Well... I must embarrassingly resign myself as uncultured, and impatient. Swan's Way by Marcel Proust is just too boring for me to continue. I think I am missing something, because I don't understand the draw. It's not that I can't handle writing without a narrative, since I loved The Peregrine... but, the lack of narrative …
Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders
Love, death, ghosts, and history. What a sad, funny, interesting and heart-squeezing novel. From Wikipedia: Many years ago, during a visit to Washington DC, my wife's cousin pointed out to us a crypt on a hill and mentioned that, in 1862, while Abraham Lincoln was president, his beloved son, Willie, died, and was temporarily interred …
Proust: Rambling thoughts, or more?
I've started listening to my first Proust, and it's not very engaging. It is interesting though. Mainly I'm thinking "this guy is just going on about inane memories that can have no importance to anyone other than himself, and yet this is a classic." I think that goes to show that you really can write …
Despair, by Vladimir Nabokov
Schadenfreude--pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune. Nabokov, I am coming to find, is the master of this. The key to it, is to not identify too much with the person experiencing the misfortune, otherwise it becomes uncomfortable, cringy, awkward... but this, is not. You find yourself laughing with the most perfect satisfaction. And …
Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov
This is the epitome of genius. Nabokov must have some kind of freak literary gene that makes him so good with words. This is one of the few books I've wanted to start reading again the moment I reached the end. (I think Lolita was another...) On the surface, Pale fire is a 999 line …
Jonas David 