Blurt! — Sben

Blurt! — Sben
pile.org

Finished reading The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley. This book managed the neat trick of being, simultaneously, a sci-fi novel, a thriller, and a romance novel, and pretty good at all three.

Sometimes I entertain myself by explaining today’s world to Samuel Pepys. This book has taken some of that work off my shoulders, for a little while.

Also

Finished reading The Wordhord by Hana Videen. This was a fun amble through some Old English vocabulary, not especially deep or challenging, but fun and interesting.

— 1/27/2025 8:12pm ∞
Finished reading Polostan by Neal Stephenson. Even though I was warned that it was a surprisingly-normal-sized book, I was surprised by its very normal size. That turns out to be a bit deceptive though: The story is very clearly unfinished at the end of the book (though many parts are wrapped up nicely). Two more of these and it’ll feel like a more typical Stephenson opus.

— 1/11/2025 7:30pm ∞
The annual reading report.

— 12/31/2024 3:38pm ∞
Finished reading (or rereading?) The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks, one of his earlier Culture novels. I think I might have read this about 25 years ago, but I have even less memory of it than I would have expected, recalling story beats more than scenes or even plot points. Anyway, I quite enjoyed it.

— 12/30/2024 11:05am ∞
Finished reading The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories and “The Wood at Midwinter”, short fiction by Susanna Clarke. All of the stories fit right into the Strange & Norrell setting. The stories in the former are all charming and have the novel’s characteristic humor. The latter is unsettling in the same way as Piranesi.

— 11/15/2024 5:20pm ∞