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Showing posts with the label The History of Reading

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...

A few library books

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Being back in Sweden I can enjoy the pleasure of going to the library. We have a small, local library in the area where I live, and a bigger one down-town. I visited the local library the other day to see what they have. It is rather new, very nice and comfy. There are areas where you can use the computer, sit an read a book or a magazine. Only thing missing is coffee, but we can't have it all. As always when I linger among books I find something to buy, or in this case borrow. I came out with three books. Don't ask me why when I have around 200 at home on my shelves. I think it is just the pleasure of running into an unexpected book. Three interesting books, of which I have read two. Arvet från Bagdad  ('The Bagdad Inheritance'; my translation) by Ingmar Karlsson. He is a translator and author, specialising in books about minorities, different religions, the Middle East, China and Germany. This is a pearl of a book. There are a lot of myths about islam and th...