I’m not sure I understand, epub is both the industry standard and an open format, as far as I know. Why not work on using it or build it around epub from the get-go?

I have to admit I’ll have to wait for the project to start implementing epub to consider getting on board, but it’s still a great effort.

Interesting article, the statistics section was quite surprising. I wonder if there were as many fantasy books in school libraries before harry potter came out.

I resonate with a lot of what you’re saying, and yeah, I don’t think I’ll feel too guilty about taking a break or two since I can get back on it whenever I want.

My one problem with the amount of footnotes is that they can be so dense and cumbersome that the stream of consciousness sections didn’t even feel like a stream of anything: it was like when you repeat a word so often you start losing your grip on what the word itself is. Of course they’re helpful to an extent, a considerable one on a work like this one, but if this book was so wild and innovative when it came out I want to feel some of that!

Also, thanks for the recommendation! It sounds like something I’d really enjoy

Out of the three authors you mentioned I think Joyce is the least approachable to be honest: Proust’s one difficulty is his very slow rhythm (and if you manage to adjust to it there’s a nice payoff on the other side, I loved the first book of the recherche) and I generally find Woolf quite pleasant to read so I’m not the right person to ask on the account of any difficulties in reading her work.

To ge back to Dubliners you may encounter some difficulties with the things left unsaid or only to be understood thanks to a wider context; it is however a much simpler writing mechanism than all that happens in Ulysses. I got by with some introductory notes that didn’t bog me down that much and I enjoyed the effect Joyce was aiming for in those works.

I hope I was helpful and I gave you enough context to judge my point of view relative to what your tastes may be.

I’m slowly (although understandably, I believe) going through Ulysses by James Joyce and I’m trying to find a balance between the massive notes and engaging with the text itself.

I know that, especially in the English speaking literary world, it is customary to stand in the former camp but I can’t really gel with that, it feels like I’m reading something other than the book, and I didn’t really have this problem with Dubliners.

When I end up reading all of it I suppose I would then be ok going back to it later on reading all of the notes, but I’ve tried doing that as a first read and it didn’t really work for me.

It’s 's too early to even connect some thoughts, so I’m more looking for recommendations than able to give some to others!

If I were a professional athlete I would feel in the right to refuse to shake the hand of an athlete coming from a country proven to have a state-sponsored doping program significant enough to warrant that country’s flag being banned from the Olympics long before this war.

Clearly this was about the war, but let’s not pretend sportsmanship was intact before this handshake debacle came to be.

Honestly I think the article is pretty fair, overall.

The biggest difference between having a massive right wing pseudo-fascist party in a government majority and that same party leading the majority is how little they feel the need to feign. Like now the right hand man of Meloni can totally bring up the craziest world conspiracy with no proof at all, say he didn’t know it was a bad thing only to repeat the same things a week after.
The politicians just don’t have to pretend anymore, and they’re slowly stretching the boundaries of what’s normal in favour of their own plans.

As for the life of everyday people, I’d be hard pressed to find someone, anyone, actually praising this government in public, everyone I hear talking about whatever they come up with is either disgusted or concerned.
I believe what’s happening now is the same thing that was happening back in Berlusconi’s days: the ones voting for these people are aware that what they’re doing is wrong and they hide in shame until they’re sure they’re surrounded only by the right people.

Thanks for the recommendation, it was just the sort of thing I was looking for!

I am also reading through dune right now, I’m enjoying it so far. I was fine with the world building, partly because I really liked the sets in the movie and also because I found it novel compared to the very generic space faring stuff or Tolkien rip-off you get as a backdrop in sci-fi and fantasy respectively.

I’m also really enjoying a lot of the environmental musings in the book, after I finish it I will look up more about Frank Herbert’s relation to these topics, I get the feeling there’s something about it.