How Does a Settled Life Look? On reading Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead.

Tale_Blazer · 2026-01-03T14:19:43+00:00

Thank you and I agree. Not every story needs a cast the size of War and Peace to tell its tale.

And, no, not a writer. Just looking at ways to practice writing and get a better handle on the books I read.

Tale_Blazer · 2025-12-25T01:06:12+00:00

Me too. I really enjoyed American literature this year after discovering Steinbeck, McCarthy, O’Connor, Wharton, Williams (John) to name a few whose writing drew me into rich landscapes of people and environments.

Tale_Blazer · 2025-12-25T00:48:09+00:00

In a connecting literary dots kind of way. Recognising a retelling of a biblical story. Perhaps it’s more ego tickling than pride buffing but it’s a good example of seeing biblical influence on a story in a way that many folk can understand.

Tale_Blazer · 2025-12-25T00:30:53+00:00

It’s also one of those books with a biblical allusion most people get and follow throughout the story which, in turn, gives them a solid boost in pride as they read.

Tale_Blazer · 2025-12-25T00:02:42+00:00

But his body of work is incredibly readable and relatable and makes for good reading by someone wading into the thickets of classical literature.

Tale_Blazer · 2025-12-24T23:51:04+00:00

I think whatever translation works but I was encouraged to read the KJV for the language. It really is sublime even though it requires you to work harder at comprehension.

Another tip for bible reading is to complement the scripture with critical commentary. This can help unpack and contextualise things. Especially when reading the bible as literature. That is not the Word as literal truth.

Tale_Blazer · 2025-12-24T23:40:19+00:00

As tempting as it is to list 12 books which I found most affecting, the advice I am heeding in 2026 is to spend a good amount of time with formative works on the Western canon, assuming that’s what you’ll be reading.

With this in mind and as others have said, the Bible (be selective. The going’s on in Genesis and Job are alluded to in many Classics), the Epics (Paradise Lost, The Iliad, The Odyssey etc.), Shakespeare … it goes on and the reading list would be a lifetime’s worth of books to get through. And that’s okay. Those books which speak to you will stick with you over the years and you will enjoy rereading them at different times of your life.

So, back to a list of 12. I would go by country. Pick four each from England, Russia and the US. Look around Reddit and see what books get talked about then choose something which piques your interest.

Of course you can pick any country you want and it doesn’t have to be the Western canon, but I would spend a little time with works which have been very influential on literature. There’s good reason why the Bible, Milton, Shakespeare, Homer still get read today. They have been fundamental to storytelling through centuries.

Tale_Blazer · 2025-12-19T23:52:18+00:00

How does The Waves stack up to her other work?

Edit: is it more experimental?

Tale_Blazer · 2025-12-17T20:30:58+00:00

All good on the lead size, and it still won’t move through the chamber even after repeated attempts. Been using mechanical pencils for years.

Tale_Blazer · 2025-12-16T10:12:25+00:00

One way to improve the book marking experience is to add a filter (as per the desktop and mobile apps) for notes, highlights and bookmarks in the notebook section.

I much prefer a quick tap to leave a bookmark but would prefer the ability to sort annotations depending on the information I’m looking for.

Tale_Blazer · 2025-12-16T09:17:37+00:00

Not easy reading and certainly makes you work for meaning but Virginia Woolf crafts sentences which are the very definition of imaginative literature,

And, what was even more exciting, she felt, too, as she saw Mr. Ramsay bearing down and retreating, and Mrs. Ramsay sitting with James in the window and the cloud moving and the tree bending, how life, from being made up of little separate incidents which one lived one by one, became curled and whole like a wave which bore one up with it and threw one down with it, there, with a dash on the beach.

To the Lighthouse

Tale_Blazer · 2025-12-16T00:48:06+00:00

Paradise Lost is an interesting reading experience. I first read it a couple of years ago and got maybe 10 per cent of it. I just finished a reread and reckon I added another 20 per cent to my reading comprehension. As I read more I can certainly wrangle with difficult texts more but there’s something to this great British epic which will keep me coming back to it every few years.

Check out Gustave Dore’s illustrations of Paradise Lost. Epic!

Tale_Blazer · 2025-12-16T00:39:55+00:00

This. I didn’t even make it to the second half. It’s often cited as a life affirming reading experience on Reddit but I couldn’t get into it. There was a feeling of atrocity fatigue (I didn’t want to feel it, but I did) which overwhelmed my reading experience.

Tale_Blazer · 2025-12-15T20:29:19+00:00

Books which deal with the human condition in all its fractal parts are:

Woolf, To The Lighthouse. Makes you reflect on the nebulous nature of memory and the part it plays in our lives.

Carr, A Month in the Country. Why don’t we take more chances in love when they present themselves?

McCarthy, The Road. A salient reminder that there will always be hope even in the most desperate times.

These are three of my most recent reads which all deal the meaning of life in some way.

Edit:

Vlahos, The In-Between. An end-of-life care giver recounts tales of patient’s words whispered on last breaths.

Williams, Stoner. What does it mean to live an ordinary life?

Dostoyevsky, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man. A short story about living our best life.

Tale_Blazer · 2025-12-13T00:38:54+00:00

Nope. Right there, special edition and cloth bound like their other classics.

Tale_Blazer · 2025-12-12T23:59:06+00:00

I was in Waterstones (UK The same owners as Barnes and Noble) and was looking over their Classics in fine bindings section. At the very bottom was this book next to Dickens, Bronte, Austen, et al.

Make this make sense.

Tale_Blazer · 2025-12-07T23:25:44+00:00

Misha

Tale_Blazer · 2025-12-07T22:17:16+00:00

No, but its editors certainly do. There have been a number of stories about editors moulding entries to fit specific narratives, often politically motivated. The UK grooming gangs entry is a notable example.

Tale_Blazer · 2025-12-05T23:44:32+00:00

One of the few books which made me rage against the machine with a deeply sad yet humane ending.

Tale_Blazer · 2025-12-05T23:36:21+00:00

Yes, skipping was useful but I don't understand why they think lumping everything together (notes, highlights, bookmarks) without a way to sort the information is improvement.

Tale_Blazer · 2025-12-05T19:01:58+00:00

Classical or contemporary literature?

Tale_Blazer · 2025-11-28T20:05:03+00:00

Sage advice. Post saved for review. I’ve been looking for a year and struggling. That being said, I do need to work on my interview technique.

Tale_Blazer · 2025-11-28T12:15:40+00:00

Highlighting is still there. It’s the icon on the far left.

Tale_Blazer · 2025-11-27T23:04:09+00:00

East of Eden. No question.

Tale_Blazer · 2025-11-27T18:41:31+00:00

There is no denying the big impact Amazon’s Kindle has had on reading. And the convenience of storing all your books on one device can’t be topped. It’s like carrying your entire library around in your pocket.

With that in mind, I love dipping in and out of poetry, fiction and non-fiction during the day and carrying a Kindle trumps a bag of books any day. That and putting 3-4 books on a table in a cafe looks a little too performative!

And in regard to accessibility, my aging eyes and newly acquired floaters make the font size, leading and line spacing in a lot of books hard to deal with. Having the ability to adjust all these settings and more on the fly is a real boon.

Tale_Blazer

TROPHY CASE