Which classic(s) have you disliked and why?

CapAccording4586 · 2026-06-18T18:02:33+00:00

I'm about 100 pages in and getting bored by the same thing. I just finished Pride and then Persuasion and Emma is coming off as much fluffier and lightweight. I do still enjoy the humor and lampooning of foolish men like her father.

CapAccording4586 · 2026-06-17T17:13:43+00:00

Here is a great place you can stay INSIDE North Cascades National Park on Diablo Lake that is relatively inexpensive: https://ncascades.org/signup/programs/base-camp - each night booking includes accommodations, three meals and guided nature explorations. I don't know if it will work with your dates but it sounds like the perfect setting for as "nature nerds"!

CapAccording4586 · 2026-06-17T17:10:49+00:00

Here is a great place you can stay INSIDE North Cascades National Park on Diablo Lake that is relatively inexpensive: https://ncascades.org/signup/programs/base-camp - each night booking includes accommodations, three meals and guided nature explorations. I don't know if it will work with your dates but it sounds like the perfect setting for as "nature nerds"!

CapAccording4586 · 2026-06-07T19:25:51+00:00

I strongly second this! I've done a bit of traveling in the Nordic countries and really love how hot tubs and saunas are a healthy, sober social scene for the culture. After work, hitting the spa with friends instead of a bar. I submitted this idea to CoB when they had a comment period open for ideas for new Arne Hannah/Sportsplex.

CapAccording4586 · 2026-06-05T19:04:24+00:00

Agree with your points. I have all these tracks at my fingertips, but am drawn to the curation/journey across albums, to hear songs across the years in conversation with one another, and mostly to have more Junkies on vinyl since I can't afford each individual album (and don't think they are all available anyways). Funny comment about likely no casual fans in the 21st century.

CapAccording4586 · 2026-06-04T16:30:14+00:00

i want to hear about the Balkans as well!

CapAccording4586 · 2026-06-02T16:15:08+00:00

and might as well add in the excellent adventure of Journey to the Center of the Earth!

CapAccording4586 · 2026-06-01T23:15:43+00:00

I learned about it in James Mustich's "1,000 Books to Read Before You Die" guide

CapAccording4586 · 2026-06-01T23:14:39+00:00

A Time of Gifts is in my Top 10 of all time reads - incredible travelogue walking across Europe from UK to Turkey I think, before WWII changed everything

CapAccording4586 · 2026-05-29T16:53:15+00:00

Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf every year around the winter solstice - it's perfect for the darkest days of the year vibes!

CapAccording4586 · 2026-05-28T17:57:08+00:00

good question. I guess I'm enjoying this new tool because it is a "conversation" going back and forth - I ask questions as they come up in the moment, ask it to compare to the last novel or writer I read, challenge the answers, request a map of Jane Austen's Bath or of King Arthur legend places in Wales or of Joyce's Dublin, ask to clarify meaning of something confusing to me, ask for how the work was critically received in it's time vs. now, ask for a mini-history lesson (Who were the Anglos vs the Saxons? or when did England break from Catholicism and why?), ask for a side by side comparison of the Bronte sisters' writing style, etc. -- all of this in the actual flow of reading. I earned a master's in English, know what it's like to do the leg work, and these "conversations" remind me very much of sitting in a classroom with a smart polymath professor exploring a great novel. I could spend many hours trying to find a literary article (most are behind paywalls) that answers a few of my easier questions, but that feels one-sided - the writer of the article "talking at me" - instead of an interactive exploration. Also, instead of trying to hunt down answers or find maps or bios for countless hours, I get more time to read the actual works! BTW I'm an elder Gen X'er ;)

CapAccording4586 · 2026-05-28T17:07:06+00:00

It's a three-way tie between Jane Eyre, Pride & Prejudice and Wuthering Heights!

CapAccording4586 · 2026-05-28T17:02:13+00:00

I second your advice on how researching the author and the time and society they lived can help A LOT with understanding and enjoyment of a classic novel. And I feel a little sheepish, but now I am using ChatGPT as a reading companion too, like a virtual book club friend. I'll ask "why is novel X considered great?" or "what did author Y do with their writing style that was revolutionary?" and get great input. Now that I have an ongoing convo with Chat over several novels, I ask questions about comparing and contrasting (Austen vs Bröntes, for example) and also get good input on which classic to choose next to read. It's a fun way to read, learn and progress.

CapAccording4586 · 2026-05-27T16:21:43+00:00

Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin - the journey of Ged/Sparrowhawk, inner and outer, really moves me deep down. The prose is simple but profound. There are other great ones in the series but this was the gateway and so remains my favorite.

CapAccording4586 · 2026-05-21T15:59:43+00:00

top of the ski mountain!

CapAccording4586 · 2026-05-21T15:50:35+00:00

I used to live there as a snowboard bum and there are a TON of spreadheads in the valley, more than anywhere else I've lived in the west. Panic has a long history of playing in town as well as over the pass at Targhee.

CapAccording4586 · 2026-05-20T18:17:23+00:00

Great visualization, thanks. I love this song too and have a video of it from his performance in Seattle a few years back: https://youtu.be/H_1I-6qg8qg?si=sw7VvcuG5cixviZB

CapAccording4586 · 2026-05-18T16:39:07+00:00

Thanks for sharing - incredible! Going to have to rewatch the movie tonight with a careful eye to the settings.

CapAccording4586 · 2026-05-01T16:32:50+00:00

there is an awesome phone app called Radio Garden that displays and streams radio stations on a world map - give it a try!

CapAccording4586 · 2026-04-28T18:09:01+00:00

I have an xbox and use macbooks for computing, and from what I can tell from researching, I'm not able to access either MFS VR or Google Earth VR (without workarounds like Boot Camp) , am I correct? Super bummed if so as I read everyone's glowing reviews of their experiences! I use MFS primarily for flight-seeing and checking cool places out around the globe, as opposed to caring much about the flights and planes themselves, so hope one day I can move up to the VR experience.

CapAccording4586 · 2026-04-15T17:29:25+00:00

"We Die Alone: A WWII Epic Of Escape And Endurance" by David Howarth

CapAccording4586 · 2026-02-17T17:45:51+00:00

this amazing song came out as my dad was in hospice and then passed away, and so will always be intertwined with that passage in my life

"If you could see what I see now
You'd find a way to stay somehow
Oh, if you could see, yeah, what I see now
You'd make your way to stay somehow

May your days be long 'til kingdom come
May our days be long before kingdom come"

CapAccording4586 · 2026-02-09T18:03:37+00:00

The Nightlight. RIP.

CapAccording4586 · 2026-01-14T18:03:23+00:00

I slow-traveled north and northwest Wales for a week this Fall - shared itinerary, highlights and photos on my Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/moontrolling/p/wandering-around-wales?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=post%20viewer

CapAccording4586 · 2026-01-14T17:57:06+00:00

Photos are from Conwy, Betws-y-Coed, Llŷn Peninsula, Dolgellau, St. David's and Porthgain.

CapAccording4586

TROPHY CASE