I spent most of February reading Gravity's Rainbow. I had to because I started it in January and kept reading lighter books instead - it's one of those books you don't really want to read at the end of the day. It was interesting, but I don't feel at all enticed to read more of Pynchon's work. That kind of overwhelming style makes me go "hmm" but not much else; it's just not my cup of tea. I was surprised by how funny parts of it were, though.

I read The Shallows, parts of which make you think "shit, this perfectly describes my behaviour". I was expecting him to talk more about reward-system hijacking and addiction and so on; I was pleasantly surprised when he discussed it more from the angle of memory and attention span, particularly with reference to reading deeply. I've tried to reduce my internet usage since. A bit.

I also read the first Harry Potter book... In Italian! This is the first time I've read a book in a language other than English or Irish. And I understood what was going on, even if I had to consult the dictionary a lot; it was reading, as opposed to decipherment. Okay, it's for eight year olds, but I'm fairly chuffed with myself.

Right now I'm about a third of the way through Moby-Dick, which I really didn't expect to be so funny (especially the earlier sections) and the dreaded cetology section was all of ten pages long.

But I was still slogged enough by it to start reading Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch, part of the Locke Lamora books. I don't read a lot of fantasy but I read the first two of them years ago and they have a warm place in my heart. I especially like that it basically takes place in magical Venice instead of the usual fantasy worlds.

I also read a book about octopuses, but it was only okay.