Hi friends!

I hope you’ve gotten over your midweek slump. Here’s what I’ve been reading:

The Meaning of Night: I’ve finished another three parts and I think I’ll be reading the sequel right after this. It’s been interesting how my opinion of Edward has changed from part 1. Part 1 started with him making a very bad impression (senseless murder) but now it does feel like it’s not quite fair he doesn’t have his inheritance (though not so unfair he should be killing people). Still, I’m getting the sense that he’s an unreliable narrator.

It’s a bit random, but I’ve also decide to just ignore the footnotes. I was reading them for the first two sections because I thought it would have some secret clue to the plot, but it seems to be there just to add some verisimilitude. The reading experience is a lot less disruptive now that I’ve decided to ignore the footnotes.

The Tale of Genji: I’ve finished another two chapters here! Genji’s been to exile and he’s back (and his baby girl might be coming back soon). His exile experience was interesting, especially the part where he and his half-brother sees their dead father (apart from Lady Rokujo haunting Aoi, this is the next most overtly paranormal episode in the book).

The next chapter, his return to capital, had some unpleasant moments though. It might be Genji’s high point in his career, but there’s something that feels very manipulative about the way he treats Murasaki. He kind of just guilts her into not being ‘jealous’ (or wavers between finding the jealousy cute and thinking about how he raised her not to be jealous).

By the way! I had a mini-realisation today! I’ve not drunk tea for two days and was really craving some, and then I remembered that caffeine gets more soluble as the water temperature rises, which means that cold brewing tea can help reduce the amount of caffeine in the tea liquor itself. So I tried that, and so far so good.