On April23rd 2004 I happened to visit a bookstore in Oslo. Since it was The World's BookDay that day I had a very good excuse to buy a few books, and among finds was Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi.
I started the book several times, but as I had no knowledge of Lolita, the book didn't make sense to me, and I put it away. A couple of years later I happened to find Lolita by Vladimir Nabakov in a Norwegian translation. Again I started a book several times, but put it away after a few pages. I didn't like the theme of the book, a grown man falling in love with small girls.......it felt disgusting.
Both books were stored away, but somehow I couldn't forget them. There was something about Nabokov's way with words that fasinated me, and I couldn't get the title Reading Lolita in Tehran out of my mind.
At New Year we were invited to friends together with an Iranian couple, refugees here in Norway, and during the party our conversation was about the situation in Iran, both the Iran of today, and the Iran this couple knew from their youth.
During the night I made a desicion, Lolita and Reading Lolita in Tehran would be my first Classic/follow the classics reading of the New Year.
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I read alot. Mostly because it is a good way to relax and as I never watch television I have alot of time available for my books. Reading is also a great way to travel, to imagine, to dream, to learn, to laugh and to cry. Many of the books I read are for entertainment. Lolita was not entertainment. As I wrote in an earlier post, the book was disgusting. Still I had a hard time to put the book down as soon as I got into the story. Nabokov's writing is the writing of a master, and though the story in many ways made me sick, it was fascinating to see the world through the eyes of a man so far from anything I believe in. In many ways a sick person's mind.
So far I've only read the first chapters of Reading Lolita in Tehran. The writer, Azar Nafisi is still writing down the setting, the background to give us some understanding about what reading was all about for her and her students in the Iran of the 1990ies. Now I know Lolita, which will help me even more to set the background, and I am looking forward to read along with the group on Tehran.
My next classic reading will probably Lord of the Rings by Tolkien, which I haven't read in at least 20 years.
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I look forward to hear about your reading, classics, modern, poems, magazines, newspapers, blogs......whatever. If you have a blogpost about your redaing and send me your link, I will add it here.
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Note: the photos show an old organ we have in our hallway. Now we need the space for more bookshelves and we have no idea what to do with the organ. I wish I could wrap it up and offer it as a giveaway........
