My Day in Books

Danielle over at A Work in Progress posted this fun meme invented by Cornflower Books and I simply could not resist to give it a try myself! I admit I love memes like this. :)

My Day in Books

I began the day with Mind Gym.
On my way to work I saw Zahra's Paradise
and walked by The White Garden
to avoid The Tomb of Zeus.
But I made sure to stop at The Night Circus.
In the office, my boss said, "Birdbrain"
and sent me to reseach The Calcutta Chromosome.
At lunch with Annabel
I noticed Ash
under The Tapestry of Love
then went back to my desk, Blameless.
Later, on the journey home I bought Radiance,
because I have The Night Watch.
Then settling down for the evening, I picked up The Oracle of Stamboul
and studied Einstein's Dreams
before saying good night to The House of Sleep.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Life According to Literature, Take 3 & Some Wishes for 2011

I tried to resist, but could not. This is my favorite meme, and here comes take 3. :) See the previous editions here and here.

To answer the following questions I'm using only books I have read between June 18 - when I posted take 2 of this meme - and December 31, 2010. Click on the title to find more info on the book.

Describe yourself: The Woman in White

How do you feel: Revolution

Describe how you currently live: Ice Land

If you could go anyway, where would you go: Summer in Baden-Baden

Your favorite form of transportation: Landing

Your best friend is: The Holy Machine

You and your friends are: The Birthday Boys

What's the weather like: Chaos and Night

You fear: The Small Hand

What is the best advice you have to give: To Say Nothing of the Dog

Thought for the day: Tell It to the Bees

How I would like to die: The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

My soul's present condition: Purge

Well, from Purgatorio of take 1 to Purge. I don't think I have advanged much. ;)

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I am very bad at keeping any New Year's resolutions and usually don't make any. There are, however, a few things, in addition to my reading goals, I would like to achieve in 2011. Maybe it will help to write them down here. :)

-Most of all, I would love, love, love :) to achieve the dancing goals I and Mr. Dance Partner have set for this year.

-I would like to finish at least two of the stories I have been writing for (what feels like) ages now.

-I would like to dedicate some time regurarly for learning Slovene, and hopefully to participate in a language course in Slovenia during my summer holiday.

-I really should take care of getting enough sleep during the week.

-I will keep my chocolate consumption to minimum. :)

Life According to Literature, Take 2

I did this meme once last year. You'll find that post here. Already back then I thought this would be something fun to do every once in a while, so here comes:

Life According to Literature, Take 2:

To answer the following questions I'm using only books I have read this year (2010). Click on the title to find more info on the book. 

Describe yourself: Empress of the World

How do you feel: Little Boy Lost

Describe how you currently live: In This House of Brede

If you could go anyway, where would you go: To the Lighthouse

Your favorite form of transportation: The River

Your best friend is: The Lieutenant

You and your friends are: Bluestockings

What's the weather like: Greengage Summer

You fear: Consequences of Sin

What is the best advice you have to give: How Beautiful the Ordinary

Thought for the day: Rapture

How I would like to die: Before the Throne

My soul's present condition: Happenstance

Teaser Tuesday: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by LizB of Should Be Reading.

The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Open to a random page.
• Share 2 teaser sentences from somewhere on that page.
• Be careful not to include spoilers.
• Share the title and author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser today is from a classic: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. And I did not quite manage with 2 sentences. :)

" The love that he bore him -for it was really love- had nothing in it that was not noble and intellectual. It was not that mere physical admiration of beauty that is born of the senses, and that dies when the senses tire. It was such love as Michael Angelo had known, and Montaigne, and Winckelmann, and Shakespeare himself. Yes, Basil could have saved him. But it was too late now." [p. 115]

Teaser Tuesday: Train to Trieste

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by LizB of Should Be Reading.

The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Open to a random page.
• Share 2 teaser sentences from somewhere on that page.
• Be careful not to include spoilers.
• Share the title & author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!

I'm reading quite a few books at the moment: short stories, a classic, two more or less cosy mysteries and a novel set in Romania during the Ceausescu dictatorship. My teaser is from the latter. The novel is called Train to Trieste and it is written by Domnica Radulescu, who was born in Romania but has lived in the US since 1983. I'm only on page 32 of the book now, but it seems really promising. 

Here comes the teaser. Mona Maria has just met her boyfriend and starts sneaking out early every morning to meet him. Before going out she wants to wash her hair. I love the subtle humour in Mona Maria's comment on the Party. :)

" Sometimes we don't get water at all early in the morning or late at night. The Party is always trying to make us economize for something, heat or energy, frantically pushing us towards the Socialist utopia that will be here any day now." [p. 13]

Last year I became very intereated in reading novels set in Middle & Eastern European countries. It seems that that interest has returned. :) I have two books set in Bosnia Pretty Birds by Scott Simon and Sarabande by Marcus Fedder , and a collection of contemporary Slovene fiction with the lovely name Angels Beneath the Surface in my TBR pile. Hmm, I really should get to Angels Beneath the Surface before my upcoming trip to Slovenia in July...

What are you reading at the moment?

The Book List: 3 Books I Thought I Would Hate But Ended Up Loving

The Book List is a fun, short meme hosted by Rebecca over at Lost in Books. This time we are asked to name three books we thought we would hate but ended up loving.

I must say it was surprisingly hard to think of three books I thought I would hate or even dislike before starting to read them, as I hardly ever start a book I do not want to read! My philosophy is to read books I like. Books are for pleasure, they are someone new I want to befriend with or old friends I want to revisit. There is hardly ever a feeling of having to included in my reading. I read because I want to, what I want to and mostly when I want to. Still, sometimes especially the timing might go wrong. 

1. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

I bought this junkster, because the idea of an early 19th century Britain where magic is real appealed to me. I also liked the fact that the book uses footnotes. (Yes, I'm strange that way! :)) However, after buying the book I lost all interest in it and it sat on my bookself unread for a number of years. I even thought that I might never read it, before I finally tried it last year for the 9 for 2009 challenge and ended up liking it quite a bit! :)

2. Art Objects by Jeanette Winterson

Jeanette Winterson is one of my favorite writers. I bought this book, subtitled Essays on Ecstasy and Effrontery, because it was written by her and in some of the essays she writes aboutthe work of another of my favorite writers Virginia Woolf. But it was more because I felt I should own the book than for any storng desire to actually read it, as at the time I was quite allergic to literary critisim or really any nonfiction about books and writers. I did not want to read someone explaining fiction, I just wanted to read the books myself and make up my mind about them on my own. Don't worry, I have since improved on that aspect, largely thanks to Winterson and Art Objects. After my initial hesitance I ended up loving every page of the book.

3. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

This is a perfect example of wrong timing. The first time I read this novel set in revolutionary France I was simply too young to really appreciate it. I reread it two years ago and loved the story.

What are the 3 books you thought you would not like but ended up loving instead? To participate in this meme visit Rebecca's blog and use the Mr. Linky function over there.

The Book List: 3 Favorite Eras to Read About

 

This week the Book List- meme asks us to name our three favorite eras to read about. My three favorite eras to read fiction about are:

1. Late 19th -early 20th century ca. 1860/1880-to WWI. This is simply my favorite historical period. I love the history, the fashions, the architecture, the optimism of the era -and I love to read novels, especially mysteries, set in this time period.
Some of my favorites mysteries set in this era include the Amelia Peabody -series by Elizabeth Peters and the Dr. Max Liebermann -series by Frank Tallis, but there are many others, too.

Sarah Waters books set in Victorian England are great, though my least favorite of them is the favorite of many, namely Fingersmith. Tipping the Velvet is my favorite.

2. Late 18th- early 19th century ca. 1790-1830. The French Revolution, the revolutionary wars, the rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, the Russian conquest of Finland and the birth of the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland all make for interesting topics for novels. And then of course this was the time when Jane Austen wrote her books.
My favorites include anything by Austen, Désiréé by Annemarie Selinko, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, and a novel by Mika Waltari that is not available in English.

3. This was a tough one! I could have chosen for example Ancient Egypt, but when it comes to Egypt I really enjoy reading non-fiction more than fiction. I was spoilt with The Egyptian by Mika Waltari when still quite young and no other novel about Ancient Egypt compares to The Egyptian! I could have chosen the Middle Ages or Ancient Rome or the 16th century with the Reformation, WWII and after, or, or... But after pondering this for a while my choice for my third favorite era to read about is...the future.
I love space opera! :) Elizabeth Moon is one of my favorite science fiction writers. I also love alternative history set in the future. My favorite alternative history novels are Sophie McDougall's Romanitas-trilogy (the third part is not yet published) where Rome never fell and Jon Courtenay Grimwood's books, especially the Pashazade-trilogy.

Visit Lost in Books for Rebecca's post on this subject and to add your own post to Linky Tools.

The past few days I have been reading my first ever Persephone book Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski and tonight I finished it. It is simply my favorite of all the books I have read this year this far! What a brilliant novel!:)

The Book List: 3 Books I Should Love, But Actually Hate

I just recently found Rebecca's blog Lost in Books. She hosts a short and fun weekly meme The Book List. This is the first time I'm participating. This week's topic is: 3 books I should love, but actually hate. Well, hate is a bit strong word here, but these three I do not especially like:

1. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
This I really feel I should love, but just don't. I love Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, but Emily's masterpiece really leaves me cold, leaves me shivering with disgust really! I find the story rather sick. I have tried to read the novel a number of times, but have always had to put it aside as I simply could not continue. I did watch a movie version once, but that just confirmed my view that this simply is not a book for me. Still, I have every intention of reading Wuthering Heights one day. I kind of feel that it is a book I should read.

2. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

Another novel loved by many, another one I thought I would love, but didn't. I found this Dracula story really boring.

3. What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt

Did not love this one. Maybe I expected too much or something different or it was just not the right time to read this book.  Before reading the book I thought I would love the fact that there were so much about art in the story, but no, this, too, was a boring read.

Visit Lost in Books for Rebecca's post on this subject or this Linky Tools page for others participating in this meme.

Chapter 16: Life According to Literature

I saw this fun meme today over at A Work in Progress and simply could not resist to give it a try!

Life According to Literature

Using only books you have read this year (2009), answer these questions. Try not to repeat a book title. It is a lot harder than you think!

Describe yourself: The Little Stranger (Sarah Waters)

How do you feel: Stillness (Courtney Angela Brkic)

Describe how you currently live: Fun Home (Alison Bechdel)

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Cranford (Elizabeth Gaskell)

Your favorite form of transportation: Delegates' Choice (Ian Sansom)

Your best friend is: Wandering Star (J. M. G. Le Clézio)

You and your friends are: People of the Book (Geraldine Brooks)

What's the weather like: Twilight (Stephenie Mayer)

You fear: The Inheritance of Loss (Kiran Desai)

What is the best advice you have to give: Crabwalk (Günter Grass)

Thought for the day: What I Loved (Siri Hustvedt)

How I would like to die: Baking Cakes in Kigali (Gaile Parkin)

My soul's present condition: Purgatorio (Dante Alighieri)

:)