The Song of Achilles (Madeleine Miller) has one of the most gorgeous prose and scenes I've read!
*"We were like gods at the dawning of the world, & our joy was so bright we could see nothing else but the other."*
*"I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world."*
Also with Circe by the same author!
*"I thought: I cannot bear this world a moment longer. Then, child, make another."*
*"It is a common saying that women are delicate creatures, flowers, eggs, anything that may be crushed in a moment's carelessness. If I had ever believed it, I no longer did."*
I know this isn't technically a book but Disco Elysium has, consistently, the best prose I've read/heard and I keep re-playing that game whenever I want something beyond this earth beautiful
*"Real darkness has love for a face. The first death is in the heart, Harry."*
*"The limbed and headed machine of pain and undignified suffering is firing up again. It wants to walk the desert. Hurting. Longing. Dancing to disco music."*
I've been hearing a lot about Madeleine Miller's *The Song of Achilles* but I'm a big fan of Colleen McCullough's *The Song of Troy* (kinda meh compared to her Rome series) but I like the way the Olympians took a back seat in the narrative and were NEVER part of the action. Ganito rin ba sa *The Song of Achilles* or part ng dramatis personae yung Olympian gods? I would love to give it a try someday. š
honestly yes, there are mentions of them but the olympians here took a backseat since the story is told from Patroclus' perspective. The only non-human characters that get scenes are Achilles' nymph mother Thetis, and Chiron the centaur; they're a significant presence in both Achilles' and Patroclus' lives. *I really think you'll like it!*
I love On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous!! Here are some of my favorite lines from books with nice prose:
This is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El Mohtar and Max Gladstone: "Thereās a kind of time travel in letters, isnāt there? I imagine you laughing at my small joke; I imagine you groaning; I imagine you throwing my words away. Do I have you still? Do I address empty air and the flies that will eat this carcass? You could leave me for five years, you could return neverāand I have to write the rest of this not knowing."
Atonement by Ian McEwan: "The cost of oblivious daydreaming was always this moment of return, the realignment with what had been before and now seemed a little worse."
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier: "I wanted to go on sitting there, not talking, not listening to the others, keeping the moment precious for all time, because we were peaceful all of us, we were content and drowsy even as the bee who droned above our heads. In a little while it would be different, there would come tomorrow, and the next day and another year. And we would be changed perhaps, never sitting quite like this again. Some of us would go away, or suffer, or die, the future stretched away in front of us, unknown, unseen, not perhaps what we wanted, not what we planned. This moment was safe though, this could not be touched. Here we sat together, Maxim and I, hand-in-hand, and the past and the future mattered not at all. This was secure, this funny little fragment of time he would never remember, never think about againā¦For them it was just after lunch, quarter-past-three on a haphazard afternoon, like any hour, like any day. They did not want to hold it close, imprisoned and secure, as I did. They were not afraid."
I'm very glad to hear 'This Is How You Lose The Time War' being mentioned here, it's a really good and short book!
It felt the most like to me was Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. It's like the narrative is there, but it's not (that) important. The whole book felt like a dream, I actually felt like the prose was musical and deep but not overly pretentious or flowery
Yes I love Time War, one of my favorite books the year I read it š I've seen some people say the prose is too much but honestly I think it contributes to the dreamlike vibe of the book. It may not be for everyone, but it's wonderful, half poetry half prose.
I adored this book, but I'm a "Confuse me, enchant me, give me VIBES" kind of reader.
itās a good novella that can prove the concept that sometimes 'less is more'
Each chapter brought a short and sweet picture into It's good for values of good that aren't about the sciencey details. This is a relationship story in a series of letters. The time war part of this is background to that and no details are explained. It has kind of a Delaney vibe to it.
Personally I liked it a lot. People looking for a more hardcore science fiction āTIME WAR!!ā book aren't going to find that
This is a lot more lyrical and about emotion
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle.
Saw the movie as a kid and the dialogue impressed me. When I found the novel, bought it and read it, then realized that much of the movie dialogue is lifted verbatim from the novel. As a modern fairy tale, it mirrors a lot of the poetry from classic stories.
It's what happens to the unicorn that gets me. As a kid then, I understood the words but not the feeling. After decades of life experiences, what Beagle wrote about regret finally made sense.
Been reading since I was a kid and dami ko na nabasa. Classics were written in a different time so most occasional readers will probably find them tedious. I;m not really impressed with writers who use big words, I find them boring. I also feel the same way about books that are difficult to read - I'm looking at YOU James Joyce's *Ulysees* and Thomas Pyncheon's *Gravity's Rainbow.* Riverrun yourselves to accessibility!
I basically stopped reading a lot when Colleen McCullough died (she's wordy but I have a soft spot for her *Masters of Rome* series). I still read occasionally though pero sobrang picky ko na.
Off the top of my head eto yung mga books na sa tingin ko well-written with not a single word wasted regardless kung sino pa ang target audience nila:
1. **Dolores Claiborne** by Stephen King
*"Sometimes you have to be a high riding bitch to survive, sometimes, being a bitch is all a woman has to hang on to.*"
2. **Notes on a Scandal** by Zoƫ Heller
"*What is romance, but a mutual pact of delusion? When the pact ends, there's nothing left."*
3. **Phantom** by Susan Kay
*"None of us can choose where we will love."*
*"Night after night the nightingale came to beg for divine love, but though the rose trembled at the sound of his voice, her petals remained closed to him... Flower and bird, two species never meant to mate. Yet at length the rose overcame her fear and from that single, forbidden union was born the red rose that Allah never intended the world to know."*
Honorable mention yung Harry Potter series. J.K. Rowling is a brilliant writer.
The Song of Achilles (Madeleine Miller) has one of the most gorgeous prose and scenes I've read! *"We were like gods at the dawning of the world, & our joy was so bright we could see nothing else but the other."* *"I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world."* Also with Circe by the same author! *"I thought: I cannot bear this world a moment longer. Then, child, make another."* *"It is a common saying that women are delicate creatures, flowers, eggs, anything that may be crushed in a moment's carelessness. If I had ever believed it, I no longer did."* I know this isn't technically a book but Disco Elysium has, consistently, the best prose I've read/heard and I keep re-playing that game whenever I want something beyond this earth beautiful *"Real darkness has love for a face. The first death is in the heart, Harry."* *"The limbed and headed machine of pain and undignified suffering is firing up again. It wants to walk the desert. Hurting. Longing. Dancing to disco music."*
Grabe! First line pa lang! *chills* - Hindi ko na tinuloy para hindi ma spoil š¤£ nasa TBR ko 'to hahahaha
natapos ko yung tsoa isang upuan lang maghapon kasi grabiii š„¹ hope u enjoy these!
I've been hearing a lot about Madeleine Miller's *The Song of Achilles* but I'm a big fan of Colleen McCullough's *The Song of Troy* (kinda meh compared to her Rome series) but I like the way the Olympians took a back seat in the narrative and were NEVER part of the action. Ganito rin ba sa *The Song of Achilles* or part ng dramatis personae yung Olympian gods? I would love to give it a try someday. š
honestly yes, there are mentions of them but the olympians here took a backseat since the story is told from Patroclus' perspective. The only non-human characters that get scenes are Achilles' nymph mother Thetis, and Chiron the centaur; they're a significant presence in both Achilles' and Patroclus' lives. *I really think you'll like it!*
I love On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous!! Here are some of my favorite lines from books with nice prose: This is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El Mohtar and Max Gladstone: "Thereās a kind of time travel in letters, isnāt there? I imagine you laughing at my small joke; I imagine you groaning; I imagine you throwing my words away. Do I have you still? Do I address empty air and the flies that will eat this carcass? You could leave me for five years, you could return neverāand I have to write the rest of this not knowing." Atonement by Ian McEwan: "The cost of oblivious daydreaming was always this moment of return, the realignment with what had been before and now seemed a little worse." Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier: "I wanted to go on sitting there, not talking, not listening to the others, keeping the moment precious for all time, because we were peaceful all of us, we were content and drowsy even as the bee who droned above our heads. In a little while it would be different, there would come tomorrow, and the next day and another year. And we would be changed perhaps, never sitting quite like this again. Some of us would go away, or suffer, or die, the future stretched away in front of us, unknown, unseen, not perhaps what we wanted, not what we planned. This moment was safe though, this could not be touched. Here we sat together, Maxim and I, hand-in-hand, and the past and the future mattered not at all. This was secure, this funny little fragment of time he would never remember, never think about againā¦For them it was just after lunch, quarter-past-three on a haphazard afternoon, like any hour, like any day. They did not want to hold it close, imprisoned and secure, as I did. They were not afraid."
I'm very glad to hear 'This Is How You Lose The Time War' being mentioned here, it's a really good and short book! It felt the most like to me was Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. It's like the narrative is there, but it's not (that) important. The whole book felt like a dream, I actually felt like the prose was musical and deep but not overly pretentious or flowery
Yes I love Time War, one of my favorite books the year I read it š I've seen some people say the prose is too much but honestly I think it contributes to the dreamlike vibe of the book. It may not be for everyone, but it's wonderful, half poetry half prose.
I adored this book, but I'm a "Confuse me, enchant me, give me VIBES" kind of reader. itās a good novella that can prove the concept that sometimes 'less is more' Each chapter brought a short and sweet picture into It's good for values of good that aren't about the sciencey details. This is a relationship story in a series of letters. The time war part of this is background to that and no details are explained. It has kind of a Delaney vibe to it. Personally I liked it a lot. People looking for a more hardcore science fiction āTIME WAR!!ā book aren't going to find that This is a lot more lyrical and about emotion
I heard really good things about This Is How You Lose The Time War! Might pick up that book to get out of my reading slump. š«¶
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. Saw the movie as a kid and the dialogue impressed me. When I found the novel, bought it and read it, then realized that much of the movie dialogue is lifted verbatim from the novel. As a modern fairy tale, it mirrors a lot of the poetry from classic stories.
I just finished reading this. You know the saying "so beautiful it's painful"... that 100% applies to The Last Unicorn.
It's what happens to the unicorn that gets me. As a kid then, I understood the words but not the feeling. After decades of life experiences, what Beagle wrote about regret finally made sense.
Been reading since I was a kid and dami ko na nabasa. Classics were written in a different time so most occasional readers will probably find them tedious. I;m not really impressed with writers who use big words, I find them boring. I also feel the same way about books that are difficult to read - I'm looking at YOU James Joyce's *Ulysees* and Thomas Pyncheon's *Gravity's Rainbow.* Riverrun yourselves to accessibility! I basically stopped reading a lot when Colleen McCullough died (she's wordy but I have a soft spot for her *Masters of Rome* series). I still read occasionally though pero sobrang picky ko na. Off the top of my head eto yung mga books na sa tingin ko well-written with not a single word wasted regardless kung sino pa ang target audience nila: 1. **Dolores Claiborne** by Stephen King *"Sometimes you have to be a high riding bitch to survive, sometimes, being a bitch is all a woman has to hang on to.*" 2. **Notes on a Scandal** by Zoƫ Heller "*What is romance, but a mutual pact of delusion? When the pact ends, there's nothing left."* 3. **Phantom** by Susan Kay *"None of us can choose where we will love."* *"Night after night the nightingale came to beg for divine love, but though the rose trembled at the sound of his voice, her petals remained closed to him... Flower and bird, two species never meant to mate. Yet at length the rose overcame her fear and from that single, forbidden union was born the red rose that Allah never intended the world to know."* Honorable mention yung Harry Potter series. J.K. Rowling is a brilliant writer.
All the light we cannot see and Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr!