Blogging Anniversary - 10 years

-
Image
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...
5 comments

What's in a Name - challenge 2017

-
We are nearing the end of the year and it is time to have a look at the results from the 2016 challenges. While doing this, I have noted that the 2017 challenges are building up, and, as usual, a lot of interesting ones. My main challenge this year was to lower my TBR shelves, and any challenge I joined would have to fit in to the various books on these shelves. It has worked out very well. So far I have read 44 books from these shelves, and I hope to be able to finish at least 50 this year. Six to go! There are still 206 minus 44 = 162 books on my shelves, but I am slowly getting there. The aim is another 50 for 2017.

I love all the challenges I am participating in this year. One which is already there to sign up for in 2017 is "What's in a Name" hosted by The Worm Hole. You find the criteria and link-up on the link. For 2016 I have three more books to read, and I just picked them out from my shelves in order not to forget. They are:

Light in August by William Faulkner
The Binding Chair by Kathryn Harrison
Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy

The following criteria is set up for 2017 (my choices after the brackets).

A number in numbers - I have no title with numbers, so have to find. Otherwise I might use Nine Parts of Desire by Geraldine Brooks

A building - The Mill on the Floss by George Elliot

A title which has an ‘X’ somewhere in it - Kansler Axel Oxenstierna 1&2 by Gunnar Wetterberg

A compass direction - East of Eden by John Steinbeck (in a book with his collected works)

An item/items of cutlery - Nothing that fits, so have to find a book for here.

A title in which at least two words share the same first letter – alliteration! - The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Looking forward starting the new year with this challenge. Are you participating in any challenges next year?

Comments

  1. Debbie Rodgers28 November 2016 at 13:57

    I'm hoping to do the What's in a Name? challenge in 2017 too. Like you, I still have some to read to finish up this year: The Bean Trees and How Many Camels in Holland?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lisbeth 29 November 2016 at 12:06

      I love the title "How Many Camels in Holland" and have looked it up. Sounds like an interesting book about a serious problem. Good luck with finishing your two books, and hope to see you in next years' challenge!

      Delete
  2. Charlie (The Worm Hole)2 December 2016 at 09:52

    I struggled to come up with a title from my shelves for 'east' - really wanted to include it in the example list - so I'm glad of every 'east' title I'm seeing! Hope you enjoy your last three books for this year and I look forward to hearing what you thought of next year's books.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lisbeth 2 December 2016 at 12:02

      Thank you! I have started 'The Binding Chair' and it is very good. Should hopefully finish it this weekend and follow up with 'Under the Greenwood Tree' which is difficult to read, being written in dialect. But 'a chapter a day....' William Faulkner should not be too difficult to read...I hope! Thank you for hosting this interesting challenge.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Magical Room, Saloons in 1920s Paris by Ingrid Svensson

-
Image
Better late than never as they say. This post was supposed to go up last year. At a museum in Sweden I found a book about 1920s saloons in Paris. Very interesting and it generated the post:  Paris in July - French Saloons.    As promised then, here is the first of two posts about four of the main hostesses.  Still picking from the "Magical Rom" and events from Paris in the 1920s. There were four main characters who put their mark on the literary scene of the time; Gertrude Stein, Natalie Clifford Barney, Adrienne Monnier, and Sylvia Beach. For most of you, they are already well known. These ladies had one thing in common, as well as many of the women holding salons, in that they were all lesbians. This was maybe one reason why they ended up in Paris, being more liberal (although you had to be discreet) than many other countries, and the US specifically. They were very creative and talented and did a lot for the cultural scene in Paris, introducing new talents and hel...
Read more

The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck by Mark Manson

-
Image
This is one of those popular help yourself books that seems to overflow these days. However, it defies all the good advices we have been given during the last years, that is; stay positive. Manson says: "Let's be honest; sometimes things are fucked up and we have to live with it."  Right! That is life after all. "One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful." Sigmund Freud  With this quote in mind Manson argues that values such as "pleasure, material success, always being right, staying positive", are poor guidelines for a persons life. After all, some of the greatest moments in our lives are " not  pleasant, not successful, not known, and not positive". Which leads him to the belief, and I am bound to agree with him, that it is the individual who is responsible for everything in his/her life. We just have to act due to external circumstances. We are not always in control of all aspects of our...
Read more

How To Read Novels Like A Professor by Thomas C. Foster

-
Image
I am not a professor in literature, but I would like to be. Unfortunately, this will never happen, so, I have to go along trying to read novels and literature like a professor. Thomas C. Foster's book is therefor a very useful tool. He has also written How To Read Literature Like A Professor , which sounds like another useful read. It is not only a book for readers. I would say it is also useful for aspring writers. How do you make a novel interesting? What does it have to contain? Who should be the narrator and what should he/she do? The content gives a hint on what makes up a good book.  Pickup Lines and Open(ing) Seductions, or Why Novels Have First Pages - are we not fascinated by how certain writers manage to hook you on the first sentence? This seems to be one of the most important sentences in a book and Foster mentions a few excellent openings. I love good openings and cannot help but quote them here, although I am sure you are already familiar with them (I only knew 2,4 a...
Read more