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“You know, I never wanted to live past seventy-five,' he says, 'till the day I turned seventy-four.”
― Like a House on Fire
― Like a House on Fire
“Translators transport nations into other nations. They are the first to reckon with distant modes of feeling. Even their mistakes are evidence of a positive force. Translation is our salvation. It draws us out of the well in which, entirely by chance, we are born.”
― Incidental Inventions
― Incidental Inventions
“Problems are the poetry of chess. They demand from the composer the same virtues that characterize all worthwhile art: originality, invention, harmony, conciseness, complexity, and splendid insincerity.”
― Poems and Problems
― Poems and Problems
“... it did gradually and tenaciously arouse within me a sensuous craving for such things as the destiny of soldiers, the tragic nature of their calling, the distant countries they would see, the ways they would die.”
― Confessions of a Mask
― Confessions of a Mask
“[Nabokov] was a man who was in love with the sound of words. I think English was his third language. His first language was French and then Russian. And he explained why he liked writing in English better than other languages.
And he gave his example. The white horse. Well, if you say it in French, it's 'le cheval blanc'. But when you say 'cheval', you see a brown horse. You have to adjust your image to make it white. But because we put the adjective first, when the horse comes, it's already white.”
―
And he gave his example. The white horse. Well, if you say it in French, it's 'le cheval blanc'. But when you say 'cheval', you see a brown horse. You have to adjust your image to make it white. But because we put the adjective first, when the horse comes, it's already white.”
―
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J’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at J’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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