Welcome to Litsy!

A great book with lots of food for thought. While it wasn't always easy to read, the fragmented language and the weird metaphors captured the main character's unraveling and made him feel real. This will definitely stay with me, and I may even revisit it in the future.

I‘m not going to lie and say I understood everything this book was trying to say, but it‘s interesting how relevant this book still is. I could see how 1984 and other dystopian novels pulled from it.

#TLT @dabbe
21! So many I have never heard of!

3 favorites:
We (tagged)
The Forsyth Saga (book and show both sooo good)
Of Human Bandage

3 on TBR
Edith Wharton
Ford Maddox Ford
Chrome Yellow by Huxley (I had not heard of this!)

#AboutABook Day 19: #Pub100YearsAgo - yet it still resonates.

#pub100yearsago #aboutabook
My newest hire on my team at work recommended this one to me. Originally published in 1924.
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs

Next up 🤓

I'm not going to admit how many of these books I read and got wrong and how many I got right based solely on cover vibes 😅

https://bookriot.com/sc-fi-opening-line-quiz/

8-16-22: My 80th finished book of 2022! Written in 1924 and considered the grandfather to 1984 this novel tells the story of an organized United State where all citizens are not individuals but only numbers existing in identical glass apartments with all actions regulated by the Table of Hours. Freedom and happiness are incompatible. This was short but tough. ⭐️⭐️⭐️📖#️⃣8️⃣0️⃣

#Movie2BookRecs @Klou
Prompt: Inception

This was a difficult read, both because of the style of writing and because the dystopian future thing feels over done. But this is the book that supposedly started all the others. It influenced Orwell when he was writing 1984 (indeed a glowing review by Orwell is included in my edition, bookended with an Intro by Margaret Atwood). This is a real “under his eye“ type story set in a clean, symmetrical glass-built city.
#NetGalley #ARC

I didn't pick up Passing at B&N, however I did buy this amazing red, white & blue edition of the dystopian novel that influenced 1984 & Brave New World. Matching my shirt too! @Centique

"And happiness... what is it, after all? Desires are a torment, aren't they? And it's clear that happiness is when there are no longer any desires, not even one...".

3/5

A thought-stimulating book.

In this totalitarian state, where individuality is oppressed to the point that there's no "I", only "We", freedom and happiness are incompatible.

If you conform to others you're not free, but does this make you happy? In other words, can you be happy if you're not free to live your own individuality? Isn't it freedom that makes you happy? Happiness is freedom - freedom to chose to be happy.

Worth reading.

"The stone-house age" ?

I read this for Reading Rivalry on Facebook. It is a unique read that reminds me so much of 1984. It takes place in a time that people are named with one letter and a sequence on numbers, dreaming is considered a form of mental illness, and people do complex problems for relaxation.

Another good reread from high school.

A curiosity of a book in the dystopian diaspora of literature. Of note in the edition I read is an essay by George Orwell on We‘s influence on 1984. I found the afterward from the translator, Bela Shayevich, very enjoyable. This is a translation for a modern reader, the word choices are contemporary, and the sci-fi feeling holds true even though the writing is now nearly 100 years old. #netgalley

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4069970262

This diary style written book often ends in a Stream of Consciousness, which made it hard to follow. Still it's is another proof of how farsighted some authors were. Especially when it comes to surveillance Zamyatin comes close to what's reality now. And how we just accept it. It made me shiver more than once. Especially when I found more resemblances to our modern times.

@TheAromaofBooks #BookSpinBingo
#FoodAndLit @Butterfinger @Texreader

Got a bingo! I‘ll be able to add a couple #Netgalley reads by end of month if all goes well. Not sure about a second bingo.

Loaded up on the #queer #lgbtq books for June and Pride.

#bookspinbingo

While looking for recipes from #Russia I of course came along the famous Stroganoff. Nah, I thought, to common. But then someone posted a Stroganoff recipe on the food blogs I'm following, and I came to the conclusion that this might be a sign. So I made a Stroganoff and thoroughly enjoyed it. Guess now I know why it is such a famous dish 😋

#FoodAndLit @Butterfinger @Texreader

Yesterday I tried the courgette stew from #Russia (bought at the lovely Russian webstore I've already mentioned) and it is so tasty! I think I could just take a spoon an eat the 530 gramms in one go 😋

#FoodandLit @Butterfinger @Texreader

Yesterdays lunch fitted yesterdays weather just perfectly. A warm self-made Soljanka for our #FoodandLit journey to #Russia - pure Soulfood ❤

@Butterfinger @Texreader

To celebrate yesterday's Russian Language Day I sat down with some Russian Tea Cakes. If you like wafers, they're great 🤩 Nice coat of tasty dark chocolate included 😋

#Russia #FoodandLit @Butterfinger @Texreader

My order for our #FoodandLit journey to #Russia not only came in a smiling box, but I also got a more expensive product from the shop owner, since the one I chose was out of stock. What a lovely store! 🥰

@Texreader @Butterfinger

#sundayfunday @ozma.of.oz

1. Tagged
2. Terry Pratchett (can't believe it took me so long!)
3. Like most people, getting to travel and to visit family/friends.

The grandfather of all dystopian novels and a direct precursor to 1984 and Brave New World, this might be better than either of them (and I love both those books). The same anti-totalitarianism themes are there, but We feels somehow less topical than its descendants. In his youth, during the waning days of the Tsar, Zamyatin was a Bolshevik activist who was imprisoned and exiled multiple times. 👎

If this means that you are in agreement with me - then let's talk like grownups, when the children have gone to bed: about everything right through to the end. I ask you: what have people - from the very cradle - prayed for, dreamed about, and agonized over? They wanted someone, anyone, to tell them once and for all what happiness is - and then to attach them to this happiness with a chain...

However sad it is, I ought to record here that, obviously, even today, the process of hardening, the crystallization of life has not yet been completed, it hasn't reached the ideal - there are still a few stages to go. The ideal (clearly) is a state where nothing actually happens anymore...

I am merely copying, word for word, what was printed in the State Gazette today:

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

1/3 of the way into #JoyousJanuary Readathon. I'm on track with my goals. Finished one book (tagged) out of the three books I want to read this week and read for 11 hours out of the 24 I want to read. I am finally getting my reading life back. @Andrew65

I'm excited to start this readathon just in time for my three-day weekend. Here are my goals:
1. Finish 3 books
2. Read at least 20 hours
3. Attend book club
#JoyousJanuary @Andrew65

I really enjoyed this strange, early dystopic story.

I rarely enjoy dystopian futures but this one was flawless, in a lot of ways it‘s everything I wanted 1984 to be. The prose and the translation were fantastic, the sense of menace and desperation, the rocket and the glass houses. It was nightmare-ish but also so beautiful to read about. I could take a bath in this prose.

Another slow reading month for me. I had hoped to get one more book done but it was a chunkster so I've fallen short. I enjoyed pretty much everything I read this month but the standout was We because it is so relevant today despite being written in the 1920s.
2 eBook
5 Physical
I'm sitting at 9000 #BuriedAliveChallenge points with an average of 103 points per qualifying book.
#SeptemberWrapUp

It's amazing to me that this book was originally written in the 1920s because it feels like it could have just as easily been written today. It covers a variety of issues like free will and happiness along with individualism versus the collective. I can easily see why the ladies of Gaslit Nation have this on their recommended reading list.
#BuriedAliveChallenge

Took my grandmother to get her hearing aids adjusted so I‘m just reading in the car while I wait for her.

#BookReport
I finished up The Outside and New Spring relatively early in the week but it took me forever to open up We for the SFFBC buddy read. I'm still feeling kind of book slumpish so it's hard to actually open a book. Once I do I'm fine it's just the motivation to start that's lacking

#WeeklyForecast
I should finish up We pretty quickly since it's so short and then I'll try to tackle The Expanse again.

I am posting one book per day from my extensive to-be-read collection. No description or reason for wanting to read the book. Some are old and some will be new. Don't judge me - I have a lot of books.
Day 91

#tbrmountain #bookbuyingdiet

I‘m reading a used copy from the early 1970s and found this at the beginning. I‘m curious to find out how it relates to the narrative if at all. (I think it‘s relevant because the main character is a mathematician) Nit pick though the first i should equal square root of -1 not just i.

📖 We - Yevgeny Zamyatin
📚 H G Wells
🎥 West Side Story
🎤 Whitesnake
🎵 Walk This Way - RunDMC & Aerosmith

#ManicMonday #LetterW @JoScho

While I still haven't finished my #DoubleSpin for June I thought I should put together my list for July's #BookSpin. I'm still on the fence about partaking in the Bingo or not but it looks like it will be fun. @TheAromaofBooks

So well written (or translated?) that it‘s hard to believe it‘s a hundred years old.

Ringing out 2019 dystopian style! I have to finish this plus two more to meet my goal for this year for the first time EVER!! I am so excited!!! #readinggoals

#QuotsyNov19 Day 15: #Blade

Two quotes struck me in the last few pages of We by Yevgeny Zamyatin:

"A person is like a novel: Up to the very last page you don't know how it's going to end. Otherwise, there'd be no point in reading...."

"Children are the only bold philosophers. And bold philosophers will always be children."

#postapocalyptic #littens #yevgenyzamyatin

Getting through the last half of We today...

I wanted to read this book because it's an early dystipian novel (written in 1920) that may or may not have influnced other great dystopies such as "1984" or "Brave New World". However, I didn't like it nearly as much as I wanted to.
??? 3/5

I really liked the idea of this book and it is clear that Zamyatin is quite intelligent; however, the constant use of ellipses and mathematical equations came off really confusing at times. I really wanted to like this book but it was really hard to follow at times and the protagonist isn‘t likeable at all. #sciencefiction #bibliophile

I have to read this for my science fiction class. If anyone has read it what‘d you think of it? Did any themes or moments stuck out to you? I have to pick a theme and discuss it. I usually don‘t read to much science fiction so I‘m a little new to it. #bibliophile #sciencefiction #mustread

This is such a weird little dystopian science fiction read, I started out thinking it might be a DNF for me, but ended up with a moving story that will stick with me. This book was written in 1924, and you can definitely see its influence on later Sci-Fi classics. The human race is reduced to number designations, their every movement choreographed down to the second, but it all starts to fall apart as D503 develops a mysterious illness: a soul.