in love with books

Another of my 'old goodreads' reviews:
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Having a fever gave me the perfect excuse to spend entire yesterday's afternoon reading this book. I'm happy that I had the opportunity to finish it. This is the fourth volume of The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell(1945-1950) and it must be the final one because he did die in 1950.

How frustrating that my laptop turned down last night just as I was finishing the review for this!

What I like about Orwell is that he is what I call an active intellectual (and even though I'm pretty sure that such an expression doesn't exist, in my mind it means somebody who thinks with his own head.) 

It is not that I always agree with him. I've gained an impression that he is obsessed with the catholic church to the point it actually affects his reasoning. (Is it me or does he have a touch of catholic phobia? I'm not talking about his negative reviews on…

Prvo samo ću reći, ovoj knjizi nije lako dati ocjenu (pri tome mislim na izdanje koje imam, a koje se sastoji od više od jednog djela). Možda zato i što u sebi ima tri književna djela: Zapise iz Mrtvog doma, Zimske bilješke o ljetnim utiscima i Zapise iz Podzemlja.

Zimske bilješke su laganije štivo, opisuje svoje ljetovanje, malo se ruga na račun europskih naroda, a ni svoj ne isključuje, eto tako njih sam pročitala "u odmoru" od Zapisa iz Mrtvog doma, a napisala sam i ogled o njima zasebno.

Zapisi iz Mrtvog doma nisu laki za čitanje, ne samo zbog tematike, već i zbog toga kako je djelo satkano. Ima tu svega:
- pravih prijedloga za poboljšanje života zatvorenika u Sibiru( koji baš i nemaju veze s današnjim vremenom),
- obrade i psiholoških studija različitih likova,
- puno autobiografske građe (to je očito, takve detalje može znati samo netko tko je doista bio u Sibiru zatočen)
- fine filozofije,
- teologije.
Unatoč tome što je u neku ruku poprilično zbrkana, vrlo mi se svidjela.

Zap…

Na prvi pogled lagano štivo, kratko kao što i sam naslov kaže, jednostavne rečenice nekrležanske duljine i narativnost koja ne postavlja izazov, kao ni likovi koji se ne gube na obzorju pretjeranih opisa i mediteacija. Međutim, knjiga dobiva na dubini kako se probijamo kroz humor, pa tragikomične situacije koje naposljetku vode do nečeg ozbiljnijeg, pitanja i izgubljene nade jedne generacije.

Nalazeći konačno priču o nečemu što nije izlet, već potraga, traženje pitanja smisla, odiseja za izgubljenim nadama, rekla bi kako je knjiga bogatija sadržajem nego što se na prvi pogled čini. 

Meni se svidjela, možda iz jednostavnog razloga... bila je kako bi to rekla " bezbolna" za pročitati, laka za pratiti, nešto uz što se možeš nasmijati, a opet nemam osjećaj kako sam pročitala nešto trivijalno.

Another of my 'old goodreads reviews'. I remember how touched I was by this book and I'm sure I will never foget it.
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In my opinion this is a tremendously important book. It is not just a wonderful memoir and a tale of amazing bravery of Waris Dirie, but also an detail account of FGM from the perspective of a victim. The reason why I picked up this book was mainly because I wanted to learn something more about FGM. I did learn something more, the kind of information that is personal not just theoretical. In addition, Waris does not only tell her story. She tells the story of other women she had known that have suffered and in some cases had died because of FGM. Reading about FGM from Waris' experience( as a personal account of someone who had been subjected to it) was emotionally difficult yet I think to understand even a glimpse of what these women go to it is necessary to hear the story as they tell it. 

What I didn&#…

This review was written some time ago (I used to have goodreads account but  when my old email was blocked for ever reason I couldn't log in anymore--and I still can't.). Anyway, this is a novel I really liked and if you're interested what my impressions upon finishing it were, scroll down....

Finally! Sorry but that has to be the first word that comes to my mind (finally finished!) because I have been reading this novel for the longest time. It is not that it wasn't interesting but there always was something to do and it is kind of a long book:) Although, I don't see any point in discussing the size of any work of literature, if you're going to like it , I'm sure it won't matter whether it is long or short. That being said, there are some books that could benefit from being shorter, but I'm not sure is this the one. 

Perhaps the best character of this novel is Thackery himself, I cannot imagine this story without his remarks and the novel certainly w…