[killabeeeee-blog]

For real this time! 💪🏻 one week in and feeling great!

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A board game involving puns! This is on top of my Christmas list.

[mvtionl3ss]

Ha Long Bay, Vietnam.  

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The only thing getting me through Monday is planning our next holiday - Vietnam and Cambodia 👌🏻

[mclennonwasreal]

ABC TV Studios, Teddington, July 11,1964.

[killabeeeee-blog]

Getting so excited to see Paul McCartney in December!!!

[freshmoviequotes]

In the Mood for Love (2000)

[spikeyonze]

[thehiphopworld]

Visit Original Link

but something inside had changed…

[a-woman-in-exile-blog]

[killabeeeee-blog]

orionorah:

Chomsky’s favorite tongue twister.

Hahahaha I fuckin love this. 

[martianchurch]

Got a little cocaine habit But he says he only does it if somebody else has it

Slug (Atmosphere)

[killabeeeee-blog]

George knows what's up.

[hush-syrup]

The writer’s job is to get the main character up a tree, and then once they are up there, throw rocks at them.

By Vladimir Nabokov (via hush-syrup)

Perfect Nabokov quote. Of course it makes me think of Lolita. This is an exquisite book on a repulsive subject, and I have so much to say about it. I felt a bit dirty reading it, because at times I found myself sympathising with Humbert. I began to question why I didn't hate this character, and hated myself for not hating him. After having a long think about it, I realised that I found his plight to be heartbreaking. Wanting something that you know you're not meant to have is quite a torturous experience. This book conveys a real sense of Humbert's self-loathing; he hates himself enough as it is, which is perhaps why I was able to feel sorry for him.

I felt myself questioning Humbert at times, though. Strangely enough, it feels as if you, the reader, are also being seduced by Humbert. It's hard to judge whether his recollection of events is truthful, and whether he loves Lolita or just lusts after her. There is nothing particularly graphic in Humbert's depictions, which makes me feel as though he did love her, and considered these acts to be quite sacred.

For me, it comes down to the age old nature/nurture debate. Are paedophiles born that way? Can you really have any control over your desires? If you desire something immoral, is it your fault? Can we choose who we love, or are we bound by our emotions?

These are the questions I found myself asking whilst reading this book, which, despite the subject matter, was a pleasurable experience due to the mind-blowingly eloquent prose used to describe his obsession. Nabokov is a truly brilliant author, one of the best ever. Lolita is a masterpiece.

[killabeeeee-blog]

I awoke one morning in Bangkok in my 20s as the sun was rising and needed something unobtrusive to do so as not to wake everybody else in the house. I fumbled around in my suitcase for ‘The Sense of an Ending’; being a novella, it was a perfect way to kill some time. It is only short, but it packs a punch, and I was totally engrossed from the very beginning.

I don’t want this review to give too much away, so I’m going to try and keep it brief, but this is a difficult task, for the book had a profound effect on me.

Tony, the narrator, is a man in his sixties, recalling his youth. He’s a bit of a twit, but I didn’t dislike him. I didn’t entirely trust his recollection, though, and I think that’s what makes the book so powerful. It consequently made me question my own recollection of the events in my life. Are they accurate, or are they self-serving? These are the questions I asked of myself and Tony as I was reading.

However, it was my perception of Veronica, Tony’s adolescent love, that had me questioning myself even more. As a woman with a string of complicated relationships that chequered my past, and having been in a similar romantic situation to Veronica, in theory I should have been able to sympathise with her character, but I didn’t. That made me angry with myself, for essentially, she could be regarded as the victim in this story. Am I troubled person for having such ill feelings towards her, or am I simply a naive one who has too readily believed the account of an unreliable narrator?

Nobody deserves to be burdened by the circumstances that arise in this book. Or do they? It makes you consider the notion that for every action, there is a reaction… but whose actions are to blame?

Big ups to Julian Barnes for this oustanding piece of literature. For many years after reading it I thought long and hard about existentialism and the power of memory. I heard it has recently been made into a film which I’m yet to see. But as always, I urge anyone to read this awesome book before watching the film.

[killabeeeee-blog]

I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately, and it always gets me thinking about those really resonant stories that stay with you long after you close the cover. This novel sat on my bookshelf for years, and despite it having won the Booker, and the Nobel Prize for Literature, I had never gotten around to reading it, even though i suspected that it would be brilliant. Now that I have read it, about 5 years ago, I have come to believe that I do not give my intuitive powers enough credit; it is certainly brilliant, but more pointedly, it is perhaps a book that I wasn’t ready to read until later.

‘Disgrace’ is a word with such powerfully negative connotations, and it is such a suitable title for this confronting novel. It uses this central idea, or “feeling” to tie together interlocking themes of desire, sexual impulse, race relations, morality and animal rights, set against the backdrop of modern day South Africa.

It is an uncomfortable read, but a riveting one. I experienced a range of emotional responses whilst reading: disgust, shock, outrage, confusion, disbelief, disappointment. It really pressed my buttons, as I intuitively suspected that it would, and I’m glad I saved it until then, when I could truly comprehend and appreciate its intensity.

One of my top 5 for sure, highly recommended.

[beenthinking]

It was time when they both loved each other best, without hurry or excess, when both were most conscious of and grateful for their incredible victories over adversity. Life would still present them with other moral trials, of course, but that no longer mattered: they were on the other shore.

Love in the Time of Cholera

RIP dear Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez, whose words carried colors no one else’s ever did.

(via beenthinking)

I love this book so much.

A beautiful love story that spans over fifty years. Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a brilliant author, and in this novel he gives a touching insight into the power of desire, and its ability to consume you the way a disease can. His exploration of the silent disappointments and yearnings we experience in life and marriage is a poignant reminder to seize the moment, yet also gives us hope that it is never too late. One of my all time favourites.

[acknowledgetheabsurd]

“I was looked at, but I wasn’t seen.”

- Albert Camus, The Misunderstanding

[killabeeeee-blog]

Best day ever, with one of the best friends ever 😍

[bbvolk]