Happy Easter guys! It's a very wet day here in London which is thoroughly putting me in the mood for some cosy bank holiday reading. The rain pretty much always has that effect on me.
This weekend I am reading Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs by Jeremy Mercer as per Ellie's recommendation, Titus Andronicus by Willy-Shakes and Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. Quite the varied selection, I feel.
I've been off work since Wednesday as I booked a couple of days holiday for some extra chill time and, although it has been a busy weekend, I've been getting a good amount of reading in. I finished Audrey Magee's The Undertaking sat on the South Bank on Wednesday afternoon and then started Mercer's memoir that evening (it did not have the start I expected). I then drove back to Somerset on Thursday which took absolutely forever and was greeted by my pooch and some slobbery kisses. After some quality time with the pooch which turned my black outfit into a furry shade of yellow (she is a yellow Labrador), I settled down to dive into Lolita. It was so nice to be in Somerset for a couple of days - I did two brilliantly long runs through the countryside and spent a lot of time in the fresh air (manure filled, yet still fresher than London air).
I'm loving all my reading choices but Lolita is definitely taking the lead in the stakes for favourite. Nabokov's writing is so lyrical and beautiful and slightly incongruous to the twisted and perverted world of Humbert Humbert (what a creep). Mercer's bookish memoir is adding a needed element of lightheartedness to counteract the perversion of Lolita and the sheer violence of Titus Andronicus (Lavinia has to be the unluckiest girl in literature, and one of the best).
It's a shame there is only a day and a half left of this Easter weekend. I could so get used to this lifestyle...
How have you spent your Easter weekend?
Finished Weapons of Choice (an excellent Alt-History novel) by John Birmingham on Friday, started The Peshawar Lancers (another intriguing Alt-History of a 21st century British Empire relocated in India after a meteor strike destroyed most of Europe in the 1870's) by S M Stirling and have just started A History of the First World Way (written in 1930) by Sir Basil Liddell-Hart.
ReplyDeleteNot raining here yet but you can tell it's on the way....
Sounds like an excellent reading weekend!
Delete*snorts* Willy Shakes. Hehe. Almost as good as my stepdad, who wandered through the house earlier and proclaimed "I've been studying knobs!" He's making decorative corner pieces for his new raised fruit and vegetable beds in the garden. :D
ReplyDeleteLolita's way high up Le TBR right now, because I've heard it's BEAUTIFUL and I've had it for years, and I just posted a 'my life of love for this book' review of BBB yesterday. I'm not even religious, but there's something about Easter Sunday, the only day except Christmas when the world actually slows down a bit, that seems to excuse lying around in my PJs eating chocolate and reading all day. Blissful. Happy Easter chuck!
I'm such a child but I do love shortening his name ;)
DeleteIt is really quite beautiful. Super twisted and kinda pervy but the writing is like chocolate.
I hope you enjoyed chilling in your pjs :D
I definitely need to read Lolita for the Classics Club one of these days.
ReplyDeleteHappy Easter Ellie!
Thank you, you too! It is definitely worth a read, even if it is slightly twisted.
DeleteI really liked Lolita, but especially the first half. I'm looking forward to seeing what you make of the whole book.
ReplyDeleteHappy Easter :)
I'm just moving into the second half and can feel a shift already. HH certainly goes on a bit...
DeleteThank you, you too!
Woo, I'm glad you are enjoying the book, the writing is just beautiful in this one. I've also had quite a nice Easter weekend except that today I fell from bike and have now trouble typing because I have hurt my little finger quite badly. Also thinking I might have to get a helmet, this was a lucky accident, but it might not always be the case. Happy rest of the weekend!
ReplyDeleteOh no! Hope you're feeling better now. Bikes sure are dangerous things...Glad you've had a nice weekend otherwise!
DeleteAww, I read Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs while I was living in London and I'd already visited the bookstore in Paris. I loved that one, but I have no idea if it was mainly because of my own nostalgia.
ReplyDeleteI think it's the nostalgia that I'm loving about it too.
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