The Idiot | 
I think this book has the potential to be frustrating for a lot of people, but I'm halfway through and I'm loving it!
The year is 1995, and email is new. Selin, the daughter of Turkish immigrants, arrives for her freshman year at Harvard. She signs up for classes in subjects she has never heard of, befriends her charismatic and worldly Serbian classmate, Svetlana, and, almost by accident, begins corresponding with Ivan, an older mathematics student from Hungary.
pickI had wanted to read this for a while but I‘m glad I waited until I was in college, especially after my first year. It was so relatable to read a college story where the narrator felt like an imposter who didn‘t fit in. That‘s how college felt for me in the beginning so that was refreshing. I wasn‘t a super big fan of the end tho
pickThis took me ~100 pages to get into but BOY did I love it when I did!! Selin is all of us, we are all Selin
#JumpStart2023
That's a square ticked off for #bookspinbingo too!!😁
#JumpStart2023
I have 100 pages left of The Idiot and I'm so hoping to finish today! I have until end of day on the 4th to keep me on track for my 100 books in 2023 goal though!!
I'm back at work today after my Christmas break (booo!), but I should still be able to manage it💪
The Idiot is really making me chuckle at the moment - Selin (main character) is so unintentionally funny bless her, I love her a lot
#WinterReadathonDailyChallenge #JumpStart2023
Okay but why does this paragraph give a real insight into the workings of my brain too😂
#JumpStart2023
'February rolled around. The philosophy professor's unwavering concern for Martians came to strike me as eccentric, even troubling. For the benefit of the Martians, we spent hours trying to put things like metaphor and malapropism into logic notation.'
Currently over 100 pages in to my first book of the year😊 Happy reading everyone🙌
#JumpStart2023
@TheAromaofBooks #bookspin #bookspinbingo
My list for January 2023!! I can't remember if I'm on the list to be tagged in posts so please do add me if not😁😍
#JumpStart2023
I have decided that my goodreads goal will be to read 100 books in 2023 - very bold given this year I was just short of 40 hahaha but it will be fun trying!! I'll need to read about 8 books in Jan to be on track😂
I am going to be posting my #bookspinbingo list soon & I'll also be taking part in #foodandlit in Jan (at least)😁
@Clwojick @Lizpixie
so-soThis was weird. Absolutely loved the first third, couldn‘t stop reading, but then suddenly lost interest. The rest was a bit a drag and I didn‘t know where the story was going and what its purpose was. Made me chuckle once, though, which is raee with books.
More character and thought focused than plot focused. It‘s so easy to read even though I don‘t understand half of the philosophical ideas. It reminds so much of being a freshman, very young and inexperienced but dealing with these weighty ideas.
so-soThis was hard to keep going back to. There is humor throughout, but a very dry kind. Like the paragraph up above (which did make me laugh).
The back of the book has a review that states "An addictive, sprawling epic; I wolfed it down."
This review mocked me every time I forced myself to pick it back up so I could finally finish it.
I'm done. I finished it. I feel tired now. ?
The last sentence of the book made me yell out loud..ugghhh ?♀️
pickCAN WE TALK ABOUT THE SHADE OF PINK chosen for the cover of the paperback edition of this novel? It‘s UNNERVING. It still lingers, four days after finishing. Every time I completed a section, I would close the cover and just stare at it, contemplating why they chose such an unattractive hue. Then I realized it matches the exact shade of pink as Silly Putty. Which was genius, because Batuman‘s novel was Silly Putty for my BRAIN. Goofy and tactile.
pickQuite enjoyed this! Upon finishing, I added to Goodreads and the first review I saw was @ReadingEnvy ‘s. I miss her. Her review (link in comments) says much that I would re: why I enjoyed - the late 90s/early-email-era college experience, the navel-gazing aspect, and the author‘s audio narration. For me the Boston academia setting and Selin‘s naïveté also resonated. That I'm eager to jump right into Either/Or for #CampLitsy says a lot, I think!
bailed134 insufferable pages later, I‘m throwing in the towel.
bailed#SorryNotSorry
Too many books and not enough time to read a book that isn‘t engaging me. 🤷🏻♀️Just have no interest in picking this book back up.
Sorry #CampLitsy, looks like I won‘t be reading Either/Or in August.
pan⭐️⭐️ Neither Selin nor I learned a single damned thing.
That‘s all I‘ve got. 😅
pickI really liked this book though some part of it was nostalgia and familiarity. Her descriptions of Boston and particularly the Cambridge/Somerville area in the late 90s are spot on. I kept realizing, I‘ve ridden that bus, been to that restaurant, walked through that building. It felt both very specific to that time and place but also a great encapsulation of the feeling of being a college freshman.
pickThis unexpectedly charmed me. It's too long, but that feels like a pointless quibble because I found myself chuckling often at how self-deprecating yet self-absorbed Selin is, like many bookish, awkward, uninitiated young people. It's a book where a lot happens, but comes off like nothing happens precisely because of how Selin perceives life: in single-minded devotion to her crush. Life feels like this: enchanting, silly, boring, banal, profound.
🎧👟 I‘m gonna finally finish this book today. It‘s ungodly hot in TN, but my boys have run training, so here I am, walking on the greenway. Luckily for all of us there‘s lots of shade! They‘ll take extra water breaks and play in the creek. 🥵☀️ #audiowalk
I am so bored. Does this get better? Does something happen? I‘m 100 pages in and I have no idea how I‘m going to go 300 more pages and read the sequel for #CampLitsy
I was interested in the story at first and read through it pretty quickly, but it‘s just so slow or something. I don‘t read a lot of character driven novels, I need action. 🤷🏻♀️
pickIt‘s 1995 and Selin is entering her first year at Harvard. We follow her to classes, as she gets to know her roommates and make friends.
This book focuses on the everyday and is a reminder that it‘s the normal things that makes a life.
Can‘t wait to meet Selin again.
#CampLitsy
pickThanks to #camplitsy finally read this one off the never ending TBR. Can‘t wait to read the sequel next month!
#BookReport
Finished The Storm of Echoes.
Currently reading The Idiot and How High We Go in the Dark
pickI read this ahead of Either / Or, ready for #camplitsy. Like a few of us, I think, I found it boring to start with but then started to get involved in Selin‘s life.
It really felt like the author understood and was able to portray that slightly angsty teenager who‘s not sure of her place in the world and doesn‘t yet know her own mind.
It ended up a good pick for me and now I‘m looking forward to the next book.
Henry is chilling in the shade.
pickSo glad #CampLitsy prompted me to finally read this! Really liked it. Very much my kind of humor. Look forward to spending more time with Selin in Either/Or.
pickI never normally reread modern books but starting Either/Or made me realise how desperate I was to reread The Idiot. I loved this just as much as I did the first time and I can imagine myself rereading it many more times. I might even have loved it more. The humour and poignancy and how unpretentious it managed to be was jus magic
so-soI really liked Batuman‘s writing and many of the protagonist Selin‘s reflections on the world, and the way she articulated her awkwardness or lack of fit with it. I also liked the absurdist feel to much of this (and isn‘t life truly absurd?!) However the amount of time spent on the obsession element of the novel just made me feel tired! It felt repetitive and maybe that was the intention. A so-so but I‘m still interested in this author
Day 11 DNF - a holiday read from a book exchange that I never really got into
#bookmoods
@Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
Daisy needs a rest on the walk - I get to read ❤️
“I didn‘t know what email was until I got to college.”
#FirstLineFridays
pickI disliked the first 100 pages of this novel and would‘ve bailed if its sequel (Either/Or) had not been chosen for #CampLitsy. However Batuman‘s *very* dry humor grew on me, and I loved the last 300 pages. I even laughed a few times. Selin is interesting.
Not much plot. Virtually 💯 a character study. You follow Selin through her freshman year at Harvard and a summer abroad in Hungary. She has a complicated relationship with a senior, Ivan.
Sorry camp counselors but this book is NOT for me so ill be passing on Either/Or 🤪Hope it‘s ok if I‘ll just skip that activity and write letters home from my bunk instead xxx
pickBatuman captures the monotony and agony of the first year of college — one of the darkest times of my life — with both dry wit and deeply poignant and philosophical prose. As an academic, I deeply appreciated Batuman‘s assumption that her readers are learned and capable of drawing their own conclusions, as opposed to many modern novelists that insult the intelligence of their audience. I cannot wait to read the next one.
I sent this to my best friend from college. We took the newspaper VERY seriously ourselves, and she was editor-in-chief whereas I helmed the Arts and Entertainment section.
Enjoying this one!
Surprise day off! I‘m going to run a couple of errands, then guess what I‘m doing! 📚❤️
I‘m all for weird and quirky, but this line is fucked up.
pickTrying my first review!
I absolutely loved this book. I thought it was weird and unusual but entirely relatable and also Hilarious! It made me laugh a lot because it was so ridiculous and absurd as Selin tries to navigate not only her freshmen year of college, but the intimidating process of communicating with language. The writing is amazing and I probably didn‘t understand all of the philosophy but I loved the heart of this book. BWWAY is next!
pick10 // 2021: “It can be really exasperating to look back at your past. What‘s the matter with you? I want to ask her, my younger self, shaking her shoulder. If I did that, she would probably cry. Maybe I would cry, too.”
Started as a vacation read, technically finished as a COVIDmas isolation station read.
Introspective and lovely, can‘t wait to read her newest book!
so-soI tried y‘all, I really did. It took me SO long to read this because I just couldn‘t get into it! My partner (who never reads fiction) got this and loved it, so I read it for him. And his whole family also loved it. And it‘s won a bunch of awards! What‘s wrong with me?! I had a difficult time keeping up with the disjointed writing style, and the author over explained when I didn‘t want it and didn‘t explain enough when I needed it. 5/10
