Louise's Library

Welcome to my bookshelf, or Louise's Library, as it shall hence forth be known. This is my bookshelf at University and I thought I'd share some of my reading material of late. Some of the books I've been reading lately have been for my course in modernist literature, and I've selected two to show here, however the other of the three is being read for pleasure and out of sheer curiosity.

The three books I'll be talking about in this post are 'Lolita' by Vladimir Nabokov, 'The Good Soldier' by Madox Ford and 'Mrs Dalloway' by Virginia Woolf.

I started reading 'Lolita' out of interest, not due to any required reading list or because I'd seen the film (I've never seen the film), and because I participated in Japanese Lolita Fashion for a number of years. Lolita fashion has absolutely nothing to do with the book, however people were always mentioning the novel when I talked about the fashion and I wanted to know exactly what the plot was so I could actively confirm that the two were not linked. But I fell in love (perhaps a bad choice of words) with the book. It is so lyrically and beautifully written - Nabokov is a true poet - and includes many European, including French and German, references that I could appreciate having studied those languages. The main plot is that Humbert Humbert, the main character and a rather handsome yet perverse man, meets a young girl called Dolores through staying at her mother's house as a lodger. The two form a relationship and I won't ruin the plot any further. It is a captivating and interesting piece of literature, but rather uncomfortable to read at times. There are sexual references, but in my opinion it is a must-read!

'The Good Soldier' is a book I've been slowly working my way through and is required reading for University, however I'm enjoying the scandal of it so far. I'm only about 70 pages in, but I thought I'd say my thoughts on it. The writing is dense and Ford's main character who narrates the novel doesn't matter to be that reliable a narrator... But it's good so far and I'm looking forward to finishing it! Whereas I have finished 'Mrs Dalloway' and although I find Woolf fascinating, the stream of consciousness that is the writing baffles me. It is challenging to read but it's a very interesting book. I love how the story is about something as frivolous as a party but, set on one day, incorporates themes like mental illness and true love. Woolf has a difficult style, but it's worth getting through!

Some other interesting titles in Louise's Library are 'The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde' (a present from my boyfriend, Alex), 'Nineteen-Eighty Four' by George Orwell (my ultimate favourite book) and 'Thus Spake Zarathustra' by Friedrich Nietzsche (my favourite philosopher!).

What have you been reading recently? Care to share? And do you have any modernist or classic recommendations for the hard-working English student? Let me know!

I hope you enjoyed seeing my little library and thank you for reading!

God bless,

Louise <3