Cole Bregman

While there were a lot of points that I disagreed with, for the most part there were lots of insights that I will try taking with me. There were a couple funny letters, I liked letter 88 when he was just clowning Liberal Arts lol. A couple of my other favorites were 90, 65, and 78. The introduction was also very interesting it's funny how he preached all these stoic values but didn't practice it. He definitely led a really crazy life with lots of ups and downs. It is interesting to see how people wrote to each other back then, and how his writing changed over time. It is interesting how much he quoted Epicurious in his earlier letters and how he changed it views to be that one should not just spout quotes.

Eh I don't think I'd recommend it anytime soon. I wasn't a big fan of the writing style it didn't engage me in the way I wanted it to. Kind of drawn out, although I did like the conclusion. I could definitely imagine it as a better opera or play adaptation than it is a book alone, especially if they make it as engaging as I would hope (keeping the 5th box empty, etc), and going along with the story as if it was an opera, where the audience is more a part of the performance than mere spectators. The one redeeming factor that bumped it from 1 stars to 2 stars is the setting. Placing this story in an opera house in the late 1800s was really interesting. I enjoyed learning about the inner workings of an opera house and seeing how the author uses every aspect of the opera house management, architecture, and performances as important pieces of the story. I can tell a lot of thought went into weaving the opera house into the story and I was really impressed by it, it makes me want to go to an opera and get a tour of an opera house, especially it's underground.

Really enjoyed the book a ton. I was kind of surprised and really appreciated how the book dealt with and respected different religions. I'm not sure how much of the book really got through to me, but definitely left me feeling inspired, and a bit melancholy that I don't know what my personal legend is and that I might not be pursuing it now.