The Content Reader

January is at its end. Since I will not be able to finish another book today, here a short summary of what I have read during the month. I have mostly concentrated on the challenges I am following. Wanted to start the new year with a little bit of discipline and finish what I had envisaged. It has worked out very well indeed.  The Unread Shelf hosted by Whitney Conard is aiming at reading anything on your shelves. She is guiding you through e-mails and thoughts on how to get through your piles. If you are interested to join go to her website. So far I have read two books; The January book was 'A book with high expectations' and I choose  In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway. His first short stories concentrating on relationships and man's relation to nature. I was not overenthusiastic but will continue to read two more short story collections; Men Without Women  and Winner Take Nothing, before going over to his novels. From my Top TBR for 2021 I choose   My Grandmo...

  Simon at Stuck in a Book  has guided me to a youtube channel on books. I do follow some from time to time. I had not heard about Rick's The BookTube Spin,  and am still to check it out. Nevertheless, the cause is worthy, read books from your TBR shelves. Choose twenty of them and on 31 January Rick will spin a number and you have two months to read it.  Seems to go very well with my other challenges this year, aiming at lowering the number of books on my shelves. So here I am, making another list of twenty books. Most of them will probably appear also on other lists. I am a little bit limited since I am now in Austria and my bookshelves are in Sweden. I did prepare though and brought around 35-40 books, so a list of twenty is definitely all right. Here we go. eleven minutes by Paulo Coelho Brida by Paulo Coelho An Ice-Cream War by William Boyd The Moon and Sixpence by William Somerset Maugham Sarum by Edward Rutherfurd Kingdom of Shadows by Barbara Erskine The Lodg...

  I have had The Prophet  by Kahlil Gibran since 1992 when it was gifted to me. I re-read itbook for the Back to the Classic Challenge .  It goes under the title A classic by BIPOC author.  I took more time to read it this time and let me be surrounded by beautiful words and philosophical meanings.  It is about a prophet who travels from place to place. " We wanderers, ever seeking the lonelier way, begin no day where we have ended another day; and no sunrise finds us where sunset left us. " People are gathering to listen to him and ask him about the essentials of life; Love, Marriage, Children, Giving, Word, Eating and Drinking and so on. Here a few quotes from his preachings.   Love "... When love beckons to you, follow him, Though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you shield to him, Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. And when he speaks to you believe in him, Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the n...

Last year I read the first in this series of eight books about the Bridgerton family. It was a pleasant read, especially since I like historical fiction, although I don't read a lot of the very romantic ones. When the new series about the Bridgerton family was announced on Netflix I was keen to see it. There are just too few historical pieces out there. I was not disappointed. Beautifully filmed with grand houses, wonderful clothes, a romantic setting and full of humour.  What more do you need during these difficult times? Something that makes you forget the outside world. Having seen the series over two evenings, I was eager to read the rest of the books. So perfect these days when you can borrow e-books from the library or just buy them directly. I spent the end of last year and the beginning of this year reading one a day, more or less. It might be a little bit too much to read all of them in one go. Some things tend to be similar. But I liked that the stories of finding a wife/...

Fredrik Backman is today a well-known author even outside Sweden. I understand many of you are a fan of his books. Before this book, I had only read the excellent A Man Called Ove,  so it was with a little bit of anticipation I started this one. It is a different story from his first one but has Backman's sharp eye on society and people's behaviour. It is about people who are different and don't 'fit into 'normal' society. I don't know if this is maybe typical Swedish? Everyone has to be like everyone else, you should not stick out. Honestly, I think this might not be so typical in the Sweden of today, but definitely was when I grew up.  Elsa is an almost eight-year-old girl who is mobbed in school. Her only friend is her grandmother who supports and care about her. To help her she creates a fairy-tale country; The Country-Almost-Awake. There everything is different, meaning no one needs to be normal.  Then her grandmother dies and leaves Elsa alone. However...

Another year has begone and it is time to have a look at last year's reading. It was a good year for me. Maybe not difficult considering the times and the time available for reading. I ended up at 107 books. It meant I managed to achieve my aim of 100 books at Goodreads.  I have divided the genres between Fiction, Nonfiction, Mystery/Thrillers and Classics. The outcome is quite even between the genres with a slightly higher number for fictional books, which is normal.  Fiction                           38 Nonfiction                     29 Mystery/Thrillers        23 Classics                         17 Favourite books within each genre My three favourite books within each genre. Fiction Carlos Ruiz Zafón - The Prisoner of Heaven and The Labyrint of the Spri...

  I enrolled in a few Challenges during 2020 and here is the outcome. Nonfiction November I read five books this month. Two about painter Johannes Vermeer, one about Jenny Lind, famous opera singer called The Nightingale, one about Eels, very interesting and one about literature. All were interesting in their own ways.  1. Litteraturorientering (Educational book on Literature) 2. Ålevangeliet (The Gospel of Eels) by Patrik Svensson 3. Näktergalen (The Nightingale, biography of Jenny Lind) by Ingela Tägil 4. Vermeer's Little Street by Frans Gruzenhout 5. A View of Delft, Vermeer then and now by Anthony Bailey Mount TBR  Challenge Hosted by Bev at My Reader's Block .  I almost made it up Mt Ararat (48 books) but ended at 43 a little bit below the top.  1. Gustaf Fröding by Staffan Bergsten 2. Presumption of Death by Perri O'Shaughnessy 3. The Letter by Kathryn Hughes 4. The Leopard by Jo Nesbo 5. The Whitsun Wedding by Philip Larkin  6. Eleanor Oliphant is Co...