Life and such.

So, as you might imagine, a lot can happen in 7 months. I could get a great job, make a couple of new friends, I could start a new education, I could get sick, get well again, I could start to question if my brain might function outside the norm, I could become an aunt, people might start recognizing if I did my job exceptionally well, and those are just the major things.

I could scratch a friends car, get in a fight at 4 in the morning, meet an ex in a crowded bar in my hometown, I could learn that I can write with my left hand, stay up past 5 AM just talking, I could expand my cooking skills, learn the cup-song, go bowling, I could let past grievances go and focus on living now.

All this and more, so much more, infinitely more, has happened since I last blogged.

There is no way to describe it all. How does one describe life?

I might think there is nothing to write about, and that my day-to-day life is just boring, but I'd be wrong. Something new happens everyday. It might not be a big thing, but it's new.

I think that is what I'll focus on in 2013. The new.

The final score - 2012 Book Quest

The last post was on my birthday almost 7 months ago. Who's been a bad blogger? I've been a bad blogger! 

What does that mean? That means today is a double-post day! Hurray!

The first thing is this, the end of the 2012 Book Quest. Now the mission was to read as many books as I bought, let's see how I did.

Here are the books I bought:

Charles Dickens: David Copperfield

Mary Shelley: Frankenstein

Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness

Edith Wharton: The Age of Innocence

George Eliot: Middlemarch

Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451

Agatha Christie: Stævnemøde med døden

Agatha Christie: Mord for åbent tæppe

Agatha Christie: Døden lurer

Seth Grahame-Smith: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Ernest Hemingway: Og solen går sin gang

John Steinbeck: Vredens druer

Stephen King: Ondskabens hotel

Chely Wright: Like me

Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games

Richard Adams: Kaninbjerget

Charles Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities

Laurence Sterne: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy

Evelyn Waugh: Gensyn med Brideshead

J. D. Salinger: Forbandede ungdom

Charles Dickens: Et julekvad

Bjovulf

Terry Pratchett: Mort

Terry Pratchett: Guards! Guards!

Orson Scott Card: Ender's Game

Alice Walker: Farven lilla

A. A. Milne: Winnie the Pooh

Anthony Horowitz: Stormbreaker

Anthony Horowitz: Point Blanc

Anthony Horowitz: Skeleton Key

Anthony Horowitz: Eagle Strike

Anthony Horowitz: Scorpia

Anthony Horowitz: Ark Angel

Anthony Horowitz: Snakehead

Anthony Horowitz: Crocodile Tears

Anthony Horowitz: Scorpia Rising

Paulo Coelho: The Alchemist

Mario Puzo: The Godfather

William Goldman: The Princess Bride

Anthony Burgess: A Clockwork Orange

Phillip K. Dick: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

Thomas Hardy: Tess D'Urbervilles

Robert Louis Stevenson: Treasure Island

Anthony Swofford: Jarhead

George R. R. Martin: A Game of Thrones

P. D. James: Death Comes to Pemberly

Terry Pratchett: Night Watch

Robert Louis Stevenson: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Daniel Keyes: Flowers for Algernon

J. K. Rowling: Beedle the Bard

Stephen Chbosky: The Perks of being a Wallflower And here are the books I read: Jane Austen: Emma Bram Stoker: Dracula Lionel Shriver: Vi bliver nødt til at tale om Kevin Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451 Joseph Heller: Catch-22 Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness Louisa May Alcott: Little Women Seth Grahame-Smith: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Agatha Christie: Døden lurer Mary Shelley: Frankenstein F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby Chely Wright: Like me Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games Frans G. Bengtsson: Røde Orm Bjarne Reuter: Os to Oskar, for evigt Jussi Adler-Olsen: Journal 64 Flemming Qvist Møller: Snuden Charles Dickens: Et julekvad Terry Pratchett: Mort Orson Scott Card: Ender's Game Spike Milligan: Adolf Hitler: My part in his downfall Terry Pratchett: Guards! Guards! J. D. Salinger: Forbandede ungdom Alice Walker: Farven lilla Bjovulf Suzanne Collins: Catching Fire Suzanne Collins: Mockingjay Jussi Adler-Olsen: Kvinden i buret Muriel Barberry: The Elegance of the Hedgehog A. A. Milne: Winnie the Pooh Anthony Horowitz: Stormbreaker Walter Moers: Kaptajn Blåbjørns 13 ½ liv Arthur Conan Doyle: A Study in Scarlet William Goldman: The Princess Bride Anthony Burgess: A Clockwork Orange Frank Herbert: Dune Jussi Adler-Olsen: Fasandræberne Anthony Horowitz: Point Blanc Anthony Horowitz: Skeleton Key  Phillip K. Dick: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep Frank Baum: Troldmanden fra Oz Anthony Swofford: Jarhead Robert Louis Stevenson: Treasure Island Agatha Christie: Mord for åbent tæppe Jan Guillou: Ondskaben Jack Kerouack: On the Road Robert Rankin: East of Ealing P. D. James: Death Comes to Pemberly J. K. Rowling: The Casual Vacancy (Nils) Eoin Colfer: Artemis Fowl Paulo Coelho: Alkymisten 51 in each category. BOO-YAH!

Birthday blog - 2012 Book Quest

Hi Guys,

It's been a while, I know. I have been busy with life-stuff, which is nice. It feels good to have something to do, but I haven't neglected my reading (or book-shopping) as you will see from this list.

Since I blogged last I have bought:
Watership Down by Richard Adams
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Beowulf
Mort by Terry Pratchett
Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
The Color Purple by Alice Walker


And read:
Røde Orm  by Frans G. Bengtsson
Os to Oskar, for evigt by Bjarne Reuter
Journal 64 by Jussi Adler-Olsen
Snuden by Flemming Quist Møller
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Mort by Terry Pratchett
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Adolf Hitler, My Part in his Downfall by Spike Milligan
Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Beowulf

So all in all bought: 26, read: 25

Whew, well the main reason I blogged today is because it's my birthday. YAY BIRTHDAY!

And here are my presents so far, more to come when I go home on friday :)

Back pain and the joy it brings - 2012 Book Quest

This Friday I woke up with a sore back. It hardly ever happens, but this time it was bad. So bad I had to call in sick from work.
Right now I work for a good friend of mine, I mostly help out around his shop and try not to get in the way. I learn something new every day I am there, it's a really good time and we have a lot of fun.

After calling in sick I settled in under the covers with a good book. I finished The Great Gatsby and then, hungrily, threw myself at the next one.
I had just gotten two new books in the mail; The Hunger Games (I had to see what all the fuss was about) and Chely Wright's autobiography, Like Me.

I started out with the later and I was moved. Very well written and her story was so tragic and full of fear I could not put it down. I plowed through it that day. I cannot for the life of me remember the last time I stayed up till 3 in the morning just to read all the way through a book. I think it might have been Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and that was 5 years ago!

Saturday I started The Hunger Games, and I just finished it moments ago. It was well written, the cliffhangers (there were A LOT) were well spaced and fit snugly into the story, and the world was very convincingly described.
Katniss, the protagonist, annoyed me a bit though. She was so naïve it would sometimes seem as if the author held her back, just to draw out a couple of extra pages of her wondering why something or other happened.
But all in all I enjoyed it and I might just buy the next two books in the trilogy.

It has been a good weekend, I have had a sore back, but a lot of time to read. Not a bad way to spend your time.

The score as of now is bought: 15, read: 13.
I'm getting there!

New acquisitions:

Life and death and other silly things - 2012 Book Quest

I finished two more books. Peril at End House by Agatha Christie and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
The Christie was not too exiting so I will lightly skip over that.
Frankenstein was great, though it did get a bit rushed at the end.Everything was so detailed until the last 15 pages when it was just, not. But all in all I enjoyed it.

Something did confuse me however. I don't recall any mention in the book of Frankenstein raiding cemeteries for body parts. Though that is what I recall from the movies. What is that about?

I have managed not to buy any books lately, but I stand at a crossroad. I found this great site: http://bookmooch.co.uk/
It's a site where you tag books you own, but wish to get rid of. Others can then ask you for the books and if you mail them to them, you get points you can use to get books from others. Perfect. Perfect, but dangerous!

Think of all the books I could receive this way. I am so close to being even, I am at 13-10 in my bought vs. read battle. It is a constant struggle not to buy books and this site is the devil!

I shall try to control myself and focus on Stephen King's The Shinning. Dun Dun Duuun...

Only 960 to go!

Look at this, you guys!

(1001 Books you must read before you die).

I just got it today and then I got home and I went through all 1001 books and checked of the ones I had read. (in pencil, because writing in books is...just...wrong).
I have only read 41 of them, I feel silly and dumb and unaccomplished. Think if I had spent my life reading instead of making friends and other silly things. Think how much I could have read!

That is it! No more social-life, no more fun till I have read all 1001. (not really)

There are a couple of books I missed on their, otherwise good, list though. Yet I have a fetish for checking things of on lists, so this book is perfect nonetheless.

Now back to my book.

Oh wait before I run; a friend asked me what the score was for bought vs. read, it's 13-8 and I am fighting myself on a daily basis. I want to buy more books!

Some people should not be allowed to write - 2012 Book Quest

I am sad you guys. Really, really sad.
You know how bacon makes everything better? How an otherwise boring dish suddenly becomes the best meal ever, just because you added bacon? And how beer makes everything better? How it can be sunshine and blue skies and all seems great, but the one thing missing to make it perfect, is a cold beer?

I know that feeling. And a fool I was for believing that there was another thing that could improve something already really good. Perfect it to a point where I would be laughing so hard no sound came out, and I just sat there, clapping like a retarded seal.
Yeah I thought it was like that with zombies. That a good movie or book could only become better with a sprinkle of undead corpses craving brains.

I was wrong! Not just a little wrong either. No, I was terribly mistaken. And I am ashamed. Ashamed I ever thought anything could improve Austen. How could it? Austen is perfect, and I was a fool to think otherwise.

All this is of course concerning the latest book I read for The 2012 Book Quest. A guy named Seth Grahame-Smith took it upon himself, to ruin the most wonderful book. He no doubt intended to be funny, but I am here to tell you, he failed tremendously.

He created the abomination that is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and he ought to pay for it.
He turned a beautiful, funny, well-written story in to absolute drivel.

I will not waste time by describing the story, it is Pride and Prejudice, we all know that story. I will only say this: adding zombies to a classical novel is a new and exiting idea that might have worked, had the author actually taken the time to understand the story. He seems to be under the impression, that  Pride and Prejudice  is just a love story that needs some action to make it exiting.
Wrong Mr. Grahame-Smith, Wrong in every sense of the word.

As I constantly have to explain to people, Pride and Prejudice is much, much more than just a romance novel. It is social commentary and satire.
With Grahame-Smiths additions, all of the depth of the novel is gone, erased by silly mentions of zombies and battles and warrior codes.

No, no more. I wash my hands of that book.