Book Review: The Mayor of Casterbridge

Lately my reading preference has been towards classics (I not too long ago had a craving for easy-to-read comfort novels). My most recent discovery was a book called The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy (a thrift store buy) and reading the summary on the back I had to see what it was about. The first line of the summary is "In a fit of drunken anger, Michael Henchard sells his wife and baby daughter for five guineas at a country fair." Hmm, sounds like a wonderful character. The first chapter describes the incident of the scandal, which puts the main character Michael Henchard in a bad light to say the least. But this seems to change in the following few chapters when his wife finds him again after 20 years when the man who purchased her (he is actually a gentleman, he did not buy her simply to take advantage of her) had died. Henchard is full of regret and had not consumed any alcohol since that day as a way to repent. He appears to be a changed man and sympathy for him is not hard to find. As other events take place, though, some of his character flaws start to show up again. The author somehow makes his character seem to deserve pity and love one moment and pure hatred and annoyance another. By the end of the book I was ready for him to leave the story; he just kept ruining everything with his unyielding selfishness! But then he honestly regrets his actions, so it sometimes seems like he has a double personality and it is hard to hate him entirely for that reason. The book basically narrates the life of a truly messed up man and the marks he leaves on other people. I would not say that it is exactly the most interesting read, at least not up to par with say Frankenstein or Crime and Punishment, but it was certainly intriguing and I am glad I have experienced the story. Go Penguin Classics!

Finding Distinct Sounds

I have found that my music tastes are not limited to only one fashion and in fact that I would prefer if each of my favourite artists had their own sound. For instance, I have a love for the band We Shot the Moon. They are not overly exciting or interesting, honestly, but they are very relaxing to me and I enjoy every song of theirs. I do not often enjoy any other band of a similar genre though; it just sounds too much the same. This is similar with some of the other things I listen to and so programs like Spotify are not all that helpful, since they give suggestions based on what you have played in the past. But how else should they offer new music? It also does not help that I do not love what is most popular, it all has the same sound as well. How am I to win? I just need to explore the musical realm, I guess, and hope that I find a treasure every now and then. Who do you listen to the most?

The Time is Nigh

Where has my time gone? How come I always end up wasting the thing I covet the most? I suppose this must be so if it is to receive the appreciation it deserves. Even now I feel I should be using my time differently; would I cherish these moments more if I were? Maybe, or maybe not. For too long I have simply been living, to simply get through, and I have nothing spectacular to show for it. I could recite my most recent experiences in college to any inquiring, if I wished, and I would be given pleased faces in return, but such an act cannot give me hope for my own future. It is so much easier to trust another to live their own life than to trust yourself to live your own. In the eyes of relatives they believe I will succeed in all I do, but in my eyes I can see the chance of failure at every step. Our choices truly create who we are and in what situations we are placed and who is to tell what domino-effect may be caused by one direction or another. This, as far as my knowledge goes, is how we must live; in doubt of where to go and what to do. Though I am fairly certain of one thing, that this feeling does not rest in me alone.