Why Did I Wait, and Where Can I Get More?

I'm reading Lolita for the first time. It's amazing, and I'm moving very slowly. I pore over the words that catch my breath in my throat. Sometimes I just sit and stare at a sentence for a full minute. I keep finding tiny strings of perfection.

Comments

[yiekes]

oh, it's so good. good luck with pale fire. it's a little tougher. did you ever read "the wind up bird chronicles" by Haruki Murakami? PLEASE read it if you have time. my favorite book.

[Chico]

He is so goddamned good.

I'm with Jeffrey. I wish I was you so I could be reading that stuff for the first time again.

Read Pale Fire next, and then you can move to others. (I'm reading Orhan Pamuk right now, and I can see an influence there, but I suspect you won't be hurting for recommendations.)

[Joe P.]

One of my favorite books due to his soaring prose. Was it because he was tackling his first novel in English? The words are just astonishing, the concepts challenging, and the satire stings your eyes. An amazing work, no doubt!!

[Jeffrey]

Back in college my friend Pat saw me reading it and asked "Are you reading that for the first time?" and I said yeah. He said "I'm so jealous of you."

[Vera]

I am so happy for you.

[erat]

Great book, yep, but I felt it was about 50 pages too long. Other than that, Nabokov is a genius.

[The 7th Meat]

Well, isn't that nice. You discovered the book version of the camwhore. I don't know how things are going out there in San Liberalisco but I for one thank God that someone like you won't be dropping the Femnicunts of tomorrow on this coast any more. You plan to read that to your daughter as a bedtime story so she knows what to expect out of life under Clinton II: AKA Socialized Handjobs For Schoolteachers? If there was any justice you would have gotten there a little early and been nothing but a tits in a tiger's belly. Why not try something like The Bible or Ayn Rand instead of that annotated mulchpile some communist wrote.

[Ian]

The second time around, I recommend the annotated version. Lolita has so many layers, it's almost impossible to discover them alone. People have spent years uncovering the mysteries of that great novel, and it is a great benefit that someone else has done the leg work.

[brittney]

I am reading the annotated version, but I'm plowing through without the notes first time around, then I'll re-read it with the flipping back and forth.