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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The Classic Club Spin #18 - Richard III by William Shakespeare

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Believe it or not, but I managed to finalise this month´s spin. My number 9 was Richard III by William Shakespeare. I am not good at reading Shakespeare, but this seemed easier to approach. The reason being that I have recently read quite a lot about this time, in connection with the finding of his bones in Leicester.  The drama is not a very long, I read it as an e-book and it went rather smoothly.

The beginning was a little bit confusing, including a lot a characters I do not remember. Ideally, one should look them up and check up the history. 
However, I am travelling and there was no time.


(Many Books Net
(Many Books Net)

Time has shown us a development in the interpretation of historical events, and this is also the case here. Partly, the drama felt a little bit out of date, but it is a drama after all.  It was written during Tudor times (during the reign of Elizabeth I) and the first Tudor, Henry VII, beat his enemy Richard III at the battle of Bosworth.  But a classic is a classic, and has to be approached from the time it was written. I just read through without too much thought of the beauty of the text or the excellence of Shakespeare´s language. It will be for another time. I finally got to the famous lines, ”A horse, a horse, a kingdom for a horse”. 

I have written a few reviews on Richard III and his time, as well as of a visit to Leicester to visit the tomb of Richard III. For those interested you find them here.

Richard III and the Princes in the Tower by A.J. Pollard


The Search for Richard III - The King´s Grave by Philippa Langley and Michael Jones

How did you do with your classic challenge?

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