Reading list update

[tenlittlebullets]

(Yes, I know, I am boring hear me snore.)

Things in strikethrough I've read, things in italics I'm currently reading. Number of pages in parentheses.

Original List:

Quicksilver (916)
The Confusion (815)
The System of the World (886)
His Majesty's Dragon (353)
Throne of Jade (398)
Black Powder War (365)
Empire of Ivory (404)
Victory of Eagles (374)
La Comtesse de Rudolstadt (~690)
Les sept cordes de la lyre (164)
Mademoiselle de Maupin (82/284)
American Gods (588)
Faust (503 but bilingual, so 251 pages each of German and English)

Added to the list since I got back to Smith:

The Well of Loneliness (437)
The Persian Boy (411)
L'éros romantique (23/224)

Pages read: 3395
Pages remaining: 4417
Pages on original list: 6740
Pages on updated list: 7812
Approximately 43% done with the whole list, 50% done with original list

Why am I calculating these things?

Comments

[mmebahorel.livejournal.com]

Because you're a dork :)

I finished Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell tonight! That's one thing of yours I can give back to you :) (seriously, I'm back to Vidocq after this, minus timeouts for writing slash or puzzling through Mickiewicz because my dictionary shipped yesterday. I'm hopeful that between Vidocq, Police Stories, and a little more effort based on what I can find in those two books, I can have this chapter accomplished by the end of the summer and then you can have Vidocq back.)

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

Yay! What did you think of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell?

[ulkis.livejournal.com]

I was gonna say 'cause it's fun. I'm jealous of mmebahorel - I started reading Strange and Norrell but got stuck at about page 500. Bah. I hate reading something that big and then not finishing it.

How did you like Quicksilver? I've heard good things but find the size intimidating.

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

I liked Quicksilver but it's not my favorite Neal Stephenson book. It's less tightly-paced and seemed less plotty than his other books (probably because he has an entire 2500+ page trilogy to space things out over), but he does have a knack for digging up really awesome stuff that seems miscellaneous and tying it all together--I was not interested in the 17th century at all before I started it, but Stephenson's point appears to be that that was essentially when the modern world came into being. Because that's when things started getting organized--commerce being made into huge financial systems, alchemy giving birth to Natural Philosophy, governments and revolutions that are starting to look less like feudalism and peasant revolts and more like modern systems with theories on how to manage society and religion.

And it's Stephenson, who is brilliant at understanding systems and also an irreverent filthy-minded jackass, often at the same time. Which is pretty much what's needed to demolish the "stuffy old men in ridiculous wigs being Very Serious" impression of the era while still doing it justice.

[ulkis.livejournal.com]

I was not interested in the 17th century at all before I started it

That's a good sign. Because I am kinda interested in the 17th century, but not the characters he seemed to be studying in particular.

[in-a-greenhouse.livejournal.com]

I really liked Quicksilver, but I couldn't get through the second book. Just started Stone's Fall (historical fiction/mystery) yesterday. So good!

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

You're the second or third person who's said that re: Quicksilver and The Confusion. I'm starting to be afraid. ;)