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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Mount TBR: Checkpoint #3

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Long time no see! But now I am back again and hope to be posting a little bit more regularly in the near future. I have been busy with other things than reading. It is going really slow now, so I feel somewhat desperate. But, what can I do, but keep a big smile and say; "I do read, but it is getting a little bit slow."

Well, Bev's (My Reader's Block) call for the third checkpoint on the Mount TBR challenge woke me up, so I am now sitting at the computer to do an update, albeit small. As usual interesting questions to answer, and I am now curious if I have managed to ascend a little higher on my mountain.

Looking back on my checkpoint #2 I see I had read 27 books and had reached Mont Blanc, plus made 1.203 meters up Mt Vancouver. So let's see how far I have got now? I have read 39 books from my TBR shelves, 12 books since July! Not so much, but better than nothing. That means I have reached Mt Vancouver, which is 36 books. It has also set me two books up the Mt Ararat. 39 books out of 48 means I am now fighting with the oxygen on 4.173 metres! Only 1000 metres to go, that is, 9 books! I am quite pleased after all.

Since I like all Bev's questions, I will try to answer them all.

A. Favourite character so far? I think it has to be Harold Fry. I like the way this very ordinary man managed to change his life, with small means, and also his outlook on life and people around him. An extraordinary man in an extraordinary book.

B. Pair up your reads. Male protagonist versus female. Good versus evil. I go for two real life characters which both fascinated me; Che Guevara and Greta Garbo (Che in a non-fiction about his life and Greta in an historical fiction, but based on her fantastic life. I think both characters speak for themselves). The Road will do for booth good and evil. Along the road that the main characters travel we meet both kinds. A book that stays with you for a long time.

C. Which book has been on the shelves the longest? Was it worth the wait? It must be the two books by Graham Green; Our man in Havana and Travels with my Aunt. Both excellent, and I don't know why I did not read them before. Sometimes I think some books have to wait for the right time. I might not have appreciated them as much, if I had read them when I bought them. They must have been there from the 1970s.

D. Choose 1-4 titles from your stacks, use a word from the titles and do an image search. I choose TAG, since most titles seem to start with a T.
The Distant Hours
Amsterdam
Grymhet (Cruelty)





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