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A review by missanderson
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Did not finish book.
1.0
If you’re my friend on Goodreads, or you’ve been popping on and off my blog for the past few weeks, you may have noticed the ever fixed mark of Lolita in my currently reading. I think I started reading this book on the 25th November, meaning it’s been well over 2 weeks since I started, but sadly, yesterday, I finally called it quits. This post is a mere explanation of why I decided to finally let this book go.
First of all, I think it’s important to say that I appreciate a lot fo people love this book, and I understand why. The psychology of the story was so interesting, and the writing is lovely. I did get over 2/3 of the way through the novel before I found myself dreading reading it, that’s never a good sign for me.
Originally, I picked up this book because of the sheer number of recommendations I’ve received from friends, teachers and Booktubers. I was aware of the topic of the book, and I knew it was a controversial text, but i wanted to be in on the action, so I picked it up.
I think I read over half of the book in the first week, but after that I gradually noticed I was reading less and less frequently. I tracked this pattern for about a week. Most days I read maybe 10 pages, and I found my mind wandering, not focussing on the words meaning I had to keep rereading things because I missed them. After a week of this, I decided to take a break from Lolita and read other things. In the 3 days since I made that decision I have read 4 other books – I think that’s an indication of how long it was taking me to get through this novel. Every so often, I’d consider going back to it, but I just never felt up to it.
Ultimately, I told myself that I read a lot of books I don’t like for school, and so when I’m reading for pleasure I should be enjoying it – and I called it a day.
My low rating on Goodreads may require some explanation as I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before. Pretty much the only time I will give 1/5 stars is to a book I did not finish. I also stipulate that if I didn’t finish a book, it can’t get anything other than 1/5 stars – books are meant to be finished. Even though much of what I read I appreciated, I just feel it would be wrong of me to give a better rating to a book I couldn’t endure for 331 pages.
Lolita now lives on my DNF shelf with all the other books where I didn’t make it to the last page. To clarify, DNF is did not finish, not will not finish. There’s always a possibility that at a different time when I’m in a different place I’ll try again, and then it might be my favourite novel ever. But for now, there it rests – we’ll see what happens.
For more review check out my blog, missabigailsite.wordpress.com
First of all, I think it’s important to say that I appreciate a lot fo people love this book, and I understand why. The psychology of the story was so interesting, and the writing is lovely. I did get over 2/3 of the way through the novel before I found myself dreading reading it, that’s never a good sign for me.
Originally, I picked up this book because of the sheer number of recommendations I’ve received from friends, teachers and Booktubers. I was aware of the topic of the book, and I knew it was a controversial text, but i wanted to be in on the action, so I picked it up.
I think I read over half of the book in the first week, but after that I gradually noticed I was reading less and less frequently. I tracked this pattern for about a week. Most days I read maybe 10 pages, and I found my mind wandering, not focussing on the words meaning I had to keep rereading things because I missed them. After a week of this, I decided to take a break from Lolita and read other things. In the 3 days since I made that decision I have read 4 other books – I think that’s an indication of how long it was taking me to get through this novel. Every so often, I’d consider going back to it, but I just never felt up to it.
Ultimately, I told myself that I read a lot of books I don’t like for school, and so when I’m reading for pleasure I should be enjoying it – and I called it a day.
My low rating on Goodreads may require some explanation as I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before. Pretty much the only time I will give 1/5 stars is to a book I did not finish. I also stipulate that if I didn’t finish a book, it can’t get anything other than 1/5 stars – books are meant to be finished. Even though much of what I read I appreciated, I just feel it would be wrong of me to give a better rating to a book I couldn’t endure for 331 pages.
Lolita now lives on my DNF shelf with all the other books where I didn’t make it to the last page. To clarify, DNF is did not finish, not will not finish. There’s always a possibility that at a different time when I’m in a different place I’ll try again, and then it might be my favourite novel ever. But for now, there it rests – we’ll see what happens.
For more review check out my blog, missabigailsite.wordpress.com