#And I doubt I will make any converts but as I'm aware taste in particular books is very personal

[the-busy-ghost]

There are some books that are just BETTER if you go through them with a pencil and underline the shit out of tiny details, and honestly if anyone found Hogg's 'Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner' difficult to get into, I highly encourage you to give it another go and give yourself a license to extensively research & annotate every little bit

#I mean I'm biased I already liked it #But my reread was just ten times more enjoyable because I scribbled all over it #Marking in historical details and double-checking what looked like subtle references and thinking over things like faith humour gender etc #And above all NAMES my god that man likes playing with names #At least I think so #And how Hogg puts himself into the story and then doesn't and then does again?? #Classics aren't necessarily all going to be books that sweep you off your feet #Sometimes they're classics because you get to gnaw away at them like a worm with an apple #And you know I'm highly HIGHLY biased but I really enjoyed doing that with this book #It fits perfectly into some of my favourite literary pigeonholes #Ticks a lot of different boxes #And I doubt I will make any converts but as I'm aware taste in particular books is very personal #And unlike say Wuthering Heights the particular reasons I liked Hogg's confessions aren't necessarily common #But also this website has analysed the hell out of Dracula for the last two years #And I grant you Confessions doesn't have as much action but takin just a little bit of that annotating and research energy into it #Really improves the whole experience of reading this book #reading log