Reading "Lolita" in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

by Azar Nafisi | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0375504907 Global Overview for this book
Registered by AuntK of San Jose, California USA on 7/20/2003
Buy from one of these Booksellers:
Amazon.com | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon DE | Amazon FR | Amazon IT | Bol.com
22 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by AuntK from San Jose, California USA on Sunday, July 20, 2003
Pre-numbered label used for registration. This book was reccommended to me by a woman who works out at the gym, she said I would enjoy it alot. It it at the top of my to-be-read pile. I will probably take it camping with me this week.

Journal Entry 2 by AuntK from San Jose, California USA on Tuesday, July 29, 2003
I really looked forward to reading this book after it was reccommended to me by a fellow Y member... went out and bought it RETAIL - full price and hardback... very unusual for me. I figure the only way I can make it pay is if other people read it too and enjoy it as much as I did.

What?s a bookray and how does it work?

A bookray is when a book passes from person to person based on the list of members involved. Preferably a bookray book is never released into the wild.

To join this bookray (or any other bookray of mine) please private message me. I will be glad to add you to the list. New members are added all of the time so be sure to check the list of participants before you mail the book to the next in line just in case!

Once you are a bookray member you will receive the book from the person listed before you. When you receive the book please make a journal entry stating that you?ve received it. Then read it as soon as you can (no absolute hurry, just be reasonable please :o), and journal again with your thoughts. You?ll then need to private message the person on the list after you for their address. Mail the book by media mail (it?s cheaper!), and make release notes on the book only if you?d like to. Then sit back and watch the continuing journey!

The members are as follows:
1. Weeblet (VA)
2. Seferim (MD)
3. Hawkette (Melbourn)
5. missJAS (WA)
6. Alrescate (Missouri)
7. nikel27 (Ginsheim, Germany)
8. squirrel818 (Minnesota)
9. Wandeca (Ontario, Canada)
10. luffliffloaf (OH)
11. Sharboo (Ontario, Canada)
12. fanclub (Hawaii)
13. Bookworm123 (Il)
14. MaryZee (Maryland)


It has been very gratifying to see how far this book has traveled!

Journal Entry 3 by AuntK from San Jose, California USA on Wednesday, July 30, 2003
A SHORT REVIEW OF THIS BOOK:
I found this book grabbed me on many levels. Here is the autobiography of a woman returning to her mother country as an academic, ready to participate as her homeland reinvents itself. Her book chronicles her experiences her life as a teacher, as a mother, as a wife and as a liberal woman trying to survive. She sets her book against a backdrop of fictional novels as her students study "Gatsby", "Daisy Miller", "Lolita" "Mansfield Park" and as they rexamine these books later on in their lives. Ms. Nafisi is an excellent writer and I'm sure was a wonderful teacher. If you haven't read some of these novels in awhile, you will be drawn to reading (or rereading them). There is a highly personal feeling to this book as you meet her best and worst students. She brings you along when she protests wearing scarves when teaching and when she meets her "magician", a man who is a combination mentor, confidant, and "patient stone". You will go with her to the funeral of Ayatolla Ruhollah Khomeini and listen as the bombs drop on Tehran. As you go with her, she feeds you cafe glacee and let you smell the scent of flowers on the table. I reccommend this book to those who are looking for a challenging read, but be prepared, you will be buying more James or Nabokov or Austen or Fitzgerald...



Sent off to Weeblet in Virginia :::smile:::
The Bookray begins!

Journal Entry 4 by weeblet from Jacksonville, Florida USA on Thursday, August 7, 2003
Arrived today, safe and sound, complete with the snazziest bookmark! What a great idea! I hope to start on it tomorrow, or thereabouts. Thanks AuntK!

Journal Entry 5 by weeblet from Jacksonville, Florida USA on Wednesday, August 27, 2003
I am really sorry- i forgot to make a release journal entry...
i did mail it when i said i would (on the 9th, or thereabouts), so keep your eyes peeled <:

Journal Entry 6 by weeblet from Jacksonville, Florida USA on Sunday, August 31, 2003
my comments (finally!!)
first off, i'd like to thank auntK for the brilliant bookmark idea- how sweet! it would be nice if she could realize the fruit of her intentions <:
on to the book: i was a little taken aback by the pretention of the author, both as a writer and an academian.... if a person uses 'i' more than 3 times in one sentence, i have a tendency to glaze over. this reaction is not unique to the book- it seems i feel this way about a lot of memoirs, but i love them, and continue to read them. that said, i enjoyed the book discussions tremendously (and my TBR pile grew!), and also the day to day observances of a country in turmoil. that was more interesting to me than any of it.
thanks for sending this out, auntie <:

Journal Entry 7 by Hawkette from Sydney CBD, New South Wales Australia on Wednesday, November 26, 2003
It has arrived! After a long stint in postal travels!! In a mail redirection mishap since our respective moves, TramGirl has it at the moment at her new place, but I thought I would journal to note that it had arrived. I will have it, and read it shortly.

Journal Entry 8 by Hawkette from Sydney CBD, New South Wales Australia on Tuesday, December 2, 2003
OK, I have it now, in my possession! I am going to bump it up on my reading list so that I can get it moving to debnance before next month - but shhhhh! don't tell anyone!!
I have 50 pages of the book I'm reading now, so will start this one tomorrow!

Journal Entry 9 by Hawkette from Sydney CBD, New South Wales Australia on Friday, December 12, 2003
This book is an insight, and an introduction to me really, into the ongoing perils of Iranians, and particularly the oppression of the women in Iran. I admit to knowing very little about Iran before this book, and whilst reading this account I was trying to blend my experience in developing nations such as Cambodia to assist my understanding, although as I was reading Azar would describe something that wouldn't fit this image at all. I struggle to comprehend a relatively developed nation with such oppressive views about women.

During sections of the books I was a little bogged down by the fact that I haven't actually read most of the books she was discussing, but what I have gained out of the novel is the account of Iran, and the spirit of the young women in Dr Nafisi's secret Thursday classes.

The image of the girls arriving to the secret class, and de-robing from their chador, revealing colourful, individual and contemporary clothing underneath, beautiful hair freed and flowing, will stay will me.

I will send this book off to debnance tomorrow. Thanks for sharing it AuntK!

Journal Entry 10 by debnance from Alvin, Texas USA on Saturday, December 27, 2003
What an unexpectedly quick trip this book made, from Australia to the US! Thank you, Hawkette, for speeding it along to me. I hope that I can, likewise, help you out someday.

This is a group read for my online group next month so I am setting aside everything else and starting it today....

And I love the bookmark idea!

Journal Entry 11 by debnance from Alvin, Texas USA on Tuesday, December 30, 2003
When I signed up the bookring for Reading Lolita in Tehran, I'd anticipated reading a book about a woman fighting for human rights in an increasingly intolerant society. Reading Lolita is this book, but it is much more. Nafisi creates a safe place for women to gather and explore what it means to be human, what it means to be alive, by reading and discussing literature. Nafisi's group faces bullets and beheadings, yet the most awful horror is the day-to-day slow death of the world of the imagination.

It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there.

- William Carlos Williams



Journal Entry 12 by debnance from Alvin, Texas USA on Tuesday, December 30, 2003
From the book:

p. 3 “(My student) reminded me of a warning I was fond of repeating: do not, under any circumstances, belittle a work of fiction by trying to turn it into a carbon copy of real life; what we search for in fiction is not so much reality but the epiphany of truth.”

p. 18 “I explained to them the purpose of the class: to read, discuss and respond to works of fiction. Each would have a private diary, in which she should record her responses to the novels, as well as ways in which these works and their discussions related to her personal and social experiences….I mentioned that one of the criteria for the books I had chosen was their authors’ faith in the critical and almost magical power of literature….”

p. 21 “That word (upsilamba) became a symbol, a sign of that vague sense of joy, the tingle in the spine Nabokov expected his readers to feel in the act of reading fiction; it was a sensation that separated the good readers, as he called them, from the ordinary ones.”

p. 47 “In all great works of fiction, regardless of the grim reality they present, there is an affirmation of life against the transience of that life, an essential defiance.”

p. 94 “I explained that most great works of the imagination were meant to make you feel like a stranger in your own home. The best fiction always forced us to question what we took for granted. It questioned traditions and expectations when they seemed too immutable. I told my students I wanted them in their readings to consider in what ways these works unsettled them, made them a little uneasy, made them look around and consider the world, like Alice in Wonderland, through different eyes.”

Released on Friday, January 02, 2004 at Postal System: Bookring/Bookray in Alvin, Texas USA.

I'm mailing this off to our next reader, MissJAS, today!

Journal Entry 14 by missJAS from Vancouver, Washington USA on Monday, January 12, 2004
Received yesterday and ready to begin! Thanks for sharing.

Journal Entry 15 by missJAS from Vancouver, Washington USA on Sunday, March 14, 2004
First...Thank you AuntK for the opportunity to read this book. And second...thanks for everyone's patience as I struggled to finish the book after my baby was born.

The reviews written by BC'ers before me give more insight to the book than I can communicate. It was a bit heavy for me with literary references. I was interested in the book because I know very little about Iranian culture. Because of my ignorance, terms like revolutionary, leftist, conservative, liberal, lost their meaning. I understand them in the context of American politics, but not Iranian. The ideals behind the movements were not clear to me.

I did understand the emotions she conveyed that the women went through, losing themselves through years of oppression. And I understood the loss and guilt they wrestled with in deciding to stay in their homeland or to flee to places less oppressive.

I'm glad I read the book, even though it was hard to get through because of my own educational deficit.

I'll mail this to Missouri as soon as I obtain the address. Done 3/15/04!
Thanks again!

Journal Entry 16 by alrescate from Strafford, Missouri USA on Sunday, March 21, 2004
This arrived in yesterday's mail with some very nice bookmarks. (I feel the pressure! Everyone has been so creative...I'm not sure I'm up to the task.)

I have been looking forward to reading this book & it is next on my TBR pile.

Journal Entry 17 by alrescate from Strafford, Missouri USA on Monday, April 12, 2004
This book was a struggle for me. It took me two weeks to read this (which is a long time for me) and the first 50 pages where the most difficult. I stuck with it because this was a bookray book but if I had picked this up on my own I'm not sure I would have stayed with it. I did enjoy the book when the author relayed memories about the girls in her class as well as her own experiences in Tehran I was often put to sleep by the literary discussion & theories. I suppose that is my weakness...I've never cared much for analizing literature. I imagine that others will find this book fantastic but I really wished Nafisi had brought us further into her life in Tehran as well as into the lives of her students.

As a side note: I put the finished bookmarks into a separate envelope because they were getting so bulky that they were bending the book.

**Update**
I mailed this on to Germany on 4/16/04.

Journal Entry 18 by nikel27 from -- Irgendwo / Somewhere --, Hessen Germany on Monday, May 3, 2004
arrived safe at my house, sorry goes first in my TBR-Pile, still have 7 books to read.

update:
This book was a bit difficult to read for me, so that it took a longer time.

I just finished making my bookmark.

Asked for the next members address:July 05th

okay as I still have no answer from squirrel818 I ask now Wandeca for here address: July 14th
Wandeca don't want to have this book at the moment, so I have asked luffliffloaf for here address.
And finally I am able to pass the book along.

Journal Entry 19 by nikel27 at Post Office in Book Ring, Ginsheim -- Controlled Releases on Friday, July 16, 2004
Release planned for Monday, July 19, 2004 at Post Office in Book Ring, Ginsheim Controlled Releases.

finally the book start travelling again, after 2 member's didn't wanted this book, the third told me she would love to get this book.

EnJoy the Book !!!!

Journal Entry 20 by luffliffloaf from Akron, Ohio USA on Wednesday, September 22, 2004
What a happy surprise to receive this book in the mail from Nikel27 in Germany. And with all the lovely bookmarks. It made the arrival of the bookring book seem so much more communal. I really feel like I'm receiving a book shared by many people. It goes on the TBR pile, but I may start it anytime soon as I don't always finish things before starting something new. Thank you Aunt K and everyone else, for the book and for your thoughts about it.

Luffliffloaf

Journal Entry 21 by wingmaryzeewing from Taneytown, Maryland USA on Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Came in the mail today with one other book. I have 2 other bookrings here ahead of this one. I'll update this entry when I get started on this book.

2/3/05 - Starting on this now.

Journal Entry 22 by wingmaryzeewing from Taneytown, Maryland USA on Wednesday, February 9, 2005
Just finished the book, and have also just re-read everyone's comments. Not much left to say.

First of all, and most trivial, I never knew it snowed in Iran. Secondly, I am very glad I read this book, although it was not a simple read. It took a while to get into her stream-of-consciousness style, and I found it a bit misleading that sometimes other people's dialogue was in quotes, and other times, not. (I don't think her dialogue was ever in quotes, but I guess this was the internal style.) I also have not read the books referenced here, although The Great Gatsby is on Mt. TBR. I've never been much for analyzing literature, but my hat's off to anyone who can do this well.

There was one quote I wanted to share, on p. 118 -
"...someone who is engrossed in literature, has learned that everyone has different dimensions to his personality...Those who judge must take all aspects of an individual's personality into account. It is only through literature that one can put oneself in someone else's shoes and understand the other's different and contradictory sides and refrain from becoming too ruthless. Outside the sphere of literature only one aspect of individuals is revealed. But if you understand their different dimensions you cannot easily murder them..."

All-in-all, a worthwhile read. Many thanks to AuntK for sharing this wonderful book.

And now, for its future, since I'm the last one on the current ray. I'll be relisting this for a new bookray, since it looks as though this is in demand. Not sure what I'll do yet about the bookmarks, since I haven't had any luck contacting AuntK. (There are still about 4 tags remaining for more bookmarks, but there's a lovely collection here of about 8, in an envelope, and I hate to see these get lost - any thoughts on this?)

Journal Entry 23 by wingmaryzeewing from Taneytown, Maryland USA on Saturday, February 12, 2005
Tentative order for the continuing bookray -
Luv2sewtjr - Pennsylvania
GothamGal - Ohio
Saram23 - Massachusetts
ResQGeek - Virginia
Ekaterin4luv - Germany
Luz-de-Luna - Greece
Okyrhoe - Greece
Zzz - Serbia-Montenegro (asked to be skipped)
MusicalPenguin - Scotland, UK
Djgib - England, UK (couldn't be reached)
Booklady331 - Florida, USA
RebeccalJames - Ohio, USA

Please journal when you receive the book, so we know where it is, and please try not to keep the book for much over a month. If life gets in your way (or books do), please contact me for changes in the order. (I've not yet heard from AuntK about this ray.)

I'm meeting Luv2sewtjr tomorrow, 2/14 to pass this book on to her.

About the bookmarks, I've contacted another member about AuntK, and will pass the bookmarks I've received on as best I can. As for the remaining bookmarks, in the back, you may choose to make one to keep for yourself, or to pass on to the next person. Since this is a bookray, I don't think the tags should indefinitely travel with the book.

Journal Entry 24 by luv2sewtjr from Greencastle, Pennsylvania USA on Monday, February 14, 2005
I just got this today from MaryZee. Thanks so much.

This is my book club's March selection and it will be my second attempt reading this book. I bailed out on it the first time as I didn't care for the writing style. I'm going to read it this time so I can discuss it. :)

Journal Entry 25 by gothamgal on Thursday, May 12, 2005
rec'd as part of a bookring.

Read about 1/2 of this. Taking too long, so I'm sending it on to 3rd person in line. The 2 after me didn't need it.



Journal Entry 26 by saram23 from Lowell, Massachusetts USA on Friday, September 23, 2005
This got here a few days ago, but this is the first chance I have had to enter it. I am reading one other book and then I will start on this one.

Journal Entry 27 by saram23 from Lowell, Massachusetts USA on Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Read my notes
Ready to be passed on!

Released 18 yrs ago (11/20/2005 UTC) at To the next participant in Bookring/Bookray, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- Canada

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

I suck- I just got it out on Saturday. It is in the mail now!

Journal Entry 29 by ResQgeek from Alexandria, Virginia USA on Monday, November 28, 2005
Arrived in today's mail. I'm expecting a couple more bookrings any day, but I'll try to get to this soon, and then pass it along.

Journal Entry 30 by ResQgeek from Alexandria, Virginia USA on Wednesday, December 14, 2005
This wasn't quite what I expected. I guess I expected more of a traditional memoir, with details about like in Tehran and Iran after the Islamic revolution. There are some of these details in the book, and they do shed some illumination on what life in Iran was like during the 1980's and 90's. However, this book also includes a lot of academic analysis of the works of a number of authors, which perhaps I should have expected, but I wasn't prepared for. I found these parts of the book dry and difficult to pay attention to. Ms. Nafisi also tries to tie these analyses to life in Iran, but fails to make the connection compelling, at least for me. This book is a mixed bag, a bit of literary anaylsis and a bit of detail on life in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Depending on your interests, some of this might appeal to you, but other parts might not.

Djgib has not responded to repeated PMs requesting mailing information, so I'm skipping to Ekaterin4luv and will probably mail this tomorrow.

Journal Entry 31 by ResQgeek from Alexandria, Virginia USA on Thursday, December 15, 2005
Just got back from the Post Office and the book is on its way to Germany. Enjoy!

Journal Entry 32 by ekaterin4luv from Nürnberg, Bayern Germany on Friday, December 23, 2005
That was fast! Lolita was in the mail today - I'm looking forward to it.

12.02.06: I'm reading it right now.


I had some problems reading this book in one sitting, after a few pages I always had to stop. Don't get me wrong, I liked it, but I just couldn't read it for very long. It was certainly interesting to hear (or better read) about all the problems in every day life of women in Iran.

On the way to Luz-de-Luna

Journal Entry 33 by Luz-de-Luna from Veria - Βέρια, Imathia Greece on Tuesday, July 25, 2006
So, it actually took 7 months to reach me??? Wow...
I've already started reading it, and it's already heart-breaking. I predict I'll be done with it pretty soon.

Journal Entry 34 by Luz-de-Luna from Veria - Βέρια, Imathia Greece on Monday, July 31, 2006
I don't know if there is a greek translation of it, but I'll definitely find out. This book ought to be read by lots of people. It's shocking, funny, touching; it's a masterpiece.

Released 17 yrs ago (8/5/2006 UTC) at A fellow bookcrosser in By mail, A Bookring -- Controlled Releases

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

Mailed to okyrhoe. I'm sure she'll like it. :-)

Journal Entry 36 by okyrhoe from Athens - Αθήνα, Attica Greece on Wednesday, August 9, 2006
Arrived in my mailbox today. Thanks MaryZee for including me in the bookray. Thanks also to Luz-de-Luna for posting the book to me -- καλό καλοκαίρι!

Nice idea about the bookmarks.

--- --- ---
Sept 28: I'm sorry to take long in reading this. I'll have it finished by early next week.

Journal Entry 37 by okyrhoe from Athens - Αθήνα, Attica Greece on Wednesday, October 11, 2006
"Lady, he said, we do not need your truths but your fiction - if you're any good, perhaps you can trickle in some sort of truth, but spare us your real feelings." (Nafisi, quoting her 'magician' friend)

I was compelled to read this memoir twice. The first time I dotted each page with miniature post-its, marking phrases and paragraphs I re-read upon my second foray through the book.

I can't easily separate my responses to Nafisi's autobiographical narrative from my feelings. The spatial and temporal context of my own past, and my present, colors my interpretation of Reading Lolita in Tehran.
When she writes, "Tell me, Mr. Bahri - or to use that odd expression of Gatsby's, 'Tell me, old sport, what shall we do with all these corpses on our hands?'" I think of, on the one hand, all the 'news' that flows before me on the TV screen, and also my personal memories of living in a war-torn Middle Eastern country. I know, because I have felt it, what she means when she writes "Life had acquired the texture of fiction written by a bad writer who cannot impose order and logic on his characters as they run amok."
Nafisi defines evil as a lack of empathy, and she demostrates this through her analysis of the fictional characters created by Nabokov, Henry James, and Jane Austen. She then transposes this insight onto the reality of the Islamic Republic: "Lack of empathy was to my mind the central sin of the regime, from which all others flowed."
This is a position I understand through feeling rather than through rational thinking. But what use are my feelings against the onslaught of current events (Iraq, Guantanamo, Afghanistan, Darfur, etc)? Nafisi, as a human individual, as a teacher and as a writer, focuses on this dilemma again and again. She is troubled by her (professional) "irrelevancy" but also the possibility she might have become - over time - helpless, or even worse, detached, as a defense mechanism to protect her integrity from the unbearable reality of life in Iran.
Although Nafisi states that the personal is not political, the writing of this memoir can be interpreted as a political act, as a statement against lack of empathy, against impotence. She cites Henry James: "Feel, feel, I say - feel for all you're worth, and even if it half kills you, for that is the only way to live..."

-- -- --
I'm waiting for the postal address of the next person in this bookray. (Several PMs haven't worked so I'm trying the email address on his BC profile page).

Journal Entry 38 by okyrhoe from Athens - Αθήνα, Attica Greece on Thursday, October 26, 2006
Finally, I managed to communicate with the next person in the bookray, and RLinT is travelling again. It's on its way to musicalpenguin in Scotland.

[It appears that more and more PMs are getting lost in the ether. Another BCer gave me a very useful tip: Do a search in the forums for the most recent posting by the BCer you are trying to contact and post an ISO (in search of) message there.]

Journal Entry 39 by musicalpenguin on Monday, October 30, 2006
Arrived this morning from Athens all wrapped up in lovely brown paper, covered with lots of lovely stamps. I'm not feeling very well, so it was an extra special surprise.

Thanks to Mary-Zee for continuing the ray, and to Okyrhoe for passing it on.

(Please note: there was a slight delay in passing the book onto me from Okyrhoe. This wasn't her fault: it now seems that I wasn't receiving any PMs. Anyway, all is well now and I am looking forward to settling down to read it.)

Journal Entry 40 by musicalpenguin on Thursday, December 14, 2006
This is just to let you all know that I haven't forgotten about the book. I am rading it - but it's taking longer that I expected. However, I will continue and then pass it on to Djgib.

musicalpenguin

Journal Entry 41 by musicalpenguin on Wednesday, January 17, 2007
After three months of really struggling with this book, I have finally given up. I've found that it was not what I expected - although bits of it were still of some interest to me. I've only got as far as the 50th page in three months - for me, that should have been three hours!

I think my ain problem with the book is just a matter of personal taste: I found the writing style too self-concious and assured, a bit "touchy-feely".

It's a shame because I was looking forward to reading it as I am fasinated by the middle east, but especialy Iran and pre-revolution Iran.

Thanks anyway to Mary-Zee for being kind enough to share it with me.

PMing Djgib for an address.

Journal Entry 42 by musicalpenguin on Saturday, March 17, 2007
Finally, after much PMing and emailing, the book is on its way again! Posted to Booklady331 in the USA, as Djgib could not be reached.

I can only apologise for the delay - various things at various times have not helped this: PMs not working, Djgib being away (we think), ISOs not being responded to...

Anyway - that doesn't matter now.

Thanks to Mary-Zee for her patience and help in sorting this matter out, and for sharing this book.

Journal Entry 43 by wingbooklady331wing from Cape Coral, Florida USA on Saturday, March 24, 2007
arrived in the mail today.

Journal Entry 44 by wingbooklady331wing from Cape Coral, Florida USA on Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Great book. It makes me appreciate the freedom we have here in the United States. What some of our sisters endure! Nafisi makes me want to read the classics.

Waiting for the address from RebeccalJames so I can send it on to her.

Journal Entry 45 by wingbooklady331wing from Cape Coral, Florida USA on Sunday, April 1, 2007
RebeccalJames asked to be skipped. So, I will see if there is any interest in another ray.

Journal Entry 46 by wingbooklady331wing from Cape Coral, Florida USA on Monday, April 2, 2007
Decided this book needed to stay in the "family" so I have started another ray. So far only 3 but it will be read and loved.

1. Bluestocking88 -- US --- DONE
2. brewski -- Canada -- DONE
3. brewster13 -- Canada -- SENT ON

Journal Entry 47 by wingbooklady331wing from Cape Coral, Florida USA on Monday, April 9, 2007
Off to bluestocking 88 to start the next ray.

Journal Entry 48 by Bluestocking88 from -- Wild released somewhere in the state, Washington USA on Friday, April 20, 2007
I just recieved this yesterday. I should get started on it within the next week.

Thanks so much for sharing!

Journal Entry 49 by Bluestocking88 from -- Wild released somewhere in the state, Washington USA on Monday, June 18, 2007
I really liked what I read, but felt like I was missing out since I haven't read Lolita or Invitation to a Beheading which frustrated me greatly. I could not get a hold of brewster13, so I skipped her and mailed it out to brewski today.

I also purchased copies of Lolita, Invitation to a Beheading, and Reading Lolita in Tehran to read at my leisure in the next few months. Thank you very much for sharing. This book is very well traveled!

Journal Entry 50 by brewski from Markham, Ontario Canada on Tuesday, June 26, 2007
I just received this in the mail today. Thanks for re-sharing this booklady331, and Bluestocking88 for sending this on. I will try to get started on this soon so that I can pass it on to brewster13 after I am finished. Hopefully I won't suffer from not having read all of the novels discussed in this one, but if so, I guess I'll take Bluestockin88's approach...well, there's no way to tell except to just start reading this and see :)

Journal Entry 51 by brewski from Markham, Ontario Canada on Friday, July 20, 2007
Okay, to be fair, my rating of this book probably hinges a bit on the fact that I have not read all of the novels discussed and analyzed by the author within this book (although I now plan to read them in the future). Also, it probably has a lot to do with the fact that I don't really enjoy analyzing literature all that much and this memoir is full of literary analysis.

Overall I found the writing style a bit academic, and the details regarding life in Iran a bit sparse. I also wasn't always able to make the connections that the author was drawing between the novels they were reading and "real" life in Iran. Maybe I am just a bit dense ;)

Anyhow, I will pass this on to brewster13 now that I have finished. thanks to booklady331 for continuing this book's journey.

Journal Entry 52 by brewski from Markham, Ontario Canada on Saturday, July 28, 2007
All packaged up, ready to drop in the mailbox destined for brewster13 in Calgary on Monday.

Journal Entry 53 by brewster13 from Calgary, Alberta Canada on Tuesday, August 14, 2007
This has arrived. I am in the midst of another book and am off on vacation, so this one will have to wait a couple of weeks before I can get to it. But will get to it soon :-)

Journal Entry 54 by brewster13 from Calgary, Alberta Canada on Thursday, November 8, 2007
Finally got to this book, and finally got to the end. I was so looking forward to reading this book, so thank you so much for sharing.
Now that I've read it, I'm kind of so-so on the liking it part. I'm not an English Lit major, and I really didn't 'get' the analyzing of books. I did really enjoy hearing about life in Iran, and how it affected them all. I think that the analyzing of books was a bit from Nafisi's teaching life that she forgot to leave out when writing a memoir. But learning about life in Iran made this a worthwhile read for me in the end.

I will likely see if there are more interested readers in upcoming weeks to continue to the ray...

Journal Entry 55 by brewster13 from Calgary, Alberta Canada on Monday, February 4, 2008
I opened this up to another bookray, and got one interested reader. So this book is off to Isabelopes today (surface mail though -- so it may take awhile).

Journal Entry 56 by Isabelopes from Cacém, Lisboa (distrito) Portugal on Friday, April 4, 2008
I just got it today! It took a month to get here!!! So I guess I don't have to send it over to anyone and I can take my time!!

Thank you brewster13 for sharing this book with me!

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