Books

The Pillars of the Earth 

Ken Follett follows the construction of a fictional cathedral across many decades. 

The cathedral is just a nexus, the book is about the power struggles, social dynamics, and sex lives of the people involved. 

It’s very good. It uses occasional archaic flourishes but for the most part, it’s totally modern English. The story arcs overlap and interlock enough to keep momentum high across the thousandish pages. The characters are all memorable, and either lovable or gratifyingly hateable. The religious crap is palatable and balanced by a few skeptical characters. 

My main gripe with the book is the mad rush in the last 15% to provide comprehensive happily-ever-after denouement. Every single thread got tied up with a tidy little bow, which felt like a minor betrayal of the complexity and intensity of the rest of the book. 

Three stars for the class it wanted to be (an enduring epic). Five stars for the class it achieved (great big soap opera).

Robinson Crusoe

Daniel Defoe spins a tale of a castaway figuring out how to survive and thrive on his own. 

It’s a classic adventure story: shipwreck, capture, escape from slavery, another shipwreck, pve fight for survival, pvp fight for survival, homeward odyssey. 

The language will appear troublingly archaic at a glance, but if you speak it aloud or even just say the words in your head, it becomes manageable. 

I read this with my then 5yo and he loved it. He still requests barley soup from time to time and we talk about the book often. I would have enjoyed it even on my own. It’s surprisingly fun to track his survival efforts. 

The one demerit for me was the presence of a handful of longish religious reflections, but even those served to help develop his character. 

It’s a great book for reading aloud to kids, but I’d even timidly recommend it for adults. Just don’t go in expecting modern pacing, and you’ll have a good time.

Makes me think of Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson - I love its archaic language and figures of speech. I tried reading Treasure Island hoping for the same experience but just couldn't get into it.

Good to know — I’ll give it another shot

Treasure Island starts extremely slowly. There’s basically an entire awful book before the fun part starts