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I've been thinking about Lolita a lot lately because of how often I've been listening to 'Eat Me, Drink Me' when I'm in the car ("This is only a game, this is only a game"). I'm not sure why, but I love driving to the title track, and 'Wrapped in Plastic'. The first excerpt is pretty relative too.
I feel like I've posted about every typically read book, I need to find something different next week if I can finish the three books I'm currently working on. This series is going to be extremely boring if they're all excerpts from books everyone has already read.
I feel like I've posted about every typically read book, I need to find something different next week if I can finish the three books I'm currently working on. This series is going to be extremely boring if they're all excerpts from books everyone has already read.
(This is not the edition I read.)
This Week's Book: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
And presently I was driving through the drizzle of the dying day, with the windshield wipers in full action but unable to cope with my tears. (Page 256)
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I see nothing for the treatment of my misery but the melancholy and very local palliative of articulate art. To quote an old poet:
The moral sense in mortals is the dutyWe have to pay on mortal sense of beauty.
(Page 258)
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Every serious writer, I dare say, is aware of this or that published book of his as of a constant comforting presence. Its pilot light is steadily burning somewhere in the basement and a mere touch applied to one’s private thermostat instantly results in a quiet little explosion of familiar warmth. This presence, this glow of the book in an ever accessible remoteness is a most companionable feeling, and the better the book has conformed to its prefigured contour and color the ampler and smoother it glows. But even so, there are certain points, byroads, favorite hollows that one evokes more eagerly and enjoys more tenderly than the rest of one’s book. . . . ('Nabokov on a book entitled LOLITA.' Page 287)
Books read this past week...
Currently working on The Origin of Species, The Book of Animal Ignorance, and Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
(All title links link back to my webpages of them on Goodreads.com, a great library/reviewing/rating website for readers. Check it out, and add me as a friend if you decide to join!)
7 comments:
I've tried to get started on Zarathustra but Nietzsche's writing can confuse me at times. It seems like it's the type of book you need an expert to help you with so that they guide you in the right direction.
I don't want to pull an Adolf and completely misinterpret it! :P
@ Favenris: I laughed so hard when I read your comment I had to read it out loud for my dad, haha. And thank you for reading and commenting, first of all. :)
I can definitely relate to feeling like you need an expert to get through it, that's a major reason as to why I've put it off for so long. I didn't believe I'd be able to grasp Nietzsche's concepts as intended. (And personally, I envision said expert holding my hand and a magnifying glass in the other, very Sherlock Holmes, hehe.)
It's really neat to read it now that I'm confident I'll be able to comprehend it with enough clarity to not become the next Hitler (that had my dad and I rofling all afternoon btw, haha). Nietzsche has always been one of my dad's biggest influences, so it's obviously really interesting to discover through work my dad follows why he behaves and believes the way he does. As a result, I grew up constantly around the talk and concept of ultimately becoming the Übermensch myself, but he only years recent gave it the name Nietzsche coined. Ever since, he's been badgering me about reading it and everything else, haha.
Ah, as one philosopher has said (I believe it was actually Bertrand Russell who stated this but don't quote me on that): Nietzsche is the most misunderstood philosopher of all time, even by those who understand him.
I've only glanced at his writings, though I should definitely read more of him as his thoughts are brilliant.
Lolita, I've been meaning to read for the longest time. Currently, the list of books I'm reading looks like this (and speaking of Holmes):
The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Overcoat and Other Short Stories by Nikolai Gogol
Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman by Richard P. Feynman (hilarious collection of anecdotes that makes one wonder how one person can get up to so much mischief)
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Books I've recently finished:
Marcel Proust by Edmund White (a biography of one of the greatest writers of all time)
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Zafon (a booklovers book)
If I were to list the books I wish to read... it would overwhelm you in its vastness. If ever you need recommendations though, you need only ask.
Just loved this post... coming from SITS. Random, but are you going to Bloggy Boot Camp in Baltimore?
@ shadb: That does sound like Bertrand Russell. I've heard the quote before, shame I can't recall who said it.
Lolita is great, as I mentioned before. It's definitely worth the read, although for some it's hard to get through quickly considering the content. I think the most haunting thing about Lolita is not the pedophilia of the book, but the pedophilia portrayed as loving. Most cannot fathom the concept.
I'll check out the Feynman book soon (I need a laugh, who doesn't), and I'll list the rest as "to-read" on my GoodReads account tomorrow morning. Speaking of GoodReads and recommendations, do you have an account? That would be an easy way to swap reading material. :)
@ Kat @ www.TodaysCliche.com: Thank you, and thank you for stopping by. :) I am not, I have no idea what it is, in fact! Are you attending?
Ha! So I do have an account on Goodreads. However, I haven't kept up to date on it in the least so I'll start a new one. Hopefully, this one will be far more accurate of my tastes (which seem to evolve over a period of time; especially as one ages). So, I'll be adding more and more books to the collection on there. As much as I can remember of what I've read. Although, it will certainly be only a fraction of what I've ventured into.
Mine would be simply the first name, if you were to search it: Shad.
Ah. I can certainly fathom that concept. Though, it must be admitted that my imagination knows no bounds and has no bonds limiting it. Mores be damned, so to speak. One cannot explore the boundaries and truths of mores without first shattering them within ones own imagination. Does that make sense?
@ shadb: Great, I just got the email for your friend request as well, which I'll confirm after posting this comment. :)
It makes perfect sense, I think you described it eloquently.
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