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Time Regained

· 2 min read

⭐⭐ for the entire work; ie, the seven volumes.

I've written about In Search of Lost Time before (book #1, book #2, book #3, book #5), so I won't elaborate here. Some of those volumes I liked (#5 and #6) while others I found quite boring (#3 and this last one, #7).

Proust, looking very casual

It has been quite a journey of five and a half years for me, and one that I'm glad I made. I don't think I'll ever read another ~4,000 page-long novel with so many highs and lows, so many characters, and sentences so long and convoluted. OK, Proust: you're a genius. I'll give you that. Not sure if you could have made a better investment of your talent and the last years of your comfy life, though. And I'm uneasy about your moral compass and your values, to be honest (yes, I know it's fiction and that was not your life — wink, wink).

April 2025, second week

· 2 min read

(← Start on the first week)

2025-04-07

Monday 7th
At the office, attending a weekly meeting. This set-up is the best I've ever had: adjustable electric standing desk, two external monitors mounted on articulated stands, and all peripherals (including the monitors) connected via a single USB cable. Plus noise-cancelling headphones and my faithful reMarkable 2, this is the best for work.

April 2025, first week

· 3 min read

Like every month of April since 2008, I'm taking one photo a day to document my routines and the state of my world for my future self (and for some friends and family).

There's no particular theme or prompt in 2025 — in the last years I consider it a success if it doesn't get to midnight and I have forgotten to take at least one picture.

So, here goes my first week:

2025-04-01

Tuesday 1st
Reading in bed, with my wife, before going to sleep. I'm halfway through the seventh volume of In Search of Lost Time.

Toxic masculinity

· One min read

This:

Toxic masculinity is a contradiction in terms, it's a non sequitur. In order for a thing called ‘toxic masculinity’ to exist you'd have to have a thing called ‘positive masculinity’, and you'd also have to have toxic femininity, and positive femininity.
There is no reality in which positive masculinity isn't synonymous with femininity, because a trait cannot be gendered equally masculine and feminine at the same time, or it ceases to be gendered at all. That's the entire point of a dichotomy: it's one or the other.
If a trait signifies masculinity, it cannot simultaneously and to an equal extent signify femininity. Aggression is not good or bad — it's good or bad depending on the circumstances. Nor should it be good or bad depending on the genitalia of the person exhibiting it.”

Why I'm such a slow reader

· 6 min read

It's strange that someone who loves books as much as I do reads only 7–15 books a year. There are two reasons for that.

The first reason won't surprise you: like virtually everybody else in the world, my attention span and my ability to focus on reading have diminished in the last two decades or so, as a side-effect of constant screen exposure. I'm not too concerned about this, though, because at least I keep on reading. Not only that: about half of my reads are difficult, stuffy, old books — and often on paper, where there are few distractions available. (In contrast, many people nowadays seem to read non-fiction only, or contemporary literature only. Some of my fellow nerds read mostly — or only — technical books, articles, or blog posts. And there are even people who seem unable to read text for more than two minutes unless it's displayed on a bright, colourful piece of glass.) But even I don't seem to be able to read for hours on end like I used to in my youth. On my ~2h30′ flights to and from Frankfurt, I usually read most of the time, but not all the time. I manage to read for around one and a half hours or so, and then get distracted by my phone — like everybody around me.

New year's resolutions for 2025

· 8 min read

Inspired by my friend Fidel, I'm publicly sharing some of my resolutions for the new year.

This (turn of the) year I have not thought much about this nor made an actual list, unlike some other years. But certainly there are a few concrete goals in my head, some of which I already mentioned on my recap of 2024.

Here go some of the goals I can divulge, hoping to put some social pressure on myself.

2024 recap through some apps

· 4 min read

The year comes to an end in a few hours, and some of the digital services and apps that I use on a daily basis started nudging me as early as one month ago about my various stats and achievements throughout 2024, with the hope that I'd boost them on social media. I'm old school and prefer blogs to walled gardens, and since I have not been writing here much as of late, I thought I'd use those stats as a way to recap my year.

So here go four apps I use a lot, and my “achievements” on them during the year — in increasing order of importance to me.

«La Mala Costumbre»

· 9 min read

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Regalé esta novela a mi mujer por su cumpleaños porque yo llevaba una temporada leyendo cosas muy buenas sobre el libro (sí, tengo la desfachatez de regalar a la familia libros que luego pretendo leer yo también). Especialmente en redes sociales no hacía más que encontrar alabanzas a la novela. La premisa me parecía intrigante y muy alejada de mi mundo, y al estar basada en la experiencia personal de la autora, yo anticipaba aprendizaje y estímulo. Además, Alana S. Portero es madrileña como nosotros y solo un poco mayor que nosotros, así que esperaba encontrar referentes comunes (hasta donde su vida y las nuestras se intersecan, que tampoco es tanto).

Portada de «La Mala Costumbre»

“The Fall of the House of Usher”

· 2 min read

⭐⭐⭐

I always thought I had read this short story thirty years ago or so already, because it was included in a volume that my parents had at home… but I could not remember much. I had a vague image of a decrepit vacant mansion being invaded by the surrounding vegetation, and ultimately destroyed by it.

Then in December last year my wife and I visited Ronda in Southern Spain, and I was fascinated by this old mansion, Casa del Rey Moro. Visiting the house, and reading about its history, the House of Usher (or the distorted memory I had of it) came to my mind immediately, and I resolved to read Poe's story (again?) soon.