Read: Reading Lolita In Tehran

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books is by Azar Nafisi, who worked as a professor and writer in Tehran.  Here are a few images that I found online that I feel really set the scene for the book:

       The books is set in Tehran, and is broken up into 4 section: Lolita, Gatsby, James, and Austen, if that gives you some idea of the literature covered in the book.  (You may have noticed I did another Read Review of Lolita some time back, I decided to read Lolita before Reading Lolita in Tehran, and I'm glad I did, though it is by no means required.)  I really enjoyed Reading Lolita In Tehran because I didn't know a lot about Iranian history, or the fact that before the shah Iran was more liberal and open, it's only in recent years that it's become so oppressive.  The book covers a lot of the current history of Tehran, like the siege of the US embassy, the bombings of Tehran, the political power struggles, etc, as well as personal history like girls being jailed or arrested on the side of the street for wearing nail polish or having a strand of hair sticking out from under their head scarf.  It gives you an honest idea of what living there, as a girl, is like.
      The book was also right up my alley because it's all focused around a book club and reading, which I'm sure you've figured out now, I love.  The book was a bit difficult to get through at times, I found I could rarely read more than 25 pages in one sitting.  I'm not sure if I was getting bored or found some of the topics a bit too intense.  All in all I was glad I read the book.

       If you've read this post and want to read the book for yourself just leave a comment and I'll send you my copy of the book!  Make sure your comment has some sort of link to your email so I can contact you for an address.  I'm moving to another continent in July and need to seriously start purging my library.  Just for the record I bought the book used at a street sale so it's no where near "new" in condition, but isn't that part of what makes books great?  Wondering about their previous owners....  Ok maybe that's just me.

Photography: Get Back In Your Book

This is probably the coolest Flickr set I've seen in awhile. It's by Lissy Elle, who is super talented, so you should check out their other stuff. This set is entitled Get Back In Your Book and as you can see from the pictures below it shows people from books literally coming out of the book.  Of course my favorite is the Harry Potter one, but they're all awesome.  And it incorporates reading, so I'm always a fan.

Harry Potter

Sleeping Beauty

Alice in Wonderland

Peter Pan

Enjoy. :) And happy Wednesday!

Read: Franny and Zooey

Franny and Zooey is J.D. Salinger's third book, published in 1961 but set in 1955. The book focuses on two of the Glass children, Franny and Zooey. Franny is 20 years old and undergoing a breakdown fueled by spiritual unsureness, while Zooey is 25 and jaded beyond belief. All of the Glass children were radio stars in their youth, with Zooey being especially charismatic, which may have lead to his future career as an actor. Due to their unique education by their older siblings, both Zooey and Franny have issues socializing and view most other people as benighted.
Below are a few pictures, some capture the essence of the main characters and others artistically show things from the book.

Franny to a tee! via The Thinking Tank.

Epitome of Zooey via The Thinking Tank.

Franny via Culturazzi.

Franny Asleep, infamous Zooey quote via BookRule.

I really enjoyed the book.  It's not a plot driven story, more conversational and cerebral, which could be slightly dry at times, but the characters and dialogue were interesting. It's the story of a spiritual journey, but also relationships with family members.  Here are my two favorite quotes:

"An artist's only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else's."

"It's everybody, I mean. Everything everybody does is so--I don't know--not wrong, or even mean, or even stupid, necessarily. But just so tiny and meaningless--and sad-making. And the worst part is, if you go bohemian or something crazy like that, you're conforming just as much as everybody else, only in a different way." The book made me want to be super well read, smoke like a pro, and dress like a Royal Tenenbaum.  I highly recommend the book. 

The book made me want to be super well read, smoke like a pro, and dress like a Royal Tenenbaum.  I highly recommend the book.

Read: Le Petit Prince

Ok so I read it in English so it should rightly be "The Little Prince" but it sounds so much better to say "le peu-ti praaaance".  I've owed you this book review for months now.  I finished it on Jan. 17 for heaven's sake!  [Book Review Update: I've also finished "Reading Lolita in Tehran" "The Stranger" and "Franny and Zooey" since then... so more book reviews to come!]

But Le Petit Prince is a classic, it's one of the highest selling books (80 million--I just checked wikipedia) of all time!  The story is told from the perspective of an aviator who has crashed in the desert.  Though it switches from first to third person, which is a bit odd.  I was surprised that the story was told from an adults perspective, as I had assumed it was from the perspective of the prince himself.  How wrong I was.  The story revolves mainly around the aviator trying to get the little prince to tell him his story, which is difficult as the prince does not like answering questions.  Saint-Exupery, the author, was actually an aviator himself and he and a friend crashed in the Sahara one time.  They had 1 days worth of liquid, which they ran through in a day, and by the third day they stopped sweating entirely because their bodies had no more liquid.  Supposedly on the fourth day a Bedouin traveler found them and administered some sort of native rehydration trick that saved their lives.  Many think that the story of the The Little Prince was drawn from this experience.  (My source on that is wikipedia, which I think in this case can be trusted.)

The story of the little prince contains profound insights into life, which are mainly told in the story through the fox.  He says at one point that "It is the time you have spent with your rose that makes your rose so important."  It isn't the financial worth of something that makes it important, it's the amount of time you spend on or with something or someone.  The fox also utters these famous lines (en francais, because bien sur, I am just that pretentious.)

(picture is from weheartit)

Which translates to  "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye."  That is an excellent view, one that of course appeals to children, but also adults who want to let them heart guide them in their endeavors.  I fully believe that as well, that the most important things in life: love, happiness, and friendship cannot be seen, but only felt. 

The Little Prince is a childrens book, but I believe that adults can get the most out of it, as they are more likely to pause to think about the words and the underlying meaning of the book than children are.

Isn't the watercoloring on that copy absolutely stunning?? I'm not sure which language this version is, Korean?. Photo credit is weheartit.

Click the photos for credits.

That image of the book is the book I have, I think I got it at a used bookstore somewhere, I don't quite remember. It's hardcover and has the pictures, but they're only in black & white. Whereas my french copy has color photos, but I can't understand most of it. C'est domage! I actually read a bit of Le Petit Prince in highschool french class, and totally did not understand it. I think it was the fact that the flower talks, so I assumed I was confused and there was another character there besides the flower. Foreign languages are so confusing...
But that's my review of Le Petit Prince, I recommend everyone go read it immediately! It's a very fast read and a charming little story. :)

Read: The Lovely Bones

So I finished The Lovely Bones a few days ago (well actually almost a week at this point).

I absolutely LOVED the book. I could barely put it down. One of the most striking aspects of the book, at least to me, are the descriptions author Alice Sebold uses. [sidebar: Alice Sebold graduated from UC Irvine! That makes me very proud of my Alma Mater!] Where any run of the mill writer would say "the eggs which we dyed", Sebold says "the eggs which we had dunked in dye" (that's actually not a direct quote, just a from memory quote, so it could be slightly off. The word was either dunked or submerged, now I'm not positive). But somehow that description struck me as unique. It's the same concept, dyeing an egg is essentially submerging/dunking it in dye, but I felt like I had never seen it described like that. And that is just one example that stuck in my mind, though the book is littered with other examples. Also, that is only one facet of the novel, but it's the one I found most appealing, and most distinctive about the book.

The plot is a unique one as well. Despite the fact that the commercial for the new movie makes it seem as if it's just about solving the mystery of the main characters death (which happens in the first chapter, and is talked about on the back of the book, so I didn't give anything away), it's also a story about a family and a small town coming to terms with the death of their daughter, their sister, their friend. And while part of this "coming to terms" is trying to solve the mystery, it's also a glance at the coping mechanisms of individuals, family dynamics, and friendship. The writing and the story is unique, extraordinary, and sometimes funny, while other times heartbreaking. There really is no other way for me to say, other than I absolutely loved it.

PS: I finished The Little Prince today, and even though it is really short I'm counting it as my book for the week, as Reading Lolita in Tehran is taking much longer than I thought. So that will be my next book entry! Thanks for reading Amy! :)

An Ode to Books & Bookstores (in pictures.)

I actually tried to write a poem, but these skills escape me. So instead i will use images to convey the beauty that is books, and bookstores.
{{I wish I could be a wandering gypsy. Travel in a caravan with my love and all our books. We would live off our wages: he would fix or build things for people using his amazing engineering brain, and I would make jewelry and headbands and pretty things to sell to people. We could trade books with people we met along the way, spreading knowledge and a love of literature everywhere we went. And we would see the world. The caravan could also be traded for a river boat so we could live in the Seine or the Rhine. What a beautiful and simple life.}}
The above picture is from my favorite bookstore on earth: Shakespeare & Company in Paris. I took classes at La Sorbonne literally right around the corner, but somehow missed this gem until about a week before I was leaving. They have a little bed upstairs (pictured below) where they, as I understand it, let writers stay. When I was there I sat on the bed and leafed through an old kipling book with a charmingly chubby cat sitting next to me. I actually have a book "Time Was Soft There" by one of the authors who did that, about his time there. It's in my "to read" pile. But this place is tiny, and crammed with books, and just FEELS like home to a bibliophile like myself.

This is the first thing you encounter upon entering Shakespeare & Co. Isn't it beautiful! BOOKS, EVERYWHERE!

The above picture is like my dream room. But maybe with a king sized bed. But I love all the natural light and the books everywhere! This image and the next 3 are all from weheartit.

The above picture is the Livrario Lello, in Portugal. Isn't it beautiful! It begs quiet and probably smells like wood polish and books. I want to go there.

The Black Spot Books (etsy)

Beautiful abandoned library house. This image and the one following are from weheartit.

Reading is such a beautiful thing. I love getting lost in words and worlds. So far I've read a book every week of the new year. I finished Lolita on January 5 (see previous post), and I just finished The Lovely Bones yesterday afternoon (January 11). Don't worry a post will be coming up on that one too. Now I'm diving head-first into Reading Lolita In Tehran (the whole reason I picked up Lolita in the first place). I also have a Border's date with Dot tomorrow, so that may yield yet another book to add to the growing stack of "to read" books.

Read: Lolita

So I finished Lolita (by Vladimir Nabokov) last night. I posted recently about the books I was reading, and that's the first one done for now! I'm working on The Lovely Bones now. (I'm 26% done according to Kindle.)

I really liked the book. I see why it was banned and is still rather controversial. Lolita is a like no one I think I have ever met. It's hard to put into words (mostly because I'm distracted by watching LOTR right now...).

It's creepy at times, because you think what you read, and you're reading about this man lusting for this young girl. But it's highly psychological and you begin to understand the spell he is under. While it is only one-sided I believe, Humbert's love for Lolita is truly beautiful. He loves her, is obsessed with her, would do anything for her. It is creepy, but it's also sweet how he finds beauty in her smallest movement, in the smell of her on the sheets, how he memorizes the way she moves her tennis strokes and her face as she practices acting.

I am glad I read it, and look forward to reading "Reading Lolita in Tehran", I hope they talk about Lolita a bit. And of course I recommend it, if you can take the slight perviness of falling headfirst into the mind of a certified pedophile.

Oh yeah I was image searching "Lolita" on weheartit.com and people have this odd impression that Lolita is extremely gothic. I do not know where they got this from. In my mind she was all gingham and bubblegum and short skirts and knobby knees and hollywood magazines. And those heart sunglasses are apparently her signature piece from the movie, or so I gather. I've added the Jeremy Irons version to my Netflix for viewing eventually, it sounds like it was very faithful to the book.

both photos are from weheartit.com