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#oulipo
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suvata
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Pickpick

4 Stars • The Castle of Crossed Destinies by Italo Calvino (published in Italian in 1973) where characters, unable to speak, use tarot cards to tell their stories. The novel explores themes of fate, chance, and storytelling through the symbolism of tarot, challenging traditional narrative structures by suggesting stories are like cards, reshuffled and reinterpreted endlessly. ⬇️

suvata Divided into two parts:
• Part One: Medieval travelers' tales, focusing on knights, quests, and magic.
• Part Two: Stories involving historical and literary figures in a more courtly setting.
2mo
32 likes1 comment
review
The_Penniless_Author
The Skin of Dreams | Raymond Queneau
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Pickpick

This is a difficult one to rate. The narrative weaves back and forth between the MC's rather tedious and impoverished existence and his daydreams, which are so vivid as to sublimate reality. As someone given to vivid daydreaming, I completely relate to this, even if it can make for a disorienting reading experience at times. Queneau's wordplay is dazzling at times and very funny, even in translation. It's not quite like anything I've ever read 👇

The_Penniless_Author ...before, and the experimental qualities that make it such an interesting and admirable book also keep me from loving it unabashedly. Definitely worth reading once, though I'll be interested to see if I ever feel compelled to revisit it. 3mo
Aimeesue Nice review! 3mo
40 likes1 stack add2 comments
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The_Penniless_Author
The Skin of Dreams | Raymond Queneau
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#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

Garbage tumbled out of the metal bin and fell in a torrent into the trash can, eggshells, cores, greasy paper, peels.

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Kristelh
Life, a User's Manual | Georges Perec, David Bellos
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TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!! 4mo
9 likes1 stack add1 comment
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The_Penniless_Author
The Skin of Dreams | Raymond Queneau
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#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView

1. I have about a dozen books in the on-deck circle to read next, but I'm not sure which I'll choose. Most likely The Skin of Dreams or Portnoy's Complaint (thanks @RaeLovesToRead 😊).

2. No, between the NYRB bookclub and all my local used bookstores I have more than enough to read at the moment.

Tag @RaeLovesToRead @CBee @BarbaraBB @eeclayton @dabbe

RaeLovesToRead Fair warning: he complains a lot.. 🤣 8mo
TheSpineView Let's not talk about how much we have to read. 😳😬📚📚📚📚📚📚📚 8mo
dabbe Will do; thanks for the tag! 😘 8mo
30 likes3 comments
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Dilara
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Back from the open-air market with lots of fruit & vegs & Christmas roses. Glad for the warm coffee as it was nippy ❄
Have started a book of essays that seem to be mostly about the state of the French language & the un(der)recognised widening gap between spoken & written French. Quite apposite given the handling of language registers in my last read - the French translation of Thumbprint.

catsuit_mango When was it written ? I think of queneau as a writer from the 70s, so I'm thinking a lot is still changing. 11mo
Dilara @catsuit_mango The essays I've read so far were written in the 30s, 40s and 50s. The 1st edition was published in 1950, but this is a reworked later edition. What strikes me is that although spoken French has evolved since then, the themes he writes about are still being discussed in French media today (spelling, classism, the fact that the Académie française is out of touch). It seems we haven't moved on much since the fifties. (edited) 11mo
28 likes2 stack adds2 comments
review
masticocarta
Zazie dans le mtro | Raymond Queneau
Pickpick

Un lessico complesso e articolato, ricco e completo. Un libricino che ti fa respirare aria surrealista.
Ambientato nella bella Parigi.
Gente di strada.
Storie di strada.

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Liz_M
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Weekly Report

I am reading a little of Celestial Harmonies each day and I think I'll restart The Rainbow as my subway book this week. I'm halfway through the Perec (tagged). I finished, a few days late, Kintu and then read The Sandman Overture. And somehow, not only have I not killed my plant, it bloomed!

Suet624 I‘m so happy about you and your plant! 2y
merelybookish Lovely! 2y
BarbaraBB Beautiful pic 😍 2y
29 likes4 comments