An Italian literary corner
Recensioni, Incipit & Citazioni
Leggo per legittima difesa gathered book reviews, opening passages, quotations, and literary news for Italian-speaking readers, from the Scripta Volant collective.
Contributors including Eleonora Lo Iacono, Alessandro Dall'Olio, and the editorial staff wrote about fiction old and new — from David Foster Wallace and Philip Roth to Italo Calvino and Gianni Rodari.
What the site covered
The pages brought together several recurring strands of reading life: quotations pulled from favourite pages, the opening lines that hook a reader, full-length reviews, short stories, and photography celebrating books and libraries.
- Citazioni — quotations from Philip Roth, Julian Barnes, Gianni Rodari, Bruno Munari, José Saramago, and a featured line from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.
- Incipit — opening passages including Haruki Murakami's 1Q84 and Mario Vargas Llosa's Lettere a un aspirante romanziere.
- Recensioni — reviews such as Una tregua, Io sono solo io, and Maurizio Sbordoni's Stavo soffrendo ma mi hai interrotto.
- Racconti — short stories, including the Brothers Grimm's Cappuccetto Rosso.
Images, covers & community
A dedicated photography section, "Foto – Amore per i libri", featured a 17th-century portable library commissioned by MP William Hakewill, book art by Thomas Allen, and images of notable bookstores. A companion gallery, "Le migliori copertine dei libri", showed multiple cover editions of J.D. Salinger's Il Giovane Holden.
"Amici di libri e lettori" served as a space for readers to connect around shared recommendations, part of the wider Leggo per legittima difesa community.
Freschi di stampa
This section highlighted newly published titles, including Silvia Avallone's Marina Bellezza and pieces on David Foster Wallace, among them Un antidoto contro la solitudine and Di carne e di nulla. An August 29, 2011 piece covered Lernet-Holenia's Ero Jack Mortimer, a noir set in late-1920s Vienna, drawing on an ansa.it source. The site also hosted a "Social Book Day" event during this period.
Get in touch
The editorial team could be reached at redazione@recensionieincipit.com. Readers were invited to submit their own reviews ("Pubblica le tue recensioni") and to browse the site's aNobii bookshelf. The site was affiliated with Scripta Volant and Officine Zero91, and offered a newsletter subscription.
| Contact | redazione@recensionieincipit.com |
|---|---|
| Affiliation | Scripta Volant, Officine Zero91 |