A Preponderance of Literature and Rants

I cannot for the life of me imagine why I read Pride and Prejudice. It is similar to reading Susanna Clarke after taking barbiturates, and without any magic whatsoever. (The reverse would have been much more appropriate, but I’m afraid sff has consumed my mind). The book is a whimsical exercise of extravagant manners and [...]

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Crimson Flame

Tell
The monster resembled a giant lizard. It stormed through the city, breathing flame and burning thousands. Its huge claws picked people off the street and threw them into its colossal jaws. Its muscular legs toppled smaller buildings as it continued its dreadful march through the crowded city center.
Show
The terrible fire lizard towered over the streets [...]

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Extremities

Literature provokes a response. Great literature speaks to a reader to the depths of his soul. The response of the reader is not essentially what the writer may intend; as long as the reader gains something from the work, or has been affected by the novel, the writer is uplifted. Few books have elicted a [...]

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Interloper

Maybe I should never have started on Robin Hobb. I know that hence, every book she writes, I will buy. (Except the latest trilogy, for reasons I shall not deign to explain.). Ship of Magic is heady stuff. Especially given the nautical theme, which I thought I might not have gotten into.
Well, anyway. My prospectus [...]

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More More Books

Yesterday, I visited Parkway Parade and on a whim added two venerable novels into my stack of unread books – Pride and Prejudice and Don Quixote. This transaction was carried out duly and cost me a ten, which was outrageously funny. Pride compels me to deny categorically that the purchase was driven at all by [...]

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More Books

It is a good day, on account of the weather. Or it was a good- well, never mind. Clear skies and wind. Although it is clouding over.

It is probable that this is intended to demonstrate a point about the transience of things, especially weather, which isn’t only transient, but capricious as well. Started on EE, [...]

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Books

Over the past few days I’ve purchased nine books. Of these, four are English A1 texts. The other five include: Shadow and Pattern by K.J. Parker, being the first two novels in her Scavenger trilogy, Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb, being the first book of her Liveship Traders, trilogy, Brave New World by Aldous [...]

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Sea

I am fraught with a kind of distant despair at the sheer number of books out there that are worthy to be read and to possess. It is, however, futile to even consider obtaining even a tiny fraction of these books, yet alone the total corpus of worthies that are the combined output of human [...]

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More of the Twain

Once again two months stretch ahead of us. Insert angsty blah about work here.
Okay, we’re done with that. Some momentous things have occurred recently. For example, last week I watched The Prestige. I have no time or energy to write a review, especially when the prudent reviewer must needs deftly avoid the subject of the [...]

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