Reviews and Comments

It talks a lot about death, but in a positive way. It doesn't dread death, it talks about how to live in a way that you won't dread death. It speaks to mindfulness and self-awareness. It's a little heavy on the Roman references, but it's still relatable.

It reminded me a lot of Ralph Waldo Emerson's 'Self-Reliance'. The parts about having one's life stolen by the people who demand one's attention rang true, but he didn't really explore that to my satisfaction. There were a lot of references to Roman stuff that went overy head, but I still feel like I got the gist. It ended kind of abruptly, and in general flowed kind of weird. Reads like a rough draft

ChatGPT recommended this for my midlife crisis

This is a good pulpy western; there's adventure, there's fist fights, there's good-hearted protagonist, a plucky sidekick, a headstrong love interest, rotten bad guys, savvy Indians, and noble horses. You think everything's going to go alright, then it goes to hell, then everything gets set right by the end. What more can you want?

got distracted

started getting depressed, but also wishing I could get sent to a concentration camp

I've read a few Louis L'Amour books, so I figure I should give some other one's a try. My partner picked this one up at Goodwill for me. It's been read hard and put away wet. The first few chapters are falling out, and it smells like an attic.

Took me a while to get through Heart of Darkness. The reading of it was as arduous as the story being told. I expected some moral, but what I got was a lot of flowery prose that defied interpretation. The natives are nothing but a backdrop for the protagonist, and the Europeans with who are given character are boring. There's barely any action; and when there is it's over in a flourish of insane rambling before it even has started.

One thing I'll say is that it makes the Westerns I read seem morally complex.

I went into this book with a pretty correct idea about what it would be about. It reminded me of every job I've ever had; a bunch of childish boys trying to decide who's in charge.

What surprised me is that it was actually a nice little tropical vacation of sorts. I should have read it in wintertime.

That got better toward the end, once I got used to the prose and all the beachy island visual descriptions. I kinda hated all the characters, so it wasn't so bad watching them learn their lessons. I sort of wish there had been more natural danger; some predator, some illness, one or two of them dying from natural causes maybe. I knew what I was getting into though--social strife--and there was a lot of that.

As someone who suffers from social anxiety, this book is a horror story

I asked AI for a good book to read while having a midlife crisis

Growing up in Arkansas they never made us read this, so I guess I have some catching up to do.