aleenasbooks's review against another edition
challenging
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
finalgirlfall's review against another edition
3.0
i remember finding this book strange, and also having to reckon with my attachment to batuman's first novel upon realizing that it was semi-autobiographical.
julieyue's review against another edition
3.0
Hilarious, if a bit uneven, but the highs are extremely high. How impressive to so successfully blend scholarship with memoir
makraemer's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed reading this, it was amusing, but not great. It has some fun with the graduate level pursuit of some of the liberal arts - people passionate about something that 99.9% of the world does not care about.
neledeich's review against another edition
3.0
“There are certain books that one remembers together with the material circumstances of reading: how long it took, the time of year, the colour of the cover. Often, it’s the material circumstances themselves that make you remember a book that way- but sometimes it’s the other way around. I’m sure that my memory of that afternoon-the smell of rain and baking chocolate, the depressing apartment with its inflatable sofa, the sliding glass door that overlooked rainy palm trees and a Safeway parking lot – is due to the precious, almost-lost quality of Babel’s 1920 diary.”
I loved ‘The Idiot’ and ‘Either/Or’, and I’m thinking of pursuing a linguistics or literature degree, so this book seemed like the perfect read for me. Batuman’s unique humour and narrative voice shines through this book on almost every page, however I could deal with a lot less on Samarkand and with a lot more about the people who read Russian books rather than the dozen recounting of the different authors lives. For exactly that reason, ‘Who killed Tolstoy?’ is my favourite essay in this. The book is still three stars, because I am already invested in the main topic, Russian literature, which made the tedious essays a bit more bearable.
I loved ‘The Idiot’ and ‘Either/Or’, and I’m thinking of pursuing a linguistics or literature degree, so this book seemed like the perfect read for me. Batuman’s unique humour and narrative voice shines through this book on almost every page, however I could deal with a lot less on Samarkand and with a lot more about the people who read Russian books rather than the dozen recounting of the different authors lives. For exactly that reason, ‘Who killed Tolstoy?’ is my favourite essay in this. The book is still three stars, because I am already invested in the main topic, Russian literature, which made the tedious essays a bit more bearable.
bookwhore07's review against another edition
3.75
no one makes me think like this lady. she says some crazy stuff in this though !!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism
kelsiei's review against another edition
funny
informative
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
4.5