There was no way this list was going to continue with a Nabokov reference, so here it is. I read Lolita in middle school, which is not normal. I remember distinctly checking out Kafka's Metamorphosis on the same day, so I was definitely in a weird phase. Either way, I read Lolita and really fell for the prose, which sparked a long era of Nabokov obsession in my life, which is thankfully at an end. I loved it so much that I lent it to a friend who rudely never returned it, so I bought a replacement, lent that to another friend, who never returned it, and thus, Lolita is also responsible for my strict no-lending policy.

I associate this novel so strongly with summers and vacations and it really is one of the best American road trip novels out there, so now is a good time to dig in if you haven't read it yet.

he Bookhive List is a weekly recommendation of my all-time favorite, must-read books

Why does every book on books include a chapter on Kafka? He seems to be the one author that all literary critics esteem in equal measure, and he seems to be the one author that everyone MUST write about, as if it hasn't all been written before (and quite possibly better).

I read a lot of Benjamin in college, but always individual essays in the context of a larger body of reading on the subject matter; I certainly never sat down and read a volume of Benjamin's writing for pleasure, so this was a very new and not entirely pleasurable experience. His syntax is notoriously difficult and I'm well out of undergrad, so reading his essays required flexing muscles I haven't used in a long time -- it was unpleasant, but that was completely the point.