Welcome to Litsy!

This was a very long short book! Overly descriptive and had an icky Lolita feel.

“for art was a war, an exhausting struggle, it was hard these days to remain fit for it for long”

Perhaps, hopefully, I will get to this book next year. 😁
Gustav von Aschenbach is a well known author in his fifties who is taking a vacation in Venice. At the hotel, he saw a beautiful adolescent boy, and is drawn to (obsessed with) him.
#MOvember #beautifulstranger

#MayMovieMagic

(Day 4 - #YoungAndBeautiful)

*Professor Gustav von Aschenbach goes to Venice for a respite, hoping to break his writer‘s block. After several seemingly random events (auguries, each of them), the professor espies a young 14-year-old boy in a sailor suit who is vacationing with his family. He becomes obsessed with the boy and largely ignores the the burgeoning climate of illness—to his detriment—for he dies of cholera on the beach.

On my TBR.

#NewHogwartsAdventure #death

Bam! #12in2 completed!

I finished Neverwhere, read a little Language Hoax, and started Death in Venice for a book club. PLUS we made solid progress in Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH for the #readingstreak

4 ⭐

📸 taken on holiday in Venice last year.

8 hours and 32 minutes of #12intwo completed @Samplergal

It turns out that my next #12intwo book works well for #summernightcity! #abbainaugust @Cinfhen @Meredith3 @emilyhaldi @Mdargusch @Reviewsbylola

@Samplergal I hope you don't mind but the hours I'm giving you are rough rounded up estimates - I can't use the timer app and kindle app simultaneously on my phone!

A masterpiece! I had to slow down to read it, the sentences are convoluted and the words chosen carefully. Language here is like a work of art! I loved how the changes in the city and the demise of the main character, Aschenbach, go hand in hand. The infatuation with Tadzio was fascinating and disgusting. What a book, what a way to end 2017!

#acityinthetitle and a beautiful city at that

#uncannyoctober

Right now my whole bookshelf is #bookombre, because I am a heathen. #autumnreads

#KindleTBR #awesomeautumnbooks @jess7. Slightly ambitious as I have a #PhysicalTBR as well, but I am going on holiday for a few days so it should be achievable.

I have just read this classic for the first time. Despite the fact that it is a short book, this is a demanding read that I will definitely revisit.

It is a book about beauty, art and sacrifice rather than carnal love.

The picture is from the classic film.

Reading it for the 3rd time. As brilliant as ever.

The story started off slow (You kind of have to will yourself through the first three chapters), but then it really gripped me. The infatuation of the protagonist basically lead him into his destruction willingly... I thought it was an interesting plot and I also liked how Venice had a lead role in it too. The narrator of the audiobook (German Version) was pretty miserable, but it's a short book, so it was alright.

A struggle at first, but more intriguing by the page. This is the story of Gustav von Aschenbach, who travels to the Lido in Venice. His admiration for a young, beautiful boy, who is staying there as well, becomes obsessive and ultimately, destroys him. So sad. #1001books Picture: Venice

This short novella is alternatingly brilliant, poetic genius of deep emotions, and pretentious nonsense. I was bored at first but slowly became fascinated with the growing sense of emotional turmoil, loneliness and approaching doom. While Mann was philosophizing over the erotic nature of artistic inspiration, I was increasingly creeped out by Aschenbach's object of desire and where all this was going. ⭐⭐⭐/5

I am awed by this sentence, its brilliant language virtuosity. I think it is pretentious and I have no idea what it means - but I am very impressed. A bit like Picasso? 🤔

Solitude gives birth to the original in us, to beauty unfamiliar and perilous - to poetry. But also, it gives birth to the opposite: to the perverse, the illicit, the absurd.

#funfriday flashback to Venice, my favourite bookshop and my pre-trip research read ❤️ #travel lreading

Ever read a book with certain expectations and it turns out to be something completely different?...well, Thomas Mann's "Death in Venice" did exactly that. I wanted one thing, instead I got a complex analysis of death, love, beauty, and decay. Need to re-read this in the right mood and mindset.

Suggested to me by someone I later found out never read it, this is the story of an older man restraining his love for a young boy. Well written, emotional & philosophically bent, this book focuses on divinity & restraint, but I prefer Lolita for the emotional complexity around forbidden love.