The first book I decided to listen to was The Secret History by Donna Tartt - a chunky 22 hr book. The physical book is even scarier because if I want to read it, I have to find time to read more than 550 pages and in the past, I didn't have a good experience with Donna Tartt's other book - the Goldfinch (I sold the book right after I finished it because I didn't like it).
The Goldfinch greatly impacted my perception of Donna Tartt. I avoided her books for years. Imagine spending so many hours on a book that you ended up hating kan? Such a waste of time. But I decided to give her another chance because I heard so many good remarks about The Secret History.
So the 22 hr audiobook started and I had a week to finish it up. Around 8 hours in, I realized that I haven't felt connected to any of the characters yet, I almost knew nothing about the 'charismatic classics professor' and I didn't know what these students do in class, everything was still a mystery and I was already bored. It was painfully slow.
I think after 10 hours in, a crisis happened, and the book kinda moved along the main crisis. Still nothing much about the 'elite class' or what makes them 'special' (other than they can speak & read in Latin?) - this feels like The Maidens by Alex Michealides all over again.
Then I read reviews in Goodreads and a lot of people gave 5 stars + great lengthy reviews, I don't know what I missed. Why didn't I like the book? Was it the pacing? Was it the subject? Was it the characters? Why I didn't enjoy both of Donna Tartt's lengthy novels.
:F
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There is a genre on social media called 'dark academia' - an aesthetic and subculture that is primarily focused on higher education, the arts, calligraphy, museums, writing, reading, and shadowy classic Greek and Gothic architecture. You might see it on Tumblr or Pinterest, where people romanticize the visual look of what is seen as 'intellectual, knowledgeable, wise' - the aesthetic of it.
And The Secret History is one of the 'dark academia' books. Okay, perhaps I'm just a bit too old for this, or maybe I just expected it more than another the Goldfinch. I don't understand the hype. So, the lesson here is don't believe everything the internet tells you.
But,. I'm intrigue by Bable written by RF Kuang - it is as thick as The Secret History and sure, it is a considered as 'dark academia' book as well but I'm going to listen to the hype again and try it myself because I'm such a curious creature.
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My current book update:
The other books I consumed before the AnyPlay week :
- Tapestries of Life by Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson
- The Emotionally Exhausted Woman: Why You're Feeling Depleted and How to Get What You Need by Nancy Colier
- Philosophy in 40 Ideas: Lessons for Life by The School of Life
- The Joys & Sorrows of Parenthood by The School of Life
- Pageboy by Elliot Page
- I Wish I Knew This Earlier: Lessons on Love by Toni Tone
Ps: I unsubscribed to Scribd because a lot of books went unavailable for a few weeks every month, leaving only books that I don't want to read/listen to.
Note: The next day, I finished reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - definitely a 4 stars book. By now I managed to finish reading 9 classics this year. I might be ready to read Dostoyevsky's The Double next.
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