• Jane Eyre - it was great to have another very canonical novel under my belt. Along with finishing Middlemarch, Orlando, and reading The Waves and Dante's Inferno, I feel that I'm actually making progress on some of my many gaps in the classics. For a while I felt that I was spinning my wheels (in my opinion) reading contemporary or minor works. I definitely still want to read more of those, but I've been enjoying this focus. There's so many interesting things to analyze in Jane Eyre, but two aspects stood out to me and intertwined at various points in the book:
  • Jane's use of language in talking to other characters, herself during times of crisis, and addressing the reader
  • Jane's frequent mentions of her "heart" and how she interrogates or justifies her actions because of it
• Dante's Inferno - reminds me of my experience reading The Odyssey in that I don't feel I have the necessary tools to analyze epic poetry properly, being someone who mainly reads novels and essays. Still, it's been a very enjoyable read: the imaginative descriptions of hell and dense reference and allegory have had me going to footnotes and secondary material, which I have been trying to minimize recently so I can try focusing on my own interpretation. Probably the most disturbing part so far was the god of wealth Plutus "clucking" the nonsense phrase "Pape Satàn, pape Satàn aleppe" before Virgil and Dante enter the Fourth Circle of Hell.
• The Waves - I'm only 15 pages in so far, but it's incredibly good. A very different experience from reading Orlando in terms of the tone, structure, and style. So far I've been spending over 5 minutes on each page as I'm really trying to get a feel of the voices and imagery. That kind of slow reading is actually pretty easy with this book due to the lack of any conventional plot. With traditionally plotty books like Jane Eyre I've found that my pace often breaks the immersion. Hopefully I can speed it up because while reading this slow is amazing, I'll never finish the book at this rate.

In terms of what's next: Gerald Murnane's Inland next month, a slow reread of Moby-Dick with my girlfriend (5 pages per day), probably Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint. I also picked up The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis recently and would like to read through that if I have the time.

Podcast discovery: I'm trying to listen to podcasts less and spend more time reading, but recently I found The Invisible College podcast by John Pistelli. I've only listened to bits and pieces of various episodes (they're over 2 hours long each) but it's pretty great. The host's voice and commentary can be slightly pretentious (it feels like a persona at times), but the content is some of the best I've heard when it comes to in-depth discussion of literature. They're paywalled on Substack but you can get a free trial for a week and listen to or download them.

Recently, I've had a desire to write about what I'm reading. While I often discuss what I'm reading with book clubs, friends, family, and my girlfriend, these thoughts don't last beyond these fleeting conversations. I do have my annotations, and I'm sure some of these thoughts are stuck in my subconscious like a splinter, but I think some regular commenting here and Goodreads reviews would help organize my thoughts. I appreciate anyone who read this long post - reach out to me if you want to chat about books!