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Showing posts from January, 2020

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...

The best books read in 2019

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Time to look at the books I have read during the last year, and which ones are the best ones. It is always tricky to choose some out of all you have read, but there are always a few books who raise above the rest. I read unusually many detective stories/thrillers this year. It was actually the biggest genre, 33% of all I read. Maybe it does not come as a surprise that I find four, or even five books, depending on how you calculate, among my list of best books. Here are also four non fiction books. I have cheated slightly, since the books by Sara Lövestam are three, which makes it twelve books. However, they are of a similar kind so I put them as one. Here is the list in no particular order, only by genre. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles The Golden Hour by Beatriz Williams Saratoga Trunk  by Edna Ferber The Man from St Petersburg by Ken Follett (audio) Snövit ska dö (Schneewittchen muss sterben), Snow White must die) by Nele Neuhaus Stora Stygga Vargen (Böser ...

My reading year 2019

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Better late than never. I have been travelling for about six weeks, from early December to mid January. We have been visiting four islands in the Caribbean. A lovely holiday, of which I will write a few posts for The Content Reader Goes Outdoors .  I managed to read 9 books, plus two books with a chapter a day or a few chapters; Moby Dick and The Merchant of Venice . The last one I just finished for the Classic Club, and Moby Dick is for end of February, a read-along with Brona at Brona's Books . Not much left of this thick book. I read 98 books last year, divided in the following categories: Fiction - 19 (19%) Nonfiction - 19 (19%) Mystery - 32 (33%) Historical fiction - 20 (20 %) Classics - 9 (9%) Summary: 79 books of fiction, 81%, and 19 books of non fiction, 19%. I hope to make the figures a little bit more even for 2020. One of my goals this year is to read more non fiction.

2020 Mount TBR Reading Challenge

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This year I will participate in much fewer challenges. However, this is one of my favourite one, and useful for my TBR shelves. Head over to Bev at  My Reader's Block , to find all the details. As usual it is all about lowering the number of unread books from your shelves. I have lowered my list from 219 to 181 from last year, but I added a few as well. This challenge applies to all books ended up on your shelves before 2020.  Challenge Levels: Pike's Peak: Read 12 books from your TBR pile/s Mount Blanc: Read 24 books from your TBR pile/s Mt. Vancounver: Read 36 books from your TBR pile/s Mt. Ararat: Read 48 books from your TBR pile/s - My aim Mt. Kilimanjaro: Read 60 books from your TBR pile/s El Toro*: Read 75 books from your TBR pile/s (*aka Cerro El Toro in South America) Mt. Everest: Read 100 books from your TBR pile/s Mount Olympus (Mars): Read 150+ books from your TBR pile/s I set the same aim as last year. I am still due with a post o...