readabilitea's Reviews (427)

A very interesting analysis of the relationship between elephants and humans in the forests of South East Asia. I loved the individual elephant anecdotes, and I really enjoyed how Shell provides a different perspective of keeping elephants in work such as logging, arguing that it helps sustain the elephant population (compared to e.g. sanctuaries open to tourists). The more the book goes on the more it became much more about the geography of the area and less about the elephants which slowed down my enjoyment.

Although I thought this would contain more information about mending, what this book did contain was so much more wide-ranging and probably more useful. It gives a really good analysis of the fashion industry and in depth information about individual fabrics and the often not-considered environmental impact of everything to do with fashion. This was the perfect read to kick off the new year with as it's so easy in January to be sucked in by consumerism and/or the desire to reinvent yourself, and now I've come away feeling inspired with so many ideas of how to use my existing wardrobe in interesting ways, what to consider if I ever want to expand my wardrobe, and ways in which I can inspire other people around to consider the same things.

Edit, 30/1/23: I have regularly thought about this book since finishing it and have found myself wanting to recommend it to anyone who will listen, so I'm bumping it up to a 5 star read!

Several things struck me when I started Name of the Wind : 1. No third book in the series as yet 2. Name of the Wind's subtitle is 'The Kingkiller Chronicle, Day One' and is over 600 pages long, so a pretty long day 3. One of the acknowledgements is to Rothfuss' father, who taught Rothfuss to "take his time and do it right". I went in expecting a pretty detailed story all in all, but boy had I underestimated the meticulousness. I loved that this was a book within a book, Kvothe being in the process of telling his life story to a chronicler, and this adds to the whole mysteriousness of the book because you know the endpoint but need to know all the bits in between, and Rothfuss' perfectionism shines through every single sentence. Sometimes I found this annoying, primarily because of my impatience and incessant need to know more. The biggest flaw, as with most 'classic' fantasy books written by men, is the complete lack of women - which is even brought up by one of the characters halfway through! - and when women do appear they are often reduced to superficial descriptions, and talked about only in terms of their appearances. A lot of Kvothe's interactions with women had me rolling my eyes. That being said, I kept reading; I became invested in Kvothe's story, I was intrigued by the drip-feeding of information, kept on my toes with all the intricacies of the story, dutifully getting swept up in a particular storyline and almost forgetting the wider context, only to excitedly remember and want to know more. I'm not sure if I'll be quick to move onto the second instalment, especially considering there isn't even a release date for the third, but I don't imagine it'll be long before I find the pull of Kvothe's story irresistable.