This is going to be a very short review of a very long, long book--a book that seemed interminable at times, a book that began and ended and began again and never reached any point that would have made it worth the effort for me.

Yes, I know it is clever. There are moments of laughter and enjoyment at the beginning. The book is mostly about readers and their relationships to books, and there were times when you looked into the mirror of Calvino’s words and saw your own face staring back at you.

the Books You've Been Planning To Read For Ages,
the Books You've Been Hunting For Years Without Success,
the Books Dealing With Something You're Working On At The Moment,
the Books You Want To Own So They'll Be Handy Just In Case,
the Books You Could Put Aside Maybe To Read This Summer,
the Books You Need To Go With Other Books On Your Shelves,
the Books That Fill You With Sudden, Inexplicable Curiosity, Not Easily Justified.

I’ve known all of these books, and I’m betting you have all known them as well. As the ultimate reader, you are almost one of the characters in the book, and Calvino knows you and exploits you. You will want to like this, you will find some quotable moments, some ideas you can relate to:

“Your case gives me new hope,” I said to him. “With me more and more often, I happen to pick up a novel that has just appeared and find myself reading the same book I have read a hundred times.”

Happens to us all. If that is your only criteria, I can promise you that you have not read this book 100 times.

This is theatre of the absurd without purpose; this is an author wallowing in the phrase “I am different”; this is surrealism gone amok; this is a book without a plot, any defined characters, any sense of setting, whose only driver is its narrator’s point of view. The author has blurred the lines between what is real and what is fictional and he continues to stir the elements of the novel into an eddy that eventually dragged me down into boredom and ennui. By the halfway mark, the cleverness had worn thin and I no longer cared a whit for whatever point Calvino might have been attempting. I pressed on to see if there was some cohesion in the end, but alas, I found none.

To those of you who will be tempted to tell me I am simply not intelligent enough to get this book, to appreciate the complicated and innovative nature of its construction, to decipher the complexities of its author’s mind and intent, I say “poppycock”.

I started this book a few years back and DNF’d it almost immediately. My instincts said it was not for me. Had I been smart, I would have left it on the shelf. Maybe if I live to be 100 I will eventually learn to listen to those instincts--they are usually on target.

This book was written for you, the reader, who loves words, which are the bridges they create between our imagination and the immaterial worlds that float in the universe.
This unexpected meeting with Calvino left me with the furious imprint of a liberated work with crazy and delicious writing. Expect the reader to be roughed up by the cruel pen of the many-faced author. In this book, where beginnings are linked and frustration accumulates, prepare to continuously lose yourself in the maze of your desires without succumbing.

İLK OKUMA (Mart 2018)
Modern, postmodern ve sürrealist romanlarla sorunum var benim, sevmek istiyorum, barışmak istiyorum ancak şu ana kadar başarılı olamadım. Ama parlak olmada da bir umut ışığı yakaladım bu kitapla. Çok zorlandım aslında, bitirince ağzımda kekremsi bir tad kaldığını hissettim. Çok umutlanmasam da haydi hayırlısı...
Nerede okumuştum hatırlamıyorum, Calvino için “aynalarla çevrili bir odada insanın eline de bir ayna tutuşturan yazar” diye tanımlanmıştı, bu cümle beni çok etkilemişti okuduğumda. Görünmez Kentler’i okurken pek anlamamıştım bu tanımın derinliğini. Ancak “Bir Kış Gecesi Eğer Bir Yolcu”yu bitirince “tamam işte buydu” dedim.
Kitap klasik romanlardaki gibi sizi kendine bağlayıp sürüklemiyor ancak sizi öyle bir bağımlı kılıyor ki kopuk kopuk metinleri terkedemiyorsunuz, hatta onları siz sürüklüyorsunuz, ilginç bir duygu aslında, heyecanlandırıcı, zorlayıcı, hatta sinir bozucu ama sonunda yaratıcı. Hayalgücü ile gerçeklik arasında sıkışıp bırakıyor insanı, hatta çözüme varmanız için kışkırtıyor.
On farklı romanı (metni) birbiriyle birleştirmek mi, yoksa bunları birbiriyle harmanlamak mıydı amacı Calvino’nun ayırt edemedim. Okurken hep “ben bu kadar zorlanıyorsam yazar bunu yazarken ne azap çekmiştir kimbilir! “ diye düşündüm devamlı.
Elimdeki kitap YKY 4. baskı, kitabın 71. sayfasındaki “Çarşamba Akşam” paragrafında “Belki bu günce.... “ diye başlayıp sayfa sonuna kadar devam eden bölüm kitabı en iyi tanımlayan cümleler bence. Postmodern bir kitabı zorlanarak ama bırakmayı hiç düşünmeksizin okudum. Büyük bir yol aldığımı zannediyorum. Okumanın amacı da yol almak, yol alırken keyif almak değil mi?
Bir başka Calvino okur muyum emin değilim.

(Bu yorumu yazalı bir buçuk yıl olmuş, şimdi tam bir Calvinokolik oldum. Müthiş, beni kısa sürede tekzib etti Calvino, bu kitabı da yeniden okuyacağım. Sadece not düşmek istedim önyargısız okumanın önemini vurgulamak için. Ekim 2019 )

İKİNCİ OKUMA (Aralık 2019)

İlk okumamda 3 yıldız vermişim. Şimdi ise 5 yıldız. Kitap aynı kitap, öyleyse değişen ne ? Değişen benim okuma tarzım, kitaba bakış açım, okuma yelpazem, önyargılardan kurtulmam ve benzeri bir sepet dolusu neden. İnsanlar değişir (ve gelişir), sanırım özeti bu.
Mükemmel bir bilmece, bulmaca, yap-boz tamamlama romanı. Calvino usta, okuru ve okumayı kendi uslubunda anlatırken yazarlar, yayınevleri, yayın dünyası ile de kozunu paylaşıyor bence, inceden kafa buluyor gibi geldi bana. Kitabı anlatan en iyi bölüm, kitabın sonunda, kütüphanede bulunan yedi okur ve bir de “erkek okur”un sekiz farklı okuma biçimi tanımlaması bölümü. İyi okura iyi okumalar....

ابتدای کتاب، این سوال پیش میاد که نویسنده داره با خواننده کتاب حرف می زنه یا فقط داره راوی گری می کنه؟؟
داستان از اونجایی شروع میشه که شخصی میره و کتابی می خره و میاد خونه می خونه میبینه ناقصه و کتاب مورد داره، میره کتابفروشی که کتاب رو عوض کنه، و این اتفاق ده بار میافته که هر سری برای برطرف کردن مشکل کتاب و پیدا کردن داستان ناقص یه سری اتفاقات میافته! :))
می دونم پیچیده اس، باور کنید خود من هم خوب نفهمیدم و حتما باید بخونمش دوباره! :))

بدین ترتیب، فصل اول داستان مردی هست که داره کتابی رو می خونه
فصل بعد همون داستانی هست که مرد داره می خونه ، که ناقص تموم میشه
فصل سوم بر میگردیم سر اون مرده، که می خواد بره کتاب رو عوض کنه و اتفاقاتی می افته
فصل بعدش داستان ناقص بعدی هست که مرده داره می خونه! :))
الی آخر

از این شفاف تر و خودمونی تر قادر به توضیح دادن نیستم! :))

نظر شخصی من، کل کتاب یک طرف ، صفحه آخر یک طرف.......
حتما بخونید، حتمااااااااااااااااااااااا بخونید

4.5

Single Quote Review:

A rule stands there like a sign-post. – Does the sign-post leave no doubt open about the way I have to go?

~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Beginning to read a book we always board a train to an unknown destination. Where will it take us and what will we see on our way there?

Reading is always this: there is a thing that is there, a thing made of writing, a solid, material object, which cannot be changed, and through this thing we measure ourselves against something else that is not present, something else that belongs to the immaterial, invisible world, because it can only be thought, imagined, or because it was once and is no longer, past, lost, unattainable, in the land of the dead…

And the train is going on stopping at all the stations: thriller, romance, adventure, crime, fantasy, mystery, drama, realism, mystification, absurdism, dystopia…

I’m producing too many stories at once because what I want is for you to feel, around the story, a saturation of other stories that I could tell and maybe will tell or who knows may already have told on some other occasion, a space full of stories that perhaps is simply my lifetime, where you can move in all directions, as in space, always finding stories that cannot be told until other stories are told first, and so, setting out from any moment or place, you encounter always the same density of material to be told.

Italo Calvino adopts Jorge Luis Borges’ concept of imaginary books and he takes us along on the journey to its logical limit.
Once upon a time there was a writer who wrote the very first book… Once upon a time there was a reader who read the very first book… Their names will remain hidden in ages.

"every thinking activity implies mirrors for me. According to Plotinus, the soul is a mirror that creates material things reflecting the ideas of the higher reason. Maybe this is why I need mirrors to think: I cannot concentrate except in the presence of reflected images, as if my soul needed a model to imitate every time it wanted to employ its speculative capacity."

This isn't a review ,only my thoughts.my friends have written amazing ones.

first it is a brilliant work of the imagination,a group of novels that melt,mix and reflect one another,a ten beginnings each one is completely different from the other

My favorite one was
(Leaning from the steep slope),i really loved it!

"I am becoming convinced that the world wants to tell me something, send me messages, signals, warnings"

"I have tended to reduce the presence of darkness in my life. The doctors' prohibition of going out after sunset has confined me for months within the boundaries of the daytime world. But this is not all: the fact is that I find in the day's light, in this diffused, pale, almost shadowless luminosity, a darkness deeper than the night's."


Besides, the one talking about Cimmerians
I even searched the web to know more about them.
Cimmerians or Kimmerians who were an ancient Indo-European people living north of the Caucasus and the Sea of Azov until they were driven southward by the Scythians.

Liked the idea of the search for lost civilizations
It enriches and widen the scope of my understanding.

and in the Sea of Identities..

Calvino get across this subject at least for me.

May be I am a good observer or I looked to things in a different way.

This novel is like a Village of Many Nations.

And i searched for mine and I somehow find it ...

" the squat Arab garbage collector who in October begins his rounds for tips, house by house, with a Happy New Year card, because he says that his colleagues keep all the December tips for themselves and he never gets a penny"

I wander...

" Who is an Arab?

And how could anyone know that a person is (an Arab?)
Why he didn’t give him an identity.
Or a nationality
Only an Arab.
A vague description
not easy to define what is meant by an Arab.
language is not sufficient criterion of Arabness

Egyptians for examples are anthropologically Copts who speak Arabic
North Africans are mainly Amazigh..and etc...


"the young Sultana wrote to the translator, protesting. Marana rushed to Arabia. "An old woman, veiled and bleary, motioned me to follow her. In a roofed garden, among the bergamots and the lyrebirds and the jets of fountains, she came toward me, cloaked in indigo, a mask on her face, green silk dotted with white gold, a strand of aquamarines on her brow...."

And what is Arabia?
There Isn't any country named Arabia.
Another vague reference.

" Having gained the African dictator's trust, having regained that of the Celtic writer "

"in the African airport, among the hostages of the hijacking who are waiting sprawled on the ground"

Also only an African
And in the novel
Chinese and Japanese are not called Asians...
And polish,Irish and french are not called European...
This is one of the reasons why I didn’t rate it three but two.


at first i was excited and Curious to follow the novel, I
wanted to rate it five stars because of the great quotes , the unique idea and the interesting description.

But then it became boring and irritating.
and Not as strong as it begins.

i don't know why i didn't enjoy reading it,may be my expectation was very high.

My apologies to those who love this book and especially my Friends.
:)

AI CONFINI DELLA SCRITTURA

Un romanzo molto particolare, strutturato in modo insolito: il lettore si trova coinvolto in una serie di inizi, ma nessuna storia si conclude mai completamente. È un'opera che sfida i confini della scrittura stessa: ti trascina in un labirinto di narrazioni, esasperando e divertendo allo stesso tempo, mentre mette in discussione e ridefinisce il concetto stesso di cosa sia un romanzo.

La trama principale segue un lettore anonimo che compra un libro con il titolo "Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore", di Italo Calvino, ma scopre che il libro è difettoso e contiene un altro romanzo. Questo lo porta in una serie di tentativi per cercare di trovare la continuazione della storia: le sua avventure includono vari generi letterari e attraversano mondi narrativi differenti: dal Giappone all’America Latina.

Il romanzo è un'esplorazione della natura stessa della scrittura, della lettura e della composizione. È un'opera postmoderna che gioca con le convenzioni letterarie tradizionali, esaminando il rapporto tra autore, lettore e il processo stesso di creazione di un'opera letteraria.

Leggere questo libro è un'esperienza che va al di là del semplice intrattenimento: è un'avventura intellettuale e letteraria. Approcciarsi a questo romanzo amplia la comprensione della letteratura stessa, spingendoci a riflettere su come le storie sono raccontate e percepite.

(Book 300 from 1001 books) - Se Una Notte d'inverno un Viaggiatore = If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler, Italo Calvino

If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler is a 1979 novel by the Italian writer Italo Calvino. The postmodernist narrative, in the form of a frame story, is about the reader trying to read a book called If On A Winter's Night A Traveler.

Each chapter is divided into two sections.

The first section of each chapter is in second person, and describes the process the reader goes through to attempt to read the next chapter of the book he is reading.

The second half is the first part of a new book that the reader ("you") finds.

The second half is always about something different from the previous ones and the ending is never explained. The book was published in an English translation by William Weaver in 1981.

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز هشتم ماه سپتامبر سال 2008میلادی

عنوان: اگر شبی از شب‌های زمستان مسافری؛ نویسنده: ایتالو کالوینو؛ مترجم: لیلی گلستان؛ تهران، آگاه، 1369، در 371ص؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان ایتالیا - سده 20م

مجموعه ای از داستانهایی است، که هیچگاه تمام نمیشوند؛ آقای خوانشگر روزی کتابی را میخرد، و ما همراه با او، مشغول خواندن داستان میشویم، اما در جای پرهیجان، کتاب تمام میشود، و خوانشگر خشمگین، بخاطر نیمه کاره بودن کتاب، به کتابفروشی میرود، و در آنجا با خانم خوانشگر آشنا میشود؛ آنها نسخه ی درستی از کتاب را میگیرند، و متوجه میشوند، تماما داستان دیگری است، که به علت بدی چاپ، ادامه اش قابل خوانش نیست، و به همین ترتیب خوانشگر ده داستان نیمه تمام را، در ماجرای اصلی کتاب، دنبال میکند؛ البته که ستایش کتاب خواندن است، برای لذت کتابخوانی، و شاید اشاره به این موضوع، که خواندن کتاب، دنیایی فراتر از نوشتن کتاب، و بسیار زیباتر است؛ کتابی که به خوانشگر، از لذت خوانش و نحوه ی درست خوانی میگوید، از لذت در کنار هم بودن، از انسانهای کتابخوان، و از خوشی بی وصف کتابخوانی، تنها برای کسب لذت از کتاب خواندن، لذت خواندن، و نحوه ی درست خواندن و لذت کنار هم بودن نگاشته شده است؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 12/09/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 08/07/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

في أي روايةٍ عادية، ينقسم العمل إلى قسمين؛ الموضوع والمعالجة. بمعنى آخر؛ الموضوع والأدوات.
في رواية كالفينو هذه، الموضوع هو الأدوات.

إنه يتتبع فكرة ولادة كل جملة أدبية بوعيٍ مذهل، لدرجة أن تقرأ بأن "الجمل والفقرات في هذه الصفحة يغطيها الضباب"، وترى الضباب، ومحطة القطار، والجُمل أيضًا! يبرهن كالفينو هنا على أنَّ الكتاب يأخذ لغته بحسب استراتيجية الكاتب، فهو يكتبُ أحيانًا بطريقة غامضة، ويبلغك بأن هذا هو هدفه، ثم يعود في فصل آخر ليكتب رواية مشبّعة بالوصف الحسّي التفصيلي. في أحد الفصول، انتحل أسلوب الكتابة اليابانية، كما لو كان كاواباتا شخصيًا.

إنه كاتب قادر على أن يجيء جديدًا ومختلفًا بين فصلٍ وآخر؛ يكتب كأنه مئة كاتبٍ في جسد واحد.

يقول عبدالفتاح كيليطو بأن في داخل كلّ قارئٍ شهريارٌ غافٍ. ويبدو أنَّ كالفينو أدرك ذلك أيضًا، فكتب رواية تتكون من سلسلة بداياتٍ لروايات، عشرة روايات تبدأ ولا تنتهي أبدًا، وتورّط قارئها في رواية تخصّه، موظِّفًا استراتيجيات القصّ لدى شهرزاد، تاركًا قارئه مع كل فصلٍ أكثر جوعًا مما كان عليهِ. بلغت بكالفينو البراعة إلى حدّ أنك مع كل (بداية جديدة لرواية جديدة) تنسى الرواية التي قبلها وترغب بتتبع الخيط الجديد.

لم يسبق أن قرأت شيئًا شبيهًا بهذا الكتاب.
وأشعر بالسعادة؛ لقد كانت الحياة كريمة معي، لكي أنضم إلى شهودِ هذه العبقرية الخالصة.

I'm not going to rate this because I'm honestly not sure what rating I'd give. This has been on my Goodreads TBR since 2012 and I wanted to finally check it off, but I think I knew deep down that my general dislike for "postmodernist" novels would continue with this book.

This is a clever book, I guess, and it does something experimental and different. But I was left thinking "so what?" when I finished the last page today. It is a concept piece; it does not really tell a story, or, at least, not a coherent one, and we are not encouraged to connect with the characters.

Each chapter is split into two-- the first part addressing "you", the reader, as you attempt to read If on a Winter's Night a Traveller, the second part an extract from a book that "you", the reader, are reading. Each extract is from a very different book, the stories and styles varying greatly. The reader, "you", tries to hunt down the rest of the stories he is reading, but each time he is led to yet another completely different story.

The best part was the first two chapters when I was not yet tired of the gimmick.