books bought today

[elpollodiablo]

That's a big ol stack of Nabokov there!

[davy]

haha, good eyes! which one gave it away?

i couldn't get enough of that shit in college. that stack's not even counting the two volume biography by brian boyd (which i've never summoned up the ambition to read), the (really good) biography of VN's wife, vera (by stacy schiff), the two alternate versions of lolita (in hardcover and with annotations), the collected stories, and (possibly my favorite novel of his next to lolita), ada, or ardor.

[elpollodiablo]

I actually recognized the design of those Vintage books cuz I own their editions of Pale Fire, Lolita, and Speak, Memory


Do you have the Appel Lolita annotations? That was the edition I read first, and totally regretted it because his notes reveal key plot points very early on. The notes themselves were great though.

[davy]

yeah, but i didn't read through that version until i'd read the original 2 or 3 times. it was pretty vindicating to see a lot of my own annotations picked out and examined by appel. i've never marked up a book like i marked up lolita.



the american edition vs. the canadian edition...yet again we are put to shame.

[elpollodiablo]

I really didn't like Lolita anywhere near as much as I liked Pale Fire.

[C of heartbreak]

I know it's way too late for this, but Andrew $7 was way too much to pay for I Am Charlotte Simmons.

And, despite spending a lot more time with Pale Fire, I like Lolita better. I got the feeling Nabokov was laughing at me the whole time I was reading Pale Fire.

[elpollodiablo]

I got the feeling he was laughing uproariously throughout Lolita, while I could only manage a couple of weak chuckles


Also QFT w/r/t Wolfe's latest; I was thinking the same thing earlier today. I did buy a used copy of A Man In Full a couple of months ago, though; dunno when I'll actually get around to rereading that one, but it was quite good from what I remember. Sprawling cross-country burn in which Wolfe only embarrassed himself occasionally when it came to youth culture/current music/etc. Simmons seemed like the work of some lecherous old codger who had pieced together his knowledge of today's campus life by hiding in bushes outside sorority houses and reading back issues of Maxim. Which, of course, it was. Watching him on the Daily Show explaining to John Stewart the concept of "hooking up" (finger quotes and all) about made my skin crawl right off my body.

[davy]

i like pale fire a lot, but i'm also very intimidated by it. my enjoyment of it was hindered by the constant thought that if i were smarter, or a better reader, i would be enjoying it a lot more.

my top 5 goes something like this:

lolita
speak, memory (i'd forgotten about it momentarily!)
ada
pnin
pale fire

[elpollodiablo]

Still haven't read Ada or Pnin, those are both good candidates for rounding out the summer after I finish this McCarthy turd and a few other things

[C of heartbreak]

I got the feeling he was laughing uproariously throughout Lolita, while I could only manage a couple of weak chuckles


Also QFT w/r/t Wolfe's latest; I was thinking the same thing earlier today. I did buy a used copy of A Man In Full a couple of months ago, though; dunno when I'll actually get around to rereading that one, but it was quite good from what I remember. Sprawling cross-country burn in which Wolfe only embarrassed himself occasionally when it came to youth culture/current music/etc. Simmons seemed like the work of some lecherous old codger who had pieced together his knowledge of today's campus life by hiding in bushes outside sorority houses and reading back issues of Maxim. Which, of course, it was. Watching him on the Daily Show explaining to John Stewart the concept of "hooking up" (finger quotes and all) about made my skin crawl right off my body.

I didn't finish Charlotte Simmons or A Man in Full. I absolutely love Wolfe's non-fiction, but IMO Bonfire is his only fiction worth reading.

[elpollodiablo]

Bonfire is so much fun. I want to read it again, but I've called a moratorium on rereading anything for a while.

[Andrew_TSKS]

Also QFT w/r/t Wolfe's latest; I was thinking the same thing earlier today. I did buy a used copy of A Man In Full a couple of months ago, though; dunno when I'll actually get around to rereading that one, but it was quite good from what I remember. Sprawling cross-country burn in which Wolfe only embarrassed himself occasionally when it came to youth culture/current music/etc. Simmons seemed like the work of some lecherous old codger who had pieced together his knowledge of today's campus life by hiding in bushes outside sorority houses and reading back issues of Maxim. Which, of course, it was. Watching him on the Daily Show explaining to John Stewart the concept of "hooking up" (finger quotes and all) about made my skin crawl right off my body.

I thought "Charlotte Simmons" started out pretty well; what I ended up fucking hating about that book was that in the end, Charlotte learned what I felt was the wrong lesson--just be a trophy wife instead of trying to live independently as a 21st century woman. All the stuff that those women have to deal with is scary and involves all sorts of shaky morals. Which, yes, is true (it's true for the stuff 21st century men have to deal with too), but the lesson shouldn't be to retreat in the kind of patriarchal subservience of a previous generation. There is a third way, and how the hell did Wolfe, part of the 60s counterculture that brought feminism to the forefront of mainstream consciousness, not come up with it? It could have been an awesome book if the last third of it had been completely different, but as it is he totally betrayed his talent with lazy plotting and what seems to me to be an older person's inability to understand what it is actually like to be a teenager/20-something at this point in history.

In fact, I see this kind of retrenchment into values that would have made their younger selves cringe in a lot of former 60s radical types these days, and it just all reminds me of how disappointed I am in my dad. Hahah wow that sounds fucked up.

Anyway, if I spoiled the ending of "Charlotte Simmons" for any of you, I apologize, but you should also be able to tell by now that you didn't want to read it anyway.

EDIT: C, I back pollo w/r/t "A Man In Full"--it's not "Bonfire" but it's pretty damn good.

[C of heartbreak]

Actually andrew you just made me want to try to read it again.

[Ignatius]

Simmons seemed like the work of some lecherous old codger who had pieced together his knowledge of today's campus life by hiding in bushes outside sorority houses and reading back issues of Maxim. Which, of course, it was. Watching him on the Daily Show explaining to John Stewart the concept of "hooking up" (finger quotes and all) about made my skin crawl right off my body.

He went to squash games at Trinity College...  Very involved with his son and his son's friends...  But he's a cool guy?  From what I'm told?

[Maaik]

This landed on my desk today:

[davy]

Still haven't read Ada or Pnin, those are both good candidates for rounding out the summer after I finish this McCarthy turd and a few other things

ada would be fantastic reading for the end of the summer.