Tea With Tarvos - Tarvos' Log 2019

[tarvos]

I didn't read anything besides Moby Dick, but I probably should have - that book is beyond terrible. My God, did he really just write 700 pages about some dudes who went whaling?

[tarvos]

Because I like K-drama, all I am doing right now is watching a lot of K-drama (I feel very tired today) and I read a bit in a Spanish book I acquired called Dime quien soy. That book is a brick of the first order as it's a whopping 1100 pages, so that's a formidable amount to read in Spanish

The sacrifices I make for language learning...

[Elenia]

Because I like K-drama, all I am doing right now is watching a lot of K-drama (I feel very tired today) and I read a bit in a Spanish book I acquired called Dime quien soy. That book is a brick of the first order as it's a whopping 1100 pages, so that's a formidable amount to read in Spanish

The sacrifices I make for language learning...

'sacrifices', she says...

According to Goodreads, the longest book I've read in the past six or so years was a meagre 662 pages long. It was in Swedish. This year I'm finally taking on Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (in English). I received it in Finnish as a wedding gift, so maybe next year I'll join in your lament of the things I do for language learning.

[tarvos]

I don't even know what the longest book I've ever read is, but I assume it's Anna Karenina. But I *can*, however, assure you I've read too many books. :p

[rdearman]

The longest book I ever read was "Mission Earth" by L. Ron Hubbard. Which was 3,992 pages and is in the top ten longest novels of all time, which interestingly enough "War & Peace" isn't in the top ten.

[Mista]

I've actually read two books on that list - Mann and Proust - though admittedly, I only finished one of them ... I also have to admit that I read the translation in both cases None of them are particularly tempting to read in the original, at least not yet.

As for the longest book on the list (Scudéry), I've heard of it, but I've never heard anyone recommend it.

[tarvos]

The longest book I ever read was "Mission Earth" by L. Ron Hubbard. Which was 3,992 pages and is in the top ten longest novels of all time, which interestingly enough "War & Peace" isn't in the top ten.

That, and Tolstoy is overrated

Honestly, I think people make too much of the length of books. The only problem I have with longer-ish books is that there always tends to be a lull in those books where the plot plods forth without much of anything happening. But some books that are short are equally pointless. A 150-page novel written by an incapable author is just as toothless...

Anyway, I have already hit page 267 of 1096 (thank you Goodreads for this information), and I am expecting to get further into this book this week.

And now that I only have a few books left in my backlog to clear, except for a whole host of German pdf's I haven't yet touched but don't all want to read in one go, it's time for you good folks to do me a favour and recommend me some more good books.

And if you like queer literature, please recommend me books that have LGBT characters in them. Thank you. I might actually relate to a character more if they're queer (brilliantyears, I am looking at you :p)

[tarvos]

斬捨御免 (Kirisute gomen. I apologize in advance for what I have to say).

So the past few weeks I've been struggling with my health, not so much my mental health this time as my physical health; my liver is the organ acting up this time. I have such severe itching that the scratch wounds are all over my body, especially on my feet and lower legs, and I am becoming tired, nauseous and cranky because of my liver. I have specific medicine to deal with this but it's just not helping or going anywhere, which means that either the source lies elsewhere (unlikely as I've tried antihistamines before and they didn't help back then), or the liver/gallbladder issue is deeper and likely there is some nasty shit going on behind the scenes. This is possible because I have a chronic liver disease which means that it could be deteriorating faster than we expect, and I just hope it's gallstones and not bile duct cancer or some shit like that, although that's definitely possible.

I am under medicial supervision for this liver disease, but this means that in the coming weeks it is very likely that I will be absent as there may be a need to hospitalize me for operations or other examinations. The symptoms are no good and the liver enzymes are already elevated, so there's definitely cause for worry.

I hope this means I can recover from the symptoms (not the disease - that would require a liver transplant...), but I apologize in advance if I will not be there anymore. I am not long for this world; this could take 5, 10, 20 more years to resolve but in no case will I live to 80 like this (if I do, praised be the heavens). If we are unlucky, I pass away soon and that's the end of the story. If we are lucky, everything gets discovered on time and I survive.

Don't expect much study to happen here. But I might just fall away with health issues and become severely sick or die or what have you. I don't know what the future will bring. But it's not bright, and this is the hand I've been dealt.

[renaissancemedici]

I really hope your health gets better. Medicine advances fast these days, maybe you'll get some good news about your liver. May you be strong!

[eido]

Good luck, Tarvos. I can't say I'm sorry, 'cause what'll that do? I hope we get to see you around here for a long time. But if not, it was nice knowing you. You're a very talented lady. May the rest of your days be as painless as possible.