ghostbetweenpages started reading Fifty Poems of Attar
I know nothing about historical Persian poetry and figured this was probably a good enough place to start :P
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I don't read very much, and 80% of what I do read is somehow related to Frankenstein (often rather tangentially).
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ghostbetweenpages commented on Paradise Lost (Norton Critical Editions) by John Milton
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John …
I'm finally reading while not extremely sleepy! Turns out you understand books better when you do this! Follow me 4 more Top Reading Tips!
Thus far I've been marking progress only when I finish a chapter. However, if I do that this time, I will forget to note the following footnote (page 83 of this edition, for Ch. 4 line 196):
cormorant: large, ugly, voracious sea bird
This is unnecessarily mean to cormorants, which are perfectly good birds :( :( :(
ghostbetweenpages commented on Paradise Lost (Norton Critical Editions) by John Milton
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John …
Content warning Mild spoilers for Ch. 3 of Paradise Lost
I'm really curious as to whether Paradise Lost's theology was standard christianity* for its time! Jesus and God-the-Father are presented pretty strongly as two separate beings here, and I don't know how much of this is artistic license vs that's how people actually thought/think of them in practise. I wonder if the Holy Spirit will get a speaking role (or appear at all).
I think it's very funny that Uriel, whomst is meant to be guarding the planet and everything, doesn't recognise Satan. Did Uriel not fight against Satan? Is he faceblind? Did God not give Uriel a briefing on Public Enemy No. 1? Is Satan just really good at disguise? I mean, he probably is.
I still don't really know what's going on. Probably I should look at sparknotes, or something. The words are all very pretty, though, and the Librivox guy has a very nice voice.
* disclaimer: I know christianity has multiple denominations. I don't know which one Milton was.
Ch. 2 exercises bay bee~
ghostbetweenpages started reading Quantum field theory for the gifted amateur by Tom Lancaster
I think I started reading this later than February, but not sure when.
ghostbetweenpages commented on Paradise Lost (Norton Critical Editions) by John Milton
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John …
I will admit I am not fully following it, which I don't particularly mind since I will probably do a second-pass (..., nth-pass) reading in the future anyway. I am enjoying meeting Hell's denziens!
I wonder how many heresies this book does, if any. I also wonder if historical people ever went on expeditions to find the Garden of Eden...
Also, I now know where the His Dark Materials series got that phrase from :D
ghostbetweenpages commented on Paradise Lost (Norton Critical Editions) by John Milton
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John …
Honestly I lost track of our cast of demons. I'm sure I'll come to recognise their names in the future :P
Satan has some banger lines thus far.
ghostbetweenpages started reading Paradise Lost (Norton Critical Editions) by John Milton
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John …
I'm reading along while listening to the librivox recording! Last time I tried Paradise Lost was over a decade ago; I didn't get very far but found Satan a surprisingly sympathetic figure. Hopefully this time I'll finish it :)
ghostbetweenpages started reading The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires is a 2020 horror novel by American …
there sure is a book club and also vampires in the south of the usa!
I liked the bit "I wanted to pit Dracula against my mom" in the author's note :)
ghostbetweenpages rated Detransition, Baby: 4 stars
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
A whipsmart debut about three women--transgender and cisgender--whose lives collide after an unexpected pregnancy forces them to confront their deepest …
ghostbetweenpages wants to read Cassandra Complex by Holly Smale
I was recommended this by someone who was wearing badges that were quotes from the book
ghostbetweenpages started reading Unbury Our Dead with Song by Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ
complete guess as to when I started it. maybe l'll remember to look up the actual date, but probably not :')
anyway, I read a portion of it, liked it, and then broke my phone. which is what I was reading it on. and then never remembered to get a new loan of it. whoops
ghostbetweenpages finished reading Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
A whipsmart debut about three women--transgender and cisgender--whose lives collide after an unexpected pregnancy forces …
I really liked this book! I'm lov the disaster women.
it was really interesting to read the Social Aspects Of Gender stuff. it's a topic I'm already familiar with etc etc, but always down to read more. this book in particular made me feel like I've been missing massive amounts of Social Stuff — like everyone else is aware of all the currents in the ocean (even if they can't necessarily see or verbalise them the way Reese and Ames/y do) and I can barely make out the waves. like. I am Aware of gender-currents stuff existing and I'm A Feminist and I'm not even cis, just, seeing Amy in particular narrating some stuff from her childhood/teenhood made me feel like — like how Reese did at the essential oils party!! people really do that?? live like that??
(I suspect it's, the neurotype thing. obvs nd people including me are …
I really liked this book! I'm lov the disaster women.
it was really interesting to read the Social Aspects Of Gender stuff. it's a topic I'm already familiar with etc etc, but always down to read more. this book in particular made me feel like I've been missing massive amounts of Social Stuff — like everyone else is aware of all the currents in the ocean (even if they can't necessarily see or verbalise them the way Reese and Ames/y do) and I can barely make out the waves. like. I am Aware of gender-currents stuff existing and I'm A Feminist and I'm not even cis, just, seeing Amy in particular narrating some stuff from her childhood/teenhood made me feel like — like how Reese did at the essential oils party!! people really do that?? live like that??
(I suspect it's, the neurotype thing. obvs nd people including me are not immune to social constructs including gender, but I think the neurotype thing is relevant here. also I am not a transgender woman :P)
I would like to read more books in this vein, esp with autistic protagonists (or not-necessarily-autistic-but-similar-intrinsic-difficulty-understanding-The-Socials), other-flavours-of-trans protagonists (including butch/masc trans women), and protagonists of colour! not in a zero-sum way, to be clear (hopefully that's the right phrasing for what I mean)!
I figured I'd find it like I found Nevada, which is to say, I'm glad the book exists and that I read it but it wasn't to My Personal Taste (genre reasons afaict — I don't typically read slice-of-life). but that was not an issue this time, which is interesting because Detransition, Baby! is also slice-of-life!
hopefully this all makes sense etc etc; writing things on mobile is a Bad Idea for coherency!
ghostbetweenpages reviewed The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an …
I read The Midnight Library!
5 stars
I enjoyed this book :) it's the first thing I finished in about a year, and I am very glad I did.