The Content Reader

There has been another Classic Spin from The Classic Club . Lately, I have not had time to read any of the spins, although I am eager to reduce my classical list, which is also a TBR list. This time the spin ended on number 1. Here is my list: 

1. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen 2. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins 3. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 4. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot 5. Light in August by William Faulkner 6. Karin Lavransdotter by Sigrid Undset 7. Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann 8. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce 9. Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence 10. A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams 11. Richard III by William Shakespeare 12. Travels With My Aunt by Graham Green 13. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck 14. The Overcoat and Other Stories by Nikolaj Gogol 15. Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh (for 1 August)(not finished) 16. Sweet Bird of Youth by Tennessee Williams 17. The Taming of a Screw by William Sha...

Many years ago I read the first books in this series and really loved it. I don't know why I did not continue to read the following books, but alas did not. However, waiting for the first season of the new BBC Poldark tv-series, I read the first four Poldark books in a row. Difficult to stop! Whatever BBC does, it does very well. The Poldark series are no exception. Absolutely fantastic! Wonderful actors, wonderful scenery and a wonderful script that follows the books very well. The absolute highlight is of course Aidan Turner as Poldark. You can just not think of anyone else who would do the part so well. The other actors are also perfectly cast and it makes it the top adaption it is. I am now watching the second season (I think they do two books per season) and it gets better and better. To prepare myself for the third season which seems to be on the way, I have bought the next three books in the series; The Black Moon, The Four Swans and The Angry Tide. I am more than...

Long time no see! But now I am back again and hope to be posting a little bit more regularly in the near future. I have been busy with other things than reading. It is going really slow now, so I feel somewhat desperate. But, what can I do, but keep a big smile and say; "I do read, but it is getting a little bit slow." Well, Bev's ( My Reader's Block ) call for the third checkpoint on the Mount TBR challenge woke me up, so I am now sitting at the computer to do an update, albeit small. As usual interesting questions to answer, and I am now curious if I have managed to ascend a little higher on my mountain. Looking back on my checkpoint #2  I see I had read 27 books and had reached Mont Blanc, plus made 1.203 meters up Mt Vancouver. So let's see how far I have got now? I have read 39 books from my TBR shelves, 12 books since July! Not so much, but better than nothing. That means I have reached Mt Vancouver, which is 36 books. It has also set me two books up the...

The good thing with moving books from one place to the other is that you discover books that you have forgotten that you have. This is especially the case for rather big, fact books. I have had a book called  Levande Litteratur  (Living Literature) for many, many years. It is written by a famous Swedish writer/journalist/translator, Tore Zetterholm. He tells the history of the written word from the Greek antiquity to modern times. This is a book which you should enjoy in small doses at the time, so I use it (while here in Sweden) as my breakfast reading. I thought it would be interesting to see how many of these great work of arts that I have on my shelves, which ones I have read, which ones are still to be read and which ones I would like to read. I will try not to anger the gods with a possible 'hybris', so will try to be realistic in what I know I will manage to read. It all starts with Gilgamesh and the Bible. Although I will not be able to read the Gilgamesh epic I li...

Back again. This time not with a book review. The reading is going slow. For the moment I am reading The Hourglass Factory  by Lucy Ribchester. It is a historical novel set in the beginning of the 20th century. Trapeze artists disappearing and then there are the suffragettes. More about this later. I am on my way to Sweden again, so planning my packing. Most things that will go from here have already been transported. Now we are starting looking at what we have in the attic! Yes, I guess you know what that means. Many things that has been hidden up there since we moved in 18 years ago. Since both me an my husband had reached a rather mature age by the time we decided that it might be a good idea to move in together, we had both collected a few personal stuff along the way. My husband is more of a squirrel than I am, so I am afraid he has a few more boxes to take care of,  but there are a few for me too. One pile of memorabilia To open these boxes was really a trip down...

I have read many raving reviews about this book, so it was with a little bit of caution that I started reading. Well, I did not have to worry. This is just a wonderful book, a fascinating story and so many wise thoughts all through the book. It just shows that it is never to late to do something about your life, and when you least expect it, you grow to heights you could never have imagined. Harold is retired and when we meet him, he and his wife do not seem to speak too much to each other. His wife Maureen, seems to spend her life cleaning the house and thinking of their grown-up son. One morning their life change forever when Harold receives a postcard from a former, female colleague, Queenie Hennessy. She has cancer and she is writing to say her farewells. The letter starts a process in Harold. He writes a polite reply and sets of to post it right away. Circumstances takes him to the nearest letter box, but he is hesitant to post it. He continues to the next one, and next one....

My mother got this book as a birthday present from her sister and lent it to me. My mother is 82 years old, and although she still lives at home with my father, she can relate to a lot of things in the book, and she really loved it.  As it says in the title, Hendrik Groen is 83¼ years old. He lives in an old people’s home in Amsterdam. He is a nice, caring, helpful and pleasant person who does not make a lot of noise in the world. He decides to change his attitude and become more tough and speak out about matters he thinks are wrong. Not to totally go outside himself, he decides to be obnoxious in secret and write a diary for one year. Here he can write whatever he likes. He can be as true as he likes, no one will read it but himself. It is the story of being old in an old peoples’ home. About friendship and love at the end of life. Just because you are old does not mean you have to give up everything, right? You have the right to think what you like about politicians, life in...