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OK so -- trying to find people who've either read or want to read Ada or Ardor by Nabokov. Been wanting to get to it but really want to talk to someone about it :)
I started it a couple days ago :)
Oh nice! How are you finding it?
the writing is so so beautiful. it's my first nabokov novel, only read spring in fialta before this and i love the epic scope of it. sorry for replying late; i just remembered this website exists <3
My favorite Nabokov!
I've only read Lolita so far. It was one of my favorite books, need to reread it. Been wanting to explore other Nabokov works, and got my hands on a beautiful Ada edition haha
Mine too!
I've read it! What do you want to know? It's not my fave Nabokov but it's pretty unique and I'd definitely recommend.
Ahh great! Did you keep going to the end notes? Or did you wait to read them after you were finished with the book? I read the first two chapters trying to consult them all of the time and got kind of overwhelmed (I was pretty tired that day too, which might have added to the experience)
Man it was so long ago I forgot about the notes. But yeah I would definitely have read them inline with the text. Been thinking back and I guess my issue with it is it’s probably the most Nabokov of his books if that makes sense? He’s a very sort of distant, clinical writer imo, all about the intellect and mental games, and I think that’s most in evidence in Ada. At least of the ones I’ve read. On the other hand there’s one phrase from the novel that has stuck with me ever since and will forever, and that is “masturbating jazzband”. I find Nab’s vocab choices deeply hilarious. Have you read much else by him?
I haven't! Shame on me, I've only read Lolita :P
What end notes are you talking about?
I just checked my edition, they're definitely there.
Yes! From what I've heard a lot of people miss them
Are they from Nabokov or someone else? I have A book club edition which is just a copy of the first edition and there's no endnotes from Nabokov. If you're talking about end notes from someone else ok, but I've never heard mention of end notes from Nabokov for Ada.
I’ve read it before—it’s truly fantastic. I’m not sure how deep you’re planning on going into the novel, but Ada Online is a great resource for annotations/ context about the novel: https://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/