reading & writing

allie. she/her. writing lots of stuff and reading even more. current reads: SPQR, The Odyssey, Meditations, The Oresteia, Dune

[literallyreading]

Reading Update

I have begun two more books (surprise, surprise): How to Break Up With Your Phone by Catherine Price (and yes, I understand the irony of writing about it on my phone), and Todas las Familias Felices by Mercedes de Vega.

How to Break Up With Your Phone

I’m reading this one for reasons probably very obvious, as I’d like to support this new reading journey of mine with less time on technology, mindlessly scrolling. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy a mindless scroll now and then, but I want to limit that time so as to put more time into new passions of mine. This also stems from an ongoing goal of increasing my attention span—it’s not what it used to be!

Todas las Familias Felices

This one, I purchased several years ago in Spain, with the intention to mark it up and translate as I go to increase my fluency. I never ended up getting into it and now, like my attention span, my Spanish is not quite what it used to be. I spent about an hour today just translating and reciting the intriguing first page of the novel. I am hoping this gets quicker and easier as I move through the book. It’s already improving both my confidence with Spanish and my vocabulary. Seriously, you would not believe how much garage vocab I learned today!

Interestingly enough, the title is taken from a quote of Leo Tolstoy’s, in Anna Karenina. I had already been toying with the idea of reading that one, but consider it officially on the reading list! (I should have snagged it when I picked up War and Peace at Half Price Books the other day.)

[literallyreading]

Started reading Dune today. Apparently East of Eden and Dune were published 13 years apart… the same time difference between today and 2012…

[literallyreading]

so I haven’t finished the book, and I’ll need to determine if I generally agree with him as a thinker, but I have to say, Marcus Aurelius was making some insightful points in Meditations

[literallyreading]

January 2025 Reads:

(subject to updates)

Meditations, Marcus Aurelius

-In Progress-

Inspired by The Holdovers, Gladiators I & II, and, surprisingly, after I’d already purchased the book and intended to read it, East of Eden. Do I agree with everything he says? Definitely not. Do I find his takes on freedom of thought and power of the mind intriguing? Yes.

SPQR, Mary Beard

-In Progress-

Coming up on a year of it sitting on my bookshelf. I recently had planned on starting it after finishing Meditations, but found myself itching to read it to gain better context of what Ancient Rome was like and how that could have affected Aurelius’ thoughts in the text. Loving Beard’s takes so far.

The Odyssey, Homer

-In Progress-

I actually picked this one up recently on a whim. I’d heard a lot about Epic: The Musical online, and also knew I had two copies of The Iliad waiting at home for me. I thought this would be a nice companion. The same day I got it, I began reading and found myself quite intrigued. Of course, this is a bit of a pivot from where I was headed with the Ancient Roman studies, but I like it.

The Oresteia, Aeschylus

-In Progress-

At this point, it’s probably clear that I have a bad habit of picking up books while in the middle of other books—or, in some cases, in the beginning. Literally within the first few pages of The Odyssey, I was looking up The Oresteia (of which I already had a copy) to understand the referenced myth involving Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, and Orestes (which had sounded very similar to Hamlet). I began The Oresteia the same night, only to learn it was inspired by The Odyssey and not the other way around. I plan to work on The Odyssey first but am keeping this one in my proverbial back pocket (on my nightstand) for later.

Honorable Mention:

Six Plays by Henrik Ibsen, Henrik Ibsen

-Not Started-

While moving along in SPQR after Beard taught me about the conflict between Catiline and Cicero, she brought up how the story had been retold throughout the centuries. One such case was in Catiline, the first play of Henrik Ibsen. I thought to myself, “I know that name,” and sure enough, I had a volume of six of his plays on my shelf. While it has been added to the ever-growing pile on my nightstand, it will be a while before I read it—especially because Catiline is not actually part of the collection.

[literallyreading]

hii

if you're here, maybe you know me (eek) or maybe you're just a fellow reader. in either case, welcome! I have been reading quite a bit lately and just wanted a place to put down my thoughts as I go through some more challenging texts this year. feel free to share your own thoughts as well! I'd love to start a dialogue. I find discussing with others to be a great way to better understand literature. anyways, if you need me, you know where to find me!

-allie