A few days ago I finished reading A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, and still don’t know what to say. So this my book review will be short. :)
This was a well written but very sad story that left a bitter taste in my mouth after reading it. I’m not sure if I like this book or not, but I’m 100% sure we should read such books from time to time, to remember what war is and do what we can to prevent its repetition.
“War is not won by victory.”
― Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
Just finished reading The Slums of Saint Petersburg by Vsevolod Krestovsky in Russian.
(“Петербургские трущобы” by Всеволод Владимирович Крестовский).
At first, I decided to listen to the audio version of this book, but no, no, no! I realized almost immediately that this true masterpiece of Russian literature should be read with my eyes first.
It took me exactly two months to finish the book (March 23-June 23, 2022). The book was huge (more than 1,000 pages long), and also I needed to stop quite often to give myself time to reflect on what I have read.
But I’m not complaining! I loved this book!
This book is more than just a story. This is a book about life itself. The life of the city of Petersburg, and its inhabitants – fabulously rich and extremely poor.
What shocked me most about this book was the death of young woman named Masha. I sobbed when I read this… But no more words! I don’t want to spoil the book for anyone.
If you are interested in learning more about Russian culture and history, I highly recommend reading the book. This one is really good!
«Здесь нет нам свободного места! Здесь ни жить, ни дышать невозможно!»
– Всеволод Крестовский
“There is no place for us here! It is impossible to live or breathe here!”
– Vsevolod Krestovsky
Дочитала «Drugie spojrzenie na planetę Ksi» (Janusz A. Zajdel, Marcin Kowalczyk).
Что могу сказать? Это, конечно, не совсем Януш Зайдель, но тоже очень хорошо написано. Причем, чем ближе к концу, тем динамичнее сюжет и интересней персонажи.
Концовка приятно удивила. Совершенно не ожидала. (А ведь могла сообразить, не зря же автор несколько раз буквально тыкал меня носом). Простое решение – оно всегда рядом. Вот только не хотела бы я оказаться на месте тех… «элементов» решения данной задачи.
В заключение, две цитаты. Просто, без комментариев:
“…każda społeczność sama musi poradzić sobie z przeszłością, bo nikt inny tego za nią nie zrobi.”
― Janusz A. Zajdel, Marcin Kowalczyk, Drugie spojrzenie na planetę Ksi
“…tylko świadomość własnych dziejów, ich uczciwa ocena, oddzielenie katów od ofiar może być fundamentem budowania teraźniejszości – nawet jeśli trzeba zapłacić za to pewną cenę.”
― Janusz A. Zajdel, Marcin Kowalczyk, Drugie spojrzenie na planetę Ksi
Дочитала «Обломова». Атмосферная вещь! Чуть затянута на мой дилетантский взгляд, но совсем чуть-чуть. (Кстати, возможно именно эта подзатянутость дает еще больше ощутить дух времени).
Книгу до этого никогда не читала. Даже толком не знала, о чем конкретно роман. И уж тем более не понимала, зачем в нем так много страниц. Казалось бы, ну что там описывать? Повесть о лени на более чем 600-ста страницах? Вы серьезно?
Однако, уже с первых страниц была искренне удивлена. Как и в случае с «Анной Карениной» Л. Толстого – ожидание и реальность не совпали. В лучшую сторону!
Теперь на очереди две другие книги Ивана Гончарова – “Обыкновенная история” и “Обрыв”. Очень хочется найти их в бумажном варианте.
Started Reading – 4 March 2022
Finished Reading – 18 April 2022
This is a good book for all people interested in Armenia and Armenian History. I would really like to read something similar – more books about Armenia, Georgia, Iran.
A quote from the book:
“The Armenian is one of nature’s individualists, a leven for the conformist mass of the human race. Logically he should have given up the struggle and lain down to die long ago. But he refused and still refuses to surrender, and here lies the key to understanding the nature of this dogged, invincible, little people, whose contribution to human civilization is out of all proportion to its numerical strength.”
– David Marshall Lang
Started Reading – 7 April 2022
Finished Reading – 14 April 2022
After my terrible mistake that I made in one of my previous language videos (where by mistake I gave the wrong etymology of the Armenian word and thus confuse my dear viewers), I decided to read as much as possible about the Armenian language and Armenian customs and traditions. Read and learn, and try not to make such huge mistakes again. Of course, all mistakes cannot be avoided, but I want to stop making stupid mistakes.
I found several books about Armenia (written in English) and today I’d like to tell you about these two:
The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times (Volume I and Volume II) by Richard G. Hovannisian (Editor)
These are excellent books, detailed and very interesting. I highly recommend these books to anyone who is interested in Armenia.
My favorite chapter was “Armenian literary culture through the eleventh century” written by Robert Thompson. It was about the invention of the Armenian Script, the first translations and many more.
“The history of the Armenian people is long, complex, and in many ways epic and heroic.”
– Richard G. Hovannisian
I’ve read only two books on writing so far. The first one was On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King, which I read a year ago. Just now I finished reading the second one and I absolutely loved it!
The book called How to Write a Damn Good Novel: A Step-by-Step No Nonsense Guide to Dramatic Storytelling by James N. Frey.
I think, it’s an excellent read, especially for those who want to write novels. The book is very well written and it contains many clear explanations, various examples and interesting techniques that might be helpful for beginner writers.
P.S. I managed to find this book only in the Russian translation (Как написать гениальный роман – Джеймс Н. Фрэй), and I want to say that the translation was really good. Nevertheless, I would like to read (re-read 😊 ) this book again someday in it’s original language (English).
Started Reading – 21 February 2022
Finished Reading – 4 March 2022
My Rating: 5 Stars ★★★★★
Just finished reading The Fireman by Joe Hill. I liked the beginning of the story, it was super interesting and gripping. Unfortunately, the rest of the book wasn’t so good and slightly disappointed me.
Nevertheless, there were plenty of words in this book that I found really interesting. Here are some of them:
🇺🇲 (En) 👉👉👉 🇷🇺 (Ru)
🔹 hopscotch = детская игра «классики» (… occasional hopscotch grid);
🔹 premonition = предчувствие (She had a premonition she would never return to her office…);
🔹 limey = a British person;
🔹 C-section = c/sec = cesarean section = кесарево сечение (“I can deliver by C-section next March”).
I also liked that the main character (Harper) “…associated English accents with singing teapots, schools for witchcraft, and science of deduction”. I totally agree. I absolutely love British accent!
Started Reading – 10 February 2022
Finished Reading – 25 February 2022
I just finished reading Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I read the book in just three and a half days and I really liked the story. Great read, very emotional! It’s definitely a must read for anyone who loves good social science fiction novels!
Two interesting words from this book:
🇺🇲 (En) 👉👉👉 🇷🇺 (Ru)
🔹 heresy = ересь;
🔹 pratfall = падение на зад (например, клоуна) нарочито неуклюжее и вызывающее смех; оплошность, провал (“Life becomes one big pratfall, Montag; everything bang; boff, and wow!”).
Some of my favorite quotes from Fahrenheit 451 are:
“Mr. Montag, you are looking at a coward. I saw the way things were going, a long time back. I said nothing. I’m one of the innocents who could have spoken up and out when no one would listen to the ‘guilty,’ but I did not speak and thus became guilty myself. And when finally they set the structure to burn the books, using the firemen, I grunted a few times and subsided, for there were no others grunting or yelling with me, by then. Now, it’s too late.”
― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
“We are living in a time when flowers are trying to live on flowers, instead of growing on good rain and black loam.”
― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
Just finished reading in Ukrainian Кайдашева сім’я by Іван Нечуй-Левицький.
A very interesting book, the best I’ve read so far this year! I really enjoyed reading about village life in Ukraine and the people who had to be tough to survive in such difficult circumstances.
Two interesting phrases from this book:
🇺🇦 (Ua) 👉👉👉 🇷🇺 (Ru)
🔹 наговорити сім мішків гречаної вовни = наврать с три короба (наговорить огромное количество неотносящейся к делу информации);
🔹 мати серце з перцем = быть вспыльчивым, острым на язык (“Я люблю, щоб дівчина була трохи бриклива, щоб мала серце з перцем”, сказав Карпо).
Started Reading – 9 January 2022
Finished Reading – 23 January 2022
My Rating: 5 Stars ★★★★★
