Blogging Anniversary - 10 years

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A while ago I checked when I did my first blog post, in order to celebrate with an anniversary post. Well, that day came and went without any reaction from me. Better late than never, so here a reminder of my very first blog post from 24 October 2012.  The book was New Finnish Grammar  by Diego Marani. Marani is an Italian novelist, translator and newspaper columnist. While working as a translator for the European Union he invented a language ‘Europanto’ which is a mixture of languages and based on the common practice of word-borrowing usage of many EU languages. It was a suitable book to start with, being a book about letters, languages and memories. With a beautiful prose, the novel went directly to my heart.  "One night at Trieste in September 1943 a seriously wounded soldier is found on the quay. The doctor, of a newly arrived German hospital ship, Pietri Friari gives the unconscious soldier medical assistance. His new patient has no documents or anything that can ide...
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Reading while travelling

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Sorry for lack of posts for a couple of days. I am travelling as you might have noticed so more about lovely sights and houses in particular than about books. However, I have not been totally idle on the book front. I have started on a project and am now reading history books, extracts etc to read up on the late 17th and early 18th century as regards Sweden, mainly Karlskrona (south east of Sweden) and Stralsund and Wismar (Swedish areas at the time, presently northern Germany). It is very interesting to go more into details of the different parts of society at the time. Hopefully more on this later on.

That is why my reading list for the time being mostly contains books in Swedish about history especially since I have access to a wonderful public library (see earlier post). But, I am, in my usual fashion, reading several books at the time, however slowly it goes. Just a small update on the present books I keep close by.


Still struggling with The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai, as well as Shirley (slightly improving!) by Charlotte Brontë and Spices by Jack Turner. The two first ones are e-books so easy to bring with me on my travels, the last one is a paper back so I left it at home. For my travels I always try to choose a thick book. I always panic that I might run out of something to read while travelling, although this does not happen too often today with my ipad mini reader! Only 'run out' there would be the battery! The chosen one is The Sleepwalkers by Christopher Clark. Highly praised books about the causes (if possible to find) for the First World War. Promising start, but I have not got very far so I think it has to wait for the return trip.



Upcoming reads will be aimed at my Challenges and TBR shelves. The TBR book I am currently on waiting at home is Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad. Challenges awaiting are 2014 Monthly Motif which for March is Fairy tales or Fairy Creature - read a fairy tale retelling or a book with fey/fairies in it. I choose a classic that I wanted to read, namely, Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie on which I have started. It will also fit into my A Century of Books challenge for the year 1911. Book Beginnings on Friday is also waiting for a good beginning but there you never know what will pop up! Historical Fiction Reading is also waiting for a new book. I choose Renaissance reader with 10 books and have only finished one. Maybe I will try one I have downloaded called The King's Concubine by Anne O'Brien.

There you go, an update of what I am up to book wise! How are you coping out there?

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