The Content Reader

It was quite a while ago since I posted a new bookmark. Finally, I got hold of a beautiful one when we visited the Gripsholm Castle in Sweden in the beginning of June. The castle is situated in Mariefred, about 60 km west of Stockholm. It was built by Gustav Vasa (the first king of the Vasa dynasty) between 1537 and 1545 and was to be served as one of the main residences of the royal house. The times were worried and it was used both as a safe retreat for the royal children, during the Dacke revolt and as a prison. The oldest son of Gustav Vasa, Erik XIV imprisoned his brother John and his wife Catherine Jagiellon in the castle. Thus happened that their son Sigismund, later to be the King of Poland and Sweden, was born there in 1566. When John deposed of his brother Erik XIV, Gripsholm was one of the castles where he was kept prisoner from 1571 until 1573. The brothers, half brothers, were not the best of friends. During the coming centuries the castle was used by the royal family at v...

This meme is hosted by Guiltless Reading . This week's bookmarks come from the museum of Märta Måås-Fjetterstöm. She is an artist/designer and founded a studio for weaving carpets. They are very famous and very expensive. In the archives they have around one thousand original designs and cartoons, which dates back to 1919. There are still Artisan Weavers today who continue the production. When you come in to the museum, they display second hand carpets for sale for half the original price. I saw a very nice blue carpet. I could have it for 35.000€! Well, we have to continue looking for carpets. I bought three bookmarks, although I am not sure they have anything to do with the lady herself. It could be from her drawings, but it is not clear from the bookmarks. It was nevertheless, a wonderful museum with beautiful carpets. Since I am totally hopeless with anything to do with sewing, weaving or similar arts, I am full of admiration for people who can create such beautiful ar...

This meme is hosted by Guiltless Reading . It was a while ago since I posted one of these, actually back in November last year. I obviously have not collected any bookmarks since. This is not really a bookmark, but I like to use different sizes and forms for my bookmarks, so it is fine. I visited the Modern Museum here in Malmö last week. There was an exhibition on Andy Warhol. I did see another exhibition with him and Pablo Picasso in a museum in Brugge, Belgium about a year ago. There were no bookmarks, only by Picasso , of which you find a sample under the link, as well as a postcard and key ring. Key rings are another obsession. I like these small souvenirs which you can also use. Sorry, lost track there! In the exhibition which also hosted some of his designs for vinyl records (I did not know he designed these kind of things) as well as some of his famous faces. The most interesting part though, was a film on his Brillo box. We followed a family's purchase of the box, ...

This meme is hosted by  Guiltless Reading . In the beginning of September I was in London and visited one of my favourite museums; Tate Britain. Mainly to visit the Pre-Raphaelites again. This time I had an audio guide, and I am glad to have discovered two beautiful paintings of other artists. I ended up with four bookmarks. Millais' Ophelia is a favourite of mine. It is just so beautiful and seems so real. Well, maybe it should be after all the dramatical events during its production. "Millais produced Ophelia in two separate stages: He first painted the landscape, and secondly the figure of Ophelia. Having found a suitable setting for the picture, Millais remained on the banks of the Hogsmill River in Ewell...for up to 11 hours a day, six days a week, over a five-month period in 1851. This allowed him to accurately depict the natural scene before him. Millais encountered various difficulties during the painting process. He wrote in a letter to a friend, "The ...

This meme is hosted by Guiltless Reading . For this week's bookmark I have been to Ystad. Ystad is the city of chief inspector Wallander in Henning Mankell's books. Not only Wallander is filmed here, but other productions as well, and the film museum visualises these productions. Mostly about Wallander of course. In the very small shop, I found a bookmark and some other small items that will make good Christmas presents.

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...

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

This meme is hosted by  Guiltless Reading  and it is all about bookmarks This week I present three fantastic bookmarks (although two are postcards) printed from paintings exhibited in Castle Ambras in Innsbruck. They have three floors of marvellous paintings of the Habsburg family. On their website Castle Ambras you can read the following on the portraits. "Habsburg portrait gallery   The Portrait Gallery contains over 200 likenesses, including paintings by Lukas Cranach, Titian, Anton van Dyck and Diego Velázquez. Most of the Habsburgs and numerous other rulers are represented by portraits—including Emperor Maximilian I, Emperor Charles V, King Phillip II of Spain, the young Maria Theresia and Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. Of special interest are the numerous portraits of children, such as the picture of the three-year-old Eleonora Gonzaga which is attributed to Rubens.   No family influenced the history of Europe over the centuries to the extent that ...

This meme is hosted by Guiltless Reading  and it is all about bookmarks. I tend to buy bookmarks while travelling. It is perfect. You have a souvenir and they do not take up a lot of space. While cleaning out a box full of scrapbook items recently, I found three bookmarks that I had totally forgotten about. And, they are really nice ones. I bought them when visiting Oxford more than a year ago. The top one is wooden and of Oxford Castle & Prison. On it reads: A Norman motte-and-bailey castle was built by Robert d'Oilly in 1071, incorporating the Saxon St George's Tower. It saw two civil wars and, in 1142, the escape of Empress Matilda. The church on site was the birthplace of the University and legend of King Arthur. A gaol from 1531, holding some of Britain's most infamous criminals, it was reformed by Daniel Harris from 1785 and later expanded. It remained a prison until 1996. Unfortunately, we missed one of the guided tours. But there is a lot of other th...

Paris in July hosted by Tamara at Thyme for Tea . Click the link for more info. My Bookmark Monday meme, hosted by Guiltless Reading , has a Paris theme this week. Since I did not have any bookmarks to highlight the city, I decided to be a little bit creative and make one myself. I started out with a clothes label, that I had already used as a bookmark (yes, I use what is closest at hand!). It worked very well. I do a little bit of scrapbooking and journaling and remembered seeing some papers with the Eiffel tower somewhere. Deb Nance at Readerbuzz  posted about how often we see this tower on book covers. Well, this time it will be on the bookmark. The front of the bookmark turned out like this: The back turned out like this: My handwriting is appalling, so this was the best I could do. Will use this for my next book French.

This meme is hosted by Guiltless Reading . Being in Sweden we popped over to Denmark for some sightseeing and museums last week. We visited Kronborg, Hamlet's castle. It was a nice surprise and not at all what I had expected. There was an exhibition on the people having played Hamlet and Ophelia in the past. I took the opportunity to purchase a very nice bookmark. We also visited Karen Blixen's home which is now a beautiful museum. Close by is also the modern art museum Louisiana, where we saw an exhibition of Picasso's ceramic. A full day full of culture, history and books. What more can we ask?

Joining Guiltless Reading for another Bookmark Monday. Being on a trip, visiting houses, castles and museums I mostly manage to find some bookmarks. I showed you two last week connected to Bussy-Rabutin . This week it is time for a more famous person, Voltaire. Having read Candide  for my litcourse, I was eager to visit houses where he had lived. Unfortunately, I was unlucky in both places. During the last years of his life he lived in Ferney, just on the border to Switzerland. They even renamed the town to Ferney-Voltaire (which is the name today) after him. The castle is under renovating since 2015 and will only open this summer. We could walk around the garden though. It is a beautiful, small (to be a castle) with a lovely view over the surroundings. Who would not enjoy living here? The small shop was full of Voltaire memorabilia and I bought two bookmarks. The other home of Voltaire is situated in the Délice area of Geneva. We were here mid-day but the museum only o...

It has been rather quiet here on the blog, the reason being, that I have been on a tour in France and Switzerland. On our way to visit friends in Zürich, we decided to take a few days and drive via Champagne and Bourgogne in France, to do wine tasting and sightseeing. I had some literary visits planned, but unfortunately, most of the houses I wanted to visit did not open until 1 April. They will have to wait for another time. The good thing about travelling is that I can collect yet a few bookmarks, which will be revealed during the next three Mondays. I start with two bookmarks from Chateau de Bussy-Rabutin which we visited. Very interesting castle and owner, Comte de Bussy, or as he was called Bussy-Rabutin. The castle is located in the Cote-d'Or department of Bourgogne, in eastern France. We just happened to pass by and stopped to investigate. The castle was founded in the 12th century and rebuilt in the 14th century, and the galleries (beautiful) were added in the 1520...

I am joining  Guiltless Reading  for  Bookmark Monday . On Thursday I went to Passa Porta, which is an international book shop here in Brussels. Visiting author was John Banville. I bought four of his books, which he kindly signed. When buying a book at the book shop, you get a bookmark and this is my sample of a Monday bookmark this week. As you see, I bought Mrs Osmond  by John Banville and got his signature. It was a joy to read.  More will come on the evening and the interview and the new books.

I am joining Guiltless Reading for Bookmark Monday . It was some time ago. On Saturday we went to Bruges for the day and visited a museum with pictures by Andy Warhol and Picasso. It was a very interesting visit and I came out of the museum shop with two bookmarks, one postcard and one keyring. I want to share these beautiful items with you here. What do you think? Are they not wonderful!

Today I am joining Guiltless Reading for Bookmarks Monday meme. I love bookmarks so one of my favourite memes.  Wherever I am, I try to find a bookmark. Very good as a souvenir and it does not take a lot of space. Recently, I visited the Artmuseum here in Brussels. They have a lovely museum shop and I came out with a few items. Among them bookmarks and three postcards. I think postcards are very useful as well to mark where you are reading. Lately, I have got a fling for Gustav Klimt's (1862-1918) paintings. I find them really lovely and colourful. Wikipedia has this to say about Klimt. "He was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. Klimt is noted for his paintings, murals, sketches, and other objets d'art. Klimt's primary subject was the female body, and his works are marked by a frank eroticism". There are twelve bookmarks with different paintings and a calendar for each month. Maybe ...

I am joining Guiltless Reading for Bookmarks Monday meme. I have been travelling in Iceland for two weeks and I found some really nice bookmarks. Three with pictures of the wonderful Icelandic nature as seen here.  Two from Icelandic historical sagas. I think they are from a tapestry they are creating, something like the Bayeux tapestry. You can see it as the work progress in the Njal's Saga Center in Hvolsvollur in the south of Iceland. Great museum. Here is a picture of what the tapestry will look like.

I am joining Guiltless Reading for the Bookmarks Monday meme. A couple of weeks ago I was visiting England and Stratford upon Avon. It was a great visit and I walked around all the places connected to Shakespeare's period. The Anne Hathaway's Cottage, Nash's House, Hall's Croft and of course Shakespeare's birthplace. They were all wonderful places and I really enjoyed walking around Stratford as well. One bookmark and one book was the outcome of my visit there. The book was Roy Porter's Blood and Gut, A Short History of Medicin.  Great book and not as bloody as I expected. The bookmark is all related to Shakespeare and you see it here.

Monday again and this week I have another bookmark for the  Bookmarks on Monday  meme, hosted Guiltless Reading. I bought i recently while visiting Le Mont du Saint Michel in France. As expected it shows the lovely island on a wonderful photo. Visiting was almost like a fairy tale experience although the thick walls were maybe more fortress like than fairy tale like. Small alleys to walk around in, or climb rather. It is rather steep inside the walls. We stayed one night, walked around, up and down and had a lovely dinner watching the tide coming in.