If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler in Around the World in 80 Books

Mar 11, 2018 Kent Winward rated it really liked it

The cynic would say that this is the book you right when you have the openings of ten novels you haven't been able to finish sitting in your drawer.

The impressed would say, "Wow, you can take ten unfinished novels and turn them into a work of art."

Call me Impressed. ...more

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Feb 03, 2014 Sera rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, literary-fiction, kindle, 1001-books

Heavy meta at its finest.

My favorite parts were when Calvino described the moods and feelings of readers towards books and the stories that they contain. It was like reading about myself, which is part of the point, but I found it cool to see my feelings about things put into words. One of the reasons that I read books is to see how writers are able to say things that I feel but that I am unable to articulate either in words or in writing.

I quickly became caught up in this little gem, which ele ...more

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Aug 20, 2010 Sunflower rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-read-2010

This book is head-bangingly good. The head-banging bit is because a) if you keep reading it in bed, and falling asleep, believe me you won't follow what on earth is happening b) because just when you think you know about books and how they work, Calvino comes along and just toys with the actual form of the novel till he has it tied up in knots, and c)because he forces you to think about books and reading while you're reading. Clever, no?
And just when you think "aha-I get this", actually you don ...more

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May 18, 2017 Astrid Lim rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: book-of-books, contemporary, classic, twist

It took longer for me to finish this book. It started really ok, with the postmodern "reader as the main character" and some experiments of Calvino with some unfinished stories- kinda like stories inside story thing. Some of them are good, but the longer I read the book the harder it took for me to get immersed into the story. There are even some boring moments that made me stopped reading it for a while.

I still like the idea of this book- hence the 3 stars rating. But it's not as enjoyable as I ...more

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