I have a question.  I didn't think about it until someone else (either on a PBS forum or another reading forum mentioned it).  Should I read Lolita before I read Reading Lolita in Tehran? 

i'm not sure but I had planned on doing that s well, just so I know what they're referring to.  However, I think Reading Lolita is also about other books, and about how the girls there were vicariously living through these books they read about another world, basically.  Not too sure though!

I think it would be helpful, I've read Reading Lolita in Tehran but not Lolita and felt I missed out. They discuss other books that it helps to have a familiarity with - Daisy Miller, Great Gatsby and a fourth I've forgotten

Thanks, both of you.  I wasn't planning on reading Lolita but maybe I should.

I think the fourth book is Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen. I know it was an Austen novel, but I can't remember which one. I need to get a new copy of this book. I loaned it to someone and never got it back, and it's been 2.5 yrs!

I actually read them backwards listening to Lolita after "in Tehran"  although I'd read the other books first.  I felt I missed out doing it that way even though the time that they are reading Lolita is maybe 1/4 - 1/3 of the book.   

Now that I've read Lolita I realize might never have gotten to "in Tehran".  I have to say that there were times in Lolita where it was very difficult to continue.  The text is not vulgur, actually just the opposite, and it was that that made it so difficult.  I'm glad I read Lolita.  It was beautiful, fascinating and repulsive. 

I didn't read Lolita before reading Reading Lolita in Tehran and didn't have any problem with it.