I love your struggle with forming a final opinion on Lolita. I don’t think it’s a failure to be bothered by a book, to dislike it, or to have conflicting thoughts about it. I felt the same way about all the Murakami books I read-disliked them, yet I still kept reading more of his work. I tend to stop books that don’t interest me, so I guess books that anger me are still interesting in some way. I really enjoy your videos!

Have you read master & margarita / what are your thoughts ?

wonderful installment as usual Alex!!! i have had 3 nabokov books (pale fire, pnin and lolita) on my storygraph TBR since lockdown but i'm starting to think i might never get to it tbh (the tbr is 276 books long 😬). Anyways, your last video on lolita has motivated?? me to add it to my priority list for 2025. I look forward to rewatching that video afterwards lol.

I read pale fire last year and also rlly liked it. The themes of parasocial relationship and celebrity obsession felt so relevant to current day media it was kinda uncanny. By the end I felt like I was falling down a rabbit hole of questioning where Kinbote's delusions ended and where the "reality" within the story began, which I guess is sort of the point!

agree w ur opinion on lolita. great to see a new update. excited for next week's video

Eloquently spoken as always, nice sweater too! Well done Alex 👏

I bet the 2050 Alex will smile at that line “final take on Lolita”!

Your stories sound good and well worth pursuing, reading Nabokov's Pnin currently. A dear friend of mine introduced me to Lolita. Haven't tackled Pale Fire or Invitation To a Beheading as yet.

despite the film's flop, i love love I'm thinking of ending things, i read the book after watching the film and have read and watched both about 3 to 4 times and have gone into an existential spiral each time, very interesting fr

First off, I know this has nothing to do with the play, but I love hearing about little things you and your dad do together. Family has always meant a lot to me, so it's lovely to think that you'll have all these memories with him discussing books and watching plays and such. It's wholesome. In terms of Leeroy and Lucy, I completely agree when you said that "a great piece of art doesn't give you the answers, it makes you ask questions". It's those moments of pondering that are so wonderful to me because it makes you dig deeper than simply consuming something at a surface level (which, as you pointed out, we do a lot of with social media). I also think it's an interesting idea of whether it's worth suffering to be remembered. Personally, I think I'd rather live a content life, but there's definitely something to be said for a name to be passed down for generations. I don't know, I'd probably have to think about that more. When you were talking about I'm Thinking of Ending Things, you said something about "it's so you that there's a really good chance that people might not like it, but also you're hoping that they get something out of that that's them", and I don't have the words to explain why this makes so much sense to me and why I like it so much, but it does and I do. And then Tolstoy, when you mentioned that people notice things less these days because we're so stimulated, it reminded me of something someone said about going to some silent meditation retreat and there they realised that by stripping themselves of stimulation, they became what they assumed scientists were like way back when. As in, they'd notice a change, say, in nature, over days, and they couldn't just google the answer, so they really had to sit and come up with a possible reason. I dunno, it just stuck with me how much we lean on the internet for answers instead of thinking things through ourselves (obviously it's great to have answers for certain things, but still). Anyway, I'll sign off before this becomes a novel. I'd be really keen to hear about anything you learn about writing dialogue - I always struggle with that and it's so important. And, of course, it would be great to hear your thoughts on more songwriting if you ever feel like it. Hope you have a great week! Thanks, as always, for the video. :)

talking about art vs the artist and then going to a cormac book review has aged so well now

You should check Sofia's diaries. People don't really know how much of Tolstoy's work is actually his wife's work. As he was aging he was under the influence of one family friend who kept turning him against his wife and his children. Tolstoy was very abusive towards his wife. These things need to be addressed when we talk about "great" male authors.

wonderful video as always Alex! also, minor correction Ngozi is pronounced [IN- GO- ZEE] 🤍🤍

I've read "I'm Thinking of Ending Things" so now I'm curious to compare with the film. Thanks for your review!

Alex, you speak so much truth we need to pay more attention for longer periods of time to ideas. We live at such a fast pace that we only ever get a superficial idea of the world. Digging deeper in our ideas is where the gold is!

That was a great video. Writing is hard, keep it on!

i wanna date you

This question isn't to do with the books in your video Alex but I was wondering what your views on Dickens were?

8:52 you capture my entire aversion to the novel in one phrase: to inhabit the mind of someone like this! the most commendable skill a writer can have is to successfully channel a psyche far from their own. however, as you said, nabokov’s execution derails from the idealistic intentions argued for the book. i can appreciate it for its prose, but proactive literature for provocative’s sake isn’t my cup of tea. but hey, more for everyone else. thank you for your thoughts!

I have several of Tolstoy’s works on my Christmas list. There’s a great movie about the end of Tolstoy’s life, The Last Station. Highly recommended!

I am with you on what you said on the beauty of paying attention on a piece of art for a long period of time. In this fast-pace, content-driven media environment of today, with our declining attention spans, it is so easy to get distracted. That's why when you're reading you intentionally give your attention to books. Albeit when you're on social media, attention is being stolen from you.

You need to read Resurrection by Tolstoy, I can’t explain how much time I’ve spent thinking about that book. His Essay Confessions is also great and has everything to do with what he did during his lifetime.

I’ll be in Chicago in two weeks, I should really check out Steppenwolf. If you are interested in reading more plays The Pillowman and How I Learned To Drive are two of the best things I’ve ever read. The Ferryman is also this wonderful Irish play I was lucky enough to see on Broadway.

Thank you for sharing Alex! I always admire your thoughts!

For films, you would LOVE Vanya on 42nd Street (dir. Louis Malle)!

I have to jump into this by saying how much I enjoyed A Father's Story, so thank you so much for the recommendation! After hearing you talk about Dubus's other work in this video, I definitely have to check it out. I thought you encapsulated it so well by saying that you love the feeling you're left with after reading his work, that it's as if you understand something you didn't understand before. I felt the same way! Besides his beautiful descriptions, he actually had me gasping at parts. So good! Also, thanks for your honest review of Lolita. I know it's a book that people seem to either love or hate, so I enjoy hearing other's thoughts on it. As I've said previously, I read it as a teenager, so I didn't analyse the book too thoroughly back then, but I think part of what I liked was the fact that we had an unreliable narrator. At the time, it wasn't something I'd read before, so it created interest. And then, as sickening as it is only to have one POV, I think there was also a strange fascination with being inside HH's head? Because in reality, we don't get to hear the thoughts of those people, and for me, I often wonder what goes on inside them to make them act the way they do, you know? Obviously, it doesn't make it any less uncomfortable. Really it just adds discomfort. But yeah, I would probably have to read it in the present to give my current thoughts on it. Crime and Punishment sounded wild haha. Very much thought-provoking, which is great. Will definitely add it to my list. Thanks for the video! I hope you have a wonderful week :)

read some Sorokin and Sharov

Reading Normal People was torture ; I can’t think of another book that made me so genuinely happy to finish. it kinda reminded me of Mrs. Dalloway both seem to frame their characters as “victims of circumstance,” but in reality, it’s just selfishness and a lack of communication and accountability. Not to mention the romanticization of it all, I only cared about Connell’s girlfriend because she seemed like the only sane person among them all, i dont know what was “real” about this book to be honest the world wouldve survived without it being written

Barn Burning is such an evocative and disturbing story. It was adapted into this movie Burning from 2018, which is one of my favorite films of the past ten years or so. Definitely worth a look if you haven’t seen it

Hey man - love your channel. Enjoying following along on your reading journey. There’s a great film of Carver’s short stories called Short Cuts. Oddly great adaptation!

My favorite Nabokov is Pale Fire.

There is a podcast dedicated to Lolita in popular culture. The creator of the podcast is Jamie Loftus. She doesn't only focus on the fictional character but also speaks of the real life Lolita that Nobokov used as an inspiration for his novel. She also speaks of the problematic aspect of cultural obsession with the idea of Lolita and how the story is used by different artists which lead to creation of culture of normalization and fetishization of the idea of Lolita.

would love to see a video on how you annotate/critically read books!

martyr is my favorite book of the year, highly highly encourage anyone to read it

An Andre Dubus short story I adored is "At Night," included in the collection Dancing After Hours.

♥️

I've never felt a desire to read Lolita but I love to listen to opinions of it. I thought you framed your thoughts really well, thanks for making these reviews!

Lolita really perplexes me and I get rather upset when I think about it. I want to believe it's a deliberate moral test and the intention was truly that ambitious, but, like I think you also pointed out, at no point is Nabokov actually hinting at that being the case or offering that perspective in any way during the novel. I personally believe it's masterfully written in prose, but the interpretation of it being a complex moral trap is as false as the interpretation of it being a love story - and the fact that Nabokov was ambiguous and went with both depending on who sits across him on the table, makes me even more skeptical. I think Lolita is more of a moral mockery, a parody, very self-indulgent in its writing, but I highly doubt Nabokov intended it to be as meaningful as people try to make it to be. I personally believe that his intention was merely to write a breathtakingly beautiful book about something truly vile to mock and manipulate the reader. In the end, I agree with you, the book itself doesn't offer anything truly on the subject it touches upon.

loved lolita but hated pnin too!

this is so helpful! especially to people who want to write but are not getting a degree in that area. looking forward to more content like this

Lolita is one of my favorite books of all time, thank u for talking about it

Both of these are top in my TBR list, id have started Crime and Punishment already had I not just finished the brick Brothers Karamzov so im just going light and reading Murakami for a little fun and will read C&P in early December proly and Lolita might end up being my first 2025 read so lets see!

First time I’ve seen someone mention Kaveh Akbar’s poetry! I read the calling a wolf a wolf collection last year and loved it. Glad I found your channel, I have been enjoying your videos

My vote goes to The Secret History. It’s a perfect book to read while in college. I want to get into Nabokov, I tried reading Pale Fire and could not get into it. I may read Lolita but I’ve seen the Kubrick movie and know how it ends.

Okay… I adored Lolita. I’m in the camp that found it hilarious. What say you to that reading?

You're steadily heading to 3000 subscribers - planning anything to observe the occasion? Maybe some live writing sprints?

i was soooo excited to hear your thoughts on lolita!

1:12 so you liked lolitaaa?

Good one alex ! Can we get best books of all time?

ur cute