BlueBilly - aNobii

Books (61)

All books Added (Newest) Title (A to Z) Title (Z to A) Rating (Highest) Rating (Lowest) Finished (Newest) Finished (Oldest) Published (Newest) Published (Oldest) Added (Newest) Added (Oldest)

- Cecità (12772)
- By Jose Saramago
- Reading since Apr 15, 2013
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- La via lattea (152)
- By Piergiorgio Odifreddi, Sergio Valzania
- Finished on Apr 13, 2013
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- Moby Dick (1599)
- By Herman Melville
- Reading since Feb 15, 2013
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- Cent'anni di solitudine (31333)
- By Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- Finished on Feb 14, 2013
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- Il giorno della civetta (13706)
- By Leonardo Sciascia
- Finished on Jan 16, 2013
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- La casa in collina (5377)
- By Cesare Pavese
- Finished on Dec 22, 2012
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- Il maestro e Margherita (23986)
- By Mikhail Bulgakov
- Finished in Dec 2012
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- Sostiene Pereira (14861)
- Una testimonianza
- By Antonio Tabucchi
- Finished on Nov 6, 2012
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- Frankenstein (3013)
- (Dover Thrift Editions)
- By Mary Shelley
- Finished on Oct 26, 2012
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- We'll Always Have Paris (16)
- By Ray Bradbury
- Finished on Oct 16, 2012
  
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We'll Always Have Paris

A collection of wonderful, delicate, intense short stories

I love Ray Bradbury. This guy could have written vacuum cleaner manuals and made them awesome. This book was a birthday gift, I didn't know it (although I had already read some book by Bradbury) and I didn't want to know anything about it before reading it, not to spoil the fun. I didn't even know i ... (continue)

I love Ray Bradbury. This guy could have written vacuum cleaner manuals and made them awesome. This book was a birthday gift, I didn't know it (although I had already read some book by Bradbury) and I didn't want to know anything about it before reading it, not to spoil the fun. I didn't even know it was a short story collection!
Lacking of mind breadth, while expecting sci-fi, Ray stuck me with an incredible variety of subjects and characters. There is everything, from love stories to fantasy, from a little sci-fi to the struggle of aging and living.
What really strikes me is Bradbury's talent to fascinate the reader with a delicate, intense and stimulating prose. The best you can do is letting him take care of your heart.

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— Oct 17, 2012 | Add your feedback

- Brave New World (1764)
- By Aldous Huxley
- Finished on Oct 9, 2012
  
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Brave New World

1 person find this helpful
Incredibly ahead of its time

It is hard for me to reduce my opinion about this book to a number of stars. I chose four as a compromise between its value (in terms of message, depth and cultural influence) and the quite slow rhythm of some pages, especially in the central part. This said, missing it would be a pity and a shame. ... (continue)

It is hard for me to reduce my opinion about this book to a number of stars. I chose four as a compromise between its value (in terms of message, depth and cultural influence) and the quite slow rhythm of some pages, especially in the central part. This said, missing it would be a pity and a shame. Huxley's vision astonishes for its power and the danger it foresees. More than genetic engineering, the enemy of the story is the lack of critical thought. From this angle, it is easy to match this novel with the other two dystopian milestones and masterpieces, "1984" and "Fahrenheit 451". Huxley does not create a stifling atmosphere as Orwell does, nor he has Bradbury's talent to tell a story and catch the reader word by word, but before both of them imagined a future mankind had better avoid and showed us the real picture and, together, the frailty of our nature.
It becomes even more impressive when you think that, just a few years after the book was published, intellectual and moral laziness would bring the world to war.

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— Oct 17, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Oceano mare (24708)
- By Alessandro Baricco
- Finished on Sep 30, 2012
  
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Oceano mare

3 people find this helpful
Baricco è bravissimo. Peccato che lo sappia.

Mi rivolgo ad Alessandro Baricco. Era il primo tuo libro che leggevo. Sei bravissimo. Giochi con le parole come pochi e riesci a costruire intrecci interessanti. Sei padrone della sintassi e la sfrutti a pieno. Peccato che per le prime almeno 120 pagine il tuo romanzo debba inchinarsi all'ostentazio ... (continue)

Mi rivolgo ad Alessandro Baricco. Era il primo tuo libro che leggevo. Sei bravissimo. Giochi con le parole come pochi e riesci a costruire intrecci interessanti. Sei padrone della sintassi e la sfrutti a pieno. Peccato che per le prime almeno 120 pagine il tuo romanzo debba inchinarsi all'ostentazione sfrontata e continua delle tue abilità. Mi stupisci per la disinvoltura con cui passi da un canone all'altro, dalla descrizione piana al dialogo quasi da pièce teatrale, ma mi snervi impedendomi di finire una pagina senza tornare indietro a rileggere almeno tre volte.
Poi, gradualmente ma non troppo, il libro diventa normale. Nel senso buono, si intende. Come d'incanto le pagine diventano comprensibili e si inizia a gustare le interazioni dei personaggi. Tranquillo, la tua bravura continua a trasparire, anche senza doverla schivare per cercare di capire la storia. Ti dirò che la si apprezza anche di più. Nel frattempo, la valutazione che fino a quel momento si era mantenuta intorno a una stella o una stella e mezza (proprio perché sei bravo), comincia velocemente a salire. Peccato che le pagine scorrano veloci e leggere (sempre nel senso buono) e che la fine del libro arrivi in fretta, perché le stelle si fermano a tre.
Caro Alessandro, leggerò sicuramente altro di te, ma per favore non cercare più di stupirmi con gli effetti speciali.

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— Oct 1, 2012 | 1 feedback
- The Catcher in the Rye (3854)
- By J.D. Salinger
- Finished on Sep 28, 2012
  
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The Catcher in the Rye

How a 3.5 can become a 4

Some paragraphs made me laugh a lot. Some others gave interesting insights on Holden's character and his personality. In some pages I found interesting food for thought. The subject is extremely interesting and I liked the story of this boy looking for a meaning in his life and rejecting established ... (continue)

Some paragraphs made me laugh a lot. Some others gave interesting insights on Holden's character and his personality. In some pages I found interesting food for thought. The subject is extremely interesting and I liked the story of this boy looking for a meaning in his life and rejecting established society. My problem with this book is the style. The next book I'll read had better not contain the words "phony", "corny", "flit". Also, I found a certain discrepancy between Holden's love for the school subject of English, reading and writing, and the "lousy" (there, another word I've had enough of) style of some pieces.
My note would actually be 3.5, but I feel that digesting the book will make it raise a little, so that's it, four stars.

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— Sep 29, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Alice adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (3830)
- By Lewis Carroll
- Finished on Sep 21, 2012
  
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Alice adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

Alice in the sky with diamonds

Should I be sorry I didn't read it when I was a child? Maybe. I would have probably dived more in Wonderland and felt the awe for the bizarre characters and situations. Maybe not. I couldn't have read it in English and I wouldn't have appreciated what I think is at the same time the best part of the ... (continue)

Should I be sorry I didn't read it when I was a child? Maybe. I would have probably dived more in Wonderland and felt the awe for the bizarre characters and situations. Maybe not. I couldn't have read it in English and I wouldn't have appreciated what I think is at the same time the best part of the book: the return to childhood and the importance of keeping alive the child inside us.
This said, Carroll is a precursor of psychedelia. I would love to see the Cheshire Cat singing "Alice in the sky with diamonds".

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— Sep 25, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Lord of the Flies (1901)
- By William Golding
- Finished on Sep 17, 2012
  
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Lord of the Flies

How much better this book could have been! I appreciate the base idea of observing the battle between instinct and reason reproduced in a primordial society of stranded boys, but in my opinion the book is undermined by at least two flaws.
First of all, if Golding wanted to "model" human society and ... (continue)

How much better this book could have been! I appreciate the base idea of observing the battle between instinct and reason reproduced in a primordial society of stranded boys, but in my opinion the book is undermined by at least two flaws.
First of all, if Golding wanted to "model" human society and reduce it to its main driving forces he simply could not forget in such a relaxed way women, or, better, sexual instinct. I did not miss for one second a cheesy and obnoxious love story between teenagers, nor am I talking about introducing a "female touch". I am referring to pure sexuality. Why can't you put in the plot at least a girl or two gay boys without turning the subject of the book into feminism or LGBT?
The second objection involves probably implies a deficiency of mine... I enjoyed the symbolism of characters, objects and situations, but there was no need of sacrificing the fluency of style. I found certain pages quite heavy and sometimes I completely lacked the "urge" of reading on. I don't remember where I read about a parallel between Golding's "Lord of the flies" and Conrad's "Heart of darkness: I agree, in the sense that sometimes I had the same feeling of boredom and pointlessness I experienced (much more extensively) while reading "Heart of darkness".
Finally, although this is more of a personal idea rather than a real defect, my nature prevents me from sharing the final picture resulting from Golding's point of view, but I won't talk more about that or it will become a spoiler...

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— Sep 17, 2012 | Add your feedback