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wlokos posted:
You might also get a kick out of the Caedmon Audio abridgment of the book. Not only is Vonnegut himself reading the Campbell's-condensed-cream-of-text, but he also sings the songs. Very nice performance.
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Nov 22, 2009 20:41
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about Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut.
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Finished Infinite Jest earlier. Whoa. Definitely one of the best books I read this year. Too many thoughts about the book to really get into in this thread but DFW definitely was brilliant. drat shame he's no longer with us. Only Pynchon has impressed me this much.
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Nov 23, 2009 04:11
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Ammanas posted:Roman Polanski made an entertaining but not especially great film from this called the Ninth Gate. I can't speak on how true to the book it was, having never read it. It doesn't follow the main plot, it only deals with a subplot.Tone is pretty similar, but the main plot of the book is definitely NOT the devil's book.
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Nov 23, 2009 04:17
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Contact by Carl Sagan This book was a wonderful adventure, and I'd suggest it to most anyone who isn't insanely religious. By just reading the book I garnered an understanding for the man who was Carl Sagan. This guy thought a lot about not only science, but politics, social interactions, and religion/religious beliefs. Out of everything I have read concerning religion this was one of the best books since I was able to identify with Ellie on so many things she said throughout the book. It was truly wonderful to see thoughts I've had about society written down before I was born. Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner Another wonderful book. Finance and economics are a hobby of mine and this was a great book to make me think about economics in a different light. To view economic actions as not only forms of material trade, but also as trade in pride and trade in social consequences. The best part of the book was when I got to chapter three, four, and five. Drug dealing, abortion, and 'good' parenting respectively. While these weren't necessarily novel and thought provoking ideas to me, the part I enjoyed was the data. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the curious questions about life. If you don't want to buy the book right off the bat it's real easy to head over to their blog to check out what type of book you'll be getting by reading a few of their passages there. Earth fucked around with this message at 22:29 on Jun 18, 2014 |
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Nov 23, 2009 06:02
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Double Indemnity by James M. Cain. I was kind of surprised how short the book was--115 pages in my edition. The story (and the film) seems to cast such a long shadow over the noir landscape that I just expected there to be more of it. Of course, what we have is a tense, compact story of an insurance agent who finds himself helping plot the murder of another man to help the wife get a big accident policy payoff. The story's all meat, no fat, with all kinds of twisty turns to pull you along. There was another surprise in this particular secondhand copy: apparently it was some student's study copy, because chapter 1 was marked up with half-hearted marginalia before s/he gave up the ghost. Really, if you're only prepared to do that to the first 7 pages of a 115 page book, it's time to change your major. EasyEW fucked around with this message at 13:43 on Nov 23, 2009 |
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Nov 23, 2009 13:32
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Insomnia by Stephen King I've read it a couple of times before and I always liked it. Especially because it ties into The Dark Tower so well. I had just finished reading the first 4 books when I picked up Insomnia. It's typical King, supernatural beings, a group of friends, and takes place in Derry. I recommend it.
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Nov 25, 2009 07:34
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The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner was probably the greatest technical novel I've ever read. It just boggles my mind how Faulkner pulled off what he did with the interweaving of narratives that differ so greatly. I can't wait to read it again, and again, and again. I bought Absalom, Absalom! and As I Lay Dying just to follow up on my newfound Faulkner fire. I reread Pale Fire and Tale of a Tub by Vladimir Nabokov and Jonathan Swift. They relate so well together when you read one after the other. Which leads to me to the 25 page paper I have to write by Tuesday, sigh.
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Nov 25, 2009 18:54
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Just finished Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler. I read it just after The Big Sleep, and it will probably be my last Chandler for a while. The prose was denser and the pacing a bit slower than in The Big Sleep, but it was a very satisfying read. One major caveat is that all of the characters are to some degree highly unappealing, and this certainly includes Marlowe, whose racist attitudes are overt, and frankly shocking. But on the other hand, it is just that quality of flawed character, combined with colorful, evocative imagery, good characterization and a pervasively world-weary view, that make these books worthwhile. That, and the dialogue, which in both books has been some of the most fun to read that I've come across.
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Nov 25, 2009 20:02
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Folderol posted:...Marlowe, whose racist attitudes are overt, and frankly shocking. Is Farewell, My Lovely the one that contains the phrase "dinge club" like ten times in the first twenty pages? I never found Marlowe offensively racist, but it's possible that I'm secretly such a racist that I don't even pick up on it. I recently finished a book of Chandler's short stories. Admittedly the stories were kinda hit-or-miss, but I like Chandler's style so much that I can let slide some lousy plotting and a few weak endings. The best thing in the book was an essay on the process of writing detective stories.
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Nov 25, 2009 20:37
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Reading through the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons. Just finished the Fall of Hyperion and about to start Endymion. Didn't realize I could read 1000+ pages so quickly and keep me entertained.
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Nov 26, 2009 20:09
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Just finished City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff VanderMeer. Started it awhile ago, but I didn't get a lot of reading time until the holidays. It was fantastic, I really enjoyed it a lot. It's twisted, weird, humorous, and just an interesting trip all the way through.
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Nov 27, 2009 02:35
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Kerafyrm posted:Just finished City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff VanderMeer. Started it awhile ago, but I didn't get a lot of reading time until the holidays. Nice. If you liked "City", check out Shriek: An Afterword by VanderMeer as well. It's an "afterword" to the "Early History of Ambergris" portion of "City" - though it's a straight novel as opposed to the format of "City". In any case, it's some of the best stuff VanderMeer's written.
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Nov 27, 2009 03:16
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I just finished the Sword of Truth series (all 11 main story books) by Terry Goodkind. I thought that it was a solid fantasy/epic series but that Goodkind uses erroneous descriptions and restates passages from the same book, many times from the last sentence, too much. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys the adventure genre that isn't looking for a life changing read. I was considering reading the Wheel of Time series next, anyone have an opinion on it?
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Nov 27, 2009 06:03
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I just finished Post Captain by Patrick O'Brian. It was fantastic! The sailing terminology is at first incomprehensible and then you're immersed in it. It even bleeds into the doctor's speech on occasion. The ridiculous puns, the badass naval battles that I follow with whatever inanimate objects I have nearby, and comparing your girlfriend to a 32 pound carronade. And just when you're getting comfortable in a ridiculous awkward ship that misses every stay and wears off as a matter of course, you get a beautiful frigate that may as well be a private yacht with experienced sailors who've never fired a shot in anger. Time to put the rest of the series on my Christmas list.
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Nov 27, 2009 19:21
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finally got around to reading Ender's Game it was definitely one of those books that i just couldn't put down as i finished it in two sittings. it was a pretty good story and i definitely recognize it's influence in a lot of the sci fi tv and movies i've seen recently. if there's one thing that i'd complain about though it was how predictable the last third of the book was. it didn't really detract from my enjoyment though so i guess i'll let it slide 
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Nov 28, 2009 01:37
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I had quite some spare time this previous week, I finished: The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles - I confess I became interested in it because of that sample that plays on a certain Neurosis song ("Lost" from Enemy of the Sun). I was afraid it was gonna be pretentious or something but I was pleasantly surprised. The beginning is a bit slow and makes you kind of hate Port, but it really picks up on book 2, when things start looking bad for them and the third and last book becomes a story straight out of the 1001 Nights. The wiki article for the movie says it turns the bleak parts of the book into a desert love story. Jesus, I have no idea how the hell this could turn into a desert love story (except maybe if you mean a story of love towards the desert itself). I don't feel too thrilled, though, in reading anything else by Bowles. Reading the synopses, makes it seem like he's pretty much a one-trick-pony or something. Might be wrong. The Nonexistent Knight by Italo Calvino - pretty light and quick read, but felt a bit heavy-handed at times. The humor was nice, there was stuff that wouldn't be out of place on Monty Python and the Holy Grail (yeah, I know it predates the movie, don't be silly) but the meta-narration was annoying for the most part (though it was kinda cool when the nun draws the path the characters are following on a map and her screw-ups at drawing influence what happens). Oh, well, either way, I still want to read the Cosmicomics and Invisible Cities by him, they seem interesting enough. Slapstick by Vonnegut - yeah, not the best place to start with him, but I found this book used for like 4 dollars and even though the author graded it a D, it was still a very funny (and odd) novel(lette?) and piqued my interest for him. The idea of a neanderthaloid half-genius half-retard becoming the president of USA while miniaturized Chinese men colonize Mars and gently caress with our gravity (giving everybody erections when it's too light) is just too good. I'm going to get Slaughterhouse 5 and Cat's Cradle ASAP. Edit: grammar. Crimsonjewfro fucked around with this message at 02:51 on Nov 29, 2009 |
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Nov 28, 2009 20:25
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Crimsonjewfro posted:Cosmicomics and Invisible Cities
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Nov 28, 2009 22:09
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Encryptic posted:Nice. If you liked "City", check out Shriek: An Afterword by VanderMeer as well. It's an "afterword" to the "Early History of Ambergris" portion of "City" - though it's a straight novel as opposed to the format of "City". In any case, it's some of the best stuff VanderMeer's written. Awesome, thanks for the recommendation. I'll probably check it out soon. Just finished No Country For Old Men tonight. McCarthy remains one of my favorite authors, goddamn. I just could not put it down.
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Nov 29, 2009 01:14
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I wrote out a few hundred words about Lolita last night, then lost them all when my computer crashed. I thought Lolita was fantastic, probably the closest to a 'perfect novel' I've ever read, in that the arc of the story seems natural and logical but still somewhat surprising. Humbert's narration is hilarious and dark – I wish I had the general knowledge to pick up on all the references and jokes Nabokov made – and it gave the book a dreamlike feel at times, perhaps because it was written in the form of a monologue addressed to the reader. Also, the scene where Humbert kills Quilty is one of the funniest and best set-pieces I've read. Although I don't usually reread anything, I'll definitely make an exception for Lolita in a few years, when I've brushed up on my French a little. I know it's one of the most highly recommended books in TBB, and for good reason - read it if you haven't already! This morning I finished The Secret History, by Donna Tartt. Overall it was a disappointment. The story is relatively interesting (revolving around a group of classics students who murder someone), but at 630 pages it feels quite padded out, with lots of unnecessary detail. I wouldn't have minded the unnecessary detail if it was well written, but unfortunately Tartt is not a particularly original stylist. There are flashes of good writing, but they are few and far between, and for the most part the prose is utilitarian and boring. My other gripe with her writing is that it seems prissy and elitist (for lack of a better word). She usually uses unnecessarily verbose formulations where simple ones are perfectly adequate, and all of her characters display a uniform disgust towards ordinary people (even the one who comes from a small town in the Midwest and couldn't have plausibly picked up such attitudes at home or in the short time he spent at college). For me, this tied in with a suspicion that her classical references were sloppy, unfunny (cf Nabokov), and intended primarily to allow Tartt to seem erudite. In summary, The Secret History has an interesting plot which is poorly executed.
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Nov 29, 2009 03:09
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kelmaon posted:This morning I finished The Secret History, by Donna Tartt. Overall it was a disappointment. The story is relatively interesting (revolving around a group of classics students who murder someone), but at 630 pages it feels quite padded out, with lots of unnecessary detail. I wouldn't have minded the unnecessary detail if it was well written, but unfortunately Tartt is not a particularly original stylist. There are flashes of good writing, but they are few and far between, and for the most part the prose is utilitarian and boring. My other gripe with her writing is that it seems prissy and elitist (for lack of a better word). She usually uses unnecessarily verbose formulations where simple ones are perfectly adequate, and all of her characters display a uniform disgust towards ordinary people (even the one who comes from a small town in the Midwest and couldn't have plausibly picked up such attitudes at home or in the short time he spent at college). For me, this tied in with a suspicion that her classical references were sloppy, unfunny (cf Nabokov), and intended primarily to allow Tartt to seem erudite. In summary, The Secret History has an interesting plot which is poorly executed. I read about half of that last month before I gave up. Got the same impression you did about it being padded. The central plot is interesting, but Jesus gently caress, the book took its sweet time getting there and wasn't interesting enough otherwise to keep me hooked.
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Nov 29, 2009 04:19
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Encryptic posted:I read about half of that last month before I gave up. Got the same impression you did about it being padded. The central plot is interesting, but Jesus gently caress, the book took its sweet time getting there and wasn't interesting enough otherwise to keep me hooked. Yeah, I don't think I would've finished it if I wasn't reading it for a book group. Luckily this looks like the only dud in an otherwise good selection (As I Lay Dying, Catch 22 and Inherent Vice coming up next year). I noticed that it took roughly the same number of pages to get to the plot as Infinite Jest (200-300), but I thought IJ was so engaging in other respects (like the inherent interest of the setting) that DFW got away with it.
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Nov 29, 2009 05:24
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Ammanas posted:Roman Polanski made an entertaining but not especially great film from this called the Ninth Gate. I can't speak on how true to the book it was, having never read it. I just watched the movie. They entirely remove the "Club Dumas" part of the book, and focus entirely on the Nine Doors. They shuffled a number of characters around into different roles, and did some really retarded stuff with the girl. She literally flies and her eyes shift through the color spectrum. They changed the ending entirely. I don't know what was going on there. If you liked the movie at all, you should give the book a shot.
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Nov 29, 2009 20:16
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Just finished The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. I enjoyed the delicate peeling back of the layers of the situation the narrator found herself in, until I was fully exposed to the dangers and the oppression. Really quite wonderful wordplay that repeats and changes with the context. The novel is highly critical of certain male attitudes, particularly those on the right, but also of those that collude with reactionary forces to achieve their own more liberal aims. Amazingly, she finishes the book with a chapter that questions the reliability of the narrator, which could weaken the story, but the greater uncertainty adds, rather than takes away, from the narrative.
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Nov 29, 2009 22:14
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I've been really really busy with overtime the last two weeks so all my reading/listening has failed, but I did finish a few things: That's Not in My American History Book: A Compilation of Little Known Events and Forgotten Heroes by Thomas Ayres was good but long and probably not a great book for audio-ing as I wanted to go back and relisten to a few things but couldn't. I was zoned out during the long list of info on the presidents, and I missed who was nicknamed Sassy Pants  But overall it was very enjoyable, the whole Betsy Ross myth, Paul Revere's non-ride, etc. The Satan Bug by Alistair MacLean. Written in the 1960s, it reminded me why I used to like mystery books so much. The hero was not perfect, he frequently got hurt and mentioned how much things hurt, he outright lied, used people, and snooped to get what he needed. In fact, the only character I didn't like was the hero's wife because she was *~so beautiful~* and had no point other than being dragged around and very very very obviously kidnapped by the bad guys. Otherwise quite an awesome book, even though I did want to see the world wiped out by a horrible virus, just to see what would happen. Giles Wemmbley Hogg Goes Off (two Ms, two Gs) by Marcus Brigstocke was fanfuckingtastically funny. I'm going to relisten to it tonight. I think the bike race was the best, but the Antarctic expedition was brilliant too. It's got tons of background noises and excellent voice actors. I hope to find more of these audio files!! Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins: The Autobiography by Rupert Everett was a bit dry as autobiographies go. He read it himself and while the stories may have been funny or touching when originally written down, he managed to suck all life out of the reading. He's not really that old, and he hasn't had that much of an exciting life, so it's a short (4 CDs) book, and he pads it out with flowery descriptions of scenery quite a bit. I'm neither a fan nor a not-fan, but I thought it'd be interesting to break out of the biographies I've been reading and give it a shot. Meh. I also semi-finished Flash Forward which is apparently what that new TV show is based on, but because of the way the tracks are broken up, I fell asleep during some of the ending and missed what happens after the bomb in the large hadron collider goes off and I haven't gotten around to queuing it up on my computer so I can fast forward yet. I was pretty disappointed in the book, because the premise sounds so great but the characters are rather assholey. The lead is achingly condescending to anyone who doesn't agree with his viewpoint, and he really doesn't seem to give much of a gently caress that his future step-daughter is killed... His partner is an absolute rear end, I don't know why anyone would help him find out who kills him in the future, with the way he treats those with possibly helpful information. What an entitled twit. And from what my friend tells me of the series, aside from the premise none of the characters are the same. I may leave the ending unread and hope they all die I know there was another book on the CD i burned that I finished but can't recall it now. I'm done with what I have burned so far, so I'm going to hunt around for what I can queue up next.
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Nov 29, 2009 23:27
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JLightning posted:finally got around to reading Ender's Game... You should definitely check out the sequels, they're a change of pace but great reads. Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Ender's Shadow, etc.
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Dec 1, 2009 08:46
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Just read The Pets by Bragi Ólafsson. It's short and surreal, in the vein of Paul Auster (the author has translated some of his stuff into Icelandic and there's definitely some influence there). It's about a guy who hides under his bed instead of facing his problems and it's both whimsical and uncomfortable. Unfortunately I can't comment on the translation since I read it in Icelandic but the LA times wrote a real positive review and from the other English reviews that I've read it seems like the style and mood of the book is intact. It's been compared a lot to Kafka so I really recommend it if you're into him or Auster or just looking for a really unusual, funny, and provoking read. Liked it a lot.
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Dec 1, 2009 11:17
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Just finished Riddley Walker by Russel Hoban. Over the past few years, I've slowly been picking through nearly every post-apoc book recommended from various posts in this forum, but this has been the trickiest to get at my library. Either way, after reading it, I'll be buying it. It wasn't my favorite book ever, but it was extraordinarily interesting. The entire book is written in a sort of Cockney pidgin that is spelled semi-phonetically. It was tough to read, to put it softly, but sort of flows once you get into it like A Clockwork Orange and it's loaded with strange alliterations of misinterpreted historical writings. Either way, a great read and a really unique insight on what a culture would be like if it were literally bombed into the Stone Age.
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Dec 1, 2009 22:55
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Pale Fire. Cleared through it in about a week. It's nice to read a novel with an experimental structure that doesn't come across as gimmicky or awkward.
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Dec 2, 2009 05:48
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The General Book of Ignorance - A nonfiction book filled with trivia. It is marketed as "everything you know is wrong", but only about half of the entries are about commonly believed myths and the rest are just interesting facts. The entries are well-written and researched and cover a wide range (nature, science, inventions, culture, history) which keeps the reader going from one entry to the next. The author is British, so several entries are about British history and culture that didn't mean much to me (evidently they used to believe that geese came from barnacles), but overall an interesting book that I would readily recommend. Frostwing - A book that I had read many years ago as a kid, which I had been thinking of lately and wanted to reread. The story follows a near-immortal with something like amensia as he tries to understand his past and the dark forces which are drawn to him. The main character and his interactions with the gargoyle (Frostwing) are interesting. The story felt weak at times, but I could never quite determine the reason, though part of it may be that I still remembered the big twist at the end. Overall, the story was fun, but not as good as when I was a kid. Confederacy of Dunces - It's been a while since I had to give up on a book. I wanted to set it down in the first few pages based solely on the main character. I stuck with it as other characters were introduced who were less annoying, but after 100 some pages, I still didn't care what happened in the story or to any of the characters and I gave up and moved on. Also, I kept seeing people refer to it as a comedy, but I didn't find anything funny, maybe it starts later in the book? The Maltese Falcon - I would never go out of my way to read a noir novel, but as I was browsing through a friends book collection he mentioned that it was good. The story follows a private detective as he helps a femme fatale. The story was about what I would expect from a noir and was sufficiently entertaining to justify the short read. I am still surprised by the main character, I was under the impression that noir protagonists were supposed to be the good guys, but Sam Spade is mostly indifferent, self-centered, and manipulative.
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Dec 2, 2009 14:47
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I recently finished Where I'm Calling From, the selected stories of Raymond Carver. Being a selected collection probably helped it, too often the "collected stories/works" of an author will wear you down before you're done reading. There were a couple bad stories: Little Things, The Third Thing That Killed my Father Off, Intimacy, and Elephant. The rest were all enjoyable in one fashion or another. The best stories were: The Student's Wife, Fat, Neighbors, Gazebo, Distance, Vitamins, Chef's House, Fever, Feathers, and Cathedral. Carver is indeed one of those unique voices. A lot of writers try to use this style and fail terribly, but it works for him. I wish that he had lived longer, his fiction shows a clear evolution when you read it chronologically and what he would have come up with in another 21 years would probably be stunning. Highly recommend the book.
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Dec 2, 2009 15:25
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jjack229 posted:Confederacy of Dunces - It's been a while since I had to give up on a book. I wanted to set it down in the first few pages based solely on the main character. I stuck with it as other characters were introduced who were less annoying, but after 100 some pages, I still didn't care what happened in the story or to any of the characters and I gave up and moved on. Also, I kept seeing people refer to it as a comedy, but I didn't find anything funny, maybe it starts later in the book? If you don't find Ignatius funny than he is you. You are Ignatius.
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Dec 2, 2009 16:53
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Oh. I also just finished Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathaniel West. I thought the book was garbage. It was pitched to me as having some kind of excellent prose style, but it reads like Graham Greene with really bad metaphors. The lovely Graham Greene, too. The novel didn't make a whole lot of sense and feels really rushed and unfinished. It's all in these two to four page sections that don't relate to one another. You should avoid it unless you love Jesus and bad similes. I'm going to read another 10 or 15 Greene short stories then start Money by Martin Amis.
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Dec 2, 2009 17:20
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Hard Man and Savage Night by Allan Guthrie - Was recommended Guthrie by someone on another forum while looking for some new crime fiction reads. Hard Man follows an ex-con who gets pulled into a feud between a dysfunctional family and the husband of the family's daughter, while Savage Night depicts the events leading up to the "savage night" of the title when a desperate man tries to blackmail someone into committing murder. Pretty good reads - fast and brutal as hell. They both reminded me a bit of Fargo with the inept attempts at criminal activity that go horribly wrong. Nixonland by Rick Perlstein - Thanks to flistputt for recommending this in the recommendation megathread. I'd been wanting to learn more about Nixon after I saw Frost/Nixon recently so I picked this up. It's an extensively researched account of Nixon's political career from the beginning to just after Watergate and how his influence changed American politics, as well as a parallel chronicle of the major events of the 60s and early 70s (Vietnam, civil rights, etc.). Very informative and well-written. Encryptic fucked around with this message at 03:43 on Dec 3, 2009 |
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Dec 2, 2009 22:11
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Encryptic posted:Nice. If you liked "City", check out Shriek: An Afterword by VanderMeer as well. It's an "afterword" to the "Early History of Ambergris" portion of "City" - though it's a straight novel as opposed to the format of "City". In any case, it's some of the best stuff VanderMeer's written. The new book, Finch, just came out and was a fantstic. It follows into the next chapter of Ambergris and is like a Marlowe detective novel but with a large and varied cast of intelligent spores and fungi. Pound for pound , VanderMeer is one of my favorites. To contribute, just finished The Briar King by Greg Keyes. This is the first book in a four part series and was a bit slow starting out but really drew me in as it progressed. Very much a character driven novel with a large cast of characters written in the classic 'high fantasy' archetype. Not as brutal as ASOFAI or The First Law Trilogy but has moments where I can see it maybe heading in that direction in later books. Next up is Peter and Max, the book set in the Fables universe by Willingham. Great comics, hopefully great book as well.
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Dec 3, 2009 16:16
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CrimsonGhost posted:The new book, Finch, just came out and was a fantstic. It follows into the next chapter of Ambergris and is like a Marlowe detective novel but with a large and varied cast of intelligent spores and fungi. Pound for pound , VanderMeer is one of my favorites. Just bought it the other day but I've got a stack of library books to work through before I tackle it. Looking forward to it, of course.
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Dec 3, 2009 19:16
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Just finished Frostbite by David Wellington, which is his take on Werewolves after previously writing books featuring zombies and vampires. Something I like about Wellington's books is how he's able to take traditional monsters and set them in modern times but avoids the compulsion to give the monsters a scientific reason for existing. Vampirism and lycanthropy aren't caused by a virus or a bacteria, they're literally curses. Frostbite feels kind of like a throwback with quite a few similarities to the Vampire series but that might just be because it was originally partially written in 2006, he just cleaned it up and published it now.
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Dec 5, 2009 01:22
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The Original of Laura by Vlad Nab First, the rather startlingly expensive hardcover edition is incredibly nice. It contains great, big, thick satisfying pages. These removable index cards are a nice idea, though I fear I am unlikely to ever follow up and remove them out of a crippling anxiety that one will end up misplaced if I do. The book self-advertises as a 'novel in fragments', but this tends to imply that there exists a full novel between the book's covers, an impression which is quickly proved to be quite false. There is rather a sketch of a novel that could one day have emerged and I must say that it seems like it could have been very good indeed. We can come across lots of ideas that are very much Nabokov. For example, there is (at least one!) character who fails to quite comprehend the nature of human relationships. The book is rather occupied with death, some natural, quite a bit of 'pleasantly intentional deaths' which of course makes a lot of sense given when the writing was taking place. This all said, the story of the germinating novel is a secondary reason to read this. If you're not already interested in Nabokov and his creative process I imagine the whole thing will be quite a loss. I, however, found the look at his handwritten notes and his corrections in progress to be fascinating and well worth the time(not very much) it took to read. Perhaps even worth the exorbitant price of the book. Unfortunately, having read the introduction by Dmitri Nabokov, my impression that he(Dmitri) is a loving cock remains intact. Mr. Fun fucked around with this message at 16:20 on Dec 5, 2009 |
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Dec 5, 2009 16:17
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Mr. Fun posted:Unfortunately, having read the introduction by Dmitri Nabokov, my impression that he(Dmitri) is a loving cock remains intact.
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Dec 5, 2009 19:42
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Mr. Fun posted:The Original of Laura by Vlad Nab It is out of respect for Nabokov's intentions and artistic beliefs that I don't read this book. I have no intent of looking behind the curtain. quote:Unfortunately, having read the introduction by Dmitri Nabokov, my impression that he(Dmitri) is a loving cock remains intact. He seemed nice in person, but he should have burned the book.
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Dec 5, 2009 20:17
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QVT posted:It is out of respect for Nabokov's intentions and artistic beliefs that I don't read this book. I have no intent of looking behind the curtain. You have much more willpower than I. I was simply unable to resist.
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Dec 5, 2009 20:29
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