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Thursday, September 25, 2008

Booking Through Thursday

I haven't done this for a while, but the question this week interested me:
What was the most unusual (for you) book you ever read? Either because the book itself was completely from out in left field somewhere, or was a genre you never read, or was the only book available on a long flight… whatever? What (not counting school textbooks, though literature read for classes counts) was furthest outside your usual comfort zone/familiar territory?
And, did you like it? Did it stretch your boundaries? Did you shut it with a shudder the instant you were done? Did it make you think? Have nightmares? Kick off a new obsession?


The most unusual book I have ever read (and I believe I've mentioned it here before) is Pale Fire, by Nabokov. It was part of my Modernist Fiction course in my last year at university and I remember almost none of it. Except that it was painful to read. It's a novel, told in poetry, that's a whodunit. The narrator is untrustworthy at best and, according to our lecturer there was a big payoff at the end. The only payoff I got was from finishing the damn thing!
So. Um. It's Pale Fire. :)

13 comments:

Chrisbookarama said...

Ha! Nabokov is in my answer too. I had better luck though.

I'm not a big fan of poetry, so I don't think I'll attempt this one.

SmilingSally said...

Thanks for the warning. Happy BTT! Come visit to see my answer.

Marie Cloutier said...

Some books can be an endurance test :-)

Traci said...

Never read Nabokov, but I've certainly read books that felt like the only thing I got out of them was a passing grade.

-.- said...

I understand your pain. It sucks when you have a book that you don't like, but you have to finish it, because of school.

~ Popin

Kathleen said...

It doesn't sound like something I'd want to read. My BTT is up.

Debbie said...

Reading things in poetry style is hard for me. So, i usually don't.

Confuzzled Shannon said...

poetry is hard for me to understand sometimes. Did you understand the story even though it was poetry?

Maree said...

Thanks for the comments! :)
And ... no. I didn't understand a single word of Pale Fire.

Tina K said...

Sounds like it would make a better movie than book

Anonymous said...

Sadly, I felt that way about my postmodern class, and nearly everything I read for it :)

trish said...

Hi, Maree! Would you email me at trish.browning@gmail(.)com? I just want to touch base about your cheerleading for the Read-a-Thon. :-)

Kathleen said...

Sorry for the late reply. I don't like books I have to struggle through.