I just finished this one, my first Tolstoy, chosen because it's the shortest novel he wrote. The story is about a nobleman in 1880, Nekhlyudov, who finds himself on a jury. One of the accused is a woman he knew in is past, and who he wronged when he was young. While watching the trial he …
A clear idea of right and wrong
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 …
What I want to read…
I've been reading Burial Rites by Hannah Kent with a book club I just started with some friends. It's much more enjoyable to read a book when you have people to discuss it with, but how can anyone ever get their friends to read the same books... if you're even fortunate enough to have friends …
I don’t like ‘lol random’
I've been reading The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien, and am finding myself generally annoyed with it, and had some curiosity why, since it seems like the kind of humor I used to really enjoy, in 'Hitchhiker's Guide' for example. I think the difference is that in Hitchhiker, things that appear random at first are …
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. …
Jonas David 