I've been listening to Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy, my first Tolstoy, and am enjoying the lack of moral relativism. It's somehow refreshing to have a narrator with a clear opinion of what is evil and what is good, and a character who also knows this and is trying to be good. All the shades of …
The Castle, by Franz Kafka
This is the first writing by Kafka I've read that I haven't been impressed by. And unlike the Trial, when they say it is unfinished, they really mean unfinished, like it cuts off in the middle of a sentence. I don't understand why this was published, or why people continue to read it today. The …
The Luzhin Defense by Vladimir Nabokov
Another terrific read by Nabokov, I have yet to be disappointed by his novels. This one follows a chess player, but you don't have to know a single thing about how to play chess in order to enjoy it. It's more about the mental states, and how imagining all the possible outcomes in a game …
dying, now or later…
The Plague has been getting more interesting. One part I enjoyed was, as the characters are now all quarantined inside the town, and death is all around, one character is sitting in his house trying to write a book, and rewriting the same sentence for days and weeks, trying to find just the right words. …
A cool glass of sweet water
Every time I finish a particularly difficult book, be it bad, or odd, or just confusing, I take a break with a Nabokov novel. They are always so clear and crisp and enjoyable, it's like drinking a nice glass of cool water after a tiring time in the sun. This time I'm reading the Luzhin …
Jonas David 