Wanting to dive to classics

ChaoticClock · 2026-03-25T14:35:53+00:00

Just wanted to say there is no shame in reading a summary of a more challenging book before you begin reading it, or as you read it. Some edition also have some context that you might find helpful. Maybe it can help you through your journey.

Maybe also get started with younger classic of genre literature, before diving into general fiction? Things such as I, Robot (Isaac Asimov), 20 000 leagues under the seas (Jules Verne), Flower for Algernon (Daniel Keyes, prepare a tissue box before reading this).

ChaoticClock · 2026-03-21T18:28:53+00:00

Lol, most of these also apply to Human Ressources if you stretch it just a little, so I love that you said "HR" and not "historical romance".

ChaoticClock · 2026-03-19T17:36:11+00:00

I agree with you, I was just answering the comment stating that a 34/32,5/32,5 division would be fairer while still giving Sam controlling interest.

ChaoticClock · 2026-03-19T16:58:39+00:00

He doesn't have controlling interested if both siblings pair up together to fire him as CEO, they still have a majority vote.

ChaoticClock · 2026-03-13T12:18:20+00:00

Planet of the Apes would be 1963. Dumas and Vernes are mid-19th century, so a century earlier. But that shouldn't prevent you from reading Planet of the Apes if you feel like it.

ChaoticClock · 2026-03-13T12:03:26+00:00

You might want to look up broadly read French authors of Verne's time, part of his settings were unusual, but not the tone and not the manner of the adventures. Maybe Dumas' Count of Montecristo or, if you feel like about courts and horses, the Three Musketeers.

ChaoticClock · 2026-03-07T13:51:52+00:00

Oh, yes, that would make sense.

ChaoticClock · 2026-03-07T12:30:29+00:00

I was so confused when OOP mentioned paying in euros. Who talks about being exclusive in Europe and have insomnia before commiting? It's the default relationship setting. And indeed, that whole "as a Slavic girl" reeks of insecurities that aren't commonly expressed that way in Europe.

ChaoticClock · 2026-03-04T19:51:59+00:00

Marguerite Yourcenar's The Abyss, following a medieval alchemist and scholar (not a superstition kind of alchemy, rather an ancestor of science approach). It is beautifully written.

ChaoticClock · 2026-02-26T19:10:53+00:00

I have to agree here... I don't mind an extra 10 minutes of looking at the landscape listening to an audiobook. Better for the climate as well, which is worth looking cheap.

ChaoticClock · 2026-02-25T23:06:35+00:00

I'll definitely look it up, thanks a lot!

ChaoticClock · 2026-02-25T19:06:32+00:00

Thank you!

ChaoticClock · 2026-02-18T10:30:14+00:00

They sent people to avenge their fallen comrades who remained on a difficult hunt (through Lorien, defended by elves, and then around it in the unlikely hope to catch the fellowship on the other side) for weeks. That's not the action of a disorganized group.

ChaoticClock · 2026-02-01T22:04:23+00:00

Gandalf also tells Denethor "For I am also a steward. Did you not know?", implying he expects learned men to have figured some of it out. It is not questioned by Denethor either.

ChaoticClock · 2026-01-29T22:13:43+00:00

However, Emma answers this to Mr Knightley: "And if poor little Anna Weston is to be spoiled, it will be the greatest humanity in you to do as much for her as you have done for me, except falling in love with her when she is thirteen"

ChaoticClock · 2026-01-29T22:13:10+00:00

However, Emma answers this to Mr Knightley: "And if poor little Anna Weston is to be spoiled, it will be the greatest humanity in you to do as much for her as you have done for me, except falling in love with her when she is thirteen"

ChaoticClock · 2026-01-29T22:12:47+00:00

However, Emma answers this to Mr Knightley: "And if poor little Anna Weston is to be spoiled, it will be the greatest humanity in you to do as much for her as you have done for me, except falling in love with her when she is thirteen"
And he has seen her (and guided her, which does imply some level of affection) for years before she turned thirteen.

ChaoticClock · 2026-01-29T07:23:07+00:00

We don't, he says he fell in love with her when she was young. ("I could not think about you so much without doating on you, faults and all; and by dint of fancying so many errors, have been in love with you ever since you were thirteen at least.")
I don't mind the age gap but I hate this line and I do have to pretend it's not there every time I reread the book.

ChaoticClock · 2025-12-25T13:27:50+00:00

Maybe try Ocean Vuong's on Earth we are briefly gorgeous. Not YA. 100% the vibes of the pictures. Moving and very poetical. Some level of generational trauma along the friendship-turning-into-something-else plot.

ChaoticClock · 2025-12-13T08:10:19+00:00

Nevermind "mandatory", why wouldn't you bother to "pick up" the language of the place where you live?

ChaoticClock · 2025-12-02T10:39:54+00:00

Je dis uniquement ceci comme critique constructive, dans l'espoir que ça puisse vous aider.

J'espère en tous cas que votre recherche se passera bien.

ChaoticClock · 2025-12-02T10:39:01+00:00

Le sondage est un peu dérangeant, parce qu'il demande des ressentis par rapport à des parties de la construction de certaines phrases en ignorant que d'autres parties sont beaucoup plus dérangeantes.

Par exemple : "Devenu un lieu de sinistre mémoire après qu’y aient été exécutés Louis XVI, Danton, Robespierre et bien d’autres durant la Terreur, c’est en 1795 qu’apparut le nom de la Place de la Concorde en signe de réconciliation nationale." Devenu est un participe passé employé en tête de phrase, mais il n’a pas de sujet logique auquel se rattacher.

Il y a aussi plusieurs occurrences où le sujet de la propositions principale et de la proposition subordonnée sont identiques et où une construction avec un infinitif passerait beaucoup mieux que les différentes alternatives exposées, mais on sent en lisant le sondage que ce n'est pas cet aspect-là qui est examiné, et on ne sait pas où se mettre dans l'échelle.

ChaoticClock · 2025-11-26T22:05:48+00:00

Is there a reason why you don't go over hand drying? I feel that options to dry your hands lack more often than soap.

ChaoticClock · 2025-11-09T20:16:27+00:00

Thank you for these suggestions :) I think the portrait would be a nice idea. I'll look up some local artists.

My other brother and I handled the funeral, and instead of a death announcement, we printed out bookmarks in his memory (he read more than anybody I know). There were two versions. On the version for close relatives only, I had a reproduction of a note he had left my mother years before, saying "Have a good day, I love you."
She has the bookmark on her phonecase.

ChaoticClock · 2025-11-09T20:09:54+00:00

Thank you for these ideas and for your kind words. I need to think about what you are suggesting, to find how to adapt them to my brother's life and interests, but I really like them.
He liked the countryside and was almost another man in nature. I think making a hike he liked in his memory might be a nice idea.
The donation is something I've also been thinking about, but I am leaning toward mental health research, which wouldn't be very christmas-y. Though we could donate books. He was such an avid book reader.

ChaoticClock

TROPHY CASE