573 pages.
Day 1 (DDRD 2,556) October 30, 2024
Read to page 50.
Big leap from Book One, which was a little disorienting ar first, but by the time I hit page 50 I was cruising along, and only Game 4 of the World Series could keep me from reading more.
Day 2 (DDRD 2,557) 🎃 October 31, 2024 🎃
Read to page 75. Busy day.
"...the life I led was not my own. I tried to make it mine, this was my struggle, because, of course, I wanted it, but I failed, the longing for something else undermined all my efforts." (69)
"...[P]erhaps it was the prefabricated nature of the days in this world I was reacting to, the rails of routine we followed, which made everything so predictable that we had to invest in entertainment to feel any hint of intensity." (Still 69)
Now that (⬆️) is some IFS*.
And on page 74:
Of COURSE he's reading Demons at the same time (so to speak) that I am. I'm not even surprised.
* Intense Fucking Shit
Day 3 (DDRD 2,558) November 1, 2024
Read to page 110. Another busy day. About half of this reading g was done in church (before the service
On the difficulty of reading Distoyevsky: "I was uncomfortable in Dostoyevsky's world." (96)
Just a few lines earlier, KOK said, "The threshold for reading [Dostoyevsky] became higher the less I read...." I'm not sure what he means by that, but it's clear that (1) he loves Dostoyevsky and (2) he finds Dostoyevsky difficult to read.
Also clear: KOK has antiquated views of men and women which border on misogyny and (2) he wants to fuck every pretty woman he sees, even though he has a wife and a young child at home.
Day 4 (DDRD 2,559) November 2, 2024
Read to page 150.
Referring to the boxing ring, KOK says, "There the values that the welfare state had otherwise subverted, such as masculinity, honor, violence and pain, were upheld...." (126)
What the fucking fuckety fuck????
Also...KOK mentions that a fellow writer / friend, Geir Angell Øygarden, had written a book entitled The Aesthetics of a Broken Nose. I thought that sounded interesting, so I went to have a look for books by thus Grid fellow. Amazon? Nope. Better World Books? Nope. Thrift Books? Nope. LFPL? Nope. Ebay? Nope. AbeBooks? 2! Neither in English. Neither 👃. Internet Archive? Nope.
Guess I won't be reading that book.
Another reason to learn Norwegian.
Day 5 (DDRD 2,560) November 3, 2024
Read to page 200.
Mention is made of the great(-est?) Norwegian writer, Tor Ulven. I searched high and low: one slim book of poetry on Amazon. Nothing else.
I'm 67 years old. It's too late to become a translator of Norwegian literature.
Isn't it?
I sure hope that "fucking a 13 year old girl" wasn't a real thing, as KOK says. That would definitely be the end of our reading relationship.
Day 6 (DDRD 2,561) November 4, 2024
Read to page 244.
Just took a peak to see how long A Raw Youth is, and happened upon this statement:
"One must be too disgustingly in love with self to be able without shame to write about oneself." Dostoyevsky, A Raw Youth.
Hmmm.....that's a bit in the nose, isn't it?
My book's been making some weird creaking noises as I read. Check out this bookbinding disaster waiting to happen:
What kind of idiot binds a book this way? The idiots at archipelago Books, that's who.
Day 7 (DDRD 2,562) November 5, 2024
Read to page 249. Yeah, only 5 pages. Busy day + election returns 😔.
Day 8 (DDRD 2,563) November 6, 2024
Read to page 282.
Hmmm. Is it just me, or is KOK an asshole? When his pregnant girlfriend starts bleeding, he tells her everything is fine and doesn't take her to see a doctor...because they're on vacation, visiting his mother. He throws a glass across the room during an argument. Etcetera. And you might think it's brave of him to write about himself in this way...but I don't get the feeling that he knows he is an asshole, which makes him an even bigger asshole. We've also never come back to the did you have sex with a 13 year old girl thing. I'm starting to wonder if it's time to get off this train.
Day 9 (DDRD 2,564) November 7, 2024
Read to page
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