First Impression Friday will be a meme where you talk about a book that you JUST STARTED! Maybe you’re only a chapter or two in, maybe a little farther. Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions and predict what you’ll think by the end.

Synopsis:

Foucault’s Pendulum is a superb entertainment by the author of The Name of the Rose. An enthralling mystery, a sophisticated thriller, a breathtaking journey through the world of ideas and aberrations, the treasures and traps of knowledge, Umberto Eco’s new novel will delight, tease, provoke, and stimulate.

One Colonel Ardenti, who has unnaturally black brilliantined hair, an Adolphe Menjou mustache, wears maroon socks and fought in the Foreign Legion, starts it all. He tells three editors at a Milan publishing house that he has discovered a coded message about a Templar plan, centuries old and of diabolical complexity, to tap a mystic source of power greater than atomic energy.

The editors (who have spent altogether too much time rewriting crackpot manuscripts on the occult by self-subsidizing poetasters and dilettantes) decide to have a little fun. They’ll make a plan of their own. But how?

Randomly they throw in manuscript pages on hermetic thought. The Masters of the World, who live beneath the earth. The Comte de Saint-Germain, who lives forever. The secrets of the solar system contained in the measurements of the Great Pyramid. The Satanic initiation rites of the Knights of the Temple. Assassins, Rosicrucians, Brazilian voodoo. They feed this all into their computer, which is named Abulafia (Abu for short) after the medieval Jewish cabalist.

A terrific joke, they think – until people begin to disappear mysteriously, one by one, starting with Colonel Ardenti.

Happy Friday, everyone! Technically, it is already Saturday. So, yes, another late First Impression Friday update. Regardless, I am glad that we are done with another work week. I hope that everyone has ended it on a high note. I hope you were able to tick off those items on your to-do list and are diving into the weekend without much of a worry. It is now time to slow down. It’s time to ditch those drab corporate clothes and wear something more comfortable. Let your hair down and give yourself a pat on the back for surviving the workweek. It is time to have some fun, or more importantly, it is time to take a break after yet another tedious week at the office. I hope you get to spend the weekend doing things you’re passionate about. I hope you get to spend it with the people you love and/or complete your errands. I hope everyone gets to take the time to rest and prepare themselves for yet another work week looming. More importantly, I hope everyone is doing well, in body, mind, and spirit.

Wow. Time is zooming past us. Time simply takes its natural course, flowing with no regard for anyone. Just like that, we are nearly midway through July, the seventh month of the year. We have also crossed the midpoint of the year, and I have just celebrated my 35th birthday. How has your June been? Or more broadly, how has your year been? I hope 2025 is treating everyone with kindness. I hope that it is bringing you favors and guiding you closer to your goals and aspirations. With a little under six months remaining, I hope the rest of the year will shower everyone with good tidings, kindness, and overall positive energy. If your year has been difficult, I hope a reversal of fortune in the coming months will bless you. The coming months beckon with hope. But if you’re still figuring things out, take your time. I hope you achieve your goals this year. May positive energy, blessings, and good news flow into your life in the months ahead.

Anyway, back to the purpose of this weekly reading update. First Impression Friday has certainly become a mainstay in my book blogging, although again, I am late. I have been trying to realign my priorities so that I can publish timely updates. Regardless, I have already shifted toward a new literary adventure. After spending the first half of the year reading works of Asian writers – a memorable one, as always – I now find myself in the midst of a literary immersion in the lush and extensive tapestry of European literature. I kicked it off with Hungarian writer Magda Szabó’s Abigail, and I am currently reading the work of another familiar writer in Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum. It is also the 1,310th novel I read, although I originally planned it to be my 1,300th. However, it did not align with my previous reading motif, but now I have the opportunity to make it occupy a significant place in the hierarchy of books I read.

Since I started perusing must-read lists, among the writers that immediately piqued my interest was the Italian writer. It all started with The Name of the Rose, which I read back in 2017. Another recurring presence in such lists is Foucault’s Pendulum; it is also listed as one of the 1,001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. It is these reasons why I have been looking forward to reading the book. Acquiring a copy of it, however, was a different task altogether. Nearly a decade since the first Eco novel I read, I am now reading my fifth Eco novel. Since I started reading the 600+ page book, I really don’t have much to share. The initial chapters lay out the foundations of the story, or at least what I glean of it. So far, the story is a little muddled. I am wading through the details.

Originally published in 1988 as Il pendolo di Foucault, the novel reminds me of the earlier Eco novels I read. The fact that the story involves editors reminded me of Numero Zero. The interjection of manuscripts, meanwhile, reminds me of The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana. There are also details of the occult woven into the tapestry of the story. This reminds me of The Name of the Rose. Essentially, the novel is reminding me of the other Eco novels, but I do recognize that it is also a distinct story. After all, this is the Eco universe. I have so much to look forward to as the story unfolds. I do expect some layers of philosophy, perhaps some introspection, overlaid on the story.

For sure, Foucault’s Pendulum is an intriguing read, and I can’t wait to lose myself in its labyrinth. There is something about the story that is reeling me in. And just after writing this, I am reminded of Dan Brown’s works, which are also heavily laden with symbols. Eco and Brown are semioticians, and I can’t expect anything less from the book. Now, how to make sense of these riddles? I am surely in for a ride. How about you, fellow reader? What book or books have you read over the weekend? I hope you get to enjoy whatever you are reading right now. Happy weekend!