You might enjoy Stephen Fry’s retelling of mythology. It’s a trilogy by now: Mythos, Heroes and Troy. He does a very good job at telling the legends and even occasionally bringing his own commentary to them. The best part is that it doesn’t sound didactic and although they aren’t technically novels, they flow in a very natural style. He has also done some shows where it’s just him sitting in an armchair telling the stories. I warmly recommend them. And if you have a change to get the audiobooks, don’t miss it, Stephen is also a master narrator, he’s made me hate my commute wasn’t longer :).

Tbf those passages could be about any kind of activity and they’d make it sound sensual. Unloading the dishwasher, mowing the lawn, dusting, you name it.

Do you mean he’s influential because his writings inspired some of the most cataclysmic events in human history in this past century? I am not a fan of his, but I’d still prefer to think he wouldn’t have liked the effect of his words and musings on the more action prone and single minded.

I think it does pretty well at capturing the less likable and endearing parts of a young woman’s thinking and feeling. As another commenter mentions, it’s a coming of age story. And it’s supposed to show the most inner thoughts and feelings. The kind we all have, but never express them out loud.

I agree, it’s - among other things - an exploration of romantic feelings within the coming of age of a very sheltered teenager in a very specific context.

You must have had a happy, carefree childhood. Unfortunately it’s not the norm. Not in Spain and not in many other places. One kid at my son’s school made fun of a colleague’s football trainers because they were “girls’ shoes” because they were black with orange thread. And the football kid never wanted to wear those (quite expensive) shoes ever again.

In kindergarten we made them medieval knight’s costumes from those special plastic bags that look like trash bags … some of the boys got a pink tunic with red or blue, or purple or green accents … we mixed the colors randomly. None of the kids had problems with that. But one dad did and said we either gave his son a different color tunic or he’s not walking in the carnival parade. It was quite shitty and we would’ve held our ground to prove to him that he was being ridiculous, but for the kid’s sake we have in and gave him an orange tunic. It’s been a few years and so far none of the kids who wore pink have turned into girls or whatever ridiculous notion that fool had.

Most of the girls’ clothing are just variations of white, pink and purple and very few don’t have something sparkly or glittery or with tule.

The thing is the majority of girls are more drawn to pink and sparkly and the boys to more sporty stuff, but for anyone not into those very specific and limiting tastes there’s no options.

Except the whole idea was to tell the story from the girl’s point of view. It could’ve been better only if they’d changed the whole mesmerized into loving a predator thing.

Here we are, millions, legion, expecting books to make us think and wonder about what’s going on. Actually resenting authors who tell, don’t show us. Here we are appreciating a book written the way a person might think, in random bits of memories that will help us the readers put the pieces together to reveal the whole puzzle. And sometimes we are even able to appreciate a book that doesn’t bring closure, much like life. More fools us.

I am a bit confused when people expect to “enjoy” a book written from the POV of a traumatized woman forced into sexual and reproductive slavery by a society made of fanatic religious slavers.

That’s a failing we should strive towards fixing.

Yes, older workers should get more sick days. It’s the mark of a developed society to be able and willing to help all its members.

Do you need a book to explain that? Or are you more of a cartoon person?

Yes, Andy Serkis is amazing.

I’m now listening to The Witches Abroad, the new version with Indira Varma and Bill Nye. They are incredible too. Indira Varma too is a narrating genius.

My other faves are Miriam Margolyes and of course Stephen Fry. I am very pleased audiobooks are getting such a premium treatment :)

You really are missing out. Find the Stephen Fry version, I heard it uncountable times on a loop just for Stephen’s voice and narrating nuances.

Many vaccines don’t PREVENT you from being infected by their target virus, they just teach your nudo to respond to it so that the disease severity is negligible.

Yeah, they won the vaccine market with their mRNA vaccine.

It’s probably carrying pixie coodies.

Haven’t we learned anything about bringing into our lives species we’re not supposed to share germs with?

In any case the girl can join that lady who claimed ownership of the sun or some such kiddy stuff.

Then stick to 21st century snappy plot driven stories. The 2005 movie isn’t even the best adaptation.

Those chapters channel radio transmissions of football matches (regular football, not American). They are a lot more entertaining than tv transmissions, because the narrator is describing all the action in vivid and highly embellished detail. You can actually read those passages out loud using their very specific tone of voice to make if even more recognizable.

Yes, but I really doubt OP was referring to the original Grimm Bros fairytales.

Heidi is really nice, yes.

Most children’s lit written before the 1960s didn’t include blood.

I find that the kids I know can read by themselves after 7 years of age, although they occasionally do enjoy to have a parent read to them aloud.

They both look beautiful and intriguing. The kind of cover that calls to you in a book store…

Asimov has a cool guide to the Bible. It’s dense, because so’s the Bible.

I also find that I have better reading comprehension if I don’t use met speech while reading. And even better if I don’t engage my hearing either.

Most of the times I don’t LOOK for symbolism, it just sticks out. It usually happens when you know a lot about the context of the book, the period it was written in, the author’s system of thinking and, more than the message they were trying to convey, what kind of readers they addressed. Because one-sided symbolism is pointless, you need the reader to pick up on it.

So no, I don’t think you have to approach reading as a chore, since I assume it’s reading for your own pleasure, not for school. That being said, keep in mind that especially with non-current works you may need to have a decent base of general culture around the book, or read up on it. It’s not that hard and can actually be enjoyable. Also most classics would be orbiting Ancient Greek/Roman mythology and philosophy and the more religious would include the 2 testaments in their basic mythology and thought systems. The Romantics were quite interested in medieval myth and, maybe surprisingly, in the scientific advances of the day.

A little knowledge of literary movements can also be helpful, as they tended to turn their symbols into tropes - then the next movement would be a reaction to the previous one, so that might also help you understand more.

In any case, if all this seems overwhelming, there’s a lot of kind people on the www who explain even the more obscure writings, so I’d treat them as the great resource they are. To me personally it’s always a joy to find out new dimensions to a book I’m reading.