book: "We forget that every time God forgives or shows mercy, God is breaking God’s own rules… Once you’ve known Grace, your tit-for-tat universe is forever undone: God is everywhere and always and scandalously found even in the failure of sin." ...more |
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1
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Apr 07, 2021
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Apr 20, 2021
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Apr 07, 2021
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Paperback
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| B0064CPN7I
| 3.96
| 2,512,865
| Oct 19, 1953
| Dec 06, 2011
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really liked it
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"Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury is an unmistakable landmark on the storyline of suppression and truth, and a bewitchingly prophetic tale from an omin
"Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury is an unmistakable landmark on the storyline of suppression and truth, and a bewitchingly prophetic tale from an ominous future. From beginning to end, the novel cries out against authoritarianism in any form, from censorship - the impetus for the book was the snowballing deceit of the McCarthy era - to the more dystopian effects of mass media (whether exploited deliberately or just hungrily devoured by its very victims), and a fervent appeal to the truth, in all its old and beautiful complexity. Bradbury tackles his genre's notorious literary problems (exposition, preachiness, consistency…) with varying success, but spine-tingling imagery keeps surging through the prose, gilding rough edges and oiling clumsy machinery. ✍️ Quote of the Book: "The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us." ...more |
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1
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not set
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not set
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Mar 15, 2021
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Kindle Edition
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| 4.08
| 11,429
| Aug 05, 2014
| Aug 05, 2014
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really liked it
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"Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It" by Gabriel Wyner is an enlightening, valuable, and entertaining guide to fluency
"Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It" by Gabriel Wyner is an enlightening, valuable, and entertaining guide to fluency in any language. For so many people, the mastery of a new language is a distant goal, only glimpsed briefly every now and then through hopelessly impenetrable thickets of grammar rules, vocabulary lists, and declension charts. Wyner's mission is to clear away the brambles and replace them with the same simple language-learning systems that we built in our brains when we were illiterate babies, drinking in our mother tongue at speeds adults could only dream of. Where the old system was inefficient, arduous, and based on brute force, this new one is exciting, effective, and based on clever strategy. Almost as important, though, is the pleasant discovery, already in the first paragraph, that this book isn't only going to be informative and helpful - it's going to be a lot of fun to read as well. Wyner is one of those writers who can take something as bland as the psychology of spaced repetition and serve it up deliciously enough to keep you asking for more. ✍️ Quote of the Book: "Language learning is one of the most intensely personal journeys you can undertake. You are going into your own mind and altering the way you think." ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 17, 2021
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Feb 23, 2021
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Jan 17, 2021
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Paperback
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| 1593859759
| 9781593859756
| 1593859759
| 4.03
| 4,883
| 2009
| Apr 29, 2009
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liked it
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"The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion: Freeing Yourself From Destructive Thoughts and Emotions" by Christopher Germer is a helpful and encouraging guid
"The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion: Freeing Yourself From Destructive Thoughts and Emotions" by Christopher Germer is a helpful and encouraging guide to handling mental pain through internal kindness and love. Marketed as an "un-self-help" book, "The Mindful Path" teaches acceptance rather than fixing things. It's not about doing away with pain, it's about cultivating a different relationship with it, because, as Germer points out, when we try to avoid suffering we usually just end up making it worse. The book begins with a foundation on mindfulness and then dives into self-compassion, including meta (loving-kindness) meditation. There are good explanations, helpful anecdotal examples, detailed theoretical background, and concrete instructions on how to apply it, all brought to the reader in Germer's sensitive, understanding, and friendly voice. ✍️ Quote of the Book: "Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional." ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 08, 2020
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Jan 17, 2021
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Dec 08, 2020
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Paperback
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| B07D23CFGR
| 4.35
| 977,242
| Oct 16, 2018
| Oct 16, 2018
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really liked it
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"Atomic Habits" by James Clear is a well laid out and practical pathway to success in anything you want to do. Clear explains how you can design your
"Atomic Habits" by James Clear is a well laid out and practical pathway to success in anything you want to do. Clear explains how you can design your life to eliminate the wrong habits and sustain the right ones, and start taking steps towards your goals with minimal effort every day. If you're usually turned off by self-help literature, let me assure you that this book is different. "Atomic Habits" is self help in the most down-to-earth, pragmatic form. The psychology and theory behind the advice is well explained, but you aren't left with philosophical and abstract mind hacks here - you'll find concrete steps that you can put into action easily and immediately. Most importantly though, the idea of atomic habits takes a step back from the specificity of most self-help and applies to anything you want to achieve, no matter what it is. This isn't how to become more mindful, how to improve your diet, or how to lose weight - it's all of the above and much more. ✍️ Quote of the Book: "Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity." ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 08, 2020
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Jan 13, 2021
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Dec 08, 2020
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Kindle Edition
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| 3.88
| 1,182,684
| Oct 1915
| Mar 01, 1972
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None
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Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 07, 2021
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Feb 16, 2021
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Dec 08, 2020
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Paperback
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| 0743477103
| 9780743477109
| 0743477103
| 3.89
| 927,988
| 1623
| Jul 01, 2013
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it was amazing
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"The Tragedy of Macbeth" by William Shakespeare is an epic and quintessentially Shakespearean drama. There's scandalous intrigue, there are epic battl
"The Tragedy of Macbeth" by William Shakespeare is an epic and quintessentially Shakespearean drama. There's scandalous intrigue, there are epic battles, there are ghosts and witches, there are chilling deeds and the more chilling consequences that follow - there's all the sensational spectacle that marks a Shakespeare tragedy, and all in his beautiful, world-renowned poetry. And, driving it all, there's the sinister crescendo of dark ambition, gaining more and more momentum throughout the story, before cresting like a huge, destructive wave and crashing down on any order and harmony still intact at the climax. It's the perfect tragedy. ✍️ Quote of the Book: "Come, you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts! Unsex me here, / And fill me from the crown to the toe top full / Of direst cruelty; make thick my blood, / Stop up the access and passage to remorse, / That no compunctious visitings of nature / Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between / The effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts, / And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers, / Wherever in your sightless substances / You wait on nature’s mischief! Come, thick night, / And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, / That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, / Nor Heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, / To cry 'Hold, hold!'" ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 17, 2021
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Mar 02, 2021
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Dec 08, 2020
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Mass Market Paperback
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| 3.88
| 874,824
| Sep 1955
| 1995
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really liked it
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"Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov is a famous and infamous novel with a shocking and contentious subject matter and a bewildering purpose. In a way, it's j "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov is a famous and infamous novel with a shocking and contentious subject matter and a bewildering purpose. In a way, it's just another iteration of a classic storyline - an immoral and hedonistic life leading to sad and tragic consequences. But it's also unlike any other story before it. It's classified by some as an erotic novel, but there's no obscenity, and pretty much anything erotic happens off-camera. Its topic is about as vulgar as they come, but it's written much like high literature. It's a meandering and mostly dull plotline, infused with as much absurdity as tragedy. It's relayed through the wordy, rambling, and very unreliable point of view of the monster of the story himself (to the point where the other characters all but vanish into his spotty commentary on them) - and in an English that is, for him, an enormous playground before a means of communication. While this does lay the groundwork for an interesting route to characterisation and opens the floodgates on an unbroken stream of wordplay, allusions, and occasional lapses into French, it also traps the reader for the entire book inside a depraved and arguably shallow mind. What are we to make of "Lolita?" Is it a horribly accurate mirror held up to the horrible side of society? Is it an ugly symbol for a far less ugly truth? Is it just the explorations of a twisted mind? And if so, are those explorations sympathetic? Or are we to just believe Nabikov when he assures us that there is no moral to the story? If it's value IS purely aesthetic and not at all analytical, what value, if any, does it have? ✍️ Quote of the Book: "You have to be an artist and a madman, a creature of infinite melancholy, with a bubble of hot poison in your loins and a super-voluptuous flame permanently aglow in your subtle spine (oh, how you have to cringe and hide!), in order to discern at once, by ineffable signs - the slightly feline outline of a cheekbone, the slenderness of a downy limb, and other indices which despair and shame and tears of tenderness forbid me to tabulate - the little deadly demon among the wholesome children; she stands unrecognized by them and unconscious herself of her fantastic power. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 03, 2021
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Apr 07, 2021
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Dec 08, 2020
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Paperback
| |||||||||||||||||
| 0060929871
| 9780060929879
| 0060929871
| 3.99
| 1,910,452
| 1932
| Sep 01, 1998
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liked it
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"Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley is a relatively basic dystopian novel that loses some readability in its focus on its message, but does raise some
"Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley is a relatively basic dystopian novel that loses some readability in its focus on its message, but does raise some interesting ideas. "Brave New World" is an early arrival in its genre, so don't expect anything revolutionary. If you're already familiar with other dystopian literature, you've probably already dealt with all of the main ideas brought up here - totalitarianism, technology, freedom, happiness, consumerism, etc. - and the premise of a non-conforming protagonist meeting up with other like-minded rebels and providing the reader with a critical view of his world will seem all too familiar. What, sadly, might also seem familiar for this genre, is the detached, almost clinical writing style that seems to be inescapable in last-century dystopian novels. Read this book for idealogical, not literary value. That said, though, "Brave New World" is a classic, and quite seminal, so it should probably be somewhere on your reading list. ✍️ Quote of the Book: "All right then," said the savage defiantly, I'm claiming the right to be unhappy. " "Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat, the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind." There was a long silence. "I claim them all," said the Savage at last. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 23, 2020
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Dec 08, 2020
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Nov 23, 2020
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Paperback
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| B08B1JVWBY
| 3.88
| 1,654,832
| 1818
| Jun 10, 2020
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really liked it
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**spoiler alert** "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelly is a classic gothic novel with a long and rich cultural legacy and far-reaching implications. It's a c **spoiler alert** "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelly is a classic gothic novel with a long and rich cultural legacy and far-reaching implications. It's a compellingly dark and tragic read, expressive and colourful in its elaborate nineteenth-century style. But the message between those disastrous lines is perhaps the most dark and - and significant - of all. The premise of the young and ambitious scientist whose ground-breaking invention opens a horrific Pandora's box of death and catastrophe is not only supremely eloquent but also deeply relevant. It reads as a dark foreshadowing of worlds of artificial intelligence, computer science, and technology in general to come, with many insights into the complicated tangle of ethics, values, and relationships in which those worlds are necessarily ensnared. The term "Frankenstein effect" has in fact been since used concerning innovations from stem cells to the atom bomb. It's revealing that Shelly originally entitled the book "The Modern Prometheus," a reference to the Greek myth where the god who sneaks humans fire and enlightenment is punished with an eagle tearing at his liver - the supposed source of emotions. The consequences in "Frankenstein" are as emotional as they are physical - for the creator himself, much more emotional. Both the nature of the creator and the creation and the dynamics between the two play a central role too. Here, the hideous monster is also an innocent victim, human and relatable to the point where much of the story is told from his point of view. It's interesting that the name gone down in modern culture mostly as a synonym for the monster is actually the name of its human creator. The frankenstein's story is arguably more heartbreaking than Frankenstein's himself. It's also interesting that the monster gives his maker the opportunity to create him a companion and placate him forever, essentially fixing the problem - an opportunity that Frankenstein refuses, raising the question of whether the act of creation itself or the creator's subsequent relationship with his creation is more important. Ironically, in a novel where one of the two most important characters is a monster, the story becomes a detailed and penetrating look at the human condition. ✍️ Quote of the Book: "I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather thy fallen angel…" ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 23, 2020
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Feb 02, 2021
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Nov 23, 2020
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Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||||
| 0486223051
| 9780486223056
| 0486223051
| 3.96
| 60,026
| 1798
| Jun 01, 1970
|
really liked it
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"The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner," by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, is an epic parable that opens the doors to worlds of philosophical discussion but also
"The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner," by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, is an epic parable that opens the doors to worlds of philosophical discussion but also thrills with the best page-turners. Where to begin? The "Ancient Mariner's" storyline is broadly allegorical enough to be interpreted in countless different ways and to offer countless different aspects for said interpretation (none of which I feel qualified to properly go into here) - which may be what has helped rocket it into the realm of literary legend. Although clearly one of its greatest strengths, this emphasis on the metaphysical could also risk coming across as too pious and moral-of-the-story-ish for some. (I'll add here that the poem is explicitly Christian, but non-Christians - don't be scared off. There's plenty for us here too.) Don't let the huge themes distract you though from the beautiful and beautifully surreal imagery that brings to life burning thirst, writhing sea-snakes, and boat-fulls of reproachfully staring dead men so horribly compellingly, the intense emotion, vivid hyperbole, and gripping drama that so bewitchingly captivates, the craftfully delivered cuts from open sea to wide-eyed storyteller to tantalisingly distant wedding party, or the charming and deeply fitting pace of the rythmic ballad metre. Aesthetes and thinkers - there's a lot here for both of you here, and for those of us who are a bit of both, this is really a jackpot. ✍️ Quote of the poem: "An orphan's curse would drag to Hell A spirit from on high; But oh! more horrible than that Is a curse in a dead man's eye! Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse, And yet I could not die. " ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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not set
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Oct 24, 2020
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Paperback
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| 1842430351
| 9781842430354
| 1842430351
| 4.23
| 77,799
| Dec 1984
| Jan 01, 2001
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really liked it
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"Jitterbug Perfume" by Tom Robbins is a refreshingly unconventional, slightly bizzare, deeply profound, and strongly compelling cult classic. A kaleid "Jitterbug Perfume" by Tom Robbins is a refreshingly unconventional, slightly bizzare, deeply profound, and strongly compelling cult classic. A kaleidoscopic mix of preposterous plotline, goofy comedy, and confusingly wacky reflection comes together, also kaleidoscope-like, to form patterns whose beauty (let alone philosophical implications) are sometimes dizzying - and somehow, there's nothing quite as satisfying and mentally stimulating as the combination Robbins' comedy and his philosophy. The startlingly eclectic cast brings together a broke waitress, a thousand-year-old couple, an eccentric New Orleans perfumier, a marginally crazy doctor, an ancient pagan god, and the beet. (Yeah, like the vegetable. It plays a surprisingly central role.) A literary rule-breaker, Robbins displays a happy disregard for any and all conventional criticism, notably with groan-inducingly childish authors-point-of-view asides, but somehow, as part of the bigger picture, this all just adds to the refreshing charm of his style and compliments the similarly rule-breaking nature of the underlying messages. ✍️ Quote of the Book: "It is better to be small, colorful, sexy, careless, and peaceful, like the flowers, than large, conservative, repressed, fearful, and aggressive, like the thunder lizards; a lesson, by the way, that the Earth has yet to learn." ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 08, 2020
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Jan 04, 2021
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Aug 25, 2020
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Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0393339815
| 9780393339819
| 0393339815
| 4.32
| 29,431
| Oct 07, 1938
| Jul 05, 2011
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it was amazing
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"The Code of the Woosters" by P.G. Wodehouse is a hilarious, delightful, and unputdownable rollercoaster ride through a charming last-century world of
"The Code of the Woosters" by P.G. Wodehouse is a hilarious, delightful, and unputdownable rollercoaster ride through a charming last-century world of cow creamers, policeman's helmets, newts, and tyrannical aunts. Wodehouse's trademark labyrinthine plotline is as elaborate and nevertheless precisely and satisfying resolved as ever here, but the heart of his writing - the element that endears him so dependably to so many readers - is his effervescent prose. Archetypally British, hearteningly nostalgic, and unfalteringly funny, it's a colorful jumble of dated slang, classical references, lazily abbreviated words, and the clipped, proper Edwardian English that you can only hear in a snobbish, slightly nasal aristocratic British accent. A seemingly endless fount of amusement, Wodehouse refuses to ever just narrate an event, always insisting on finding a way to make it's narration entertaining, whether via ludicrous hyperbole, ingenious plays on words, ridiculous juxtapositions of hyper-formal culture and base animal emotions, or any other absurd device that might cross his mind. If you have even the most basic appreciation for humour, many laughs await. ✍️ Quote of the Book: "In my recent picture of Sir Watkyn Bassett reeling beneath the blow of hearing that I wanted to marry into his family, I compared his garglings, if you remember, to the death rattle of a dying duck. I might now have been this duck’s twin brother, equally stricken..." ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 25, 2020
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Nov 18, 2020
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Aug 25, 2020
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Paperback
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| 158049580X
| 9781580495806
| 158049580X
| 4.17
| 378,978
| Feb 14, 1895
| 2005
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liked it
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"The Importance of Being Earnest,” by Oscar Wilde, is a fun and ludicrous short play that relies heavily on a quickly overused brand of wit but has an
"The Importance of Being Earnest,” by Oscar Wilde, is a fun and ludicrous short play that relies heavily on a quickly overused brand of wit but has an important critique at its heart. The story’s back-and-forth, farcical comedy-style plot is - deliberately - ridiculously contrived, but if that doesn’t drain all the humour out of the jokes for you (no promises here...) you’re in for a few satisfying surprises and entertaining laughs. With no character development, atmosphere, or emotional element to speak of, the play offers only this circus-act plot and Wilde’s renown aphoristic repartee - an aspect, sadly, that so entirely fills every piece of dialogue that it easily becomes tiring. Behind this frivolous facade, however, hides a shrewd observation about the lopsided emphasis society puts on the superficial and exterior - an underlying point hinted at by the spelling of “earnest” in the title.* ✍️ Quote of the book: "To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness." (*The story hinges on the importance of being named Ernest, so the title is a pun.) ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 25, 2020
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Sep 19, 2020
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Aug 25, 2020
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Paperback
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| 1781100217
| 9781781100219
| B01DWAZQ5I
| 4.47
| 10,405,654
| Jun 26, 1997
| Dec 08, 2015
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liked it
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"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," by J. K. Rowling and Olly Moss, is a delightful children's adventure. With just the right amount of novelt
"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," by J. K. Rowling and Olly Moss, is a delightful children's adventure. With just the right amount of novelty, excitement, chills, and intrigue, (and more than enough magic), the drama is presented at perfectly child-sized scale through Rowling's gripping but endearing voice, and welcomes the reader into an arrestingly quirky and fantastical realm. The parallel world created in this book seems almost too thoughtlessly and mechanically thrown together, even for a children's book, and the small annoyances that children's literature seems to be resigned to (corny symbolism, contrived dialects...) are alive and well here too, but these are only petty grievances in the face of the enchanting saga begun with "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone." As an adult read, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" pales to tolerable, and a star or two fall off my rating. Although the storyline begun here may be adult-worthy (we'll see), there's a lot to cringe at when the young target audience is not a given. Kids, though, you're in for a fun ride! ✍️ Quote of the book: "There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them." ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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not set
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Jul 23, 2020
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ebook
| ||||||||||||||
| 0140447636
| 9780140447637
| 0140447636
| 3.80
| 14,032
| 1884
| Feb 24, 2004
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liked it
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"Against Nature" by J.K. Huysmans is an extraordinary, scandalous, and deeply alluring world of it's own, a thrilling dive into the deep end of a craz
"Against Nature" by J.K. Huysmans is an extraordinary, scandalous, and deeply alluring world of it's own, a thrilling dive into the deep end of a crazy but fascinating mind, and the literary embodiment of fin-de-siècle. There's no real plotline here - just a meticulous exploration of what happens when an eccentric misanthrope with an intense and slightly peculiar relationship to art and a lot of money is left to his own devices for 300 pages. It's an astounding, almost fantastical world though, with vivid splendor, grim horror, and everything in between. Expect exhaustive discussions of topics it never would have crossed your mind to even think about, lots of esoteric commentary, only one real character to speak of, treasure troves of breathtaking prose, and nothing really like any other book you've ever read before. The beauty that shines through all this is a strange one, but no less beautiful for it. It's the beauty of orchids that look like rotting flesh, of tortoises loaded literally to death with luxurious jewels, of drawings of nightmares and hideous torture, of a life drowned in bizarre pleasures, driven by the frantic search for new titillation, and starved of anything that could be considered wholesome or even natural - a wierd but intense beauty, the beauty of decadence. ✍️ Quote of the book: "[Baudelaire] had descended to the bottom of the inexhaustible mine, had picked his way along abandoned or unexplored galleries, and had finally reached those districts of the soul where the monstrous vegetations of the sick mind flourish. There, near the breeding ground of intellectual aberrations and disease of the mind - the mysterious tetanus, the burning fever of lust, the typhoids and yellow fevers of crime – he had found, hatching in the dismal forcing-house of ennui, the frightening climacteric of thoughts and emotions." ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 08, 2020
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Nov 26, 2020
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Jul 08, 2020
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Paperback
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| B07VBWFSFX
| 4.23
| 6,280
| Jul 30, 2019
| Jul 30, 2019
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liked it
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"The Hitman's Guide to Making Friends and Finding Love," by Alice Winters, is, if nothing else, a light-hearted, quirky, and hilarious little read. A
"The Hitman's Guide to Making Friends and Finding Love," by Alice Winters, is, if nothing else, a light-hearted, quirky, and hilarious little read. A fusion of comedy, erotica, action, and even mystery, it whisks the reader through an unexeptional and shallow plot that can, at best, be described as "fun," but makes up for any mediocrity by infusing it all with hitman Leland's priceless personality. Romantic moments, tense action scenes, and even steamy sex episodes are all wrecklessly ruined by his wittily irreverent backtalk, and although it almost seems as if the entire plot exists only as a platform for his wisecracks and the other characters only as a backboard for them, you have to admit that there could be worse justifications for a meh story. Don't expect much else, but you're definitely in for a lot of good laughs - out loud on your own in your room, the kind that wierds the neighbours out, if you're anything like me ...more |
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1
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Jul 08, 2020
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Jul 22, 2020
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Jul 08, 2020
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Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||||
| 4.13
| 1,615,042
| Jun 1890
| Jun 01, 2004
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it was amazing
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"The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde is an intriguing and philosophically profound landmark Gothic novel. There's the beautifully poetic prose. "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde is an intriguing and philosophically profound landmark Gothic novel. There's the beautifully poetic prose. There's the latent homoerotic element, hinted at throughout and adding an engagingly elusive sexual dimension. Of course, there's Lord Henry's renowned wit (which does, admittedly, start bordering on tiresome after epigram on scandalous epigram). And then, there are the underlying themes. Art, beauty, transience, friendship, society, and, most importantly, moralism and aestheticism are all extensively explored. And just quickly, about those last two... The Picture of Dorian Gray is widely read as an admonition, warning of the dire results of immoral excess, but the "art for arts sake" preface, where Wilde suggests that moral rectitude and aesthetic value exist on different planes, seems to hint that, if that's not a complete misinterpretation, at least there's more to it. Maybe there is a cautionary tale in Dorian Gray, but maybe that's only half of the story. Is the portrait, slowly accumulating the horrible burden of Dorian's indulgences, just a mechanism to make him the perfect bad example by allowing him to continue unrestrained? Or is it also a way of separating out the bad and the beautiful in what he does? ✍️ Quote of the Book: "We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely." ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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not set
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Jul 05, 2020
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Paperback
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| 0770430074
| 9780770430078
| 0770430074
| 3.94
| 1,659,784
| Sep 11, 2001
| Aug 29, 2006
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it was amazing
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**spoiler alert** "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel is a beautiful and page-turning story, a parable of universal dimensions, and the ultimate tall tale. Th **spoiler alert** "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel is a beautiful and page-turning story, a parable of universal dimensions, and the ultimate tall tale. The novel launches into it's gripping and eye-popping narrative so earnestly and matter-of-factly that it's only well into the book that the accumulation of incredibility starts you looking out warily for some deeper level down below - and only in the last few pages that the whole truth emerges. There were two stories all along, and the second one was a lot more believable but also a lot more horrible than the first. It's a monumental amalgamation of fact and fiction that ends up bringing the very the importance - if not the existence itself - of "fact" and "fiction" into question in the most existential of ways. (Even the biographical preface describing how Martel stumbled across the story for his book is a cunning fusion of fantasy and reality, teasing the question of whether any of the parallels between the two stories to come apply here - in the author's life - too.) Yes, this is all funneled into a very specific conclusion about religion in the end (which I'll decline to comment on here), but the whirlwind of ideas that is the rest of the book remains, and it's a magical and an earthshaking one. The tale is told in a fittingly quirky and playful style that's just right for distilling huge themes, and Martel has what it takes to turn the act of killing a fish or the discovery of a botanically freakish island into intensely emotional moments. ✍️ Quote of the Book: "That's what fiction is about, isn't it, the selective transforming of reality? The twisting of it to bring out its essence?" ...more |
Notes are private!
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2
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Dec 08, 2020
Dec 08, 2020
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Mar 09, 2021
Mar 09, 2021
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Jul 02, 2020
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Paperback
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