quote – It's a small world

Now reading: The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

Posted on January 25, 2019 by A.I. Alex

Here’s some news on my literary quest: I am currently reading Patrick Rothfuss’ second book, The Wise Man’s Fear, and I dare say it is stunning.

Actually, I started reading it a while ago, just that I forgot to mention it, my sincere apologies 🙂

Now that I am halfway through this 1k page book, I want to share with you a little fragment that I found particularly interesting, that I feel you will enjoy even as it is out of context. I find it a glorious passage.

Ten hours I spent there, and the only act of creation I accomplished was to magically transform nearly a gallon of coffee into marvelous piss.
The Wise Man’s Fear ~ p. 464

It is probably not the most elegant of phrases, but without a doubt striking. The perspective of the situation is interesting, especially since one could closely relate to such a situation IRL… no?

I am thinking particularly about all those others students such as myself who are forcing themselves to study because it’s the exam period.

Now, returning to the book, I could divulge so many amazing fact about it, but I’ll keep the spoilers to myself and taunt you into reading the book yourself (remember, it’s the 2nd book, the first being The Name of the Wind).

Trust me, it’s worth the read!

An author's view, Other

Learning to write through reading

Posted on October 23, 2018 by A.I. Alex

You probably know my never-ending list of things to read from my previous post (if not, check out this link and maybe have a look at it). Among all those books was a particularly short one that I started with: The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss.

SIDE NOTE: I know it’s his 3rd book, while I still haven’t read the 2nd, BUT it’s separate. It talks about a completely different character, just that in the same fictional world. It was a good read, a little strange, but beautiful in its own way. Even the author said in a note that it isn’t doing the things a proper sort of story should do. I was perfectly fine with that, though!

So my point in this post is the following:

Through reading this book in particular, I learned a couple of interesting ways I can put words in a piece of writing, and am looking forward to trying out soon. I’d like to share them with you!

They made a medley without melding or meddling.
the worst of wrong
dark as dark

And many, many others I simply forgot to write down, but are still in the back of my mind. The book was beautifully written, at least in my opinion. You might not see the same beauty in these particular phrases as I do, and that’s fine.

Whatever floats your boat 🙂

But I found them super nice word games and felt obliged to share them with you.

Until next time, happy reading!

An author's view, Miscellaneous, Other

“A student’s full-time job”

Posted on October 21, 2018October 21, 2018 by A.I. Alex

“What’s a student’s full-time job?” asked the teacher halfway during the seminar.

All students stared at each other for a moment, unsure whether the most obvious answer was meant to be spoken out loud, or if the question was purely rhetorical. To study, everyone thought. In the end, they gave no answer, so the teacher, from the middle of the class now, looking round and round, looked each student in the eye as he gave the answer.

“To read. A student’s full-time job is to read.”

Few smiles brightened the classroom, and the teacher was fairly content with the reaction. Some students seemed to refuse to believe such a thing.

And then there are people like me. People who smile upon hearing about books.

People like me who end up reading four things in parallel, simply because they can. Or at least they try to do so.

The small scene I just told you about actually happened in one of this week’s seminars at the university. One of my teachers asked us what the full-time job of a student was. The maybe not so obvious answer was reading.

And I was thinking earlier, that indeed, his words prove to be true. He also added that after this stage in life, we won’t have that much time to spend reading as we do now, and the efficiency will not be the same anyway. It’s what we read and learn now that will be our guide later in life.

On a rather more playful tone, you can think of this stage in life as a game tutorial that you can’t come back to. You have to learn the basics during the tutorial, without skipping it, else you might not even know how to go forward.

I’ll be a little egoistic now and come back to myself.

A while ago, I mentioned in a previous post that I had started reading The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan, and guess what. I got so hooked up on other books that I didn’t read anything more from that particular book since. Instead, I began (and finished this morning) reading one of the manuals I’m studying this semester: Lessons for the Young Economist. Not a bad read at all. Then again I plan on starting another manual for a different course, this one in romanian: Psihologia Educației (The Psychology of Education). Not to mention in parallel I also want to continue Patrick Rothfuss’s series, since I really enjoyed his first book, The Name of the Wind. Next up are The Wise Man’s Fear and The Slow Regard of Silent Things. ALSO, I have another book to read for uni (a fairly short one at least) called Profit and Loss.

As you can see, I’m really messed up.

I honestly don’t know where to start.

Some I read at home, others on the way, while in the metro. A little of this, and little of that… it makes me wonder 2 things: