To talk about your weekly readings, be it books, textbooks, papers, etc.
I’m still halfway through “Pale Fire” (been kind of busy this week), but I’ll probably finish it in the next few days. I have to say this is the strangest book I’ve read so far, though it’s fascinating me a lot. I restarted from the beginning and while on my first reading of the “Forward”, Kinbote seemed to be a creepy stalker, on my second reading he’s giving some sociopathic vibes. I’m reading the “Commentary” wondering how much of what Kinbote says is real and considering Shade’s death days after finishing the poem, 
is just writing it on a jail cell or psych ward. Plus, all of the “Zembla” bullshit country he talks about. Though Shade’s poem did mention Zembla, so maybe it’s real? Or maybe Kinbote took it from the poem? 
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Anna Karenina by Tolstoy
Been reading it for the last month, it’s long but I found this new Russian translation (louise aylmer maude anna karenina translation) that’s is really close to the original Russian. The first translation I read the first few chapters, the Popular American translation, wasn’t as snippy or interesting.
On the surface it’s a lot of upper class foid drama (“im a
debutante but I have 2 suiters and can’t choose, life is so hard!!”). But it’s so well written and has good characters.
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Had to read this for school back in 12th grade. It was so boring I couldn't force myself to get halfway through it. Had to write a report on it at some point which I completely made up, referencing the deep themes of the work, like 'struggle between love and manly duty in the face of war', or the 'dillemma of choice', all presented through a lens of Russian high society in the 1800s. I avoided referencing characters by names because I couldn't even remember who was who, it was that forgettable. Yet I got a good grade for it, which leads me to believe that work is just as vapid and pointless as I perceived it to be.
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The translation they use in schools sucks. It’s watered down and simplified, so it misses a lot of the quality of Tolstoys writing. Plus Being forced to read a book like that is not fun.
Tolstoy is a really good writer, you have to read a lot of books to recognize that which most kids haven’t developed that taste.
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I think you are mistaking Anna Karenina with War and Peace
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Nah I've never read War and Peace because I heard that it was dragged out and boring. As for Anna Karenina I was never told that, but it turned out to be so because it's literally just the 'ugh but which man do I choose?' foid (non)problem in book form
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Not really. The main foid is in a loveless marriage, but her husband is not abusive or anything like it, and they have a 10 year old son. She chooses to leave her husband and travel with her lover, and she’s ostracized from high society because of it. She kills herself near the end by jumping in front of a train . Tosltoy self insert on the other hand is also a main character, and has a happy ending in the countryside.
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Kitty right? At least it fits her age, plus her arc is great. Anna on the other hand is a grown up woman in her early 30s behaving as a debutante.
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Yeah I’m still pretty early in the book so not sure what happens, been dragging my feet reading it ADD style.
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It’s a great book filled with
moments. The male characters are very memorable too.
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Levin is a great character
I saw some clip they made in that 2012 movie and they made Levin some ginger long haired looking loser. Alicia Vikander as kitty is hot tho
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Levin is literally a Tolstoy self insert, but yeah, he’s great. That movie was awful, Anna Karenina requires a 6 episode miniseries in order to be faithful.
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I just finished Anna Karenina. It was fun while it lasted but tbh I didn’t find the last portion of the book that exciting.
The whole book is about Russian upper class drama btw, both from the men and women.
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