Blurt! — Sben

Blurt! — Sben
pile.org

Finished reading The Mills of the Gods by Tim Powers. Classic Powers (Phoenician gods + Paris + Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, and Pablo Picasso), executed … well, acceptably. Not one of his great works (start with Last Call or Declare, not his later books), and a little heavy-handed on the Catholicism (were all of his books like this?), but includes a truly harrowing oil lamp–lit journey through the Paris catacombs.

Also

Finally finished rereading Ursula K. Le Guin’s version of the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, reading her translation/rendering notes this afternoon. I don’t understand most of this, but most of what I understand resonates, and a lot of what I don’t makes me think.

— 12/28/2025 5:19pm ∞
Speaking of books, I’m slowly rereading Le Guin’s version of the Tao Te Ching, and I just started rereading her masterwork, Always Coming Home.

— 11/18/2025 10:57pm ∞
Started reading The Will of the Many by James Islington but set aside about a third of the way through. I’d bought a copy based solely on its cover and heft, but found myself disliking every character, none of whom seemed capable of uttering a simple true statement.

— 11/18/2025 10:55pm ∞
Finished reading The Dog of the South by Charles Portis. This was amazing; every character was such a weirdo, such a wild card, that I never knew what was going to happen next, and was just along for the ride. Portis treated each of them with respect, and the overall effect was maybe something like a less cruel, less political Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (meant in a good way).

— 10/22/2025 9:27pm ∞
Finished reading Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett. Probably the best of the now-three books, and I kind of hope it’s the last, because this feels like a good endpoint for Wilde’s story.

— 10/7/2025 11:25am ∞