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badspringbye's reviews
194 reviews
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
take a shot every time this book brings up words with 'moon' and 'grave' in it, and I'll be drunk in five minutes. that's the charm of it all though and I love it.
I'm surprised I didn't enjoy the illustrations as much as I thought I would. it didn't really give much spice to the story, but the most touching one is probably the one about the headstone, also my favorite scene (pg. 142).
excerpts:
p. 104 "And there are always people who find their lives have become unsupportable they believe the best thing they could do would be to hasten their transition to another plane of existence."
"Are they happier dead?"
"Sometimes. Mostly, no. ... Wherever you go, you take yourself with you."
p. 232 "Of all the organs, the tongue is the most remarkable. For we use it both to taste our sweet wine and bitter poison, thus also do we utter words both sweet and sour with the same tongue."
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
4.0
"Things blossom in their time. They bud and blossom, blossom and fade. Everything in their time."
take a shot every time this book brings up words with 'moon' and 'grave' in it, and I'll be drunk in five minutes. that's the charm of it all though and I love it.
I'm surprised I didn't enjoy the illustrations as much as I thought I would. it didn't really give much spice to the story, but the most touching one is probably the one about the headstone, also my favorite scene (pg. 142).
excerpts:
p. 104 "And there are always people who find their lives have become unsupportable they believe the best thing they could do would be to hasten their transition to another plane of existence."
"Are they happier dead?"
"Sometimes. Mostly, no. ... Wherever you go, you take yourself with you."
p. 232 "Of all the organs, the tongue is the most remarkable. For we use it both to taste our sweet wine and bitter poison, thus also do we utter words both sweet and sour with the same tongue."
The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
dark
informative
reflective
fast-paced
3.0
the wallpaper triggered and helped her and this situation got me involved with the overflowing madness post-pregnancy state of this person's mind. good piece but the manner of expressions were on and off.
The Sandman Vol. 2: The Doll's House by Neil Gaiman
from issue #13
“You've observed all that. But you knew from the start. I think you're here for something else.”
“And what might that be?”
“Friendship. I think you're lonely.”
from issue #16:
“When the last living thing has left this universe, then our task will be done. And we do not manipulate them. If anything, they manipulate us. We are their toys. Their dolls. And you—and Despair, and even poor Delirium—should remember that.”
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
can't help but compare a bit with the changes they made on the adaptation vs this and I think the former was better at certain points and made it less confusing (character, time, and setting transitions are so mind boggling it's crucial to keep attentiveness at max level lol)
“A nightmare created to be the darkness, and the fear of darkness in every human heart. A black mirror, made to reflect everything about itself that humanity will not confront. But look at you. Forty years walking the earth, honing yourself, infecting others with your joy of death and what have you given them? What have you wrought, Corinthian? Nothing. Just something else for people to be scared of. That's all. You've told them that there are bad people out there. And they've known that all along.”
from issue #13
“You've observed all that. But you knew from the start. I think you're here for something else.”
“And what might that be?”
“Friendship. I think you're lonely.”
from issue #16:
“When the last living thing has left this universe, then our task will be done. And we do not manipulate them. If anything, they manipulate us. We are their toys. Their dolls. And you—and Despair, and even poor Delirium—should remember that.”
The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
slow-paced
2.0
2 or 2.5
beginning good - everything in the middle trash - ending great
(terrible book to start a five-book series. Leo's backstory kept me going. can the lovers get a room? nobody cares about them anyway.)
beginning good - everything in the middle trash - ending great
(terrible book to start a five-book series. Leo's backstory kept me going. can the lovers get a room? nobody cares about them anyway.)
The Hobbit: or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
4.0
if I was mr. Bilbo Baggins you'll never catch me giving the littlest help to these ungrateful bunch
fave parts: riddles in the dark (the one about dark & wind is so cool!) and beorn's hall. thanks to the illustrations as well for making the experience more memorable (I'm obsessed with it).
p. 48 “Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about; while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway.”
fave parts: riddles in the dark (the one about dark & wind is so cool!) and beorn's hall. thanks to the illustrations as well for making the experience more memorable (I'm obsessed with it).
p. 48 “Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about; while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway.”
The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes & Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman
from issue #3/4:
“I am the universe—all things encompassing, all life embracing.”
“I am anti-life, the beast of judgment. I am the dark at the end of everything. The end of universes, gods, worlds...of everything.”
“I am hope.”
from issue #8:
“Death is before me today:
Like the recovery of a sick man,
Like going forth into a garden after sickness.
-
Death is before me today:
Like the odor of myrrh,
Like sitting under a sail in a good wind.
-
Death is before me today:
Like the course of a stream,
Like the return of a man from the war-galley to his house.
-
Death is before me today:
Like the home that a man longs to see,
After years spent as a captive.”
-
“That forgotten poet understood her gifts.”
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
first read but I can already tell I will go back to this over and over again without getting tired of it
“I find myself wondering about humanity. Their attitude to my sister's gift is so strange. Why do they fear the sunless lands? It is as natural to die as it is to be born. But they fear her. Dread her. Feebly attempt to placate her.”
from issue #3/4:
“I am the universe—all things encompassing, all life embracing.”
“I am anti-life, the beast of judgment. I am the dark at the end of everything. The end of universes, gods, worlds...of everything.”
“I am hope.”
from issue #8:
“Death is before me today:
Like the recovery of a sick man,
Like going forth into a garden after sickness.
-
Death is before me today:
Like the odor of myrrh,
Like sitting under a sail in a good wind.
-
Death is before me today:
Like the course of a stream,
Like the return of a man from the war-galley to his house.
-
Death is before me today:
Like the home that a man longs to see,
After years spent as a captive.”
-
“That forgotten poet understood her gifts.”
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.0
3 or maybe 4, idk I feel like it's something that I would read again in the future
excerpts:
p. 106 "...so he had plenty of time to meditate at his leisure on how he was to arrange his life afresh. But the lofty, empty room in which he had to lie flat on the floor filled him with an apprehension he could not account for, since it had been his very own room for the past five years."
p. 112 "For in reality day by day things that were even a little way off were growing dimmer to his sight; ... was now quite beyond his range of vision, and if he had not known that he lived in Charlotte Street, a quiet street but still a city street, he might have believed that his window gave on a desert waste where gray sky and gray land blended indistinguishably into each other."
p. 116 "...doesn't it look as if we were showing him, by taking away his furniture, that we have given up hope of his ever getting better and are just leaving him coldly to himself? I think it would be best to keep his room exactly as it has always been, so that when he comes back to us he will find everything unchanged and be able all the more easily to forget what has happened in between."
excerpts:
p. 106 "...so he had plenty of time to meditate at his leisure on how he was to arrange his life afresh. But the lofty, empty room in which he had to lie flat on the floor filled him with an apprehension he could not account for, since it had been his very own room for the past five years."
p. 112 "For in reality day by day things that were even a little way off were growing dimmer to his sight; ... was now quite beyond his range of vision, and if he had not known that he lived in Charlotte Street, a quiet street but still a city street, he might have believed that his window gave on a desert waste where gray sky and gray land blended indistinguishably into each other."
p. 116 "...doesn't it look as if we were showing him, by taking away his furniture, that we have given up hope of his ever getting better and are just leaving him coldly to himself? I think it would be best to keep his room exactly as it has always been, so that when he comes back to us he will find everything unchanged and be able all the more easily to forget what has happened in between."
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
more excerpts:
p. 45 "But if there is no one, if there is nowhere left to go? I mean, everyone must have at least somewhere to go. For there comes a time in every man’s life when he simply must have somewhere he can go!"
p. 108 "The way he saw it, this eclipse of reason and failure of will attack human beings like an illness, developing slowly and reaching their crisis not long before the enactment of the crime; … on the other hand, the question of whether it was in illness that gave rise to the crime, or whether the crime itself was, by its peculiar nature, invariably accompanied by something resembling an illness, was one that he did not yet feel able to determine."
p. 177 "To be quite honest, if one goes into all the ins and outs of everyone, are there really going to be all that many good people left?"
p. 400 "The one all our legal rules and formalities are designed for and the one on the basis of which they’re all worked out and written into the legal textbooks, simply doesn’t exist, for the very good reason that every case, every crime, if you like, as soon as it takes place in reality, turns into a thoroughly special case."
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
4.5 or 5, whatever!
I feel like I committed the crime and suffered from the punishment myself
I feel like I committed the crime and suffered from the punishment myself
"The execution of the deed is sometimes masterfully done, in the most ingenious fashion, yet the control of the individual actions that comprise it, the origin of those actions, is diffuse and is associated with various morbid sensations. Rather like a dream."
more excerpts:
p. 45 "But if there is no one, if there is nowhere left to go? I mean, everyone must have at least somewhere to go. For there comes a time in every man’s life when he simply must have somewhere he can go!"
p. 108 "The way he saw it, this eclipse of reason and failure of will attack human beings like an illness, developing slowly and reaching their crisis not long before the enactment of the crime; … on the other hand, the question of whether it was in illness that gave rise to the crime, or whether the crime itself was, by its peculiar nature, invariably accompanied by something resembling an illness, was one that he did not yet feel able to determine."
p. 177 "To be quite honest, if one goes into all the ins and outs of everyone, are there really going to be all that many good people left?"
p. 400 "The one all our legal rules and formalities are designed for and the one on the basis of which they’re all worked out and written into the legal textbooks, simply doesn’t exist, for the very good reason that every case, every crime, if you like, as soon as it takes place in reality, turns into a thoroughly special case."
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
challenging
dark
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
“Lost in the solitude of his immense power, he began to lose direction.” x10
a month after, I am still conflicted. may or may not revisit as a whole or just the sections and passages that I thoroughly loved and got invested in during my first read.
excerpts:
p. 65 "The house became full of love. Aureliano expressed it in poetry that had no beginning or end."
p. 78 "He spent six hours examining things, trying to find a difference from their appearance on the previous day in the hope of discovering in them some change that would reveal the passage of time."
p. 119 “...Arcadio found the formality of death ridiculous. Death really did not matter to him but life did, and therefore the sensation he felt when they gave their decision was not a feeling of fear but of nostalgia.”
p. 167 “And normality was precisely the most fearful part of that infinite war: nothing ever happened.”
p. 248 “...in the impenetrable solitude of decrepitude she had such clairvoyance as she examined the most insignificant happenings in the family that for the first time she saw clearly the truths that her busy life in former times had prevented her from seeing.”
a month after, I am still conflicted. may or may not revisit as a whole or just the sections and passages that I thoroughly loved and got invested in during my first read.
excerpts:
p. 65 "The house became full of love. Aureliano expressed it in poetry that had no beginning or end."
p. 78 "He spent six hours examining things, trying to find a difference from their appearance on the previous day in the hope of discovering in them some change that would reveal the passage of time."
p. 119 “...Arcadio found the formality of death ridiculous. Death really did not matter to him but life did, and therefore the sensation he felt when they gave their decision was not a feeling of fear but of nostalgia.”
p. 167 “And normality was precisely the most fearful part of that infinite war: nothing ever happened.”
p. 248 “...in the impenetrable solitude of decrepitude she had such clairvoyance as she examined the most insignificant happenings in the family that for the first time she saw clearly the truths that her busy life in former times had prevented her from seeing.”
Poor People by Fyodor Dostoevsky
1.0
dnf at 70%
least work from him. I'm not even mad at it I just accepted that his earlier works are not ✨ dostoevsky ✨ yet and it shows and it's ok kkk
least work from him. I'm not even mad at it I just accepted that his earlier works are not ✨ dostoevsky ✨ yet and it shows and it's ok kkk