The Other Boleyn Girl

 This book very much made me think that this is what reading fanfiction must be like. All of the characters in the book were unlikable. Maybe Queen Katharine of Aragon was the only one that was not nasty, but maybe that was because she did not have a significant role in the book. I disliked Mary Boleyn's hypocrisy, her lack of self-awareness, her insincerity, and how immature she was. All characters were so immature, perhaps Anne Boleyn was the most immature, and so simple minded. Which is a shame, because from the little I have read about the true Anne Boleyn, she seems to have been an interesting woman in real life. It took me a long time to accept the creative narrative that Philippa Gregory, author of the book, was offering in this alternate universe in which so many things happened contrary to the academic historical consensus. But my verdict is that all that literary licence was simply not worth it. This book did not offer an interesting alternative to the canonical interpretation of the reign of Henry VIII. It took itself too seriously, and most of the text was a boring, uninteresting filler plot, which was excessively repetitive.

Beyond Anxiety

 This was simply not a book for me. I did not find it useful, and it was mostly a disappointment. I only finished reading it because it was a birthday present. Here is a quote from the book that beautifully captures how I feel about it: 'But first let's talk about the fact that everything I'm saying may sound ridiculously woo-woo or far too simplistic' (Beck, M. Beyond Anxiety. p. 261. United States of America: Penguin Books, 2025). Indeed. What a waste of time.

Kidnapped

 I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand I enjoyed it so much because I was brought back to Scotland, I was reminded of all the beautiful things that I lived there. I enjoyed learning so many new words: 127 new words in a book that is relatively short (my copy had only 314 pages). Yet, I was not really interested in the storyline and it took me much longer to finish reading the novel than it really should have. Yes, some of it was due to my characteristic procrastination, but in this case I strongly believe the core reason must have been that I failed to find something meaningfully interesting in the book.

Call Me by Your Name

 I was not expecting to like this book, mainly because I have seen the movie and did not particularly like it. But it was a cute story. It was a cute book. Now, they say that standards are good but double standards are better. There are multiple sex passages and sex references in this book. Normally I would be put off by that. I find modern descriptions of sex in contemporary literature rather gratuitous. That, for example, is part of the reason why I tend not to like things written by Haruki Murakami. But I have mostly read books that deal with heterosexual sex. For that reason, it feels somewhat unfair that this book, with its various descriptions of homosexual sex between men, did not elicit in me a similar criticism of the prose. I wonder whether Hannah Fidell, the creator behind FX on Hulu's series "A Teacher", would also hold this book to a double standard. A quick reminder: "A Teacher" is scathingly critical of sexual relationships between adults and minors. The female teacher in that series was severely punished and there was no mercy shown to her for the sexual relationship she had with a male minor. I wonder what Hannah Fidell would think of a sexual relationship between an adult male graduate student and a male minor. Clearly, André Aciman thinks there is nothing wrong with that. Quite the opposite. Am I missing something? Is there an argument I am not seeing that explains why the creator of "A Teacher" and the author of Call Me by Your Name reach polar opposite conclusions about the same kind of sexual relationship? Or could it be that Elon Musk is at least partly right in saying that there is a woke mind virus that is infecting the minds of many in the United States? I would like to know. Verdict on the relationship between Emmanuel Macron and his wife: pending—it will depend on whether the judge is Hannah Fidell or André Aciman.

How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia

There is not really much one can say about this book. At least it had the decency of being so short that you do not really have to spend much time with it. I read The Reluctant Fundamentalist in 2009, before I started this blog so I do not have a record of my opinion on that book. But from what I can remember, it was a more interesting read, which renders How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia a disappointment.

A Gathering Light

 This book reminded me of Katherine Clements's The Silvered Heart, except A Gathering Light is better. Both are novels based on historical events yet I found myself more interested in the tale Jennifer Donnelly was telling. There were no gratuitous sex scenes, which might have helped create a more elegant narrative. Yet, there was something missing. At several points I felt I was reading a children's book: a simple and somewhat shallow story. Given the various times we were told of how fond Matt was of writing stories that portrayed the real challenges of life, and given all the misfortunes that actually happen in the book, there was a point where I genuinely thought the book would end on a bitter note. That is why I was pleasantly surprised when Matt took the right decisions and left Royal, paid the Hubbards' taxes, and finally decided to go to university. Not that I thought that Royal was not a good match for Matt. It is just that Royal, in his anger, was going to take a very wrong step in buying the house of the Hubbards. I choose to believe that that was also the determining factor when Matt was taking the decision to leave Royal. It must have been a very hard decision for her. However, I cannot get rid of the feeling that what made this story more interesting was the author's note at the end where it tells the true crime story of Chester Gillette and Grace Brown. And I do not think that the worth of a novel should be measured by anything but its own text.

Fireside Gothic

 This book is a collection of three short stories: (i). "Broken Voices," (ii). "The Leper House," and (iii). "The Scratch." I did like them, but only mildly. To be honest, it might be that I am just not that into that kind of fantasy. Note: I am not saying I am not into fantasy. I just found these stories a little... bland. Of the three my favourite was "The Scratch," and that might be because it was the one closest to reality, the most real story. I still have on my shelf one book that might be similar to Fireside Gothic, it is H.P. Lovecraft's Necronomicon. I am, however, hoping that the Necronomicon is much, much better. If you do get the opportunity to read "The Scratch," read it. It is quite decent. And if that opportunity comes in the form of having the whole Fireside Gothic with you, well... I guess read all three short stories. It will not take you more than five days to read them all.

New Grub Street

 This book is a hidden gem. Wait, is it? I had not heard of New Grub Street, not even George Gissing. I mean, I know I am very ignorant and it may be the case that he is well known in Britain but I am going to be very bold and say that he is not one of the best known, world famous, English authors. Such a shame, because he should be. Granted, this is the only novel I have read of his out of 23 of his published novels. But I loved it. I do think it is a masterpiece. One of which I probably would have never heard of had not my friend Maddy bequeathed her library to me when she left Deans Court, and with it a copy of New Grub Street.
  New Grub Street tells a harrowing story of literary men in 19th centrury England. Its story was heavily influenced by George Gissing's experiences, and it is told in a way that feels very much like it could have been a true story. Because of that it was interesting to compare certain aspects of life in England back then and life in England now. The book focuses on authors that mostly live under economic hardship, and at some point I did wonder how poor they actually were. Were they the poorest of the poor? Fortunately, the book addresses that point somewhat tangentially when it talks in this way about Harold Biffen: "In his present state of mind he cared nothing how disreputable he looked to passers-by. These seedy habiliments were the token of his degradation, and at times he regarded them (happening to see himself in a shop mirror) with pleasurable contempt. The same spirit often led him for a meal to the poorest of eating-houses, places where he rubbed elbows with ragged creatures who had somehow obtained the price of a cup of coffee and a slice of bread and butter. He liked to contrast himself with these comrades in misfortune. 'This is the rate at which the wold esteems me; I am worth no better provision than this.' Or else, instead of emphasising the contrast, he defiantly took a place among the miserables of the nether world, and nursed hatred of all who were well-to-to." (p. 301). Meaning, they were not the poorest in society. That made sense to me. Because, even when the characters (Edwin Reardon, Harold Biffen, Jasper Milvain, Alfred Yule) are poor, to me they did not appear to be living the grimmest aspects of economic hardship. They were educated, well spoken, and were fine authors who were quite committed to literature. Now, with respect to contrasting life in England in the past with life in England now, I wonder how the healthcare system worked back then. And to some extent I wonder how it works now. What I mean is, Alfred Yule had cataracts and is at first given a prognosis by what seemed to be a doctor with an independent practice—well, he was more of a destitute person than a practicing medic. Alfred Yule paid this destitute medic for his prognosis, and was later vexed not knowing how he would pay for the surgery he needed. I understand most common medical procedures are currently covered by the NHS, but I also know there are some other medical expenses that are not covered (like egg freezing.) Was the healthcare system more commonly private in the past? Would a cataract surgery be covered by the NHS now? It was very sad that Alfred Yule was so stressed by his situation, especially knowing that he most likely would not have had to worry about such matters had he lived in present-day Britain. Lastly, and just as a minor note, Katherine Mullin (the editor of the edition I read) noted that in England, back then, "railway accidents, often fatal, were relatively common, widely reported in newspapers, and frequently provided plot twists in fiction" (p. 483). What?! Nowadays one does read about railway accidents, with more frequency than one might like, but in places other than Britain.
  There are two main love stories in the book. Edwin and Amy Reardon, and Jasper Milvain and Marian Yule. Both ending in unexpected ways, the descriptions of human life and interactions are told in a detailed style worthy of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. The way in which the book ends very much reminded me of Scott Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and Damned. Except, of course, Fitzgerald's novel was published 31 years after New Grub Street. The reason I am comparing both books is because both authors seem to be (correctly) saying that there is no karma. Life is unfair. But we do not need to read anything to know that. That said, I was quite affected by the experiences of Edwin and Amy Reardon. After their reconciliation I genuinely forgave them both, and was even left thinking of Amy as a good person. Precisely because of that I could not accept the narrative that followed. I felt like George Gissing betrayed her in favour of a quick and easy ending for the book. He could have invented some other character. Why did it have to be her? I was very annoyed, very disappointed. But perhaps that was the point.
  My last remark is: George Gissing later revised New Grub Street and shortened it. I am usually in favour of shortening novels for the sake of eliminating the boring and banal parts of the book. However, this time I did not feel like the book needed to be shortened. I thought it was great the way that it is. I am intrigued to know which parts George Gissing deemed unnecessary.
  All in all, I am very grateful that I read this book. The feeling might be enhanced by the fortuitous way in which I happened to own my copy of the book. I do hope I may read more novels by George Gissing. He deserves to be better known.

References:
[1]. Gigging, G. New Grub Street. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: Oxford University Press, 2016.

The Silvered Heart

Not knowing anything about the legend of the Wicked Lady, except after reading the bonus material at the end of the book, I read this novel as if it were simply fiction. Well, the only thing I did know about that period in time in England was thanks to me having recently watched the film "Cromwell" (1970). This book, written from a royalist's perspective, of course has a different feel from that of the movie.
  I imagine one can enjoy the book only if one sympathises with the Lady Ferrers portrayed in the book. I did not sympathise with her. Her logic at all times felt bogus, her motivations childish, and despite her constant insistence at every new chapter of her life that she was now finally aware of how wrong she had been in the past, she never truly changes, she never truly learns anything. She is doomed to make the same fey mistakes over and over again. The way in which the story developed did feel like it would make for a classic Netflix film or series.
  Honestly, the most interesting part of the book was the bonus material. Those extra six pages on actual history were the most interesting and most enlightening.

Essays in Idleness

I just learnt that this is a classic, and that in Japan students often get questions on their exams about this book, but I did not find it very interesting. One can tell that Kenko was quite of a conservative mind—which is not a bad thing per se. But it appeared to me that he could not hide his contempt for people who did not stick to tradition. Suddenly Marcus Aurelius's Meditations came to my mind. In it Marcus Aurelius says that much of our dissatisfaction with other people's behaviour is due to our judment of their actions; that we should get rid of our judgment and that way we would be happy. I find myself siding with Marcus Aurelius. It is fine if Kenko, or anyone else, wants to stick to tradition, but one should not judge others because they do not behave the way we expect them to behave.

  There are other essays with which I disagree, like the one where Kenko basically says that there is no such thing as an intelligent woman. There was only one essay in which Kenko explicitly expressed misogynist thoughts. But finding those opinions in his book was still quite concerning.

  At some point, when I was trying to figure out why I was not agreeing with many of his thoughts I said to myself: "It must be because the book is so old." Except, Meditations is even older and there are many more things with which I agree in that book. I guess there are people that lived in the distant past whose opinions I like, and likewise others who lived in the distant past whose opinions I do not like. Maybe I should stop judging people just because they lived in the past. Maybe I should just stop judging people, period.
  Oh. I almost forgot. There are some good ideas in Essays in Idleness. Like: we should be humble and not be quick to show off the knowledge we have, that we should not procrastinate, that death is inevitable and therefore we should not waste our time. But there are other books that say the same things and are much better than this one. Starting with Marcus Aurelius's book.

Meditations, with selected correspondence

 First, thank you to my friend Claire Young for recommending this book to me, and to my sister for giving it to me as a Christmas present.
  It is quite a decent book. The only other book whose "literary style" is close to Meditations is perhaps How to Be a Gentleman, which is another great read for everyone. The thing I thought most interesting was that this must be the closest thing to having a conversation with and listening to the personal thoughts of someone who lived virtually two thousand years ago. It is thus interesting to see how those thoughts are so similar to and could very well be those of a person who is alive today. I do not think I read in it any idea that was revolutionarily new to me, but I did like how many things it contained with which I did agree. I was happy to learn about stoicism and, to a lesser extent, about cynicism and epicureanism. I was surprised to see that I agreed with stoicism to a lesser extent than I had previously believed—this I say not having ever formally learnt anything about it before. One of the "chapters" I liked most was:
  "Practise even at the things that you have lost all hope of achieving. For the left hand, though inefficient at everything else through lack of practice, is more powerful than the right when it comes to gripping the bridle; for it has had good practice at that."
(Aurelius, M. Meditations. p. 148. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: Oxford University Press, 2011).

  Which is advice I have given to myself at least on a couple of ocassions. Most recently when I started running, I genuinely thought I would never be able to run 5 km. I gave up on that goal, but continued running nonetheless. Now I can comfortably run 23 km.
  And there was another "chapter" that made me think of people who have been victims of HIV stigma:
  "[I]n other words, let it judge nothing to be good or bad if it can happen to a good person or bad without distinction."
(Aurelius, M. Meditations. p. 64. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: Oxford University Press, 2011).
  Not that I believe that there are "good" people and "bad" people. But if something can happen to anyone, do not judge them for what has befallen them.
  There are indeed many other ideas that are very much worthy of consideration and discussion, so do read this book of you are looking for some guidance or reassurance. Now, my book came with a selection of letters between Marcus Aurelius and Fronto, one of his eighteen tutors. They are an excellent complement that allows us to take a further look into Marcus Aurelius's mind and life. There are some people who think that Marcus Aurelius and Fronto had a homoerotic relationship. What do I think having read those letters? It is hard to tell. Yes, there are certain letters that had me convinced that they must have had a romantic relationship. But having read all of the thirty-one letters included in my book, I was left thinking: "Well, maybe they were simply truly very good friends". I do not know. Perhaps the reason I am inclined to dismiss their affectionate style in the letters is because Marcus Aurelius did make a couple of homophobic remarks in Meditations, which was not intended for publication, it was simply his personal record of thoughts. I guess, I am unable to form a verdict having only read this book. Maybe if I read more about his life and work I would be better able to form an opinion with regard to his relationship with Fronto.

The White Book

Thank you, Laura, for this wonderful birthday gift! I am going to say that this is a book of poetry. That deals with suffering, and it is very good at it. I have come to appreciate poetry as a means to explore and understand our emotions. But I have also learnt to avoid dwelling on emotions that make me feel sad. Which made reading this book—despite it being quite short—somehow challenging. I had to take several breaks to clear my mind and think about other things.

  Externalising our emotions, by any means, like poetry, can help us deal with them. I believe that is what Han Kang was trying to do with this book. Perhaps she was trying to contain some painful memories, thereby allowing herself to continue living her life.
  I wish we—all the people in the world—could live happy lives. But even that has to come from a conscious decision. Which, as easy as it may sound, can actually be surprisingly difficult.

The World According to Mister Rogers

Wow, thank you Jo for the very thoughtful birthday gift! I first heard about Fred Rogers when I watched A Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood at the cinema last year with my  mother. I did not have the slightest idea what the movie was going to be about, and it turned out to be one of my favourite films of the year, if not of all time.
  This book is a compilation of quotes from Fred Rogers, which are meant to remind us of his way of thinking, of his teachings. It contains some nice thoughts, some statements I wish were true, some others whose veracity is dubious, and some that I know can be shown to be false. I still believe that Fred Rogers was an amazing person, hence I choose to believe that this book fails to capture how amazing he was.
  Instead of reading this book, I would highly recommend watching A Beautiful Day In the Neighbourhood.

La Belle Sauvage

Once again I am starting this post by thanking someone, this time my good friend Aidan for giving me this book as part of my birthday gift in 2019! He was, after all, part of the reason I read His Dark Materials, and he sometimes saw me reading it in the office.
  Whoa, well, this book was exactly what I thought it would be even before I started reading it. An expansion of the universe of the original trilogy, but that falls spectacularly short by a wide margin. If the original books could have been thought of as childrens' books, this one is undoubtedly nothing more than that. If from the beginning I was not particularly interested in Lyra's story, I was even less interested in the hollow new characters of this new novel. As I was reading this book I was reminded of some people's opinion of certain classic texts, saying that sometimes certain novels take hundreds of pages where nothing really happens. It was like that, except nothing really happened for the entirety of the book.
  If you are a kid, though, this book might be interesting to you. I would still advise kids to pursue something else, like cloud appreciation.

Why We Sleep

First of all, a huge thank you to my friend Chris for giving this book to me as my birthday present! I think part of the reason why Chris might have given me this book is that I once told him that I wake up at 4:00 a.m. to exercise, and he wanted me to know how important sleep was. For some reason I feel like I have always known, at least through folklore, that sleep is important, but I am glad to have learnt more about the scientific reasons behind this belief, and more about sleep and dreams, in general.

  Yes, I highly recommend reading this book to anyone because I do believe that having a better sleep will dramatically improve our health, and will make us have a better life, in all aspects. Of course, as very well pointed out by the author himself: "Just as describing the scientific dangers of how eating junk food leads to obesity rarely ends up with people choosing broccoli over a cookie, knowledge alone is not enough" (Walker, M. Why We Sleep. p. 329. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: Penguin Books, 2018).

  Indeed changing one's habits can be incredibly difficult. Fortunately for me, I think I have been trying much more consciously to change some of my habits, and I think it has gone well so far! I would like to believe that this book has helped me improve the quality of my sleep, and I think it can help many other people too.

  Despite my favourable opinion of this book, I must say I am still a bit skeptical about some of the results of the experiments that are described in the book. The results almost always seem to adhere very closely to the author's conjectures, and I wished I could see more of the statistical analyses that were done, as currently one might think that they might be too good to be true.

His Dark Materials

A very long time ago my father gave me the first book of this trilogy, in Spanish. I remember reading the first page and dedicing that it was too boring for me. Indeed I did not read the book for many, many years; certainly more than 15 years. But then there were several independent instances through the years where I heard people expressing high praise for these books. Finally, when Aidan told me he really liked the universe of these books, I made the executive decision of buying all of them in one volume and read them.

  I am happy that I made that decision, as the narrative is entertaining and the books are well-written. Without knowing anything about Phillip Pullman, I knew just by reading the book that it had to had been written by an English author since the writing is characteristically polite and elegant. Which made the scenes of violence surprising in a way that I had not read before. And I think the writing alone is the reason I would recommend reading His Dark Materials.

  The rest of the book —the universe that Pullman created, and the storyline— is pretty much just the excuse Pullman had to show to the world how beautiful his writing is. In fact, the rest of the book is standardly simple. Though I do appreciate that the author offers young readers an introduction to the debate on right and wrong, and to humanity's fraught relationship with Christianity.

  I am left with mixed feelings. Though, I think Michael Torpey would be of the opinion that if a book makes you think about things, and makes you feel feelings, then it is probably a good book.

How to Win Friends and Influence People

First of all, thank you Chris for my wonderful birthday present. It took me a while to read this book, mainly because I have been lazy and I have not been reading as much as I would have liked.
  I did like this book. It very much reminded me of John Bridge's How To Be a Gentleman. Except this book goes more into the theory of dealing with other people, gives example scenarios, and strategies to solve particular problems. Overall, they are good advice. An issue I found with several of those strategies, however, is that they can be severely optimistic in what they are trying to achieve. The book does tend to be somehow repetitive, which makes me think that maybe the book would have benefited from being a little shorter.
  Certainly, I recommend this book to whomever wants a reminder on how to be a nice person. I was many times surprised by how often the book made me aware of my rude manners. I will try to be better.

Fermat's Last Theorem

This book is based on a BBC documentary on the same topic which I watched back in 2011 when my friend Fabián was visiting St Andrews for the first time. Last year, also while visiting St Andrews, he gave me this book as a present.

  What is interesting about this book (and, also the documentary) is that it achieves something that, in my opinion, had been missing in other places. What I mean is: John and Hank Green have YouTube shows where they explain various subjects from the humanities and the sciences with entertaining factoids. They conspicuously do not have a show on mathematics. To be fair, it would appear to be far more challenging to have a show on mathematics. But it is precisely because of that reason that this book is remarkable, because it is a very entertaining book that aims to explain pure mathematics with a narrative full of factoids. Oddly enough, I thought the documentary was slightly better than the book.

The Course of Love

We speak of 'love' as if it were a single, undifferentiated thing, but it comprises two very different modes: being loved and loving. We should marry when we are ready to do the latter and have become aware of our unnatural and dangerous fixation on the former.

(de Botton, A. The Course of Love. p. 222. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: Hamish Hamilton, 2016)

       Thank you to Arvo Muñoz Morán, former student of mine, for giving me this book as a birthday gift. The Course of Love is not just a "love story", it is the telling of the experiences one will almost certainly live when one takes the decision of getting married. It is different from previous love stories that I have read because most of them end in the "happily ever after", whereas in this book "ever after" is the second part of the book, out of four.
       What comes after one gets married, that is, the actual marriage, is not an easy thing to describe. Indeed only afterwards do the inconveniences of learning to live with someone else become a blatant reality. However this is not new, this we all knew without the need of reading any book. What was a novelty was that I got a glimpse at what other people might think when these arguments occur, a glimpse at what may be the likely causes of disputes, and what the other person might be thinking in those circumstances. Ultimately, I thought, learning how to be ready for marriage is similar to the process of growing up and becoming more mature. Like the process of transitioning from being a teenager to an adult.
       When reading through very unpleasant episodes of Rabih and Kirsten's marriage, I could not help but ask myself: "Why would anyone want to go through these unpleasantries with the foreknowledge of them happening and of them being so ominous?" Then I remember the feeling. I hope that when the time comes I am a better person, more mature, and more understanding.

El nombre del viento

I want to thank Carmen Reyes Luna, former student of mine, who gave me this book. Thank you for introducing me to this world and thank you for your good work. As the title of this entry might suggest I read this book in Spanish. It is a translation from the English, its original title is The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. It was a good experience to read again in Spanish. I had not done it in a few years now.
       It seems natural of literature, to me, to talk about characters that have innate extraordinary abilities. Like being able to learn new things in just a few hours and excel at them from the very first time they did it. That is the case of this book. Its protagonist, Kvothe, can do anything. He is meant to be a prodigious child who knows more than all his classmates at university (a kind of magical university) and does things better than anyone else without putting much, if any, effort. Perhaps at another stage of my life I would have accepted this setting. However, I have adopted a less flexible perspective on this matter. I believe that success is always the result of good effort, not of an innate talent. It is because if this strong belief that I had a hard time accepting the narrative. In fact, I am not sure I accepted it.
       That was not the only issue I had with the book. In my opinion, Kvothe is an arrogant, violent, and impolite person. I do not think Kvothe realizes this because he often talks about how educated he believes he is and also talks about formality and good manners. I just disagree. There was an episode during which he openly threatened a lady, Denna, of knocking her unconscious if she refused to do as he said. But in a later episode when he learns that a potential patron of Denna had struck her to save her life, he suddenly is of the opinion that a man who harbours even the thought of punching a lady is foul, evil, and unworthy of her. These are not the only occasions when I thought Kvothe's behaviour was unacceptable. Furthermore, it seems to me that the novel also wants to foster the stereotype of resentment against the upper class by repeatedly arguing that people that are not poor must be untalented, and that poor people know better because it is only them who have seen truly harsh things in life. Again, I just disagree.
       The story is told as memoirs that are being dictated to a person who is interested in recording them. There are some breaks in their telling that bring us to the present day. Present day Kvothe seems to be a more amiable and humble person. These breaks gave me a relief from being in constant disapproval of his past behaviour and opinions.