"Ludmilla, herself reader of several books at once, to avoid being caught by the disappointment that any story might cause her, tends to carry forward, at the same time, other stories also...."

I love when a book has quotes that perfectly describe how I feel about something, but it's a rarity when a quote perfectly describes my feelings about the very book it's from.

Because unfortunately, I ended up skimming the last half of this book "to avoid being caught by the disappointment" this story was causing me. How meta - like the book itself.

Maybe it's not very ✨art student✨ of me, but this was a reminder that post-modernism is just not for me.

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is a book about books and reading. It starts out in second person, and describes the experience of reading, getting excited about a new book, but only to be interrupted multiple times in many ways. Very relatable and charming - at least to begin with. The "main character" gets into this new book, only to find there's something wrong with the binding and the story is left at a cliffhanger. But along his journey to find the rest of the book, he encounters many other unfinished books that are just as interesting but don't have endings. Oh, and we get to read the beginnings of all these books as well.

This process began to just get tedious, and I wasn't very invested after about the 6th or 7th iteration of this occurring. I'm glad to see so many people love this book, but kinda like how I feel about Hirst, Koons or Warhol - I can appreciate it but I don't necessarily seek it out. ( )

Liked the first chapter, but it just got totally weird from there. ( )

Reread from a long time ago. He is a less learned version of Borges but really has more true psychological depth to his works. Both are equally fascinating.

Have to wonder if Wm Weaver did the best job in the translation though have not checked for alternatives.

Chapter 7 midway through has a delightful segway? about ways books are arranged in one's home and different categories of books.

Easy to see why some readers are offended by overt sexuality of later chapters, though I think it is so exotically/ esoterically descibed.

"Around an empty grave" parallels several Borges stories set in South America. ( )

Fascinating book of beginnings & intrigue & what hooks a reader. ( )

The first chapter is a giddy delight, and there are some real high points, in terms of thinking about reading, what reading is for, why we read--but mostly it's a slow slide downhill. The fundamental problem is that Italo Calvino is very clever and pretty good at writing, but he doesn't actually know that women and people of color are people. He has an extremely clear idea of the Universal Person, who is always male and implicitly white, and this becomes more and more frustrating as the book goes on. Also the last few "novel excerpts" were unbearably horny, in a predictable and gross cishet dude fashion.
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