In regard to the comment that Nabakov encourages the reader to have sympathy for Humbert -- that's the point. Humbert isn't the devil, an incarnation of pure evil. He's a weak mortal man who is living a flawed life. But that does not mean he is beyond sympathy. The beauty of his story lies partially...

Why a "wannabe"? And why Sci-fi? I don't think I've ever heard someone describe themselves that way.

Definitely not. Unless one considers Hell to be the absolute oblivion of a person once they die. That's pretty scary! As a child, I always found the concept of Hel (Helheim) scarier than Hell. Endless cold and despair seems worse than fire and suffering. Maybe because I was a bit of a pyro as a chil...

Never ever ever... It seems like such a wanker thing to do. And I could use the exercise of walking a few more steps!

An interesting list, to be sure. I've read about 20 of the 32 titles, and I've been meaning to read most of the others. I thought some of the choices were very peculiar, like Pattern Recognition ... while it was definitely interesting, I wouldn't have thought it recommended reading. I see that Gibso...

Hello Angela! I'm a big Palahniuk fan as well... I tend to ration out his books and read them very far apart from each other, so I always have more to look forward to. Kind of silly, huh? As I result, I've only read about four of them (the first four he's written). I think of those, my favourite is ...

I was never a fan of libraries... I like to own my books. A lot of my friends use me as their personal library, actually. I'm a big supporter of libraries though, and I donate books or money when I can. Also, I'm told books provide valuable insulation, leading to a lower cost in heating bills. How's...

Hey Flyboy: When I first saw your alias, I thought perhaps it was a reference to the novel Flyboy Action Figure Comes with Gas Mask .... but that refers to a person who turns in to an actual fly. :laugh: I love flying as well. I have been up a few times, and seriously considered trying a career as a...

Rolling On the Floor Laughing

My favourite poet is Charles Bukowski, though by and large I don't read a lot of poetry. I really liked his "Septuagenarian Stew" collection. Here is a pretty good little sample of his work: "These Things" these things that we support most well have nothing to do with up, and we ...