I'm Done.

[sisterite]

Finished The Night Circus tonight.

If you haven't read it, go get it. This book... It is seriously one of the very best books I have ever read. Absolutely. I need a copy of this. I want a copy that is loved, and worn, and dogeared, and has notes and highlighting in it. I was a copy that has been lived in and enjoyed

Comments

[juushika]

Ah I'm so glad you loved it through to the end. Although to be honest, I was for once not nervous about this book recommendation: I think The Night Circus is one of those magical things that's immensely readable and popular without being hollowed out by the demands of readability and popularity. I saw it recommended but fantastic sources and in the impulse-buy section of my local supermarket, which confused the hell out of me but now makes sense—it's fantastic escapist stylistic beauty, but with depth, real substance. Somehow that combination impresses me above all.

I went into the ending a bit nervous because it would be so easy to let style overwhelm substance as it went on but also because SPOILERS of the bait-and-switch bad ending; the threat of destruction gave the plot depth, but the high note of the end, the existent circus and the fact that the viewer's second-person eye is in fact in present day, tied it up in a satisfying and emotional bow that I needed. It needed a "good" ending, because that's what makes it the sort of

[sisterite]

According to my Kindle, I'm 6% through Perdido Street Station... It's heavy. Meiville has some thick descriptions in regards to the locations in the story, but ... I'm having a hard time with it. It may be that I know it's incredibly long (Goodreads tells me 600+ pages). It may be that the writing style is so different than The Night Circus, which I finished less than 24 hours ago. It might be that I need to read something else before delving into Perdido Street Station. I'm a little bummed that the blurb on Goodreads doesn't give me much to go on; I'm mostly reading it because I've had so many people recommend it to me.

I need to find more books that I can borrow from the library via Kindle. I've got The Maze Runner and A Dance with Dragons on hold, but it's going to be forever until I get them. I think I may need something that doesn't make me strain to understand as much as Perdido Street Station is so far.

[juushika]

Not gonna lie, Perdido is long and dense, and overwritten which doesn't help things. My copy was 710 pages, which is sort of embarrassing—I like a substantial novel well enough, but at a certain point you're just gunning for length, not greatness. Meiville has a sort of fetish for complexity, and in some ways it works: the world is vast and nearly believable and often fascinating; in many other ways, though, it's just thesaurus abuse and intentional confusing plotting as if feeling intricate and dense will make it intricate and dense, and as if those adjectives immediately make a work more meaningful.

I dunno, Meiville and I just don't get along. I hear such good things that I want to keep trying, but I have a rule that after I've banged my head against an author ~3 times and they're still not working for me, I have to stop trying for at least a few years. THAT SAID I hear his newest novel, Railsea, is fun and speedy instead of dense and plodding; it's young adult, but not as young as Un Lun Dun, and on the fringes of steampunk. It

[sisterite]

Yup, SPL! \o/ It's a good system, for what it is; the ability to download books at home, when they're available, is pretty freaking awesome. And they have licenses available, usually, in two or three separate formats, so that's nice.

But yes; I can put books on hold from home. The problem actually lies in getting to the library to take books out / return them. I like checking them out from the downtown library; I just love that library. But I discovered (today, in fact) that the Kirkland library is right around the corner from where I work, though, so it sounds like I'll be able to take out more book books.

... Now I have to see what I can find that's I really want to read that's available. :3 And maybe wander to the library tomorrow on my lunch break.