Reddit doomscroll & a Journey

I spend too much time on Reddit.

I've improved things - by getting rid of most of the default subreddits like, for example, r/worldnews and r/AmITheAsshole and r/facepalm that add nothing positive to my life - and curated my front page feed so that I'm not mindlessly doomscrolling. But I still spend too much time on there. I realize that I'm living vicariously through the comments - even on the most innocuous subreddits like r/whatisthisplant - that are found in any given post. And I still occasionally leave a comment here or there, especially on the gaming subreddits, because I do enjoy that limited interaction with other like-minded people. I don't think I can realistically cut Reddit out entirely because it's incredibly useful, but being mindful of my time on there is a good foundation to a more balanced life. I think.

So instead of going on Reddit and feeling like I've wasted more time again, I figured I'd write here what I originally felt like writing on r/books: a short overview of the books that I've finished reading and what I've started recently.

Okay, so last week I finally finished Voyage au centre de la terre (Journey to the Centre of the Earth) by Jules Verne. I'm so happy I read this book! I read it (pun unintended) entirely in the original language of publication, which feels great because I haven't read a novel in French in a while. Plus, many of the novels I have read in French over the years have been translations from the English, so to have an actual French novel to read is, well, novel to me.

This is the edition that I read

I've never read any Jules Verne before, but of course I'd heard of him from such other novels as Journey Around the World in 80 Days and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. As I've done for other books I've read in the past, I happened upon this particular novel by browsing my local library for anything that looks familiar, or interesting. In this case it was both, so I checked it out and read it over the course of a couple months, usually during my break at work. It was a french learner's edition, so there were beautiful full-page drawings littered throughout the book that helped with visualizing the carefully crafted settings that Verne lays out so eloquently. So eloquent, in fact, that I found myself seeing brand new words that I had no idea were in the french lexicon and that I now might recognize again in some of his other works that I intend to read eventually.

The gist of the story, without spoilers, is really all in the title. After discovering an ancient document explaining how an explorer once made a path to the Centre of the Earth, a scientist and his nephew decide to travel to Iceland (in the 19th century) to explore whether there really is a way to make it all the way down. During their expedition, they experience various natural (and, it has to be said, supernatural) phenomena that add interesting twists to this epic sci-fi adventure. Verne does a great job of suspending disbelief in my opinion, and provides solid (but imaginary, of course) explanations for how heat and lighting and geology work in this fantastical, yet almost realistic, universe.

Because I enjoyed this one, there's a good chance I'll read Verne again. For now, though, I've started a collection of short stories titled Hidden Girl (and other stories) by Ken Liu, which is also sci-fi but from what I've read so far, focused on aliens and space travel. I'm enjoying it, and I've finished 3 stories (with about a dozen or so left to go). Perhaps I'll summarize my experience with this book in a blog post later down the line, too.