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I love how random DQ references pop up sometimes...

I still haven't found the time to start Zero but come on. I can't not get this day one. Maybe now I'll play them back-to-back. Oh yeah, speaking of JRPGs I don't have time to play, there was a sale on Atelier games recently so I spent a hundred bucks cause I have more money than sense lately.

I just finished Don Quixote, both parts, which I had started because I'm spending a ton of time in and out of doctor's offices and hospitals for long periods of time so I needed something good and long to occupy the hours. I was not expecting to like this as much as I did, because classic literature usually struggles to grab me and I gave up on it entirely for a long time after suffering through Moby Dick. This one, though. Damn was it funny. I kind of thought that humor from the 1600s wouldn't hold up as well in the 21st century, but this story of a guy who reads too many chivalry books and decides to put on some armor and pretend he's a knight got quite a few laugh out loud moments from me. Near the end of the first book Cervantes took a weird detour that takes the focus off of Don for a long time to focus on side characters and an in-universe novel that they're reading instead of, you know, the actual protagonist, but other than that I think I'd consider this my new favorite example of classic literature. Something that gets funnier if you know the context is that after the first book was written, some other guy wrote a fanfic sequel and sold it, which clearly had Cervantes coping and seething for years because in the actual part 2 he wrote (which I think is better than part 1) there are many moments where Don or Sancho or some other character references the fake sequel, which also exists within the story, as a piece of shit that everyone loathes. One character even describes a vision where she goes to hell and demons find the plagiarized sequel and are so disgusted by it that they order it thrown into the deepest pit of the underworld. You'd think that the author inserting his personal grudge into the narrative like this so many times would make it worse but I just found it too funny to be bothered by it. My only real complaint with the story, aside from that part in the first book where the author forgets Don Quixote himself exists for far too long, is that the ending feels a little bit forced. Still, minor gripes aside, I can see why this is considered the best novel ever written by many authors and professors. I don't know if I'd go quite that far, but I can certainly understand why someone would feel that way.