Are classics really the best place to start if you’ve only just started reading for fun? To each their own, and if you’re having fun, then that’s all that matters, but I thought were best when you are already well practiced in reading.

But anyway, the short answer is to don’t force it. If you’re not feeling it, you’re not feeling it. Maybe in between the classics, pick up something contemporary that is just easy and fun.

I tried. I tried really hard. I really wanted to like it.

DNF, though. I couldn’t do it. It was awful

Fantasy as a genre hasn’t been “old white man fantasy” for at least 30 years.

I read Frankenstein for the first time this year, the original text. It struck me hard, and I can’t stop psychoanalyzing Victor, hahaha.

Great book. Mary Shelley deserves a standing ovation.

1. This is an interesting question! It might be worth looking into the social mores of the period. It could be that such a direct question is frowned upon in polite society. This is all speculation by me, but it could also be showing how polite is callous and cold, and it is the kind of society that creates monsters like Victor did. They are all too preoccupied with decorum to get real justice.
2. I think Victor is definitely “all talk”. He’s the time to spout wisdom, but the second that wisdom presents itself in reality, he freaks out. It’s like CEO’s who say things like, “We respect our works” while at the same time cutting jobs left and right while taking a massive bonus. This ties into number 3: Victor is incredibly self-centered. He is definitely of the type that thinks the world revolves around him, and everyone else is just a prop. It’s that narcissism that makes him contextualize literally everything around himself even if the logic doesn’t follow.

Good questions! I love thinking about stuff like this, so thank you for asking!

I was going to say Fourth Wing too. It’s not good.