The Content Reader

Arne Zettersten is a Swedish lingvist with a special interest for ancient languages and dialects. He became a friend and colleague of Tolkien in the 1960s when they both worked with a collection of medieval manuscripts, the "Katherine Group". Their friendship continued until the death of Tolkien. In this book he tells the story of this friendship and gives an insight into the worlds of Tolkien. The book is rather academic, as maybe can be expected, but gives an overview of what Tolkien achieved during his life time. And it was a lot! For most people, like myself, he is known for the Lord of the Ring  books. The epic fantasy has been voted the greatest book of the 20th century in a reader's poll (by Britain's Channel 4 and the Waterstone's bookstore chain). Tolkien is the father of the modern fantasy books and it seems, that so far, nobody has been able to equal him in quality and popularity. Reading this book, you realise that for Tolkien, his books are just n...

This is one of the books I grabbed with the promotion "Take 4 pay for 3" while I was in Sweden. I had heard a lot about it and also read some very positive reviews from you out there. I can only agree, what a wonderful, funny reflection on people and lives today. It has been compared to "The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared", and it is in the same genre, but still a totally different book. The humour and the reflections on life are the same though. This is the story of Ove, recently widowed, and still missing his wife. She was the only person in the world that understood him. He is a grumpy old man, and was already when he was young. A very practical person who can fully take care of himself and fix everything around him that needs to be fixed. Not very verbal, maybe not very intelligent, but he makes up his own world and live in it according to his principals. He is annoying most people around him, and now it is even worst after ...

I am really panicking a little bit about all my challenges. I have hopelessly behind in my reading, and now having bought new books, I tend to stretch out and take one of them instead on being disciplined and read "what I should read". Since I am feeling that I am behind I tend to start even more books than normally, thinking that I will finish more books this way. It does not work! So, I have decided to throw off all the challenges for the time being and when I read one, I will be happy to update my Challenge page. Considering all the new books, my TBR shelves will suffer as well, but that's life! These ones have to be added to them! I have not yet managed to find a space for the new ones! Still lying in a noble pile on our guest bed.

We read books to read about other lives, other countries, other horizons and for a lot of more reason. However, as they say, life is often more rich than anything you can read about. This is what I thought about this book. I read a review in a Swedish paper and found the story intriguing; one of our great writers, his unhappy, 'crazy' wife, leaving the wife with three children and in the end trying to achieve a divorce by forcing her into a mental institution. Here sure is juicy details for a TV-series to run for at least 6 seasons. I had never heard about his wife, or his marriage, or his dramatic life before, so I thought it was a good reason to buy the book. I have only read two of his books, also being two of his most famous, Doctor Glas and The Serious Game. Both of them have some real life aspects in them. Of the two writers one is a professor in psychology and the other a publisher, author. They mention that it was supposed to be a book about Märta and her fate, bu...

This book has been on my wish list for some time. Mainly I think because of the title! But also because of the story. While staying in the guest flat where my parents live, and checking the small book shelf they have there (people who stay leave books behind) I found this one to my surprise. I grabbed it immediately, and started to read. It starts in January 1946 in London, just after the end of the Second World War. Juliet Ashton is a well-known writer who wrote column under the pseudonym Izzy Bickerstaff during the war years. Her friend and publisher, Sidney Stark, published them as a book, and she sets of for a promotion tour. However, now she is looking for something else to bite into. By pure chance she receives a letter from a man namned Dawsey Adams on the island of Guernsey. One of the Channel Islands it was occupied during the war and life is very harsh. The islanders stick together and form a rather close community. Dawsey, who is a avid reader, comes across Juliet's na...

While in Sweden I want to buy Swedish books. Normally, I venture into a book store and see what is new and exciting. Books are rather expensive in Sweden so mostly I don't buy that many. However, this time I went twice to a second hand shop that also had a big library section. When prices are 0.50 or 1.00 euro there is not much thinking of it. Especially, since I had the car, and could load the books in there. Flying is always difficult considering the weight of the books. One thing that hit me, while looking in the book stores, is that books these days tend to be VERY THICK! You could buy five books and end up with half a metre! Difficult choice when you have no space in the book case. I don't know what is with this trend of writing books that covers 800 to over 1.000 pages! You could argue that you get a lot for your money! Yes, true, or it is just an inflation in words? And what about holding them why you are reading? They are heavy, you might have to sit by a table. Do...

This is not a title of a new interesting book. It is a statement from my side. I am now back home and in business again. It has been some busy weeks in Sweden helping my son install himself for the university studies. Now he is up an running and I can go back to my books. I did not have time to read a lot but I managed to buy a lot of books, mostly second hand; 50 cents for the pocket books and 1 euro for the hardback! Unbelievably cheap. A list will come, hopefully, already tomorrow. Crossing the bridge between Sweden and Denmark My challenges are totally lost for this month I think. I did not manage to finish Emma by Jane Austen in August, I did not manage to read the Gissling book for the Brontë Reading Group, not the two books for the other book club; Beloved by Toni Morrison and Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marques, so far not the two books about Hemingway for a Swedish 3xbooks challenge. It is rather depressing and I am wondering whether I should skip chall...

Today is election day in Sweden. There are two 'blocs' as we call them; each bloc consists of several parties that come together to form a coalition or alliance in order to govern; there is not one party strong enough to govern by itself. The two blocs are from middle to left and from middle to right. This year it is very tight so it will be a very close match. While waiting for the result I took a walk around the city with my mother. The city is very quiet today. People are voting in the areas where they live. Here is my mother in front of the lovely, old houses that are bordering Borgmästaregatan, which is one of the big streets in the city. Made into a pedestrian walk these days, one can enjoy some food or coffee on the pavements. So that is what we did after the walk. We took a caffe latte with a pecan nut cake with vanilla ice cream in a café that was open for the day. The cake was lovely, but so sweet and filled with calories, that we had to continue our wa...

Sorry for being slow with posting these last weeks. Still in Sweden, lots to do and I have hardly read anything! Terrible, I know. Hopefully things will improve in the coming week(s). In the meantime I wanted to share with you one of my favourite film theme songs with a wonderful young violinist to go with it (from you tube). David Garrett is a pop and cross-over violinist and records and performs both classical as well as modern music. This one has really made me one of his many fans. What do you think? I get goose skin when I hear it. As I am sure you know, it is the wonderful theme song 'He's a Pirate' from  Pirates of the Caribbean . The music is written and composed by Klaus Badelt and Hans Zimmer.

Today is Sunday and yet another wonderful, sunny day here in the south east corner of Sweden. I decided to take a walk around the city, listening to my iPhone and taking some pictures. The centre of Karlskrona, Trossö, was once several islands, but have today merged into one.  Trossö is, in its turn, surrounded by several islands, yet visible today. To walk around the centre means, mostly, walking along the water front. On a sunny, calm day like today, Karlskrona is a beauty.

Still on the road so the posts are coming quite irregular. I had time though, one evening, to watch the last episode of True Blood . I am quite happy that it is finished. The ending...well, it was sort of ok I think. SPOILER here: It was quite strange though to have followed Sookie the whole time and in the end she married someone we don't even know who it is! In the books...SPOILER again... she ended up with Sam, and I didn't like that ending either. I loved all the books in the series (13) but though the last one lacked something from the rest of them. For the series, season 1-4 were fine but then it all went 'all over the place'. I think this is the problem with most series; they should have a decided ending and number of seasons decided before they start. If the series become popular, it seems they decide from season to season if they are to continue. Well, this can only hurt the story, which in the end is the most important thing.

Here I am, on my odyssey in Sweden, my bag full of books. Do I read any of them? No, not so far. It is funny how interesting books tends to turn up at every turn you do. This is one of them. My aunt Maggie received it as a present. It is a thick book, but sooooo nicely designed, containing pictures from the expedition and is so very nice to read. The story is totally fascinating and I read it in one evening and one morning. The André expedition in 1897 was aimed at travelling to the North pole by air balloon.  The three persons that was part of the expedition were scientists, but not really explorers. They were badly prepared for disaster and expected to fly to the North pole, put a flag there, collect samples of various interesting species or whatever they would find, and return by balloon to Sweden. Unfortunately, the last time they were seen alive was when they flew away. For thirty-three years nobody knew what happened to them. In the 1930s they were found on the White Islan...