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Book One...

I got my copy of Lolita in the mail today - thank you amazon book sellers for my used 40 cent copy! I love the experience of cracking open the spine of a new book. There is something so exciting about not knowing what you will find within the pages. I don't get these people who read books on a kindle or an ipad or some other fancy device that I will never own.  Call me old fashioned , but you will never catch me on a bus or train or plane with one of these things on my lap trying to look cool and hip reading the latest Oprah book club selection. No, not me, I would much rather take my hard earned 40 cents (or I should say my husbands hard earned 40 cents because if you forgot, I have no income) and spend it on a well worn, dog eared, ragged paperback. Books have souls and each one is unique.  Never mind that one of my favorite experiences in life is sitting at home in a big cushy chair with a glass of wine and opening the cover of a book for the first time. Its the simple things.  But enough about the evils of technology, lets get to the book.
 
Even though most people in America immediately think Amy Fisher when they hear the name Lolita , the term orignated in 1955 with Vladimir Nabokov's novel about a grown man sexually obsessed with a 12 year old girl.  Imagine being 12 years old having a man that could be your father seducing you? Ick. When I was twelve I was still playing with Barbies and crushing on 7th grade boys - awkward and pimply though they might be, they at least were as unaccustomed to the dating game as me. I'm totally grossed out by the subject matter but equally as fascinated. No wonder Amy Fisher ended up on "Celebrity Rehab." Rejected by 6 American publishers, the book was finally published in Paris in 1955 and finally in the U.S in 1958. - It didn't receive much critical acclaim at first but due to its subject matter and unique style it quickly gained steam. How could it not when it has such a compelling story? People love stories of forbidden love, of doing things they know they shouldn't.  Its such a universal theme which is one of the defining characteritics of classic literature.
Tonight, I will pour a glass of wine, sit in my comfy chair and get reading.

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