Currently reading
Frackistan: The Promise and Peril of America’s Energy Revolution
Savaging the Dark
The End-of-Life Handbook: A Compassionate Guide to Connecting with and Caring for a Dying Loved One
Final Journeys: A Practical Guide for Bringing Care and Comfort at the End of Life
A Better Way of Dying: How to Make the Best Choices at the End of Life
Handbook for Mortals: Guidance for People Facing Serious Illness
Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success
S.
Dances in Two Worlds: A Writer-Artist's Backstory
Tigers in Red Weather
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Hmm.This book is a LOT different when you read it as an old, embittered adult versus when you read it as a cynical-yet-nearly-immortal teenager.
It's both more hilarious - because, come on, all the work involved in keeping The Party and everything else going? That is...SO MUCH WORK! And humans are so lazy! But, wow, it is impressive - and more potentially real. Like, sometimes I feel like I work in 1984 whereas when I thought high school was Big Brother, well, I was wrong.
The parts that stood out now are very different from the parts that stood out then. Now I'm not angry after reading this, I'm sad. And tired.
You know what I loved, though, was the simplification of the English language. I don't think that even crossed my awareness when I read this the first time but now I would love to see that in progress, watch it all get pared down as planned, and then watch to see how long before this perfect, easy language broke down, sprouted tendrils and grew into something else. Such a fascinating thought.
Overall, the book is still quite easy to follow, to understand, to let the horror and confusion settle over my consciousness. I get why this is a classic and I'll have to read it in another 23 years to see how much it has again changed.