Patrick's Updates en-US Tue, 08 Apr 2025 23:09:33 -0700 60 Patrick's Updates 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg ReadStatus9288450578 Tue, 08 Apr 2025 23:09:33 -0700 <![CDATA[Patrick wants to read 'The Last Wolf / Herman']]> /review/show/7474552000 The Last Wolf / Herman by László Krasznahorkai Patrick wants to read The Last Wolf / Herman by László Krasznahorkai
]]> ReadStatus9280456228 Sun, 06 Apr 2025 22:17:16 -0700 <![CDATA[Patrick finished reading 'Dead Souls']]> /review/show/5323885895 Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol Patrick finished reading Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
]]> Review3070836788 Sun, 06 Apr 2025 21:50:15 -0700 <![CDATA[Patrick added 'Seven Hanged']]> /review/show/3070836788 Seven Hanged by Leonid Andreyev Patrick gave 5 stars to Seven Hanged (Paperback) by Leonid Andreyev
bookshelves: fiction, owned, letterboxd-four-favorites
edit: read #3 (there has to be a way to post a separate review, right?)

Every time I read this I come away feeling even more positively about this as a completely transcendent and astonishing piece of literature. By now I'm pretty convinced it's the best book I've ever read and maybe ever will read and I'm miffed that it's not more well known (apart from a couple stray posts with like 3 comments, a large portion of the content on reddit is about how hot the author is. Thanks reddit). A perfect psychological portrait, a perfect moral examination, and a perfect book.

Of note, I did skim a couple pages of the original translation and did not like it half as much -- I might try the entire book that way next time for better comparison, but it's a good reminder of how crucial translation is because this one is unbelievably good.

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edit: read #2

it's so goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood

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original review:

Visceral and expressive -- fabulous portraiture. ]]> Rating843922845 Sat, 05 Apr 2025 00:00:22 -0700 <![CDATA[Patrick liked a readstatus]]> /
Patrick liked Mahith’s status update
Mahith Mahith is currently reading The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party
]]> Rating842901631 Wed, 02 Apr 2025 01:00:22 -0700 <![CDATA[Patrick liked a readstatus]]> /
Patrick liked Ashleigh’s status update
Ashleigh Jex Ashleigh Jex is currently reading A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them
]]> ReadStatus9214835999 Fri, 21 Mar 2025 14:39:40 -0700 <![CDATA[Patrick finished reading 'The Master and Margarita']]> /review/show/5003182319 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov Patrick finished reading The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
]]> Comment288401754 Mon, 17 Mar 2025 09:49:41 -0700 <![CDATA[Patrick commented on Brian's review of You Dreamed of Empires]]> /review/show/7373351928 Brian's review of You Dreamed of Empires
by Álvaro Enrigue

ŷ won't let me post a link so I'm going to steal a tweet now

"Literary fiction should have more plot." No. Plots are for babies. "Here comes the airplane" is a plot. If you can't handle an unadulterated mouthful of pure reality, you have no business reading literary fiction in the first place ]]> Review5133813902 Thu, 13 Mar 2025 12:07:45 -0700 <![CDATA[Patrick added 'An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us']]> /review/show/5133813902 An Immense World by Ed Yong Patrick gave 5 stars to An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us (Hardcover) by Ed Yong
bookshelves: nonfiction, letterboxd-four-favorites
Yes, yes, yes. I loved every second of this. I loved it so much that I got overwhelmed and stopped reading it and then it came due at the library and I had to ask them very nicely to let me renew it for a fourth time, which they let me. And then I finished it and surprise! Still loved it.

It almost seems like a risk to name your book An Immense World, because so easily could your descriptions and information seem much too small and uninteresting by the standard you've set, but Yong's writing is just so engaging, the research and animals used as examples are fascinating, and framing of the book with the idea of umwelt was perfect. I was hooked from the moment I started the introduction.

Admittedly, I have always found this sort of thing very interesting (s/o animal psych class in college, where I first was introduced to the concept of umwelt, Jacob von Uexküll, and many other things covered in this book). But like I said, it's just so well done and it makes even the super trippy stuff digestible. Should be required reading. An immediate favorite -- truly immense indeed. ]]> Review5661052582 Thu, 13 Mar 2025 10:37:55 -0700 <![CDATA[Patrick added 'The Importance of Being Earnest']]> /review/show/5661052582 The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde Patrick gave 4 stars to The Importance of Being Earnest (Paperback) by Oscar Wilde
bookshelves: fiction
Don't have anything to key on with this, so just want to mention that I had a lovely time and thought it was very funny & witty. Need to find myself a play or movie version of this at some point. ]]> ReadStatus9176205116 Tue, 11 Mar 2025 18:47:05 -0700 <![CDATA[Patrick wants to read 'Pedro Páramo']]> /review/show/7396054649 Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo Patrick wants to read Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo
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