Welcome to Litsy!

Saturday reading on a coffee shop date 💕
#bookandcoffee

*trigger warning* There is no doubt that Márquez is a gifted wordsmith, penning an eloquent, albeit dense & tedious prose, but my troubles with this novel are the deplorable themes of romantized sexual assault, statutory rape & the contemptible message that unwilling women "just need a bit of convincing." Florentino made my skin crawl throughout, perpetuating toxicity that was apparently in the name of unrequited love; stalking Fermina (1/?)

Pining for someone your whole life that doesn‘t reciprocate is no way to spend one‘s life. Especially if it means being a profligate in the process. Some would find it romantic to spend 53 years waiting for a love, I would say that there is another love out there that will return the sentiment and lead one to a more fulfilling life. I found Florentino to be borderline poignant in this story, as the worst kind of love, is a one sided one.

Took me a while to get through this cause the prose is thick and I picked it up during a very transitory period of my life. Glad I read it though - the characters are fascinating. The magical realism elements are interesting are sparse but beautiful.

I found this quite hard to get through. The chapters were long, the characters are in my opinion unlikeable, and Florentino should not have spent his whole life pining for someone 🤷🏼‍♀️
BUT
Overall I quite enjoyed how it all came together…

This was my #Roll100 for July ☺️

“On Friday Penguin Random House confirmed that an unpublished Gabriel García Márquez novel – titled En Agosto Nos Vemos, (We‘ll See Each Other in August) – not only exists, but will be on shelves across Latin America in 2024.“

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/apr/28/gabriel-garcia-marquez-unseen-nove...

I‘m about a third though this book and enjoying it. I like an all knowing narrator, especially one that is generous with what happens in the future to an object or person we will not hear of again. It is like mini epilogues all the way through and I adore an epilogue.

#Memories #InQuotes @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

The word love is in the title so surely it‘s a love story right? That misconception ended quickly. It felt like what reading Wuthering Heights felt like but from a different angle.

To describe the relations in the novel the word toxic comes to mind. It‘s about the toxicity that disguises itself as love. Maybe the toxic lover truly thinks what they have is love but that type of love is love for the sake of self not love given to another.

Did the audio…beautiful language but had no idea what was going on so when my version accidentally lost my spot and went back to the beginning…figured that was the universe telling me it was time to give up.

One of my favourite books ever. Anyone else #gabrielgarciamarqez

I‘m struggling to get through this one for #FoodandLit. I started it almost two weeks ago and enjoyed the first third of the book well enough… but then it really slowed down for me. I ended up putting it down over a week ago, and have no interest in picking it back up. I still have a little over half to go.

Has anyone read it? Should I DNF it, or give it another go? Thoughts?

I finally finished Love in the Time of Cholera, and throughout I needed the advice to just “keep calm and carry on.” This is not my idea of a great love story, and many times I set it down and waited a while before picking it up again. Yet, when I read the final pages today, I can‘t quite say I hated how it all came together either. I do wish the parrot had been in the whole story. 🦜

#1001books #translated
#Reading1001 #TBRTakedown March 2022

1. Love In The Time Of Cholera
2. Both! Although Covid work craziness has meant my brain needs more chill time and less new information I need to track, so it is more podcasts for the last few years.
3. Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed (I've read this in print a million times and my copy has so many annotations and dog ears it is practically falling apart)
#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

Was not connecting with this one at all. #bail

In Covid Standard Time, we are not winning.

https://covidstandardtime.com/

“Aprovecha ahora que eres joven para sufrir todo lo que puedas –le decía–, que estas cosas no duran toda la vida”.

Took me a while to get through this cause the prose is thick and I picked it up during a very transitory period of my life. Glad I read it though - the characters are fascinating. The magical realism elements are interesting are sparse but beautiful.

1. The ones on my wishlist, lol
2. Tagged...one year, I was gifted the book 3 times. In total, I've been gifted the book 7 times. I have yet to read it.
3. This one is tough...illustrated version of A Christmas Carol.

@ozma.of.oz #sundayfunday

Gabriel García Márquez is a poet who writes entire novels. Loved this one!

Less a book of plot, and more a novel of ideas and emotions, and unfortunately for me these were not, most of them, ideas and emotions I was interested in.

And that‘s basically what it comes down to….

There‘s lots of long sections where nothing is happening but descriptions of stuff that happened (tons of this being all the women the protagonist sleeps with), and I could not stay engaged.

I was THRILLED when it was finally over.

Moreover, Hildebranda had a universal conception of love, and she believed that whatever happened to one love affected all other loves throughout the world.

It‘s funny how you can be reading a section, like just a long paragraph, and all of a sudden dive in and take a great liking to it, even though it could be nothing but description, for example.

It‘s interesting to me because so much of the time it‘s just based on your mood at that particular moment. Then I‘ll decide I really like it for, it seems, barely any reason.

Anyway, just thought I‘d pop in to say that.

I give it a so-so because the descriptive writing is wonderful of place, geography and scene. I found the male characters and plot insufferable. My last Marquez.

1. I just finished #Theghostbride (very nice book). As the wake up call will ring in about 4 hours, I think I will start #Thecrimsonpetalandthewhite tomorrow after work
2. Absolutely the italian cover of the tagged book
3. #Troubledblood by #RobertGalbraith

@rachelsbrittain #Weekendreads

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“To him she seemed so beautiful, so seductive, so different from ordinary people, that he could not understand why no one was as disturbed as he by the clicking of her heels on the paving stones, why no one else's heart was wild with the breeze stirred by the sighs of her veils, why everyone did not go mad with the movements of her braid, the flight of her hands, the gold of her laughter...”

Poetic storytelling! An all-time favorite.

"I have only one regret. I sang at so many funerals but I will not be able at my own" ?

I started to read it 4 years ago and then I paused until a few days ago. I am not sure how everyone else felt this book but for me was the beauty of the ugliness. Except one episode that made me cringe, probably those who read felt the same about the relationship between Florentino Ariza and America Vicuna. But, the rest of the book is magical. Not good or bad, only magical. The magic of other times.

I put this book down long time ago & I know now why. Florentino loved Fermina for more than 50 years, can life give them a second chance? I loved how author described life style in different generations and changes in life span using beautiful daily and funny expressions. However, Florentino‘s love for me is obsessive & pathological. Triggers: pedophilia & rape with no remorse but fear to be caught. Unhealthy love-narcissistic personality 3⭐️

I put down this book years ago and I know why in this reading. Maybe this author is not for me. Florentino loves Fermina for more than 50 years. Can they have a second chance? I loved how author described life style in different generations and stages of life, where he used beautiful, daily & funny expressions. However, I see Florentino‘s love as obsessed & pathological. Triggers: pedophilia & rape acts with not remorse but fear to be caught.3⭐️⬇️

I may be single but I have plenty of dates lined up this month 😏 including a blind date with a book! And some new poetry I‘m excited to check out.

Happy early Valentines Day to me! ❤️🌹

#valentines

The only regret i will have in dying is if it is not for love

Love in time of "corona" ?

I planned this as a Sept Bookspin FreeSpace, but come Oct bit by bit I was still reading. I feel college-credit-accomplished in completing this - so many words in chapters that go on forever. I liked it, but I hope I wasn‘t supposed to cheer for Florentino Arizo to get his girl. He had 622 affairs - alright - until he grooms a young girl he sponsors. Not okay, dude.

I thought this book was very boring and gross. Maybe I disliked it so much because I thought it was a historical fiction love story, but much of the book discussed raping women and pedophilia. Here's a quote, “He believed that when a woman says no, she is waiting to be urged before making her final decision.“ Eww, dude, no means no.

"Think of love as a state of grace not as a means to anything...but an end in itself."

Libraries are doing digital rentals right now, highly recommend, great read by Gabriel Garcia Marquez on my flight to Denver and got a lovely surprise when the flight landed.

#loveinthetimeofcovid
#library #lovestory

Day 24 of #BiblioMAYnia is #SouthAmericanAuthor

This one is still on my TBR, but I have only heard good things :)

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @OriginalCyn620

Tbr someday.

#SouthAmericanauthor #Bibliomaynia
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @OriginalCyn620

Starting on this beauty tonight 🤞🏽 hoping the Spanish vocab isn‘t too advanced for me!

#newread #spanishbooks #colombianlit

Day 17: For fun, I am going to post one book per day from my extensive to-be-read collection. No description and providing no reason for wanting to read it, I just do. Some will be old, some will be new. Don‘t judge me - I have a lot of books. Join the fun if you want. #bookstoread #tbrpile @StaceyKondla

With COVID-19 I thought I‘d spend blissful days lounging with novels upon novels, HA. I‘ve been so busy with work and school I‘m finally getting to my list, spending forever on this novel but finally halfway through and I‘m loving it- feels like I‘m reading a telanovela 😂

Menopause in the Time of Coronavirus doesn‘t have quite the same ring to it as Love in the Time of Cholera. #feverorhotflash

Just a classic must read!

This social-distancing has been tough on many of us. Fear of public gatherings has driven us indoors, but instead of relief, we‘re hounded by a news cycle powered by hysteria and greeted by the feeling of being penned in. It‘s a toxic cocktail of agoraphobia and claustrophobia chased down by an uncertainty about what tomorrow is going to bring.

I try not to bail on a book but this was just so boring. I wasted 4 days trying to get into it but just couldn‘t. Onto something else.

It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

1. So far it hasn‘t.
2. Had to go to 2 stores this afternoon but I found some and we should be good now 😁
3. I never have St Patty‘s Day plans 😂 Tomorrow is my son‘s birthday though and we are celebrating that.
4. Tagged
5. Ummm...last movie I saw in the theater was the latest Star Wars
#randosurvey @laurenslibrary

#QuotsyMar20 Day 8: #Proof
These days, it is love in the time of Covid-19.