Welcome to Litsy!

Interesting intersection of philosophy and psychology and historical fiction. Also interestingly found out it's Ari's favorite book. Enjoyed the insights into each character's mind and worldview.

First book of quarantine.

Wanted to show off my hardcover Kunderas . I bought “Unbearable”new , I think I read The NY Times review. Probably one of the major indicators that I was falling in love with literary fiction. Found this copy of the Joke years ago, being how it was published in 1969 , I felt happy to find one in such good condition.

I loved this book so much, it really was my companion while growing into adulthood.

I read most of his books after this one and loved many of them, but this one stood out for all those years.

RIP Milan Kundera.

How fitting a tribute as the author Milan Kundera just passed away yesterday at the age of 91. I‘m LOVING this book @TrishB it‘s perfect for dipping into when you have a few minutes 🥰

😢 https://www.npr.org/2023/07/12/1151021446/milan-kundera-dies-unbearable-lightnes...
This book made a big impression on me years ago.

Sad to learn Milan Kundera passed away ~ R.I.P. 🕯️🕊️

This book really blew me away at a young age.
(And then the movie, a young Daniel Day-Lewis, Juliette Binoche and Lena Olin - wow!)

I might re-read it soon 😌

#czechrepublic #readaroundtheworld Set during the Prague Spring and subsequent Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia, this lightly plotted tale of love and betrayal, delves into the meaning we bring to life. Free, light, and easy but with little meaning compared to weight. The writing also walks the tightrope of light easy wit, eager sex and moments of crushing despair. Kundera talks to the reader thru the fourth wall and directly to me.

For the year 1984 I selected this book. This one has left me with a book hangover. I must say it‘s both heartbreaking and disturbing but at the same time a beautifully written story. Well worth picking up. #19822022 #readingchallenge @Librarybelle

I have never read something so brutally beautiful, disturbing and loving, ever before in my life. I am still blowen away by the fact that it took me so long to decide to read this.

#QuotsyJul21 Day 1: #Boundaries

5 STARS

Dutch translation of The unbearable lightness of being. I am not quite sure what the purpose was of this book or if and what I was supposed to learn. But I enjoyed the story and I like to learn about philosophy, so that makes it a pick.
This was also the book I had the longest.
TBR since March 20th. 2008 ; 357 pages.

I‘m not ready to start a book for #FoodAndLit yet this month, but I‘m ready to try Vietnamese recipes. Today I made pork banh mi on a homemade sourdough baguette. It was delicious!

I also listened to The Unbearable Lightness of Being over the course of today. It had interesting and thought provoking aspects, but overall there was too much sex and philosophical thinking for me.

#1001books #translated #audiobook #Hoopla

A modest "pick". On the surface, a story of two couples and their intertwining relationships, the novel explores the choice of living with "weight" (attachments, responsibilities) vs. "lightness" (unattached, free, but ultimately insignificant). Such a cult has built up around Kundera that it's hard sometimes to separate the profound from the pretentious in his work, but ultimately he's a playful and engaging (if sometimes flawed) writer.

#QuotsyJan21 Day 13: #Public

Just finished this so intense and overwhelming novel! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I read just the first two pages of this book 20 years ago and I'm still wondering if this book would've left the same deep impact on my 20-year younger self

I may have picked this book up at the wrong time. I definitely wasn't ready to read 400 pages of philosophy poorly disguised as a novel. I also found it jarring whenever the author stepped out of the novel and talked out of it, and it happened quite often. I almost bailed on it several times, and now that I finished it, I don't feel like I made the right choice in spending this much time on it.

Look who had a great time reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being! Set against the background of the Prague Spring of 1968 and the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, the book has an interesting intersection of historical fiction and philosophy. It emphasises on the point that life lacks any ultimate meaning and is light but we make it heavier by finding meaning in it. It was a delight from the first page to the last & I‘d recommend it to all

Like when the author ponders over life!! His comments are wise and interesting and still relevant now!

I did not get the hype of this book at all. The storylines didn‘t connect and I just didn‘t get the purpose of the book.

This book was beautifully written- how life lived only once is light and beautiful and exists exactly as it must. Very sexy at times, but also very detail dense, it took a lot of time and effort to read, but it was enjoyable every second

Unexpected push for animal rights near the end 🙌🏻

Far more engaging than I thought it would be. Beautifully written, full of many different threads and philosophical tangents and unexpected moments of humor that weave together so well.

On protest and political action: “His choice was not between playacting and action. His choice was between playacting and no action at all.”

This book has so many themes/narratives to unravel. I‘ll certainly be at it for awhile, this isn‘t a book that you can forget about. Kundera hits the reader with absolute gems of ideas one after another— some are hard to piece together but I think this is what makes this such an incredible read.

#7days7books Day 2. Books that changed me or left a lasting impact on me.

“Kitsch may not depend on an unusual situation; it must derive from the basic images people engraved in their memories: the ungrateful daughter, the neglected father, children running in the grass, the motherland betrayed, first love.

Kitsch causes two tears to flow in quick succession, the first heart says: How nice to see children running on the grass! It is the second year that makes kitsch kitsch.”

#7days7books Day 6

I have underlined so many sentences in this book, I felt like Kundera knew it all. These were the early 90s however. I wonder (doubt to be honest) if I‘d love it as much today.

@Simona and @Hooked_on_books would you like to join? Post 7 books that have been important to you, no explanation needed.

Interesting intersection of philosophy and psychology and historical fiction. Also interestingly found out it's Ari's favorite book. Enjoyed the insights into each character's mind and worldview.

First book of quarantine.

I‘m 78.2% sure that I listened to this book and the wrong time in life... there are some really good passages here, but I have very little patience for slightly pretentious philosophy right now, and absolutely zero patience for Tomas the ‘epic‘ womanizer and his stanky hair or Teresa‘s passivity. With all of this sexuality, I was hoping for maybe a little bit of 🔥 but all I got was some 😒 and 😕 with a lot of 🤢.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

#1001books

#QuotsyApr20 #tangible

@TK-421

I was worried that this book might be a bit too highbrow for me, and sometimes it was. (This may also be due to a bit of non-concentratey skim reading going on!)

However I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book, having been a little bit frightened by it before starting.

#definitelynotcovercrush
#boringcover

#readingeurope2020
#czechia

#QuotsyNov19 Day 30: #Experiment

A meditation on life .

"Human life occurs only once, and the reason we cannot determine which of our decisions are good and which bad is that in a given situation we can only make one decision; we are not granted a second, third, or fourth life in which to compare various decisions."

I know there‘s no haunting in this book, but there‘s so much history in Prague it‘s full of ghost stories. They say if you dare go to Charles Bridge late at night you can see severed heads still dangling from the towers at each end...👻 #screamathon