Entry 12 – Jan 10, 2024  

This is how to do brain exercises so you don’t get dementia: Try to keep track of the characters, their names, their back stories, their story arcs. I used to play brain games on the computer. No need now – The Bone Clocks is here.

And crazily enough, I am kind of able to keep track of them, even though many of the characters change their names a number of times over the course of the book. I thought about keeping a list of the characters with their alternate names and basic storyline(s). But I’m too busy reading. There are tons of resources out there with all kinds of reading aids for The Bone Clocks – including characters’ names, alternate lives, other names, psychiatric analyses, definitions, time frames – whatever you need to know. So although I still am looking up words I don’t know, I’m leaving the detailed analyses and review and study group for after I’m done.

(Don’t forget to look up stuff. Mitchell uses references to obscure things, and it’s essential to know what he’s talking about as you’re reading.)