snippets from letters to vera (mr. nabokov) : part II

SO different from our current time when "wyd" is meant to signify interest. {insert huge eye roll}. Vladimir writes to his wife with an obsession passion that I enjoy slowly working my way through.

Quotes from the letters to vera...

I'm so sorry I wrote nonsense to you. My brains are disheveled- their hairpins have fallen out: just as there are bare-headed people, I'm somehow bare-brained... Do you understand?"

Without you I wouldn't have moved this way, to speak the language of flowers.

I am becoming more and more firmly convinced that art is the only thing that matters in life.

See you soon, my love, don't be angry with me. I know that I am a very boring and unpleasant man, drowned in literature... But I love you.

My delightful, my love, my life, I don't understand anything: how can you not be with me? I'm so infinitely used to you that I now feel myself lost and empty: without you, my soul.

 How strange that although my life's work is moving a pen over paper, I don't know how to tell you how I love, how I desire you.

I'll have to see you forty-eight hours a day... 

 
I'm loving these letters. Part obsession. Part entertaining. All love. Gorgeous.

Other posts in this series:

• Snippets from Letters to Vera (Mr. Nabokov): Part I 

poetry pause: spotlight :: t.s. eliot : IV

stock photo of a beautiful night

IV

His soul stretched tight across the skies,

That fade behind a city block,

Or trampled by insistent feet

At four and five and six o'clock;

And short square fingers stuffing pipes,

And evening newspapers, and eyes

Assured of certain certainties,

The conscience of a blackened street

Impatient to assume the world.

I am moved by fancies that are curled

Around these images, and cling:

The notion of some infinitely gentle

Infinitely suffering thing.

Wipe your hand across your mouth, and laugh;

The worlds revolve like ancient women

Gathering fuel in vacant lots. 

-T.S. Eliot

Lolita by Valdamir Nabokov : A Review

Place holding a post to review Lolita. This was from August 29, 2023. I have yet to be capable of writing a review. 

I literally JUST finished it. My mouth is agape. My soul is burning. My heart aches.

This is my successful 4th attempt at this novel. The first three times I never made it past the 7th page. I am so happy that I endured this time.

I am going to read Nabokov's "On a Book Entitled Lolita", and I hope that within 2 days I can come and complete this review.

annotated Lolita with Nabakov's essay at the end

big summer re-read: war and peace: I love tolstoy

I've written about my stressful life, and nothing helps me feel better is working through a huge mammoth tome like War and Peace.

This will be a re-read for me. I have just been having a craving for it. I pondered with several titles (Middlemarch, Moby Dick, etc.), but something is calling me to War and Peace. So, that's enough for me. 

At 1382 pages for the Penguin Edition that I owe both physically and on kindle, I'll be starting on June 1st and having a goal of 25 pages per day.

i have this physical edition & this same translation on kindle

I love sinking my teeth into sprawling classics, and taking my time to structure my reading life around a "big read". 

Leo Tolstoy is one of my favorite writers of all time. I seriously have re-read Anna Karenina (one of my top 3 favorite books) over and over again. I find so much peace inside the complicated characters and stories that Tolstoy wrote.

Like Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy creates psychologically complex characters that help you learn so much about yourself as you read them.

If you read Anna's story and connected with her desire to be unfaithful because she felt restrained- you can better know yourself and what you think about infidelity. Do you lean more towards Levin's story? In War and Peace, I am eager to get back into the Napoleonic Era and the French invasion of Russia. Nothing like a good fictional account including Bonaparte. 

I'm aways reading a biography of Napoleon which should be a good accompaniment. 

side by side, this should be a great reading experience

Plans for Reading War and Peace this summer

1. 25 pages per day
2. Read physically
3. Read on kindle at night time (hello eye strain + light)
4. Blog my weekly experience here (along with photos!)
5. Keep notes in my physical book journal

I only read what inspires or motivates me. I don't read for number goals. I don't read to keep up with the literary Joneses. 

This is my life. My mental health. My sanity. I'm excited to dive back into this amazing novel. Feel free to join me. I'll be writing about it here.

Happy reading ☕️ 

currently reading down from 17 to 6... oh, and waffles

 

beautiful cup of organic ethiopian 

The semester is over. I'm struggling with how stressful my daily life has been, and all around anxiety. That means slowing everything down.

I canceled a trip with my family, and starting putting my pajamas on at 10:00 pm. 

The answer for me is always ... L E S S 

I finished up a few books on my currently reading, and dnfed the rest. My shelf is now clear and steady. 

I am in love with nonfiction right now. It's my second read "genre" after classic literature. 

homemade gluten free vanilla waffles + kombucha

I'm just taking my time to square away the rest of May and gear up for June. I am intent on starting the month off on a good note. 

Wishing all who feel lonely and use reading for comfort a soft ending to the month of May.

Happy reading ☕️ 

I won't read books that bore me- not sorry about it

I just won't give a second thought to dnfing any book that bores or annoys me. I just won't do it. 

Now, listen. I don't mind enduring with a novel. Hello? I loved all 7 volumes of The Search. What I am talking about is this new wave of half-baked novels that I feel are meant to just push out works at a butter churning rate that nauseates me. 

It goes without saying (though this day it always seems to need to be said) that this is my opinion. MINE. Not everyone shall agree. Okay that's out of the way...

I won't pick on any one novel that prompted this post (cough cough), but I'm looking at you Darling Girls.

I know. I know. People LOVE this book. I don't rag on novels with living authors, because I believe it takes immense skill and talent to write a novel, and just because I didn't like it,  does not detract from it's merit blah, blah, blah.

This book (and so many these days) rely on tropey, attention grabs, that are not very sound. Rather than the story leaning on it's own development, it uses what we know about (child abuse, SA, addiction, etc.) to propel it's story. You as the reader, come INTO the story with tons of information about things, and the author rides the coattails of that info and sends you spiraling towards a sickening end.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh- that's a digital scream. I am just so fed up. I am so busy with academic work, that I want to find something lighter to turn the pages of, but I am just annoyed over and over again.

I will be sticking with cozies for a while and see where that takes me. Alongside my beloved classics of course.

Rant over. Books I've graved recently....

may reading plans (reading for relaxation)

It's been a hellish few months. Busy days, even busier evenings. No time for deep rest. 

Add graduate course work, applications, hospitals, etc. and you can see where this is going.

Reading is meant to be a way tot touch the universal human experience. To feel less alone. 

For the month of May (which for me starts the third week of the month), I am going to be making some adjustments to the growing pile of "currently reading" that continues to grow. 

In another post, I will categorize the literary plate that I am trying to cultivate and I think that framework will allow me to keep my interest varied, and also make things quite manageable. The goal is to let my reading be helpful and transformative, not burdensome and overwhelming- God knows my life is overwhelming enough.

love this stuff

So, what do I want to read for May?

I'm back in a cozy mystery phase. Maybe it's the nightmares I'm having, or the over-saturation of docu-dramas that creep into my mind, but I'm looking for a cozy little feeling, and I can't find it in romance anymore. 

I've been so bored by most all of the romances I've read that I get to around 25-35% and dnf them. 

I'm also moving into a thriller phase. There is something about a thriller that keeps me turning the pages, and ties together in a bow at the end. I'm not historically a thriller reader, so this is kinda fascinating, but I will see where this takes me. 

I don't go book goals, or number challenges, but I do have some personal readathons planned the month. I've been so desperate to have time to use my new reading chairs/lamps, and to slow down that I have a plan to finish some of these great nonfiction books that I"ve been reading for months and months. 

My plan (as usual) read or dnf. Period. There's not enough time to read things that don't fully entertain or educate or move me. 

My new literary plate plans will include 6 books at a time. Is that even that streamlined? It feels that way to me. 

Happy reading. ☕️ 

feeling creeped out so far

um this is book 3? whoops

insightful thus far

always a good time with austen

love his borderline obsessive devotion