An update

I probably shouldn't keep updating about every day at work. In fact, let's get out while the getting is good. Suffice to say, from my perspective it continues to go well. The people are helpful and understanding, and I continue to learn. Also of the cliffhanger I left last time on the matter of pay, it turns out I had originally misunderstood what I was being offered, and my pay was not in error. Downside: no paid leave for me. Hope they will be understand if I request unpaid leave, and that I will still have a job afterward.

Today I got to have another reading session with Pazi and Ami, which between one thing and another has been sorely missed for the past month or two. I read Chapter 2 of The Vile Village, Book the Seventh of A Series of Unfortunate Events, Pazi brought us two chapters from the end of Singularity Sky (AKA Festival of Fools) by Charlie Stross and Ami took us deeper into the unravelling universe with I, Q. (actual order may differ).

I, Q made a very welcome change from the emotionally wrenching nature of the other two. When I finish reading A Series of Unfortunate Events I look forward to reading a happier story. Sometimes I worry that too many of the stories which excite my attention are bleak heartbreakers and while I certainly like plenty which fit that description I'd rather break them up with fun adventures wherein everyone lives happily ever after and / or rides off into the sunset. More on that in the future probably.

To Reign in Hell and Festival of Fools have had me thinking about sorts of stories lately. Not universally applicable sorts of stories, but a minor sort of classification one can do with some. That is, there are some stories where I am with the protagonists, cheering or urging them on. Others I end up exhorting the characters to turn back, to step away from some course which whether through prior reading, in-story knowledge or the shape of the story itself I know can only end in disaster. Very easy for me to sympathise with people wedded to such doomed courses, even when I am otherwise in opposition to them. Consequently very emotional to read (or have them read to me). It was a struggle not to cry through much of the middle of To Reign in Hell (I was on a train and didn't want to attract attention) and I'd definitely call the story a tragedy (It doesn't have to end this way! Talk! You can solve this). Singularity Sky may not be but I have definitely been aching for many of the characters who took step after step, unwittingly - but obviously to the reader - winding themselves tighter to their own destruction or possibly worse.