The Content Reader

The Classic Club  continues to keep us busy, and they are doing it with bravur. While we are enjoying our scary classics for the month of October, here are 13 questions to answer about scary classics. To come in the mood, I am sitting here in my empty flat, lights out, except one at my desk. The corners are getting dark, the shadows are up and soon the autumn darkness will fall upon us. Hoooo! Since I have to go down to the cellar, I think I will do that first before answering the questions! Well, I am back and because the cellar is also the garage it is really well lit! I did not have to worry. Back to the questions. 1. Which classic book has scared you the most? Well, first of all I hardly read scary books in general, less so in classics. However, I found Uncle Silas by Sheridan Le Fanu rather scary. Mostly, because the heroine was so helpless, once she figured out the truth about her uncle. She tried to get away, but was blocked everywhere. A sense of being trapped a...

This meme is hosted by Guiltless Reading . This week's bookmark, I found in the local book shop. It is formed as a pencil, with an opening in the middle where you can see the line where you should start reading. It is not too long, so I hope it goes into the page, over the text! It is very cute though, so could not resist it.

This meme is hosted by Guiltless Reading and is all about bookmarks. Hmm, or a postcard to be used as a bookmark. This week I share with you what I found in Apsley House, the grand home of the Duke of Wellington. Having lived in Brussels and not too far from the field of the Battle of Waterloo, I found it apt to visit the Duke of Wellington's house in London. It is called Apsley House and situated very central by Hyde Park Corner. Passing by the house you almost miss it. It is a rather grey, enormous, monument that does not look like a mansion of one of the most famous men in Britain. However, opening the doors you enter into a glorious house and beautifully decorated rooms. It took about 1,5 hours to walk around the house with the audio guide. It presented the dining room, ball room and rooms containing a huge collection of his paintings, urns and other artefacts. Not to mention the fantastic silver and porcelain tableware collections which were gifted to the Duke. To be i...

The book beginning and the Friday 56 this week comes from a favourite author; Umberto Eco, The Island of the Day Before. It takes a little bit of time to get into his books, but once you are there, it is really great. I have had this one for many years. I picked it out of my shelves, to fit in the title in one of my challenges, Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge. You read a book starting on one of the letters in the alphabet. I might not be able to finish all letters, the tricky ones are left.  Book beginnings on Friday hosted by Rose City Reader " I take pride withal in my humiliation, and as I am to this privilege condemned, almost I find joy in an abhorrent salvation; I am, I believe, alone of all our race, the only man in human memory to have been shipwrecked and cast up upon a deserted ship. Thus, with unabashed conceits, wrote Roberto della Griva presumably in July or August of 1643." The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice " Meanwhile the emperor...

Six Degrees of Separation is hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best . This month it starts with a classic teen novel, The Outsiders  by S.E. Hinton. I have not read the book, or for that matter, heard about it. When checking the net, I find it is about troubled teenagers. Reading the summary, I immediately thought about East of Eden  by John Steinbeck. I have not read it, but seen the movie. So much connected to James Dean, I think you sometimes forget that it was written by one of the great American writers. That leads me to another James Dean movie and American writer with Giant , written by Edna Ferber. From Study.com I find the following introduction to the book. " Edna Ferber is the author of Giant, the book that caused one of the greatest scandals in Texan history. You may be familiar with the book's movie adaptation because it was James Dean's last role. Regardless of the narrative's presentation, the content inside of Ferber's novel crea...

Bev at My Reader's Block  is reminding us to check in with the altitude where we are at present. It is all about climbing a mountain of your choice and highlight the altitude in connection with the number of books you have read from your TBR shelves. Well, I am afraid I have not got that far since the last check in, but let's see if I have advanced a little bit at least. Last time I reached 4,545 m with 34 books. Another two took me to the top. Had to rest a little bit up there before starting my descent. The very next day I started to climb Mt Ararat. It is        5. 137 m high. I have now read 37 books (only three since July), which leaves me at 107 m. My goal is Mt Ararat, which leaves me another 11 books to read.  Who has been your favourite character so far? Why? Christopher in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time  by Mark Haddon. Christopher sets his own rules and does it with bravur.  Pair up two of your reads, but go f...

This meme is hosted by Guiltless Reading . It is all about bookmarks. This week I have been visiting the Sherlock Holmes' shop in London. The queue to the house was too long though, so that is for another time. As usual in the museum shops in England, there are so many nice things to buy. One just have to try to limit oneself. I bought the usual bookmark and added a story of Sherlock Holmes' adventures. I have only read one book, A Study in Scarlet, and here I will find a few others. Beautiful cover for the book.

This book was gifted to me by Leigh, a friend visiting all the way from Australia. He described it to me as a court room book, and in a way it is, but not totally. The theme is very actual these days. A British politician is accused of raping a fellow colleague. The story is told from the prosecutor's side, a woman with a past, the wife of the politician and how it effects her and her children. There is also a couple of stories from the past, which all effect the present day situation. Most of the story actually takes place outside the court room.  As always in cases like this, it is difficult to reveal the story without giving away clues. I use Goodreads introduction to the story. "Sophie’s husband James is a loving father, a handsome man, a charismatic and successful public figure. And yet he stands accused of a terrible crime. Sophie is convinced he is innocent and desperate to protect her precious family from the lies that threaten to rip them apart. Kate is the la...

On Readerbuzz I found a post about 50 questions put forward by The Classics Club . They want to know why, how and what you read when it comes to classics.  I am not able to find the questions on the Classic Club web-site, but copied from Readerbuzz. Always a fan of questionnaires I can not resist this one. Here we go. Share a link to your club list . The Classics Club: Fifty Classic(ish) Books I Will Read in the Next Five Years When did you join The Classics Club?   I think I joined in 2014 or 2015 . So far I have read 22 of 50 titles. It seems I did not properly registered, which I have now done!  What are you currently reading?   Mansfield Park by Jane Austen and Shirley by Charlotte Brontë. Both of them hard to get through although I love their other books. What did you just finish reading and what did you think of it?  My latest classic was Richard III by Shakespeare. Not an easy read, but I managed.  What are you reading next? Why?  W...

I think I got this book through my son who read it in school (or was supposed to read it, unfortunately, it is difficult to get him to read any book at all!). It was much talked of when it was published. It is a wonderful story, told by a boy with Asperger's Syndrome. The neighbour's dog is found dead with a garden folk in his body. Christopher takes it on himself to solve the murder mystery. He starts a diary to write down everything that is happening. We just don't enter into a murder mystery, we are entering into a totally different mind set. Christopher's way of approaching life, people and his surroundings is a different world and we realise how difficult it must be. He is a very intelligent boy and knows a lot about maths, but little about human beings. His life is limited by obstacles in his mind. He does not like yellow and brown things and cannot eat anything with such colours. He does not like being touched. His world is limited to his own street and his ...

The Icelandic crime writers does not disappoint. I have read another book by Ragnar Jónasson, Rupture ,  but The Darkness  is a different kind of story. They are both set against the wild landscape of Iceland and it gives a certain atmosphere to the stories. In a way, I guess, both books are similarly built up, although totally different.  Rupture  is set against and old story, cold case, that pops up out of the blue, and there is a dramatic family story to it.  The Darkness  is slightly different. Huld Hermannsdóttir is about to retire. She feels she has been neglected by her boss and colleagues and not taken seriously. When the boss tells her she should go earlier due to the arrival of a younger colleague, she becomes devastated. She already has problem coming to terms with retirement. The boss tells her to hand over her cases and maybe look into a cold case for her remaining weeks in the office. This leads her to the death of a Russian immigrant g...

This meme is hosted by Guiltless Reading . It is all about bookmarks, but this week I will mention some other items in connection with the bookmark. Recently, I visited London and took the opportunity to visit Sigmund Freud's house. It is beautifully situated close to the metro "Swiss Cottage". A small walk up the hill takes you to a lovely little house in an old garden. This is where Freud spent the last year of his life and where his family lived on afterwards. His daughter Anna, who was the only one of his children following in his footsteps, wanted it to be a museum after her death. It is very interesting and Freud's office, it seems, looks the same as it did in his office in Vienna (his choice). I bought a bookmark and a lovely note book. Sigmund Freud's lovely house in a London suburb The famous couch. Freud used to sit in the green armchair, slightly behind his patients