Take a photo of a barcode or cover
zimlicious's reviews
1384 reviews
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
4.0
http://zimlicious.blogspot.com/2012/07/book-review-fountainhead.html
Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead was one of my book club's choices from last year. Even though it's been on my to-read list forever, I found an excuse not to read it whenever I picked it up. Some of these excuses were along the lines of "oh, this book's too big" or "man, the text is way too small" or "I just can't handle this right now." Then, when I was getting ready for my vacation at the beginning of June this year, it caught my eye, and I kind of just threw it in my suitcase.
I'm not sure what kind of journey it takes the reader onto, and I probably won't try and find out, yet in my situation it took me to very weird places. I read it on the beach, and, let's say, as Howard Roark was about to do something outrageous, the sun would blow in my face from behind the book. I would picture Roark's red hair, which would burn and burn under the sun... I think this might be one of the reasons why my sister calls me "a little psycho" at times, but I'm not complaining.
First of all, I couldn't help being biased toward this book. Even if one hasn't read any of her works, one has definitely heard of her philosophy, objectivism. Also, I've always seen characters in movies or TV shows who give this book to the other and say, "you have to read this," as if it holds the answer to all of world's questions or something. I was always going crazy thinking, "why this book?"
I hated all the characters. I hated them so much that I could strangle them to death if they popped up in front of me all of a sudden. And the events made me go "whoaaaa" most of the time. I found both the characters and their actions ridiculous most of the time. They all act like they've created the world, and they're all trying to take one another down. When they're mad at someone and want to punish them, or even if they're madly in love with someone, they won't stop at any length to torture the other party. These are things I seriously cannot put up with whether in fiction or in real life.
However, what I hated most about the book was that it was very black and white. I'm the kind of person who likes to dabble in the greys, and there was none of that in The Fountainhead. The book was worth praising for managing to get me this annoyed, though, and I'll admit it was a good read-- easy to read even though it's on the longer side. I think everyone should read this for themselves and decide if it's worth all the hype it's still getting.
Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead was one of my book club's choices from last year. Even though it's been on my to-read list forever, I found an excuse not to read it whenever I picked it up. Some of these excuses were along the lines of "oh, this book's too big" or "man, the text is way too small" or "I just can't handle this right now." Then, when I was getting ready for my vacation at the beginning of June this year, it caught my eye, and I kind of just threw it in my suitcase.
I'm not sure what kind of journey it takes the reader onto, and I probably won't try and find out, yet in my situation it took me to very weird places. I read it on the beach, and, let's say, as Howard Roark was about to do something outrageous, the sun would blow in my face from behind the book. I would picture Roark's red hair, which would burn and burn under the sun... I think this might be one of the reasons why my sister calls me "a little psycho" at times, but I'm not complaining.
First of all, I couldn't help being biased toward this book. Even if one hasn't read any of her works, one has definitely heard of her philosophy, objectivism. Also, I've always seen characters in movies or TV shows who give this book to the other and say, "you have to read this," as if it holds the answer to all of world's questions or something. I was always going crazy thinking, "why this book?"
I hated all the characters. I hated them so much that I could strangle them to death if they popped up in front of me all of a sudden. And the events made me go "whoaaaa" most of the time. I found both the characters and their actions ridiculous most of the time. They all act like they've created the world, and they're all trying to take one another down. When they're mad at someone and want to punish them, or even if they're madly in love with someone, they won't stop at any length to torture the other party. These are things I seriously cannot put up with whether in fiction or in real life.
However, what I hated most about the book was that it was very black and white. I'm the kind of person who likes to dabble in the greys, and there was none of that in The Fountainhead. The book was worth praising for managing to get me this annoyed, though, and I'll admit it was a good read-- easy to read even though it's on the longer side. I think everyone should read this for themselves and decide if it's worth all the hype it's still getting.
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
2.0
http://zimlicious.blogspot.com/
Kitap kulübümün Haziran ayı seçimiydi Borges'in Ficciones'i. Anlaşamadım Borges'le; olmadı, olamadı. İş güç arasında okuduğumdan kafamı mı veremedim, nedendir bilmiyorum ama olmadı işte. GoodReads'de aldığı yorumları incelediğim zaman bir şeyler kaçırdım gibi hissettim. Ama ileride de geri dönüp tekrar deneyeceğimi sanmıyorum şu an.
Aranızda var mı Borges hayranları? İlk kitap için yanlış bir seçim mi olmuş Ficciones? 'Aaaa bunu okusan utanırsın yordu beni dediğine!' dediğiniz kitabı var mı?
Kitap kulübümün Haziran ayı seçimiydi Borges'in Ficciones'i. Anlaşamadım Borges'le; olmadı, olamadı. İş güç arasında okuduğumdan kafamı mı veremedim, nedendir bilmiyorum ama olmadı işte. GoodReads'de aldığı yorumları incelediğim zaman bir şeyler kaçırdım gibi hissettim. Ama ileride de geri dönüp tekrar deneyeceğimi sanmıyorum şu an.
Aranızda var mı Borges hayranları? İlk kitap için yanlış bir seçim mi olmuş Ficciones? 'Aaaa bunu okusan utanırsın yordu beni dediğine!' dediğiniz kitabı var mı?
Rabbit, Run by John Updike
1.0
http://zimlicious.blogspot.com/
John Updike's Rabbit, Run was my book club's choice for May. This year we focused mainly on award-winning books and authors while making our choices. There are award-winners among John Updike's Rabbit series books, and Rabbit, Run is the first book of the series. Updike himself has won quite a bit of awards as well. (I'm not gonna get into them here; ask Google if you're curious.) I once again found myself asking, "why do so many award-winning books have to be so damn hard to read?" I try to think of this book as another adventure, one that wasn't the kind I enjoy. I for sure will not be reading the rest of the books in the series because frankly, I couldn't care less what happens to Rabbit.
I guess I could summarize the story as such: while Rabbit is trying to run away from one shitty situation, he finds himself in more shit. Rabbit himself and those around him are two-dimensional, characterless characters. For example, when, in the beginning of the book, Rabbit leaves to get a pack of cigarettes and decides not to come back, there are descriptions and descriptions of the roads he takes, the conversations he has at gas stops... I swear I get bored even thinking about it. I don't think you should waste your time reading this book. It's enough if you just Google it, read the summaries and know what it's about.
John Updike's Rabbit, Run was my book club's choice for May. This year we focused mainly on award-winning books and authors while making our choices. There are award-winners among John Updike's Rabbit series books, and Rabbit, Run is the first book of the series. Updike himself has won quite a bit of awards as well. (I'm not gonna get into them here; ask Google if you're curious.) I once again found myself asking, "why do so many award-winning books have to be so damn hard to read?" I try to think of this book as another adventure, one that wasn't the kind I enjoy. I for sure will not be reading the rest of the books in the series because frankly, I couldn't care less what happens to Rabbit.
I guess I could summarize the story as such: while Rabbit is trying to run away from one shitty situation, he finds himself in more shit. Rabbit himself and those around him are two-dimensional, characterless characters. For example, when, in the beginning of the book, Rabbit leaves to get a pack of cigarettes and decides not to come back, there are descriptions and descriptions of the roads he takes, the conversations he has at gas stops... I swear I get bored even thinking about it. I don't think you should waste your time reading this book. It's enough if you just Google it, read the summaries and know what it's about.
Veronika Ölmek İstiyor by Paulo Coelho
5.0
http://zimlicious.blogspot.com/
24-year-old Veronika is a beautiful girl who has everything, but she's not happy. Seeing that a lot is wrong with the world, she decides there's no point in living and commits suicide by taking way too many sleeping pills. While she's waiting to die, a sentence in a magazine catches her eye: "Where is Slovenia?" Being angry at the fact that nobody knows where her country is, Veronika writes a letter to the magazine, letting them know where Slovenia is. And this ends up being her suicide letter. While losing consciousness, Veronika goes into panic, thinking "If I puke, I won't die," but it's too late, and everything goes dark. At the end, she doesn't die; she finds herself at a mental institution. She's told that she did not die, yet the sleeping pills caused a problem with her heart and that she'll die soon.
The main character being Veronika, one things the book will be entirely about her story and how she got there. Yet, we meet different characters and get a glimpse of their stories. Zedka is depressed. Mari has panic attacks. Eduard, whom Veronika ends up falling in love with, is schizophrenic. And Dr. Igor is someone who tries different things on his patients and then writes papers about his experiments. I'll admit that on the subject psychology, there's usually no straight answer, but the Doctor made me angry. She told Veronika she would die soon just to push her back to life. I felt like he needed patients at the hospital, and he was way too eager to do research on them for his papers.
The book explores the notion of "craziness" through the characters and their stories, Veronika being in the center. It's a book where every reader can find a piece of themselves. People get scared of behavior that is different form what they're used to, and therefore put those kind of people into the "crazy" category. When Veronika figures this out, she realized her freedom: "I'm crazy anyway, so I can do anything" kind of realization. As a result of this, she dares to do thing she didn't dare before like love, hate and sexual awakening. In the meantime, she falls in love with Eduard, who's in his own world yet seems to love it when Veronika plays the piano.
In the end, Dr. Igor doesn't tell Veronika the truth and she goes on living thinking that she might die any day. The Doctor believes that this way Veronika will see each day as a miracle, and he sits down to write about his "experiment" with her. This is something that left me at a crossroad: is it okay to make someone believe they might die any day just for the possibility that they'll start enjoying life? Doesn't the person deserve the truth? Would they try to die again if they learned the truth? There are questions I cannot answer. But life, with its ugliness and tough times is worth living and there might be a miracle, a surprise or something exciting any second.
24-year-old Veronika is a beautiful girl who has everything, but she's not happy. Seeing that a lot is wrong with the world, she decides there's no point in living and commits suicide by taking way too many sleeping pills. While she's waiting to die, a sentence in a magazine catches her eye: "Where is Slovenia?" Being angry at the fact that nobody knows where her country is, Veronika writes a letter to the magazine, letting them know where Slovenia is. And this ends up being her suicide letter. While losing consciousness, Veronika goes into panic, thinking "If I puke, I won't die," but it's too late, and everything goes dark. At the end, she doesn't die; she finds herself at a mental institution. She's told that she did not die, yet the sleeping pills caused a problem with her heart and that she'll die soon.
The main character being Veronika, one things the book will be entirely about her story and how she got there. Yet, we meet different characters and get a glimpse of their stories. Zedka is depressed. Mari has panic attacks. Eduard, whom Veronika ends up falling in love with, is schizophrenic. And Dr. Igor is someone who tries different things on his patients and then writes papers about his experiments. I'll admit that on the subject psychology, there's usually no straight answer, but the Doctor made me angry. She told Veronika she would die soon just to push her back to life. I felt like he needed patients at the hospital, and he was way too eager to do research on them for his papers.
The book explores the notion of "craziness" through the characters and their stories, Veronika being in the center. It's a book where every reader can find a piece of themselves. People get scared of behavior that is different form what they're used to, and therefore put those kind of people into the "crazy" category. When Veronika figures this out, she realized her freedom: "I'm crazy anyway, so I can do anything" kind of realization. As a result of this, she dares to do thing she didn't dare before like love, hate and sexual awakening. In the meantime, she falls in love with Eduard, who's in his own world yet seems to love it when Veronika plays the piano.
In the end, Dr. Igor doesn't tell Veronika the truth and she goes on living thinking that she might die any day. The Doctor believes that this way Veronika will see each day as a miracle, and he sits down to write about his "experiment" with her. This is something that left me at a crossroad: is it okay to make someone believe they might die any day just for the possibility that they'll start enjoying life? Doesn't the person deserve the truth? Would they try to die again if they learned the truth? There are questions I cannot answer. But life, with its ugliness and tough times is worth living and there might be a miracle, a surprise or something exciting any second.
Tigers in Red Weather by Liza Klaussmann
5.0
For English, click here: http://communitybookstop.blogspot.com/2012/11/tigers-in-red-weather-by-liza-klaussman.html
İnsanlar genellikle içlerinde kendilerini görebildikleri kitapları, filmleri, şarkıları seviyorlar. Bu benim için de geçerli ancak uzaktan yakından alakam olmayan, bambaşka hayatların içine girmek de ayrı bir zevk. Liza Klaussmann'ın kaleme aldığı Tigers in Red Weather (Kırmızı Havada Kaplanlar) da böyle bir kitaptı.
İkinci Dünya Savaşı'nın sonlarına doğru kuzenler Nick ve Helena, yaz aylarını Martha's Vineyard'daki Kaplan Evi'nde (Tiger House) geçiriyorlar. Denize giriyor, bol bol içiyor ve dışarıdan bakınca mutlu gözükecek bir hayat sürüyorlar. Her ikisinin de kocaları ve çocukları ve tabii ki aileleriyle ilgili pek çok problemleri var.
Tiger in Red Weather, kurgudan çok karakterlerin ağırlıkta olduğu bir kitaptı. Olaylar farklı karakterlerin gözünden anlatılıyor. Hepsi tüm aileler gibi çok farklı kişiliklere sahipler. Hepsinin hırsları, arzuları, hayalleri farklı. Zaman zaman birbirlerinin işine burunlarını gereğinden fazla sokuyorlar, zaman zaman birbirlerine yardımcı oluyorlar, bazen de birbirlerine büyük kazıklar atıyorlar.
Bir gün Helena'nın oğlu Ed adadaki hizmetçilerden birini ölü buluyor ve cesedi Nick'in kızı Daisy'ye gösteriyor. Bu durumla nasıl başa çıkacağını bilemeyen Nick, kocası Hughes'u adaya çağırıyor. Hughes, bu olayın ailesiyle ilgili olmadığını bulmayı umarken bilmek istemediği şeyler öğreniyor. Anlatıcı değiştikçe, ayrıntılar da değişiyor ve olaylar iyice karışıyor.
Tigers in Read Weather'ın bir yaz kitabı olduğu söyleniyor ancak diğer yaz kitapları gibi boş değil. Ben sonbaharda okudum mesela ve gayet iyi geldi. Türkçe'ye çevirilmemiş henüz, ancak D&R'larda İngilizcesi satılıyor. İlgilenenlerin dikkatine!
Bu arada kitabın ismini bir Wallace Stevens şiirinden alması da çok hoşuma gitti:
Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock
The houses are haunted
By white night-gowns.
None are green,
Or purple with green rings,
Or green with yellow rings,
Or yellow with blue rings.
None of them are strange,
With socks of lace
And beaded ceintures.
People are not going
To dream of baboons and periwinkles.
Only, here and there, an old sailor,
Drunk and asleep in his boots,
Catches Tigers
In red weather.
http://zimlicious.blogspot.com/2012/11/kaplan-evinin-entrikalar.html
İnsanlar genellikle içlerinde kendilerini görebildikleri kitapları, filmleri, şarkıları seviyorlar. Bu benim için de geçerli ancak uzaktan yakından alakam olmayan, bambaşka hayatların içine girmek de ayrı bir zevk. Liza Klaussmann'ın kaleme aldığı Tigers in Red Weather (Kırmızı Havada Kaplanlar) da böyle bir kitaptı.
İkinci Dünya Savaşı'nın sonlarına doğru kuzenler Nick ve Helena, yaz aylarını Martha's Vineyard'daki Kaplan Evi'nde (Tiger House) geçiriyorlar. Denize giriyor, bol bol içiyor ve dışarıdan bakınca mutlu gözükecek bir hayat sürüyorlar. Her ikisinin de kocaları ve çocukları ve tabii ki aileleriyle ilgili pek çok problemleri var.
Tiger in Red Weather, kurgudan çok karakterlerin ağırlıkta olduğu bir kitaptı. Olaylar farklı karakterlerin gözünden anlatılıyor. Hepsi tüm aileler gibi çok farklı kişiliklere sahipler. Hepsinin hırsları, arzuları, hayalleri farklı. Zaman zaman birbirlerinin işine burunlarını gereğinden fazla sokuyorlar, zaman zaman birbirlerine yardımcı oluyorlar, bazen de birbirlerine büyük kazıklar atıyorlar.
Bir gün Helena'nın oğlu Ed adadaki hizmetçilerden birini ölü buluyor ve cesedi Nick'in kızı Daisy'ye gösteriyor. Bu durumla nasıl başa çıkacağını bilemeyen Nick, kocası Hughes'u adaya çağırıyor. Hughes, bu olayın ailesiyle ilgili olmadığını bulmayı umarken bilmek istemediği şeyler öğreniyor. Anlatıcı değiştikçe, ayrıntılar da değişiyor ve olaylar iyice karışıyor.
Tigers in Read Weather'ın bir yaz kitabı olduğu söyleniyor ancak diğer yaz kitapları gibi boş değil. Ben sonbaharda okudum mesela ve gayet iyi geldi. Türkçe'ye çevirilmemiş henüz, ancak D&R'larda İngilizcesi satılıyor. İlgilenenlerin dikkatine!
Bu arada kitabın ismini bir Wallace Stevens şiirinden alması da çok hoşuma gitti:
Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock
The houses are haunted
By white night-gowns.
None are green,
Or purple with green rings,
Or green with yellow rings,
Or yellow with blue rings.
None of them are strange,
With socks of lace
And beaded ceintures.
People are not going
To dream of baboons and periwinkles.
Only, here and there, an old sailor,
Drunk and asleep in his boots,
Catches Tigers
In red weather.
http://zimlicious.blogspot.com/2012/11/kaplan-evinin-entrikalar.html