I just finished this one, my first Tolstoy, chosen because it's the shortest novel he wrote. The story is about a nobleman in 1880, Nekhlyudov, who finds himself on a jury. One of the accused is a woman he knew in is past, and who he wronged when he was young. While watching the trial he …
A clear idea of right and wrong
I've been listening to Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy, my first Tolstoy, and am enjoying the lack of moral relativism. It's somehow refreshing to have a narrator with a clear opinion of what is evil and what is good, and a character who also knows this and is trying to be good. All the shades of …
The Castle, by Franz Kafka
This is the first writing by Kafka I've read that I haven't been impressed by. And unlike the Trial, when they say it is unfinished, they really mean unfinished, like it cuts off in the middle of a sentence. I don't understand why this was published, or why people continue to read it today. The …
Scent in writing
I'm reading Perfume: The story of a murderer, by Patrick Suskind, and am impressed with the amount of detail he's put into describing smells. It is an underused sense, in writing, and maybe that is part of why it seems so amazing, but I'm really being drawn into the strange way this character perceives the …
Losing momentum
Cause I haven't been writing every day, I feel the write is just draining out of me. So this is me trying to fill it back up again. Reading: I finished listening to Heart of Darkness and found it a bit disturbing, and also very well written. It was referenced in Rings of Saturn by …
Jonas David 