Lolita is a 1955 novel written by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov. The novel is notable …
Review of 'Lolita' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
uh im 90% through the book. its at the part where he's starting to reflect on how poorly he treated dolly and how traumatizing her childhood was, and unfortunately i am a pissbaby and cannot go any further. so lets just say i finished it ok? :] i dont really want to see this book ever again.
nabokovs writing is funny and charming. but this subject is difficult for me and strikes a bad chord in my heart . i feel sick to my stomach, no offence.
i have an extremely delicate ego. there is a little voice in the back of my head that is constantly comparing me to others, always studying and obsessing over my deficiencies. even when i read the synopsis of this book my heart was contorted with jealousy and shame. a story about a girl who makes it out of a difficult situation with no education and braves her way past the most prestigious ranks of academic achievement. i feel embarrassed even admitting it here..
from the onset i had already estranged the author as someone who i could never hope to understand.............................................................................(um.. i had a whirlwind of thoughts while i was spacing out in the shower, but now that im sitting here at the keyboard im at a loss for words. i dont know how to say it elegantly but ill try)
as i read on, and i learned about her …
i have an extremely delicate ego. there is a little voice in the back of my head that is constantly comparing me to others, always studying and obsessing over my deficiencies. even when i read the synopsis of this book my heart was contorted with jealousy and shame. a story about a girl who makes it out of a difficult situation with no education and braves her way past the most prestigious ranks of academic achievement. i feel embarrassed even admitting it here..
from the onset i had already estranged the author as someone who i could never hope to understand.............................................................................(um.. i had a whirlwind of thoughts while i was spacing out in the shower, but now that im sitting here at the keyboard im at a loss for words. i dont know how to say it elegantly but ill try)
as i read on, and i learned about her traumas, i slowly let her in. i trusted her, i worried for her, i winced at the astronomical amount of pain she withstood. i kept reading because i wanted to see her happy, i wanted to see her make it through. it was never about harvard. it was never about being more successful, or having a published book. That wasn't the jealousy I had braced myself for when I started this book, and that's not the jealousy that threatens to break my heart whenever i have a conversation with anybody i judge to have had a normal upbringing. its not about scoring higher on an IQ test, or having read more books, or taking more classes. i think i realized finally, why i feel so alone.
"only then did i understand where the shame had come from: it wasn't that i hadn't studied in a marble conservatory, or that my father wasn't a diplomat. it wasn't that dad was half out of his mind, or that mother followed him. it had come from those moments on the floor, from knowing that mother was in the next room, closing her eyes and ears to me, and choosing, for that moment, not to be my mother at all. ... the past was a ghost, insubstantial, unaffecting. only the future had weight."
that line filled me with hope. - trading realities
Anne Frank's extraordinary diary, written in the Amsterdam attic where she and her family hid …
Review of 'The diary of a young girl' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
so sweet and earnest that it depresses me. i want to be brave, too. i like that we both have had a root canal in one of our front teeth, it makes me feel better about the fact that my tooth might shatter when i’m older.
edit: im in despair. there are only twenty pages left in the book, and she is writing about how the gentle night sky gives her the courage to go on. i have never been more touched. she is not only courageous in the sense of a hero, but also unflinching in the face of all life’s dangers. she is like a lion bearing its sharp teeth and claws. how could a girl like this…….
update march 20 2022: anne franks diary ends here =(
George Orwell's timeless and timely allegorical novel—a scathing satire on a downtrodden society’s blind march …
Review of 'Animal Farm' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
i really miss snowball update march 20 2022: woah, i didn't notice that i started reading this exactly one year ago today. it took me an entire year to get over snowball's death it seems, haha.
Once upon a time Martians and Venusians met, fell in love, and had happy relationships …
Review of 'Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
hahaha this book is actually pretty funny. i view all humans regardless of gender as mysteriously alien, so i appreciate the ongoing analogy of the martians and venusians. the truth is i do think there are plenty of people in the world who more or less fit these two archetypes. Not to say that it includes me nor anyone i know and respect, but i definitely believe there are a surplus of straight people who might pick this book up and feel very understood and validated. Maybe reading this will help me coexist with them more smoothly….. i am looking forward to the communications guide promised in the foreword, because i would like to tell them to go back to mars and venus!
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, is a 1959 book written by Alfred Lansing, about the failure …
Review of "Endurance : Shackleton's incredible voyage" on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
since everyone survives, i hope it’s ok for me to say it…. this book is so funny. i love how despite their miserable situation they are still cracking jokes, writing disses about one another, dreaming of pudding and cream, cutting one another’s hair in an ice cave while their friends foot is getting amputated…. there are so many moments where i just burst out laughing. i think it’s because in the midst of all the tension and bad fortune, these small tender interactions are all the more precious. i haven’t read a book like this before, at least not in a long time. even when i put it down to do other stuff my mind was still on that ice floe, running around with everyone and smacking seals on the nose with an oar.
i love every character, and i love how the author always gets just the right excerpt …
since everyone survives, i hope it’s ok for me to say it…. this book is so funny. i love how despite their miserable situation they are still cracking jokes, writing disses about one another, dreaming of pudding and cream, cutting one another’s hair in an ice cave while their friends foot is getting amputated…. there are so many moments where i just burst out laughing. i think it’s because in the midst of all the tension and bad fortune, these small tender interactions are all the more precious. i haven’t read a book like this before, at least not in a long time. even when i put it down to do other stuff my mind was still on that ice floe, running around with everyone and smacking seals on the nose with an oar.
i love every character, and i love how the author always gets just the right excerpt of someone’s diary to pinpoint the mood. for example when their ship was first beset, and one wrote they were like an almond in the middle of a chocolate bar. oh man. i adore this book. i smiled so much, and i’m so glad that everyone’s ok and no one had to eat a human. i cannot believe this swashbuckling adventure is a true story and that i’m living in the same timeline.
Room (London: Picador; Toronto: HarperCollins Canada; New York: Little Brown, 2010), Emma Donoghue's Man-Booker-shortlisted seventh novel, is the story of …