Andrei's bookshelf: read

Meşterul Manole
really liked it
4.5 / 5 O piesă de teatru bazată pe balada populară “Monastirea Argeșului”, reinterpretată de Blaga. Despre sacrificiu, destin, creație, suferință generațională și moartea ca un joc, cu urme de păgânism. Manole și cei nouă zidari pri...
The End is Always Near: Apocalyptic Moments, from the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses
liked it
A few historical events sprinkled here and there, from the Bronze Age to WW2, with little connection between them besides the general "end of the world" theme. More superficial than his podcasts, which is ironic (I love his WW1 series, "...
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
really liked it
A story about the regret of losing oneself and the memories we carry with us when we die — the stories that nobody will ever hear or read. One of Hemingway’s best, it surprised me. His dry style of writing, albeit tiresome at times, can ...
A Confession
liked it
His midlife crisis, sort of. The questions Tolstoy raises are definitely worth exploring, but I feel that he only touches the surface. Whether you are religious or not doesn't really matter in this confession, it is first and foremost ab...
Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
it was ok
2.5 / 5 It’s an alright book, but it would be better if not for multiple platitudes and superficial analysis. The problem with books like these is that they are ambitious up to a fault. They allure readers with their breadth of topics, ...
Uncle Vanya
really liked it
De ce oamenii devin nihiliști? Există diverse motive: uneori oamenii sunt nihiliști din deprindere, alteori de la natură. Asemenea oameni nu se simt necesar bulversați de soartă, ci mai degrabă sunt resemnați cu lipsa de sens în lume (pe...
Oameni sărmani
liked it
3.5 / 5 Primul roman al lui Dostoievski, mai unidimensional și sentimental decât cele mai mature, și totuși chiar și aici se văd semințele intuiției ulterioare care îl va consacra ca unul din cei mai buni psihologi ai literaturii. Plot ...
White Nights
it was amazing
"O clipă doar! O întreagă clipă de încântare sublimă... Oare nu e de ajuns chiar și pentru o viață de om..."
Maestrul şi Margareta
really liked it
Cartea asta îmi provoacă sentimente mixte. Are așa un potențial de a fi o capodoperă, dar nu e îndeajuns. Și asta mă frustrează (dar și mă intrigă) cel mai mult — unele scene sunt de-a dreptul geniale, dar nu pot spune că cartea la gener...
Childhood’s End
really liked it
A realistic (as much as sci-fi can be realistic) depiction of an alien “invasion”. In contrast with most sci-fi movies or books, aliens aren’t evil and they don’t want to kill us. Rather, “The Overlords” — as they are called — are observ...
tagged: home-library
Lolita
liked it
This book was a difficult and creepy topic to write about I would imagine, and its somewhat bad reputation is a classic case of readers associating a character with the writer himself. The problem, however, that I have with it isn't the ...
Dubliners
it was amazing
Will write a review later. Basically a masterpiece.
tagged: home-library
The Dead
it was amazing
This is without a doubt the best short story I've ever read, it has everything I like in it: descriptive family gatherings, humor, coziness, tension, anxiety, lust, love, sadness, nostalgia and some bits of magical realism as well. It is...
Clay
really liked it
"Maria had to laugh and say she didn't want any ring or man either; and when she laughed her grey-green eyes sparkled with disappointed shyness and the tip of her nose nearly met the tip of her chin."
Frankenstein: The 1818 Text
it was amazing
Quite incredible how an 18 year old wrote this masterpiece. The prose is marvellous, which I didn't expect to be honest, and the plot has more layers to it than the pop-culture depiction as "mad scientist gone wrong". It is, first and fo...
tagged: home-library
The Sisters
really liked it
"I pretended to pray but I could not gather my thoughts because the old woman's mutterings distracted me."
An Encounter
really liked it
"The day had grown sultry, and in the windows of the grocers' shops musty biscuits lay bleaching. (...) The sun went in behind some clouds and left us to our jaded thoughts and the crumbs of our provisions."
After the Race
liked it
"That night the city wore the mask of a capital"

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Andrei's currently-reading book montage

Essays and Aphorisms
The Complete Essays
The Complete Fiction
The Essential Goethe
Leaves of Grass
100 Best-Loved Poems
Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?
The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway


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