Maurice Chabale

Fashion reading list by Maurice Chabale

Who said that fashion addicts (like MOI)  like reading nothing but Vogue? Yes, I love Vogue (esp. Russian Vogue and American Vogue). Hello, Anna Wintour the Queen! Hello, Viktoria Davydova Miss Gorgeous!

Quite the contrary, I love reading in general and nothing beats my boredom better than a good book in my hands. I love them of a smaller size, I love them of  a bigger size, I love them black, I love them white, I love them coloured and bright! But that doesn't mean that you have to give me books as presents.You better not do it! I'll accept it, but you know we, spoilt kids, prefer Cartier dimonds and gold chains to be presented. You know it how they say that books are the best gifts in Russia. I think that books are the worst gifts cause it's the same as to give lingerie to a girl (who may have not boobs yet) because IMHO giving a book involves a very intimate thing, think it's very personal. 

Lets' get back to the point though! I've wanted to blog about my fav books for months, but found time only by the current moment. And my list has nothing to do with those Hugos, Bookers, Goncourts or what have you, where they sometimes choose the crappiest soporific reading one can only imagine!

And it's always impossible for me to answer the question about my favourite writer as well as it's hard to choose a designer you like most of all for there are lots of worthy ones, and they all have a special place in my heart. 

So, let's start then! 

#1 goes to my Queen IRIS MURDOCH. God, she writes in so massive volumes (Leo Tolstoy seems a puppy dog here compared to Iris Murdoch when it comes to massive writing), but the world she used to create in her books is stunning and uncoparable, that's why I love her so much! I literally devored her book which is called "A Severed Head" a months or so ago,  and I can say that this is the best reading I've had by the moment since I had read Pascal Bruckner's  "Le Divin enfant". 

Thanks, Lady Kate Winslet. This was you who first showed Mrs. Murdoch's planet to me through the film "IRIS", a biographical movie based on a life story of Iris Murdoch. I reeeeeeally advise you to watch this film before you start a book. BTW, I've already  read three books by Murdoch ("The sea, the sea", "A Severed head", "The Sacred and Profane Love Machine") and they are all huge but worth spending time on. Pure perfection: a mixture of allusions, smartness and immaculate sense of humour peppered with nontrivial plots inside the book. Loves it! 

Intrigued about # 2, and # 3? Click NEXT to find out....

# 2 goes to my self-proclaimed Russian Big  Mamma that I probably lost connection with in my childhood and my place had been taken by this genious bastard online troll with the best Live Journal ever  (I know, I know I should restraint myself from being envious) - Tatyana Tolstaya. I love, I love, I love her! I swear to God, I spent a quarter of my bloody life watching her «Shkola zloslovia» (say "School of malignant gossip") on YouTube. Give me David Lettermann and I'll give you my Mamma who'd kick his #ss off with her b#tchiness, and wit, and all she has on da plate. David Lettermann? Who's David Lettermann? 

Welcome a serie of short stories titled "Легкие миры" by Tatyana Tolstaya (the book has not been translated into English yet, but if it is, let me know please!). 

I didn't read the book, I first read one of the stories on SNOB , then I googled it desperately trying to find its paper version online but I failed, cause the book hasn't been released oficially yet,  I guess. 

So I went to my favourite website with audiobooks asbook.net as I usually do before I go to bed, and to my great surprise the first book in the list was "Легкие миры". I  immediately started to listen to it and I hadn't slept a wink till I finished the book up to the end. Just catch a piece of it: "Вот сейчас я поставлю на американской бумажке свою нечитаемую закорючку, и один акр Соединенных Штатов Америки перейдет в мои частные руки. Стоит – а вернее, течет, хлещет и бурлит – 1992 год, и я приехала из России, где все развалилось на части и непонятно, где чье, но уж точно не твое, и где земля уходит из-под ног, – зато тут я сейчас куплю себе зеленый квадрат надежной заокеанской территории и буду им владеть, как ничем и никем никогда не владела. А если кто сунется ко мне в дом без спросу – имею право застрелить. Впрочем, надо уточнить, какие права у воров и грабителей, потому что на них тоже распространяется действие Конституции." (Татьяна Толстая "Легкие миры")

It's great, great, great and funny, innit? 

Photo via yandex.ru

# 3 goes to Alice Munro who I love to the bits. This gracious lady from the holy land of  Canada (Where's my Canadian living permit, BTW? JK) got the Nobel Prize last year! That says it all! She's a genious. Her English is so perfect! And her stries are short, that's the main thing for such people like me who can be bored so easily. My favourite story is about a woman who has lived with a doochebag under the same roof for all her life. Their life was as boring as watching porn. Yes, P-O-R-N. And, of course, she was bothered. There was something disturbing her all the way down. Once they had a quarrel.  You know, this was a trivial domestic drama people all around the world have every day. And so she left and decided to spend a night at one of her friend's place. He rang her many times but she refused to come back.  The very next morning on her way home she saw her husband sitting on the porch of their house. They were having that blah-blah-blah sort of things when she was striken by a terrible thought. She rushed inside the house and she found her children DEAD. The son of a b#tch had stabbed them! OMG. I cried so much when I read this line! What happened next you'd better find out yourself by reading the book And tell me, what you think. I personally don't get it whatever philosophical the sense behind all that might be. Come on...he killed his children! That's so saddening! 

The story is called "Too much happiness", if my memory serves me right. Nevertheless, whatever story written by Alice Munro you choose, you won't be dissapointed. 100%. And there we have it, three books, and many different stories. BTW, did I mention a name of a person whose name is not allowed to be said aloud?  F#ck it. I have many reasons to be stoned to death, let it be another one. I must say that his story changed my world! Welcome! Enjoy the reading and e-mail me your impressions! 

Post scriptum: I'm obsessed with the song by Bruce Springsteen "Streets of Philadelphia". I've been listening to it for hours by now. So, why don't you listen to it as a background music while  reading one of the books given above?