Emo Nemo

Mily

Sarah

Shaidrian Rios

Jimmy Beans

miCCwatreSSop

Julie Wynne - videos

Kapuster

Nicky Tallon

Harini Sen

Vastralaya

Evan Shively (Perseus271)

حتی نمی‌دونم از کجا باید شروع کنم راجع به این کتاب بنویسم. اول بگم که حتی نمی‌دونم به کدوم ادیشنِ کتاب باید امتیاز بدم. من مخلوطی از پنج ادیشن مختلف را خوندم: ای‌بوکِ ترجمه‌ از روسی به انگلیسی کنستانس گارنت، بعد آدیوبوک همین ترجمه با چاپی متفاوت، بعد چند فصلی آن وسط را از روی ترجمه روسی به فارسی مهری آهی خوندم، بعد از اون نسخه چاپی انگلیسی ترجمه پوی‌یر و والاخانسکی را خواندم، (خواندن این‌ها، حدود نصف بیشتر کتاب، نزدیک دو هفته وقت گرفت) و در نهایت نصفِ دوم کتاب را ظرف دو ساعت و نیم از روی ترجمه‌ی انگلیسی به فارسیِ احد عقیلیان، چاپ نشر مرکز خوندم. می‌دونم کار مسخره‌ای کردم، ولی به هرحال پیش اومد. از میان همه این ها ترجمه احد عقیلیان را خیلی دوست داشتم و سریع خوندم (طبعا چون به زبان مادریم بود)، ولی نثر و نوشتار ترجمه انگلیسی را بیشتر دوست داشتم (با این‌که کند پیش می‌رفت) و از بین اون‌ها هم ترجمه گارنت رو ترجیح دادم. ملموس‌تر بود. حالا برم سراغ خود کتاب. اولاً من اصلا کی باشم که بخوام به داستایفسکی نقد وارد کنم؟ اصلا از این مسئله که به کتاب پنج ندادم و چهار دادم خجالت می‌کشم. ولی چیکار کنم که لذتِ خوندنش برام پنج ستاره‌ی کامل نبود. خیلی سر خوندنش زجر کشیدم و بارها حوصله‌ام سر رفت و بار ها  چند صفحه رو روزنامه‌وار خوندم که به جاهای هیجان‌انگیز تر برسم. مدام منتظر بودم داستان طی یک سیر صعودی هیجان‌انگیز تر بشه؛ ولی نشد، و جذابیتش صرفا طی یک سیر سینوسی بالا پایین می‌رفت. شاید اشکال از منه که توی داستان همش به دنبال «کشش» و جذابیت می‌گردم. واقعا این ایراد بهم وارده. توی گودریدز چرخیدم و چندین و چند تا ریویو از این کتاب خوندم که همه بدون استثنا به نبوغ نویسنده و به شاهکار بودن این کتاب اشاره کردن. و بعد نشستم فکر کردم ببینم چرا من اونقدر حظ اعلا از این کتاب نبردم؟ انقدر من خنگم؟ و بی‌سواد؟ یعنی کتاب رو به طور کلی دوست داشتم، ولی واقعیت اینه که اون‌جوری که همه می‌گن به نظرم نبود! خیلی خوندم که می‌گن کتاب ما رو به اعماق تیره و تاریک ذهن راسکلنیکف می‌بره، ولی من رو که نبرد! درست، به افکارش برد، ولی جوری نبود که من کاملا مجذوب و غرق افکارش بشم. داستان برای من توی فضای بیرون می‌گذشت تا تو سرِ راسکلنیکف. شخصیت‌ها دیالوگ‌های طولانی می‌گفتن و من همش منتظر بودم راسکلنیکف تنها شه و به فکر فرو بره و من توی تار و پود افکارش گیر بیفتم و باز هم این طور نشد. نمی‌دونم. کمی از خودم ناامیدم که نتونستم اونجوری از کتاب لذت ببرم که ظاهرا هزاران نفر برده‌ن. حالا راجع به قسمت هایی که دوست داشتم:  قسمت‌های موش و گربه بازیِ بازرس پارفیری با راسکلنیکف حقیقتاً جزو جذاب‌ترین قسمت‌های داستان بودن. از بودن شخصیت‌های زن قوی و خوبی مثل دونیا و سونیا هم لذت بردم. از کل پروسه‌ی قتل، فرار کردنش از محل، خوابی که دید و صحنه‌ی مراسم ختم مارملادف هم لذت بردم. صرفا به طور کلی می‌تونم بگم اگه از حوصله سر رفتن های در طولِ خوندن بگذریم، از کل کتاب و فضاش و دیلماهاش لذت بردم. *اسپویلر در ادامه* اما بیشترین چیزی که نظرم رو نسبت به کتاب مثبت کرد، پایان بندیِ خوب و امیدوارانه و قشنگش بود. من همش انتظار داشتم راسکلنیکف رو بکشن. وقتی نکشتنش انتظار داشتم تو زندان دیوانه شه یا خودکشی کنه. ولی اون عشق و امیدی که ته داستان داشت، اون اطمینانی که داشت که این هفت سال می‌گذره و زندگیِ جدیدی بعدش شروع می‌شه، این که سونیا رو دوست داره و به امیدش زندگی می‌کنه، این که هنوز یه شانس دوباره، یه فرصتی وجود داره و زندگی به تهش نرسیده، این‌ها خیلی زیبا بود و باعث شد واقعا داستان رو دوست داشته باشم. الان به نظر خودم خیلی ریویوی سطحی ای نوشتم و حس می‌کنم اصلا عمق کتاب رو نفهمیدم. ولی چیکار می‌شه کرد دیگه!

Years ago, when House of Leaves was first being passed around, it was nothing more than a badly bundled heap of paper, parts of which would occasionally surface on the Internet. No one could have anticipated the small but devoted following this terrifying story would soon command. Starting with an odd assortment of marginalized youth—musicians, tattoo artists, programmers, strippers, environmentalists, and adrenaline junkies—the book eventually made its way into the hands of older generations, who not only found themselves in those strangely arranged pages but also discovered a way back into the lives of their estranged children.Now, for the first time, this astonishing novel is made available in book form, complete with the original colored words, vertical footnotes, and newly added second and third appendices.The story remains unchanged, focusing on a young family that moves into a small home on Ash Tree Lane where they discover something is terribly wrong: their house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.Of course, neither Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson nor his companion Karen Green was prepared to face the consequences of that impossibility, until the day their two little children wandered off and their voices eerily began to return another story—of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of that unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams.

I don’t know what to do with these stars anymore. I give stars to books and then I think, ‘god, you give five stars to everything, people will think you are terribly undiscriminating’ – so then I give four stars or even three stars to some books. Then I look back and it turns out that that I’ve given four stars to Of Human Bondage and honestly, how could I possibly have thought it was a good idea to give that book less than five stars? It is the absurdity of human conventions that has us doing such things.Now, that is what is called a segue, from the Italian ‘seguire’ – to follow. For the last thirty years I have studiously avoided reading this book. I have done that because for the last thirty years I have known exactly what this book is about and there just didn’t seem any point in reading it. In high school friends (one of them even became my ex-wife) told me it was a great book about a man condemned to die because he was an outsider. Later I was told that this book was a story about something much like the Azaria Chamberlain case. A case where someone does not react in a way that is considered to be ‘socially appropriate’ and is therefore condemned.But after 30 years of avoiding reading this book I have finally relented and read it. At first I didn’t think I was going to enjoy it. It didn’t really get off to the raciest of starts and the character's voice – it is told in first person – was a bit dull. He is a man who lives entirely in the present, how terribly Buddhist of him – although, really there doesn’t seem to be all that much to him.My opinion of the book began to change at his mother’s funeral. I particularly liked the man who kept falling behind in the march to the cemetery and would take short cuts. Okay, so it is black humour, but Camus was more or less French – so black humour is more or less obligatory.I really hadn’t expected this book to be nearly so funny as it turned out. I’d always been told it was a ponderous philosophical text – and so, to be honest, I was expecting to be bored out of my skull. I wasn’t in the least bit bored.A constant theme in my life at present is that I read ‘classics’ expecting them to be about something and they end up being about something completely different. And given I’ve called this a ‘constant’ theme then you might think I would be less than surprised when a read a new ‘classic’ and it turns out to be completely different to my expectations. I’m a little more upset about this one than some of the others, as I’ve been told about this one before, repeatedly, and by people I’d have taken as ‘reputable sources’ – although, frankly, how well one should trust one’s ex-wife in such matters is moot.I had gotten the distinct impression from all of my previous discussions about this book that the guy ends up dead. In fact, this is not the case – he ends up at the point in his life where he has no idea if he will be freed or not. The Priest who comes to him at the end is actually quite certain that he will be freed. Let’s face it, he is only guilty of having murdered an Arab, and as we have daily evidence, Westerners can murder Arabs with complete impunity. The main point of the book to me is when he realises he is no longer ‘free’. He needs this explained to him – because life up until then had been about ‘getting used to things’ and one can 'get used to just about anything'. But the prison guard helpfully informs him that he is being ‘punished’ and the manifestation of that punishment is the removal of his ‘freedom’. Interestingly, he didn’t notice the difference between his past ‘free’ life and his current ‘unfree’ one. The most interesting part of the book to me was the very end, the conversation with the priest. The religious often make the mistake of thinking that Atheists are one thing – I’ve no idea how they ever came to make this mistake, but make it they do. Given that there are thousands upon thousands of different shades of Christians – from Jesuit Catholics to Anti-Disney Episcopalians – it should be fairly obvious that something like Atheism (without any ‘organised’ church or even system of beliefs) could not be in anyway ‘homogeneous’.I am definitely not the same kind of Atheist as Camus. To Camus there is no truth, the world is essentially absurd and all that exists is the relative truth an individual places on events and ideas. This makes the conversation with the priest fascinatingly interesting. To the priest the prisoner who is facing death is – by necessity – someone who is interested in God. You can play around with ideas like the non-existence of God when it doesn’t seem to matter (life is long and blasphemy can seem fun) – but surely when confronted with the stark truth of the human condition any man would turn away from their disbelief and see the shining light.Not this little black duck. Now, if I was in that cell I would have argued with the priest too – but I would not have argued in the same way that Meursault argues. No, I do not believe in God, but I do believe in truth, and so Camus’ arguments are barred to me.Meursault essentially says, “Look, I’m bored, I’m totally uninterested in the rubbish you are talking – now go away”. Now, this is a reasonable response. What is very interesting is that the priest cannot accept this as an answer. The world is not allowed to have such a person in it – if such a person really did exist then it would be a fundamental challenge to the core beliefs of the priest. So, he has to assume Meursault is either lying to him or is trying to taunt him. But it is much worse – he is absolutely sincere, he is not interested in this ‘truth’.I don’t know that the world is completely meaningless, it is conventional rather than meaningless. That those conventions are arbitrary (decided by the culture we grew up in) doesn’t make them meaningless, it makes them conventional. I don’t think I would like to live in a world where people go up and kill Arabs pretty much at random and with impunity, but then again, we have already established this is precisely the world I do live in. My point is that it would be better if we did adhere to some sort of moral principles and that these should be better principles than ‘he should be killed because he didn’t cry at his mum’s funeral’. Camus is seeking to say that all of our ‘moral principles’ in the end come to be as meaningless as that – we judge on the basis of what we see from the framework of our own limited experience. And look, yes, there is much to this – but this ends up being too easy.The thing I like most about Existentialism, though it isn’t really as evident in this book as it is in the actual philosophy – although this is something that Meursault is supposed to have grown to understand (sorry, just one more sub-clause) even though this wasn’t something I noticed at all while reading the book, was the notion of responsibility. I didn’t think in the end Meursault was all that much more ‘responsible’ for his actions than he had been at the start. But I do think that ‘responsibility’ is a key concept in morality and one that seems increasingly to be ignored.Better by far that we feel responsible for too much in our lives than too little – better by far that we take responsibility for the actions of our governments (say) than to call these governments ‘them’. I’m not advocating believing in The Secret - but that if one must err, better to err on the side of believing you have too much responsibility for how your life has turned out, rather than too little.So, what can I say? I enjoyed this much more than I expected – but I’m still glad I waited before reading it, I really don’t think I would have gotten nearly as much out of it at 15 as I did now.

Greece in the age of heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the court of King Peleus and his perfect son Achilles. By all rights their paths should never cross, but Achilles takes the shamed prince as his friend, and as they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine their bond blossoms into something deeper - despite the displeasure of Achilles' mother Thetis, a cruel sea goddess. But then word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped. Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus journeys with Achilles to Troy, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they hold dear.Profoundly moving and breathtakingly original, this rendering of the epic Trojan War is a dazzling feat of the imagination, a devastating love story, and an almighty battle between gods and kings, peace and glory, immortal fame and the human heart.

The Woman in the Dunes, by celebrated writer and thinker Kobo Abe, combines the essence of myth, suspense and the existential novel. After missing the last bus home following a day trip to the seashore, an amateur entomologist is offered lodging for the night at the bottom of a vast sand pit. But when he attempts to leave the next morning, he quickly discovers that the locals have other plans. Held captive with seemingly no chance of escape, he is tasked with shoveling back the ever-advancing sand dunes that threaten to destroy the village. His only companion is an odd young woman, and together their fates become intertwined as they work side by side through this Sisyphean of tasks.

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again...Working as a lady's companion, the heroine of Rebecca learns her place. Her future looks bleak until, on a trip to the South of France, she meets Max de Winter, a handsome widower whose sudden proposal of marriage takes her by surprise. She accepts, but whisked from glamorous Monte Carlo to the ominous and brooding Manderley, the new Mrs de Winter finds Max a changed man. And the memory of his dead wife Rebecca is forever kept alive by the forbidding housekeeper, Mrs Danvers...Not since Jane Eyre has a heroine faced such difficulty with the Other Woman. An international bestseller that has never gone out of print, Rebecca is the haunting story of a young girl consumed by love and the struggle to find her identity.

A second family has been massacred by the terrifying serial killer the press has christened "The Tooth Fairy." Special Agent Jack Crawford turns to the one man who can help restart a failed investigation: Will Graham. Graham is the greatest profiler the FBI ever had, but the physical and mental scars of capturing Hannibal Lecter have caused Graham to go into early retirement. Now, Graham must turn to Lecter for help.

This is a three-chapter sampler.Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him....

Since his debut in 1955, Tom Ripley has evolved into the ultimate bad boy sociopath, influencing countless novelists and filmmakers. In this first novel, we are introduced to suave, handsome Tom Ripley: a young striver, newly arrived in the heady world of Manhattan in the 1950s. A product of a broken home, branded a "sissy" by his dismissive Aunt Dottie, Ripley becomes enamored of the moneyed world of his new friend, Dickie Greenleaf. This fondness turns obsessive when Ripley is sent to Italy to bring back his libertine pal but grows enraged by Dickie's ambivalent feelings for Marge, a charming American dilettante. A dark reworking of Henry James's The Ambassadors, The Talented Mr. Ripley—is up to his tricks in a 90s film and also Rene Clement's 60s film, "Purple Noon."

[Penguin Readers Level 4]Winston Smith lives in a society where the government controls people every second of the day. He fights this world with love. But it's dangerous: love for another person can be punished by death - and Big Brother is always watching.Orwell's classic story shows that there is no freedom unless ideas and beliefs can be questioned. This is as true today as when it was written, more than fifty years ago.

Set in the international world of classical music, the film centers on Lydia Tár. widely considered one of the greatest living composer/conductors and first-ever female chief conductor of a major German orchestra.

An entomologist on vacation is trapped by local villagers into living with a woman whose life task is shoveling sand for them.

1964 film directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara

A young man and woman meet on a train in Europe, and wind up spending one evening together in Vienna. Unfortunately, both know that this will probably be their only night together.

After being kidnapped and imprisoned for fifteen years, Oh Dae-Su is released, only to find that he must find his captor in five days.

This Hong Kong-set crime drama follows the lives of a hitman, hoping to get out of the business, and his elusive female partner.

Twin gynecologists take full advantage of the fact that nobody can tell them apart, until their relationship begins to deteriorate over a woman.

A young man is ostracized by his classmates after he bullies a deaf girl to the point where she moves away. Years later, he sets off on a path for redemption.

A story between a mole in the police department and an undercover cop. Their objectives are the same: to find out who is the mole, and who is the cop.

2002 Hong Kong crime-thriller film by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak

A young African-American visits his white girlfriend's parents for the weekend, where his simmering uneasiness about their reception of him eventually reaches a boiling point.

2017 horror film directed by Jordan Peele

Mathilda, a 12-year-old girl, is reluctantly taken in by Léon, a professional assassin, after her family is murdered. An unusual relationship forms as she becomes his protégée and learns the assassin's trade.

A former neo-nazi skinhead tries to prevent his younger brother from going down the same wrong path that he did.

Nine years after Jesse and Celine first met, they encounter each other again on the French leg of Jesse's book tour.

2004 American romantic drama film directed by Richard Linklater

We meet Jesse and Celine nine years on in Greece. Almost two decades have passed since their first meeting on that train bound for Vienna.

2013 American romantic drama film directed by Richard Linklater

A self-conscious woman juggles adjusting to her new role as an aristocrat's wife and avoiding being intimidated by his first wife's spectral presence.

A Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run, and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.

A former child star torments her paraplegic sister in their decaying Hollywood mansion.

Through a failed medical experiment, a priest is stricken with vampirism and is forced to abandon his ascetic ways.

A brilliant but eccentric scientist begins to transform into a giant man/fly hybrid after one of his experiments goes horribly wrong.

Oskar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl.

2008 Swedish horror romance film directed by Tomas Alfredson

A young couple trying for a baby move into a fancy apartment surrounded by peculiar neighbors.

Elliot, a brilliant but highly unstable young cyber-security engineer and vigilante hacker, becomes a key figure in a complex game of global dominance when he and his shadowy allies try to take down the corrupt corporation he works f

American drama–thriller television series

Seasonal anthology series in which police investigations unearth the personal and professional secrets of those involved, both within and outside the law.

Explores the early relationship between renowned psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter and a young FBI criminal profiler who is haunted by his ability to empathize with serial killers.

In his quest for a bride to break his immortal curse, Dokkaebi, a 939-year-old guardian of souls, meets a grim reaper and a sprightly student with a tragic past.

"Flower of Evil" is a suspense melodrama about a man who hides his cruel past and changes his identity, while his detective wife tracks down his past.

After his hometown is destroyed and his mother is killed, young Eren Yeager vows to cleanse the earth of the giant humanoid Titans that have brought humanity to the brink of extinction.

The story of two fearless men who are willing to go through extreme lengths in their pursuit of a returning serial killer. To uncover the murderer's identity, the two are forced to look deeper than what the evidence seems to suggest.

Unpleasant events disturb the life of an aspiring crime fiction writer when he becomes a resident of an apartment building teeming with shady neighbors.

A group of bored delinquents are transported to a parallel wasteland as part of a survival game.

A gambling prodigy comes to an elite school run by games and turns the order upside down.

An intelligent high school student goes on a secret crusade to eliminate criminals from the world after discovering a notebook capable of killing anyone whose name is written into it.

After discovering time travel, a university student and his colleagues must use their knowledge of it to stop an evil organization and their diabolical plans.

2011 anime television series directed by Kanji Wakabayashi

A brilliant neurosurgeon living in Germany finds his life in utter turmoil after getting involved with a psychopath that was once a former patient.

13-year old Rachel awakens to find herself trapped in the basement of an unfamiliar building. Upon meeting a serial killer wrapped in bandages, she begs him to kill her. As his only wish is to leave the building alive, he agrees to d

In a city known as No.6, an elite student named Shion saves a young boy called Rat, who happens to be an escapee from the local prison. After being reunited with Rat years later, the two begin to uncover the dirty secrets of the 'ide

Gon Freecss aspires to become a Hunter, an exceptional being capable of greatness. With his friends and his potential, he seeks for his father who left him when he was younger.

After suffering defeat, Yuri Katsuki hangs up his ice skates for good. But will an encounter with two top skaters reignite his passion?

2016 anime television series directed by Sayo Yamamoto

The life and loves of the rock band Given, and the romantic relationships that develops between its members.

The story captures the war between a mafia boss named Dino and a young gang leader searching for redemption.

<p>Death Note is a Japanese manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. It was serialized in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from December 2003 to May 2006, with its chapters collected in 12 tankōbon volumes. The story follows Light Yagami, a genius who discovers a mysterious notebook: the "Death Note", which belonged to the shinigami Ryuk, and grants the user the supernatural ability to kill anyone whose name is written in its pages. The series centers around Light's subsequent attempts to use the Death Note to carry out a worldwide massacre of individuals whom he deems immoral and to create a crime-free society, using the alias of a god-like vigilante named "Kira", and the subsequent efforts of an elite Japanese police task force, led by enigmatic detective L, to apprehend him.</p>

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