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HELP. I have finished Les Miserables (and cried on the bus in so doing, which at least looks slightly less ridiculous than crying over an audiobook, which I have also done on a bus and probably makes me look like I am crazy). AND NOW I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH MY LIFE. I have, according to the shipment date on Amazon, been reading this fucker since September thirtieth. I have never in my life spent a MONTH reading one book before. I feel vaguely as though I've braved a gauntlet or something. And it didn't help that the last chapter GOT ON MY NERVES, like, you! Valjean! Quit being a damn martyr and suck it up! You! Marius! You are a passive-aggressive twat! You! Cosette! Do you actually have any operating brain cells in that lovely head of yours?
I mean, I know I'm bringing in a more modern-day mindset on this one, but Valjean's decision-making process when it comes to his conscience - tends not to sit well with me. I bought it when he turned himself in to save Champmathieu at the expense of Montreuil-sur-mer's well-being, because there was no good choice to be made there and Valjean himself was in a daze for much of it, but telling Marius of his past was purely selfish. All it did was put Marius in the position of having to lie to Cosette. Honesty to help someone else is good. Honesty that hurts someone else so you can have the relief of telling the truth is crappy. Especially when you make me cry for you anyway when you do it, you jerk.
Marius didn't annoy me quite so much, because he is a DORK and he will never escape his innate dorkness and I cannot help but be fond of that. I especially enjoyed how he somehow came to the conclusion that Valjean, the ex-convict, ratted out M Madeleine for being an ex-convict, and then stole his money? Somehow? I mean. I appreciate that, at this juncture in the narrative, it is difficult for Marius to imagine that Valjean could be a particularly good or selfless person, but I love how he came up with the only scenario that could possibly be more convoluted than what actually happened.
And I'm not even dealing with Cosette. That is my approach to female characters in pre-twentieth century literature in general, because they tend to be, oh, thinly written? So I accept it when they suck, as they so frequently do, and I ignore them. Cultural context and yadda and there's no point to getting worked up, really. But I just could not quite overlook that she was so wrapped up in being married that her father slipped her mind. I suppose if I thought about it I could hammer it into something that makes sense, but I don't WANT to think about it. It HURTS my BRAIN. What the fuck is wrong with her?
Sigh.
Anyway. Now I can't quite decide what to do next. I want to read at least parts of it over again, and I have to go back and read Waterloo, because I kind of, um, lost my patience and skipped half of it. But also I think I need to read something slightly less taxing. Which is EVERYTHING EVER PUBLISHED, so. Any recommendations? Funny is good, please. Depressing is bad.
I mean, I know I'm bringing in a more modern-day mindset on this one, but Valjean's decision-making process when it comes to his conscience - tends not to sit well with me. I bought it when he turned himself in to save Champmathieu at the expense of Montreuil-sur-mer's well-being, because there was no good choice to be made there and Valjean himself was in a daze for much of it, but telling Marius of his past was purely selfish. All it did was put Marius in the position of having to lie to Cosette. Honesty to help someone else is good. Honesty that hurts someone else so you can have the relief of telling the truth is crappy. Especially when you make me cry for you anyway when you do it, you jerk.
Marius didn't annoy me quite so much, because he is a DORK and he will never escape his innate dorkness and I cannot help but be fond of that. I especially enjoyed how he somehow came to the conclusion that Valjean, the ex-convict, ratted out M Madeleine for being an ex-convict, and then stole his money? Somehow? I mean. I appreciate that, at this juncture in the narrative, it is difficult for Marius to imagine that Valjean could be a particularly good or selfless person, but I love how he came up with the only scenario that could possibly be more convoluted than what actually happened.
And I'm not even dealing with Cosette. That is my approach to female characters in pre-twentieth century literature in general, because they tend to be, oh, thinly written? So I accept it when they suck, as they so frequently do, and I ignore them. Cultural context and yadda and there's no point to getting worked up, really. But I just could not quite overlook that she was so wrapped up in being married that her father slipped her mind. I suppose if I thought about it I could hammer it into something that makes sense, but I don't WANT to think about it. It HURTS my BRAIN. What the fuck is wrong with her?
Sigh.
Anyway. Now I can't quite decide what to do next. I want to read at least parts of it over again, and I have to go back and read Waterloo, because I kind of, um, lost my patience and skipped half of it. But also I think I need to read something slightly less taxing. Which is EVERYTHING EVER PUBLISHED, so. Any recommendations? Funny is good, please. Depressing is bad.
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Despite the author not being afraid to kill people off (which she really isn't, BUT this book I always end with smiling because CHARACTERS! <3!), Ruins of Ambrai by Melanie Rawn. It's the kinda thing where the characters make you chuckle the whole way through. Also, the world she's created is absolutely facinating.
In the non-fiction section, Married to a Bedouin, by Marguerite Van Geldermalsen, is just LOVELY. Short and lovely. And also Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything is the kind of thing that you can't actually have as an audio book, as you'd need to pull over and crack up too much. It's more history of science, but also has lots and and lots about the PEOPLE (which I find important), and also Bryson's asides and ways of writing I just find brilliant.