Ben Bloch Bloch itibaren Pornaro VI, 意大利
3.5 stars that I'm rounding up to 4 because it literally made me laugh out loud quite a few times. Highly entertaining intro to all the weirdness involved in English grammar. There were numerous well-argued smackdowns of essentialism as well. I was a bit dismayed by the section where the author dismisses the notion that language informs one's point of view; not because he failed to make his case (I was thoroughly convinced, after hear it), but because it didn't really fit the thesis for the rest of the book. Discussion of English floats around in there, but mostly the author has a different ax to grind here. It's glaringly obvious. The parts that stay on task are quite fun and informative. I recommend the audio book because, I suspect, it can only help in hearing the similarities (and differences) between languages. The author is also clearly having fun while recording.
** spoiler alert ** I haven’t been posting what I’m reading lately because well, I haven’t felt like it. But for the past few days I’ve been immersing myself in these two books. The Magicians I flew through in less than two days and I’ve gotten through about 30% of The Magician King at this point. I really don’t like fantasy. Not the typical fantasy such as Tolkien, George RR Martin, and the like. I actually don’t even know how or why I came across these books. I am always browsing around for new books to read and compiling them on my kindle, unsure whether I will even read most of them. I was going through such books, several of which I was thinking where the fuck did this one come from and what is it about. I started reading it to figure out what it was and frankly, thought it was some retarded teenage angst sort of story and was going to delete it and forget it. An unhappy boy named Quintin is a highly intelligent student who perfects his magic tricks in secret, alone in his room and flipping coins around in his hand in his pocket as he walks. He’s in love with his friend who is in love with his other friend. Life seems pointless and he’s secretly still obsessed with his favorite childhood novels which are very similar to the Narnia series but the fictional, magical land is called Fillory. In the start of the book he goes to an interview to enter a prestigious college but when he and his friend arrive they find that their interviewer is dead on the floor of his living room. When the authorites arrive one of the paramedics talks with them and then tries to give them large envelopes she found in the living room that have their names on them. Quintin takes his, his friend does not, assuming it’s something they weren’t supposed to look at (I’m not sure why). When Quintin sepparates from his friend and heads home he opens the envelope and finds in it a handwritten notebook with the title claiming to be the unpublished next book in the Fillory series. Also there is a note tucked in the pages which flies away on the wind. He goes after the note of course. He follows the note into a garden when suddenly he finds himself at the edge of a wood and in front of him stands a large castle-like building. There’s a guy about his age standing there and he asks him, is this Fillory? No it isn’t but he’s been summoned there to take a test to enter a Hogwarts-like school. This book is like Narnia and Harry potter combined but for adults. The plot includes swearing, sex (including homosexuality), and violence. The school he goes to is a college but the students are treated rather like they would be in an old fashioned British boarding school. They have more freedoms as they progress through five grades. He is put into a group of students according to their type of talent and these friends will be main characters for the rest of the series. It moves at a good pace, not allowing you to get bored but at times you think to yourself, this whole world is so ridiculous! I kept asking myself why I was reading it and was kind of embarrassed that I couldn’t put it down. It’s a very strange book(s). Some parts of it creeped me out enough to make me put it down for a while and do something else. It’s the sort of stuff that’s in my weirdest and scariest nightmares. Sometimes it seems the character’s backstories are annoyingly neglected and certain things are not tied together to make relevant sense but eventually all of those things are explained. (It is a long book.) Quintin is a very frustratingly dissatisfied guy, never feeling happy no matter how much his dreams come true. Almost immediately after something wonderful happens he finds reason to feel shitty about his life and the world anyway. This tendency is dealt with at the end of the book, thankfully. Despite everything (and keep in mind this isn’t my kind of book anyway), I have to give it to the author that he is very good at creating a complete and satisfying world and story. All the pieces of the tale come together quite nicely. It is the kind of book that some people will love and others will hate - Amazon reviews leave evidence of this. I find myself balancing precariously in the middle but I think I’ve finally tilted into the love category. I like it enough to be reading the second book and so far I’m enjoying it just as much as the first.
a sprawling book, that i can't say i love or hate. a book that covers generations, and more characters then one can remember a year after they read the book. Some of the characters though, and the situations just seem so real. Basically the only reason i kept reading this massive book. Some parts can't stop reading others a little less intense.