This blog is a complete mess, isn't it?
I find I'm always surprised when people leave comments for I can't really see how anything I put here is of any use or entertainment for anyone but myself.
According to tradition I am to list the books I completed last year and review the ones I liked.
But I can't seem to find any motivation for it. I don't know why, but my head is constantly in a turmoil these days. And Christmas and New Years just flashed by. I managed to cling onto some branches and follow the flow, and I had a good time, but I can't say I was that aware of the things happening as it went...
Christmas is/was weird this time (I guess it had to be with a key-person missing).
I could list the books though. And add a sentence about each. If anyone wants to know more about one, they can ask me.
I didn't really read that many books this year anyways. It was a silly year. It had of course it's beautiful moments, but overall I didn't care that much for 2012. Glad it's over. On to better times! (with less sugar, more exercise, proper sleep, yadda yadda yadda).
A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle
A fun read, though not as fun as I had hoped.
The Gallows Curse - Karen Maitland
Same as above really. I love Karen Maitland's style, but this one didn't quite measure up to i.e. Company of Liars.
Perfume - Patrick Süskind
Loved it.
En dåre fri - Beate Grimsrud
It's just brilliantly written.
Her Fearful Symetry - Audrey Niffenegger
Niffenegger is great at portraiting people's relationships and I couldn't put the book away for a second, but I strongly disliked the ending and that sorta ruined the whole thing for me.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
I really enjoyed this.
The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern
This may be my favorite of all the books I read this year. It isn't necessarily any better (you know, when it comes to quality, whatever that implies) than the others, but it contains all my favorite elements (magic, love, mysteries, historic settings, and so on). It was a joy from start to finish.
Ett öga rött - Jonas Hassen Khemiri
This one is so deliberately and well executed, I enjoyed it very much.
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mandag 7. januar 2013
fredag 6. januar 2012
Books I finished in 2011
Well, here we are again old love, here's to me and thee...
I did this in 2010 and enjoyed doing it so I’m doing it again. Here’s a list of all the books I finished reading during last year and I’ve written a tiny review of the books I think deserves special attention. Since this blog is mainly in English (If people are wondering why I can explain that later) I’ve used the English titles in my list and whenever I couldn’t find a title in English I used the original title. One exception would be Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I’ve read it before and this time I deliberately read the Norwegian version so I added the Norwegian title to my list.
16 books. That's just like last year...
The Last Unicorn - Peter S. Beagle
To me, this book is THE book. I read it for the first time when I was around twelve and it was the very first book that kept me reading the whole night despite my mother’s bedtime rules. I’ve been up reading books the whole night many times since, but no book or allnighter really succeeds that one first time. Besides holding this memory the book itself is awesome. I’ve read it several times and its magic hasn’t bleached one bit. It is everything a good fantasy ought to be. Twelve years later I’m still somewhat in love with the clumsy Schmendrick. I still adore the Unicorn. And I can still relate to Molly (maybe even more now, when I think about it). Oh and the cat! I love this book. Lovelovelove.
- Little Lord Fauntleroy - Frances Hodgson Burnett
Coraline & Other Stories - Neil Gaiman
Coraline was the first story by Gaiman I ever read and it’s still my favorite. It’s a great story about courage and gratitude. This book also included some of his short stories and in my opinion they’re all good. I especially liked “How to Talk to Girls at Parties”. They’re all marvelously strange. Need I say more? It’s Neil Gaiman after all…
Another Way to be Young - Per Nilsson
I remember reading another book by Per Nilsson when I was around 14 or so (Yes, Let him smile … huh?). There’s something about the way he captures the casual everyday life of youth and combines it with the weird thoughts and ideas of teens. This book is both thrilling in some ways and comfortably philosophical in other ways. Like many books for teens it rotates around finding your identity and role in life, but it’s not cliché at all.
The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova
It’s a story about the real vampires. Not the glittering ones. Not the raving predator ones. The real ones. The whole book builds on Bram Stoker’s Dracula and weaves a story about the actual Vlad Tepes (aka The Impaler, aka Vlad III, aka Wladislaus Dragwlya, aka count Dracula) and his librarian minions (heehee XD). I have two minor issues; It is too detailed to make sense (how can a grown woman remember that when she was young her father told her that when he was young his teacher told him that when HE was young, on this specific day he was wearing this specific sweater and eating this specific dish at this specific time?) and it stops being scary too soon (The whole book is entertaining and fascinating but only the first part is really scary, I missed that as I read the actual climax of it). Otherwise it’s a good book and I really enjoyed it. It’s one of those books where you learn tons of funfacts about subjects you didn’t know you were interested in. I loved that.
- Deathvariations - Jon Fosse
- Alice i eventyrland (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, translated to Norwegian by Zinken Hopp) - Lewis Carrol
- Teori og praksis - Nikolaj Frobenius
- The Boy in the Suitcase - Lene Kaaberbøl and Agnete Friis
- Bli hvis du kan. Reis hvis du må. - Helga Flatland
Kafka on the Beach - Haruki Murakami
Oh, what a bizarre book! I’ve heard so much praise for Murakami, but I never heard or read anything about his specific books. Ergo; I knew nothing about this book when I started. I work in a library and I usually pay attention to the authors and titles people “have to read”. Once in a while I read some of the titles myself and most often there are good reasons why people recommend them to each other; they’re mostly good. But most of them seem to follow the same patterns and genres so when I started reading Kafka on the Beach I expected some kind of bland book. Probably very good, but bland. I was surprised. Even to me, who loves nonsense and weird stuff, at first this book felt just too weird. And I was like “why is he naked all the time?”. But it hypnotized me and kept me reading and I wished the book would just continue forever. It’s really enjoyable. And there are several philosophical moments where I just felt like “this book gets me” or it made me think. It was fun.
- Downfall: a love story - Per Olov Enquist
- Kjærlighet - Hanne Ørstavik
The Book of Dead Days - Marcus Sedgwick
Do you understand what I mean when I say sewer-fantasy? Or maybe graveyard is a better word than sewer. This book is dark and wet and you’ll definitely get dirt under your nails. Still I’d say it fits children of, I dunno, ten years and up. It’s got magic and illusions and orphans and gravedigging and mad science. All wrapped up in an alternative Victorian atmosphere. It’s kind of like a fantasy-version of Oliver Twist, except it’s not like that at all. I liked it.
- Morning and Evening - Jon Fosse
Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror - Chris Priestley
If I were twelve, this book would be the perfect kind of wicked. The kind that would scare me just right, without being too grotesque. Seeing as it’s been twelve years since I was twelve (How did that happen?!) it didn’t really scare me at all, but I still enjoyed it very much.
I did this in 2010 and enjoyed doing it so I’m doing it again. Here’s a list of all the books I finished reading during last year and I’ve written a tiny review of the books I think deserves special attention. Since this blog is mainly in English (If people are wondering why I can explain that later) I’ve used the English titles in my list and whenever I couldn’t find a title in English I used the original title. One exception would be Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I’ve read it before and this time I deliberately read the Norwegian version so I added the Norwegian title to my list.
16 books. That's just like last year...
The Last Unicorn - Peter S. Beagle
To me, this book is THE book. I read it for the first time when I was around twelve and it was the very first book that kept me reading the whole night despite my mother’s bedtime rules. I’ve been up reading books the whole night many times since, but no book or allnighter really succeeds that one first time. Besides holding this memory the book itself is awesome. I’ve read it several times and its magic hasn’t bleached one bit. It is everything a good fantasy ought to be. Twelve years later I’m still somewhat in love with the clumsy Schmendrick. I still adore the Unicorn. And I can still relate to Molly (maybe even more now, when I think about it). Oh and the cat! I love this book. Lovelovelove.
- Little Lord Fauntleroy - Frances Hodgson Burnett
Coraline & Other Stories - Neil Gaiman
Coraline was the first story by Gaiman I ever read and it’s still my favorite. It’s a great story about courage and gratitude. This book also included some of his short stories and in my opinion they’re all good. I especially liked “How to Talk to Girls at Parties”. They’re all marvelously strange. Need I say more? It’s Neil Gaiman after all…
Another Way to be Young - Per Nilsson
I remember reading another book by Per Nilsson when I was around 14 or so (Yes, Let him smile … huh?). There’s something about the way he captures the casual everyday life of youth and combines it with the weird thoughts and ideas of teens. This book is both thrilling in some ways and comfortably philosophical in other ways. Like many books for teens it rotates around finding your identity and role in life, but it’s not cliché at all.
The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova
It’s a story about the real vampires. Not the glittering ones. Not the raving predator ones. The real ones. The whole book builds on Bram Stoker’s Dracula and weaves a story about the actual Vlad Tepes (aka The Impaler, aka Vlad III, aka Wladislaus Dragwlya, aka count Dracula) and his librarian minions (heehee XD). I have two minor issues; It is too detailed to make sense (how can a grown woman remember that when she was young her father told her that when he was young his teacher told him that when HE was young, on this specific day he was wearing this specific sweater and eating this specific dish at this specific time?) and it stops being scary too soon (The whole book is entertaining and fascinating but only the first part is really scary, I missed that as I read the actual climax of it). Otherwise it’s a good book and I really enjoyed it. It’s one of those books where you learn tons of funfacts about subjects you didn’t know you were interested in. I loved that.
- Deathvariations - Jon Fosse
- Alice i eventyrland (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, translated to Norwegian by Zinken Hopp) - Lewis Carrol
- Teori og praksis - Nikolaj Frobenius
- The Boy in the Suitcase - Lene Kaaberbøl and Agnete Friis
- Bli hvis du kan. Reis hvis du må. - Helga Flatland
Kafka on the Beach - Haruki Murakami
Oh, what a bizarre book! I’ve heard so much praise for Murakami, but I never heard or read anything about his specific books. Ergo; I knew nothing about this book when I started. I work in a library and I usually pay attention to the authors and titles people “have to read”. Once in a while I read some of the titles myself and most often there are good reasons why people recommend them to each other; they’re mostly good. But most of them seem to follow the same patterns and genres so when I started reading Kafka on the Beach I expected some kind of bland book. Probably very good, but bland. I was surprised. Even to me, who loves nonsense and weird stuff, at first this book felt just too weird. And I was like “why is he naked all the time?”. But it hypnotized me and kept me reading and I wished the book would just continue forever. It’s really enjoyable. And there are several philosophical moments where I just felt like “this book gets me” or it made me think. It was fun.
- Downfall: a love story - Per Olov Enquist
- Kjærlighet - Hanne Ørstavik
The Book of Dead Days - Marcus Sedgwick
Do you understand what I mean when I say sewer-fantasy? Or maybe graveyard is a better word than sewer. This book is dark and wet and you’ll definitely get dirt under your nails. Still I’d say it fits children of, I dunno, ten years and up. It’s got magic and illusions and orphans and gravedigging and mad science. All wrapped up in an alternative Victorian atmosphere. It’s kind of like a fantasy-version of Oliver Twist, except it’s not like that at all. I liked it.
- Morning and Evening - Jon Fosse
Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror - Chris Priestley
If I were twelve, this book would be the perfect kind of wicked. The kind that would scare me just right, without being too grotesque. Seeing as it’s been twelve years since I was twelve (How did that happen?!) it didn’t really scare me at all, but I still enjoyed it very much.
lørdag 8. januar 2011
Books I finished in 2010
This list started out as an experiment of some sort. A teacher asked us, just for fun, how many books we approximately read during a year. I guessed 12, one book per month. Then I went home and wondered how true that was. So I made a list to find out. This year I‘ve read 16 books. And I decided to make a post about it for later personal reference. And by adding tiny reviews to the books I think deserve special attention, it might be somewhat interesting for others as well?
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is truly a great book. I’m not particularly fond of war-literature. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s important that that sort of literature exists; I just personally don’t like reading it. This book however, tells the story of World War 2 with a very different perspective from what I’m used to. I loved it.
- Heart-shaped Box by Joe Hill
- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
- The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
- Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy
- Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman
- The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
- Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan
- The Owl Killers by Karen Maitland. This is the second book I’ve read from this author and it’s enough for me to put her on my list of favorite writers. There’s something about the way she describes this dark and dirty yet civilized age, the medieval times. Accurate depicturing of human life at that time mixed with supernatural happenings based on superstitions from old lore. (I can’t wait for her next book due out in spring 2011! I’ll be patient and wait for the right paperback-version to match my other two books though.)
- The Sound of Butterflies by Rachel King
- Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing With Fire by Derek Landy
- A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett is a magical book about believing in the power of imagination and positive thinking, as well as an adorable story of a little girl making it through unfair challenges. It’s a great read!
- The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch is the coolest adventure I’ve experienced in a long time. And yes, it’s the sort of book you don’t read, but experience. The world and the characters are described so well that you really feel like you’re running through the streets of Camorr right by the side of The Gentlemen Bastards, your old comrades. The whole thing is put together in a fantastic way with so much detail it’s hard to remember that it’s fiction and not an actual tale from another existing world. It will make you laugh and it will make you cry. You’ll get mad and you’ll get relieved. I had so much fun from start to end. And thank God; it continues! It’s said to become seven books in total.
- The Witch’s Trinity by Erika Mailman
- Dissolution by C. J. Sansom
- Mogworld by Yahtzee Croshaw. It’s a comedy and it’s actually really funny. It’s funny in the relaxed and sort of natural way. No one’s jumping up and down trying desperately to make you laugh, it just is funny. And it gets MMORPGs (or MOGs) so well, it was all so familiar and oh so parodical in a comfortable reserved way. I couldn’t help feeling sympathy for the protagonist and the characters were all so loveable in their own bizarre way. Even Thaddeus who I think went on my nerves just as much as he did to the subject, James.
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is truly a great book. I’m not particularly fond of war-literature. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s important that that sort of literature exists; I just personally don’t like reading it. This book however, tells the story of World War 2 with a very different perspective from what I’m used to. I loved it.
- Heart-shaped Box by Joe Hill
- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
- The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
- Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy
- Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman
- The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
- Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan
- The Owl Killers by Karen Maitland. This is the second book I’ve read from this author and it’s enough for me to put her on my list of favorite writers. There’s something about the way she describes this dark and dirty yet civilized age, the medieval times. Accurate depicturing of human life at that time mixed with supernatural happenings based on superstitions from old lore. (I can’t wait for her next book due out in spring 2011! I’ll be patient and wait for the right paperback-version to match my other two books though.)
- The Sound of Butterflies by Rachel King
- Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing With Fire by Derek Landy
- A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett is a magical book about believing in the power of imagination and positive thinking, as well as an adorable story of a little girl making it through unfair challenges. It’s a great read!
- The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch is the coolest adventure I’ve experienced in a long time. And yes, it’s the sort of book you don’t read, but experience. The world and the characters are described so well that you really feel like you’re running through the streets of Camorr right by the side of The Gentlemen Bastards, your old comrades. The whole thing is put together in a fantastic way with so much detail it’s hard to remember that it’s fiction and not an actual tale from another existing world. It will make you laugh and it will make you cry. You’ll get mad and you’ll get relieved. I had so much fun from start to end. And thank God; it continues! It’s said to become seven books in total.
- The Witch’s Trinity by Erika Mailman
- Dissolution by C. J. Sansom
- Mogworld by Yahtzee Croshaw. It’s a comedy and it’s actually really funny. It’s funny in the relaxed and sort of natural way. No one’s jumping up and down trying desperately to make you laugh, it just is funny. And it gets MMORPGs (or MOGs) so well, it was all so familiar and oh so parodical in a comfortable reserved way. I couldn’t help feeling sympathy for the protagonist and the characters were all so loveable in their own bizarre way. Even Thaddeus who I think went on my nerves just as much as he did to the subject, James.
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