Scan barcode
amiboughter's review against another edition
3.0
“You said that we owe literature almost everything we are and what we have been. If books disappear, history will disappear, and human beings will also disappear. I am sure you are right. Books are not only the arbitrary sum of our dreams, and our memory. They also give us the model of self-transcendence. Some people think of reading only as a kind of escape: an escape from the “real” everyday world to an imaginary world, the world of books. Books are much more. They are a way of being fully human.”
Absolutely loved reading Sontag discuss Elizabeth Hardwick's Sleepless Nights, Hardwick is criminally underrated - and I am equally delighted to learn this book was dedicated to her.
Absolutely loved reading Sontag discuss Elizabeth Hardwick's Sleepless Nights, Hardwick is criminally underrated - and I am equally delighted to learn this book was dedicated to her.
mementomaggie's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
medium-paced
5.0
The way the essays from Sarajevo describing American inaction could be used with key words changed to accurately describe current events will haunt me. Doomed to repeat the same mistakes until we learn from the past
chairmanbernanke's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting judgements and reflections on a range of topics.
talypollywaly's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
3.65 rounded up.
Some essays were 4.5 worthy ("A Place for Fantasy" and the last few essays) but most were on topics I knew or cared very little about, and were a slog to get through. Maybe once I appreciate opera and European filmmakers more?
Some essays were 4.5 worthy ("A Place for Fantasy" and the last few essays) but most were on topics I knew or cared very little about, and were a slog to get through. Maybe once I appreciate opera and European filmmakers more?
sapphicpenguin's review against another edition
4.0
Our interpretations of anything depend on what we pay attention to. The meaning of a sentence depends on what word(s) you enunciate. Where the stress falls changes the meaning.
I dearly wish I was a famous writer, if only so I could write elaborate essays about random artists or situations I was interested in. If you are going to go on this journey Sontag dragged me along on, please have Wikipedia open in your browser. I did not have the level of knowledge that she apparently assumed I did.
Separated into three sections ("Reading," about books and authors, "Seeing," about movies, art, dance, and photography, and "There and Here," about identity and travel), this book is a collage of countless ideas and subjects.
I can't give this book 5 stars, if only because there were multiple points of frustration and boredom, but I can't say it was bad because of the parts that blew my mind. Sontag says that "No book is worth reading once if it is not worth reading many times," and I would disagree. This book was worth reading once.
I dearly wish I was a famous writer, if only so I could write elaborate essays about random artists or situations I was interested in. If you are going to go on this journey Sontag dragged me along on, please have Wikipedia open in your browser. I did not have the level of knowledge that she apparently assumed I did.
Separated into three sections ("Reading," about books and authors, "Seeing," about movies, art, dance, and photography, and "There and Here," about identity and travel), this book is a collage of countless ideas and subjects.
I can't give this book 5 stars, if only because there were multiple points of frustration and boredom, but I can't say it was bad because of the parts that blew my mind. Sontag says that "No book is worth reading once if it is not worth reading many times," and I would disagree. This book was worth reading once.
tajeip's review against another edition
4.0
The writing was five stars (or more), but I just wasn’t that interested in some of the subjects (e.g. dance, photography)