no painter has translated the melancholy of a 40-year-old man navigating his tired life as much as edward hopper does. he is depression and beauty, the witching hour of two in the morning, he is nat king cole on an old scratchy record, the kindred spirit in strangers.
Penguin English Library is a bit juvenile in the design department. Just preference. But the aesthetics of Penguin Modern classics really scream Elena Ferrante or James Baldwin can you even top that off?
you are not the book you consume. you can clearly read a “problematic” book through a critic’s lenses while appreciating the literary merits it possesses.
Reading My Brilliant Friend from Lenu’s perspective made me believe that the titular friend is Lila but when Lila says on her wedding night that Lenu must study and study and study because she is her brilliant friend, I was reduced to shivers and tears. I love you, Ferrante.
if you a girlie and read dostoevsky i trust u with my life if you’re a man and read dostoevsky i will cross the street hold onto my pepper spray as if it’s my lifeline and pray i get away from you safely
Julie Andrews running wildly Julie Andrews frolicking in the mountains Julie Andrews in a bob cut Julie Andrews and her abnormal chemistry with Captain Von Trapp Julie Andrews kicking her heels Julie Andrews dancing the laendler Julie Andrews’ screaming at the captain
top 10 2023 reads
- crime and punishment
- those who leave and those who stay
- stoner
- brothers karamazov
- story of a new name
- my brilliant friend
- story of a lost child
- alias grace
- white nights
- the meek one
solid year mainly carried by dostoesvky and ferrante
reading toni morrison is like watching an artist paint a landscape in real time. it’s like dissolving from your current form only to be carried away by the wind she harnessed.
the epilogue of crime and punishment is my holy grail, my self-help book, my version of living life for dummies. it’s literally one of the most satisfying endings i’ve ever read.
reading the brothers karamazov is such an experience; at night, i listen to the audiobook and read on kindle constance garnett’s translation; then revisit mcduff’s translation and see how some passages were translated. it is tortuous but this is dostoevsky’s charm and beauty.
i am still amazed by how certain scents remind me of chapters and places of my life. how is it that raspberries remind me of piano lessons when i was twelve and the sweet twilight whiffs of dama de noche of my grandmother’s old house
Making a thread of Jane Austen rankings.
Based on my personal preference / favorite:
1. Persuasion
2. Northanger Abbey
3. Emma
4. Pride and Prejudice
5. Mansfield Park
6. Sense and Sensibility
7 classics to get to know me:
- One Hundred Years of Solitude
- Anne of Green Gables
- Wuthering Heights
- Crime and Punishment
- Persuasion
- Catcher in the Rye
- Emily Climbs
7 Classics to get to know me:
- Crime and Punishment
- Demons
- The Brothers Karamazov
- The Death of Ivan Ilyich
- The Master and Margarita
- Tess of the D’Urbervilles
- Wuthering Heights
Commemorating the 204th birth anniversary of my favorite Brontë; who shocked men with her tumultuous rainstorm of a gothic tale of love gone haywire, passion, and obsession. Happy birthday, my queen, Emily Brontë. 🕯
Happy birthday to my favorite author and my quintessential Edwardian lady, Lucy Maud Montgomery! Thank you for giving me Anne Shirley and Emily Byrd Starr and all the other heroines with star-speckled eyes and kindred spirits.
oh what’s that you haven’t yet read crime and punishment? this is all you need to know about porfiry petrovich versus rodya. now go vote crime and punishment
13 books to get to know me
one hundred years of solitude
crime and punishment
the blind assassin
wuthering heights
the stranger
persuasion
anne of green gables
the brothers karamazov
metamorphosis
no longer human
emily of new moon
lolita
if cats disappeared from the world
13 books to get to know me
rebecca
jane eyre
pride and prejudice
coraline
the bell jar
frankenstein
the haunting of hill house
the awakening
candice
every goosebumps book. idc
the mysterious benedict society
dracula
lolita