Some people drink to forget.

Well, that there is something, I tell you what.

This captures how I feel pretty well. I just wish it was a better ratio than 50:50 to eye rolling and pointless description to actual story but the points i feel more strongly about resonate so well with me I have to continue this accursed novel.

Dark Matter and Recursion are the Blake Crouch novels to try.

[deleted]

Lonesome Dove, Shogun, Song of Achilles

Someone affirmed my struggling by telling me the only approach to the political sections in Phineas Finn was 'endure or skip', and somehow it's still a bit of reading advice that makes me smile...and encourages endurance.

I'd still tell Trollope he needs, not necc. an editor, but to make those sections more detailed so they either tie to character conflict, with the reader knowing all the named characters better, or go more deeply into a specific topical political issue, if not both, just to commit himself more instead of being too vague. He got more into the swing of writing the parliament scenes as he went on with the series, partly just due to having worked out how to develop a fictional government: his serious interest in real politics, having stood for election unsuccessfully, resulting in a miserable time in his life (Phineas' difficulties are more sharply depicted than his integration into parliament), may have initially hindered as well as helped, since writing a series of parliamentary novels really ended up requiring inventing and deviating from the real historical government.

So, I've certainly whined while reading before, counted pages, cursed, but even when I've felt an aspect of an otherwise good novel genuinely isn't quite working, find there's still something to get out of that.

You can think about why something works or doesn't, including considering if it simply doesn't work for you personally, compare to what does, it's a way to think about the construction of a work. Reading often imperfect eighteenth century political texts, having had in mind the specific goal of wanting to better understand the period and individuals involved, I've also become very interested in precisely those aspects, moments of hesitancy, where the writer seems to get stuck, lose confidence, perhaps get bogged down and even seems to go on excessively, their quirks and what they get hung up on, in what they don't say so feels missing from the text and what perhaps cannot be said. It can be a form of character study and lead to more of a feeling for the period.

Back to Trollope, I'm forever frustrated by his beloved fox hunting scenes, as a hunt sab supporting vegan (yes, I know hunting with dogs is supposed to be illegal here today, the law isn't enforced, fellow UK people, support your local hunt sabs!). Which is why one of my most memorable literary moments is how utterly moving the letter the Archdeacon writes to his son, ostensibly on the subject, is. I had to figure out how he'd done that, while using a topic I hated so much, and so chose the section for a close reading exercise. As much as I might prefer he'd had a different hobby and want to get through these too-long-to-me scenes ASAP, they generally illustrate character, and that's his key strength as a writer.

Yeah and my memory fails me at the moment but there are a number of literary classics that were originally published as newspaper/magazine periodicals. I believe a lot of Dostoyevsky was but I'm sure there were others including English classics.

This damn book asked me to take notes, so I didn't read it yet.

I would like to add english is my second language so I would appreciate it if the books recommendations are not too hard to read but still very informative.

This used to be more of a problem for me. I used to go back whole chapters because I was confused, but then I realized I hadn't really missed much and if I'd kept listening it would've eventually made sense. Now I'll often back up 20 or 30 seconds to the first thing I recognize when my mind wanders. Honestly I have to do the same thing when reading physical books: my mind will wander and I back up a paragraph or page or so. For me it was just a matter of adjusting and getting used to a new medium I think...

r/whatsthatbook is the subreddit to find books.

No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai is a great book, but I had such a visceral reaction to it while reading it that I don't dare reread it. It somehow hoists the feeling of alienation on to its reader.

The Setting Sun by Osamu Dazai didn't give me the same visceral reaction, so it must have something to do with Dazai finishing No Longer Human right before he committed suicide. Maybe when you're so close to death you write in a different way.

Pale Fire

Hell yeah dude. The Count of Monte Cristo is considered a literary classic, and it is serial pulp goodness at its core.

I have started this year with a Notebook where i write down the name of the Book, the day i finished, pages of the book and a 1-10 rating.

Every Month is one Page and at the end of the month i write down the number of Books and pages i read.

Wow just wow congratulations for making it to adulthood such a strong person

Same, for me it's narrators who are older British men that are impossible. I'm someone who needs subtitles with David Attenborough, so there's no way I'll keep my attention span if I don't understand half of what they're saying!

Totally agree with the multiple narrators, case in point I LOVED Daisy Jones and the Six.

Oh, yeah, Dark Matter. It was better than Upgrade, I guess, but it was the same formula as Upgrade, was it not?

>!There's a guy with unrealized ambitions working in a tech field. The guy gets injected with a subtance. Through a series of mistaken identity/circumstance, the guy is forced to run away from shadowy organization. Sci-fi fuckery happens. "Who am I?" "I miss <Wife> and <Child>."!<

I'm only halfway through Upgrade and I swear to god the twist going to be like >!"the evil lady worked for my employer the whole time 😲"!< or something.

Same, I think Bookly has the best UI out of all of them, and offers the most data points when it comes to reading, like reading time, speed. It also has some cool features, like reading reports, infographics reading assistant. It a cool product. Worth a try.

no both are too short. it was a thick ass book. and the cover was an actual photograph of a statue not a cartoon/illustration

You’re missing Dark Matter

Maybe: "Circe- a novel" or "Ariadne"

Thanks but those all seem to be physical copies and I am searching for a digital one.

Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man