Mike’s Comments (group member since Oct 28, 2021)

Mike’s comments from the Never too Late to Read Classics group.

Thank you! One surprise in the book is the visit to Leamington and the mention of the Pump Rooms. I used to work just down the road from them and could see the building from the office. On a nice Spring or Summer's day I would get a sandwich from the local deli and eat it sat in the park adjacent to the Pump Rooms.

On page 267 of the edition I'm reading there is a sketch with a sign pointing to the Pump Rooms in the background, it was fun thinking where that might actually be and trying to picture what Leamington looked like 150 odd years ago. I still find all these old buildings in the UK fascinating, many of them much older than anything I saw growing up in Canada.

Of course the later mention of Warwick Castle and Kenilworth Castle are also not far from me. These are much easier to imagine what they were like 150 years ago but Warwick makes the Pump Rooms look positively new. The earliest parts of Warwick castle, still standing, are nearly 1000 years old.

I'm nearing the halfway point of Dombey and Son and enjoying it so far. Quite a few twists, several quite unexpected, so far. It's not what I was expecting simply from a read of the back cover but it is a lot more than I was anticipating too.

I thought to add links to the reviews I've written as I've finished the books so far. Nothing fancy, usually just a summary of my impressions of the book.

Happy New Year! A bit late, but better that than never! Busy few weeks with very little spare time for reading the classics. It's not all without reading thankfully, I'm midway through a technical review for Manning Publishing and have lined up quite a lot of research material for a new R&D program at work. However tonight it's time to set some challenges in motion and read some more Dombey and Son.

A lot of the non-fiction I read (excluding the technical books I read for work) are popular science books focused around economics (or Freakonomics), psychology and technology. I have always been partial to a good history book too.

For years I ignored non-fiction, and even fiction to some extent, reading almost nothing but technical books in an endeavour to be the best I could be in my work. Two books started to appear, initially in references, but soon and frequently directly in the texts. These were Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game and Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets. I eventually picked them both up and almost immediately started cussing myself for having not done so for so long. I realised that idly exploring connected ideas and differing viewpoints was far more interesting and beneficial for my career than being proficient in the latest tech.

More specifically to this group, I nominated Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia because I wanted a better understanding of the context in which several books I have recently read were written. It's apparent how long a shadow Napoleon casts over Russia from War and Peace but also how much French society influenced Russia too in Crime and Punishment. I finished Eugene Onegin: A Novel in Verse today, I can also affirm that having read War and Peace and Chekhov's A Life in Letters, they helped me with many of the metaphors and references Alexander Pushkin makes.

I was sorting through the children's book bags and discovered that one of them has brought home a Meg and Mog book to read to us over Christmas! It's the seasonally appropriate Meg's Christmas.

I'm about 20% of the way through Dombey and Son and enjoying it so far. Having finished my group reads for the month I intend to make a big dent in the page count over the coming week!

I have finished! That was enjoyable and I must finally get around to reading Byron given how often he was referenced throughout. My review is up for those interested in my thoughts.

I started reading the 2008 Penguin Classics edition last night. It's translated by Stanley Mitchell and reads pretty well from the start. The introduction reveals that Pushkin, like his near contemporary Mikhail Lermontov, lost his life in a duel.

A dozen or so pages in, and I'm enjoying it. There seems to be an almost tongue-in-cheek quality to the narrative so far. I think I'm going to enjoy this...

Rosemarie wrote: "I have the beautiful German hardcover edition: Die unendliche Geschichte ."

That looks nice Rosemarie! I am tempted to get a new version myself. I think my eldest, an 18 year old studying English Literature, would really enjoy it but she's terrified of reading my old paperback copy for fear of it falling apart.

I loved The Neverending Story by Michael Ende. My grandmother gave it to me for Christmas when I was around 12/13 and I devoured it. My imagination really came to life while reading this, I felt I was Bastian tucked away myself.

Book Nerd wrote: "It makes it very dreamlike. Makes you wonder is Drosselmeyer feeding her fantasies or is it real?"

Indeed, and just because the nephew does come to take her hand in the end doesn't mean the rest wasn't a fevered dream!

I read the Dumas version over the weekend. I think leaving only a week between them may have done Dumas a disservice. I still enjoyed it but didn't find it quite as captivating. More family friendly and gone is the disorientation I so enjoyed in Hoffmann.

Stratford-upon-Avon's Library is much the same and it includes the registry office. One the plus side, it's next door to Shakespeare's birthplace.

I finished Hoffmann earlier and really enjoyed it. I liked the abrupt and somewhat disorienting transitions between the layers of narrative and do wonder if Flann O'Brien took some inspiration for At Swim-Two-Birds. I'll leave Dumas for next weekend, let this one settle a little.

I look forward to getting started!

All this talk of food has reminded me of a Jewish Deli my friend's family took me to occasionally in Waterloo. Time to raid the cupboards...

It was Forest Heights. Dad was a professor at the University of Waterloo throughout the 80s upto the mid 90s. I still miss Oktoberfest!

I like the sound of being in the Algonquin Round Table! I haven't found a good poetry group on here, just one you must request to join and can't preview.

Please say hi to my old friends and cousins Rosemarie, Kitchener is where I grew up!

I have worked the e-retail side of Black Friday having had the responsability of keeping large international websites up and running through their sales. It's a day, along with Boxing Day, that I would hope not to be on-call for.

An Engineer's Lament

Black Friday rears its ugly dawn
For engineers filled with dread
As virtual servers start to spawn

By the deals shoppers are led
Crying "Gimmie stuff! Take my cash!"
Feeding corporate fat cats bread

We're good, the page is cached
But oh, the latency climbs...
The site! It is going to crash!

Curse these slow startup times
Pitchforks and torches await
Social media love our flames

The database is in a state
"Failover! FAILOVER!" he cried
The engineer hopes to make it right

The waves of clicks subside
Siren deals have lured their prey
The day is done, what a ride

Now the servers go away
Downtime cost us so many sales
Let us rest for Cyber Monday

Hahaha Bernard, my children have watched the BBC adaptation of Topsy & Tim to death. I think I can quote whole scenes now! :P

Encouraging to hear you've enjoyed Dombey & Son Rosemarie. Spine wise it looks twice the size of North & South but half the size of War & Peace so I think it'll take me 2 months. I hope to get started tonight.

I have added the suggestions so far that match the strict pattern. I've mixed them in as I like the run of names that can be created but I've also tried to put distance between some titles so that I don't read the same author too close together.

Tick marks have been added to those I've finished having completed North and South this evening.

The suggestions that haven't matched the pattern have been added to my "want to read" on a new shelf called "recommended".