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.

Transformations - 2012 Book Quest

The last couple of weeks and the next 6 months will be all about transformations for me. How appropriate I chose to read Little women, a book stuffed with transformations.

Essentially the book is about four girls becoming women and, though I am already a grown woman, I found inspiration in their quest to always do better. That is what I am trying to do in my life, do better, be better.

About a month ago I quit university, I was studying history, I realized it was not right for me and I quit. I don't like quitting and I will go a long way not to have to admit defeat. I will put up with terrible conditions or results and promise myself it will get better in the long run, just to not have to give up, I am stubborn and silly, and I should have quit a year ago.

Now I have quit and am among the scores of unemployed, I write applications and show up to when I have to, but the only valuable thing it has brought me, is a sense of having something that needs doing.
I talked to a guidance counselor who pointed me in the direction of an education that might be right for me, I have applied for it and there is a pretty good chance I will get in.
I went to a job interview yesterday and again today.
All in all; stuff gets done, which is more than can be said for the past year.

The stagnation has ended and I feel like I have awoken from a deep sleep and am ready to run a marathon.
What really helps is, I have decided two things:

1. I don't care.
2. I can do anything.

So whenever something gets in my way I just remember I don't care enough for it to bother me, and if I want, I can fix it, because I can do anything.

My doctor said, when I told her about this great sense of "nothing is impossible", that I had probably been depressed. I don't know if that is true, I don't really care either. 

All I know is that the world might be a tough place sometimes, but I am always tougher and whenever the world wants to prove me wrong, she can bring it on and I'll even drive her to the ER afterwards. 

So remember, if the world seems out to get you, kick her ass!

Geocaching - Sunday Sensations

I went out geocaching today. It has been so long since I last did that, more than a year and it was really nice. There are a lot of muggles (non-geocachers) around on a Sunday afternoon though, so I had to be careful.

Geocaching is like a treasure hunt, you get a set of coordinates, you type them into your GPS unit and when you get to the destination you try and find a cache with a logbook to sign it.
It is a lot of fun, and it is also a good way of going for a walk. I am not very good at walking around the neighborhood aimlessly, but when I have three caches to find I will gladly walk a couple of kilometers to do so.

Today I actually got caught by a muggle. I was standing with the cache in my hand, trying to be sneaky, when a woman and her 5 y/o daughter walks by. I hadn't even seen them coming.
The girl asks her mom "what's that in her hands mummy" and the mom goes "Oh that's just her lunchbox".
Thank god for people using Tupperware for cachecontainers!

The rest of the day I think I will read, I should really finish my book. I like it a lot, I have just been so busy lately, so all I am going to say is:

"To the comfy chair with a book and a coke!"

Sunshine - Sunday Sensations

Happy Sunday everyone!

The sun is shinning like crazy here, the temperature is up a bit and the sky is clear blue. My faith in spring is restored!

This will be a very short post, because I am going for a walk. No time to waste inside on such a lovely day. I will bring my book with me and I will sit and read by the river. I have a secret spot near here which is so beautiful and serene. I wish I could take you all there, but if I did you would see it's magnificence and it would no longer be peaceful. I can however show you what it looks like in the early summer.

Nice huh?

Have a nice Sunday.

Edit: I am now back from my walk and some noisy kids had decided to hang out in my secret spot *Shakes fist* "Damn kids, get of my lawn".
Instead I found a nice tree stump with plenty of ducks running around it. It was acceptable, but not quite the same *sigh*.
I did however get my walk on, and took a tour of the neighborhood after my bum got too cold to sit still any longer. All in all a good Sunday afternoon.  

Of sins and darkness - 2012 Book Quest

Forgive me readers, for I have sinned.

Yesterday I was doing really well on the quest. After finishing Heart of Darkness I had bought 9 books and read 6. Then the used bookstore happened, and then my roommate wanted books from Amazon and today I found a thrift store that had books. So now I am at 13 bought vs. 6 read. Whoops...

I bought Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises at the used bookstore, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies on Amazon and at the thrift store I got The Shining and Grapes of Wrath.
Now my "To-read" shelf is looking crowded as ever, I mean just look at it:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies not pictured because it has not come yet. (And my camera sucks, I know I know)

As I wrote above, I read Heart of Darkness, but I don't really want to write about it. Let it be enough that I tell you I didn't like it. Not one bit.There was no story, no counterpoint, no points of no return, nothing. And when an author goes out of his way to write the title of the book in the book, it pisses me off! I feel like shouting "I get it dammit! He is in the middle of an undiscovered spot on the map, no civilization, everything is described as gloomy and the people there are "in the dark" when it comes to the modern world. There is absolutely no need to point it out even further by repeating the title of the book every 30 pages or so."

And I ended up writing about it anyway... Well on a much happier note, I am reading a book I quite enjoy so far. Little Women by Louisa Mae Alcott. To no ones surprise I really like Jo who is a tomboy and finds female ideals silly and restricting. Go Jo!

In other news nothing particularly exciting has happened here lately. And with that I shall leave you.
Till next time, stay safe and read the manual!

Books - Sunday Sensations

I figured it was about time I spend a little time explaining why I love books so much.
I was sort of an outsider when I was a kid, I only had a few friends, very good friends, but not too many. When I was 12 we moved, not far, just one town over, but I did not know anybody and I had a lot of free time on my hands.
I found sanctuary in the local library, it was dusty and dark, and just how a library should be.

I had always read a lot, it is what we did in our family, especially my mom. I remember going to the library to get her books whenever she was home sick from work. I would get three or four books and she had usually read at least two of them before.

A little while after the school year had started a classmate who had noticed I read a lot, handed me a book. She told me to read it and bring it back the next day. I looked at her like she was crazy, I mean the book was 300 pages. How would I ever get through it in one day?
I did however. I finished it at 2 AM that night and when Harry beat back Professor Quirrell and Lord Voldemort and Gryffindor won the house cup, I admit, I cried a little.

That was my first "big" book. 300 pages is not a lot, but when you are 12 and you have mostly read 150-200 page books, it is overwhelming.

From then on, there was no stopping me. Later that year I read Bent Haller's Lille Lucifer which is a 850 page tome filled with pure, golden awesome.

I read just about everything I could get my hands on and it has been like that ever since. I find it hard to explain exactly what it is about books that make me happy. But I stumbled upon this image the other day, and it is the closest I have ever come to an explanation.




If any of you Danes out there remember the old Bookie bookmarks they had at the libraries, they were sort of the same. I was actually looking for images of those when I found this.
I used to have a ton of them, now I cannot find a single one, it makes me a little bit sad.

The bookmarks had a drawing of a boy reading a book on the front. He would be lying in a bathtub or sitting under a tree, and on the other side, he would be diving under water in a submarine or exploring through a jungle.
And that is exactly what books are like. They are a gateway to a world beyond this one. A place where magic is real and evil pirates kidnap wenches, where good always triumphs over evil and where everyone gets exactly what they deserve, good or bad.

I believe I just answered my own question; I love books because when you start reading, anything is possible.

Who needs linear progression? - 2012 Book Quest

I finished Catch-22 last night and man, Joseph Heller must have had notebooks full of time lines!

                                       

The central premise of the book, to expose and ridicule bureaucracy in it's most extreme forms, made for a lot of laughs and since it mostly took place in two locations, the sense of never quite knowing when you were was very interesting.
The characters were all crazy in some way, even the ones who seemed rational were crazy. I guess we are all crazy in some way or another.
There were a couple of things that confused me, words and expressions that hardly seemed fit for the 1940ies. But I guess writing a book 15 years later, it must be hard to keep it completely era-correct. Or you know, maybe I am mistaken in thinking the words and expressions came later.

I had a little poll this week to see what I should read next. The result was Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, so naturally I have started on that one.

There really is nothing much to speak of lately. It's raining outside, ah the wonders of a Scandinavian winter, snow, ice and cold, miserable, unrelenting rain. I am not much of a winter fan, the short days seem to rush by and the nights are so dark and cold.
Summer and autumn are my favorite seasons. The summer days here are so long, 18 hours of daylight, it makes me feel so light. And it usually stays warm far into the autumn, no bulky jackets or gloves, no freezing wind tearing the flesh from my face.

So I am looking forward to May, when the temperature climbs and there is only a slight breeze. When the green grass on the banks of the river looks fresh, and tempts you to throw yourself down with a book and a cold beer.
Ah May, please come back soon!

Lambda - Sunday Sensations

I hope you have all had a good week and that you are enjoying your Sunday.

I volunteer at the local LGBT organisation. It is called Lambda and apart from running a café, a group that do talks at local schools and an advice phone service, we do parties. Big parties. We actually do the biggest LGBT parties outside Copenhagen.
All these different groups and events, along with many more, was the reason for the honor that was bestowed upon us Thursday night. Lambda won the prize for Best Organisation at this years Axgil Awards, the Danish gay chamber of commerce yearly LGBT awards.
We were all overjoyed and very proud, and I had the honor of hosting our Valentines party the day after.

It was a great party, everyone was in a good mood (some more drunk than others) and the party went remarkably well with hardly any glitches.

I am very proud to be a part of the LGBT community here in Odense, and I am only happy to do a lot of hard work, when I see it grow into something as beautiful as these parties, that draw crowds from all over the country. I am especially proud, when a small, provincial organisation, through hard work, endless promotion and untiring volunteers, gets noticed by enough people that we can win such a prestigious award. 

To all the hard working people that, through the years, have kept Lambda going: This is all you!

Fahrenheit 451 - 2012 Book Quest

My internet connection has decided it is a woman, and is now acting accordingly. It is unstable, moody and pissing me off!
I have gone so far as to actually draw eyes and a mouth for the modem (no pictures because I am terrible at drawing and you do not need to see that!). My roommate was eyeing the modem suspiciously and kept insisting the eyes were following him.

On a totally unrelated note I finished Fahrenheit 451 and I was a bit confused until my aforementioned roommate explained the concept of science fiction to me. I have never read much science fiction, and for some reason I had got into my head that it was all about space and aliens. Turns out it is not. Who'd have thunk!

The book was good though a bit confusing at times. It did not appear to the Author that it might be nice to know who was talking once in a while. Apart from that I liked the Orwellian feel of the future society. And for someone like me, the whole concept of burning books seemed very frightening. What if they came here and took my books? Burned the all in front of me? Scary stuff!

I am now reading Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. So far it is very humorous especially when he explains the different catches. Like this one, Catch-22:

 There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he were sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to.

I had to read it twice because at first my reaction was "Wait, what?".

The lack of internet is proving very healthy for my reading, and I have already read a fourth of the book. So naturally I am starting to wonder what I should read next. So I have started a poll over here ---------------------------------------------------------->
What do you guys think? please help me decide by voting for your favorite, or tell me in the comments what I need to read next.

Till next time.

Notebooks - Sunday Sensations

I really enjoy writing things down. Random notes, lines from poems, quotes, stuff that gets stuck in my mind. I write them down in notebooks and forget about them, then come across them months later and smile.

Mostly I like writing things down by hand. My handwriting is horrible and oftentimes people have trouble reading it, but when I decipher some scribbled passage, and discover something that used to be on my mind ages ago, it makes me happy. Somehow, some little part of past-me survived and made it all the way to future-me.

I have tons of notebooks, different sizes and covers (I was going to say shapes, but they are all rectangular). But lately I have found that at the post office they have the old "China books" from my childhood (only in slightly worse quality and often blue instead of red). So I have started to use them again. Here is an old one:

As you can see it is pretty worn. I used to decorate them like this, with cool things I would find while I was using it, but after a while it annoyed me. Every time my notebook would be perfect, I had to get a new one because it was full.

Now I usually just staple a really thin plastic folder on the inside cover to keep track of loose papers.
I guess we all grow up sometime...

As I add to these notebooks quite often I sometimes find it hard to find one simple thing. So to combat this I try to keep notebooks for specific things. I have one for recipes, one for drink recipes, one for books and one for computer stuff.
They all look alike so it can be quite a gamble to find the one I need. I really should find some stickers...

That is all for this Sunday, now I am going to go back to considering going for a walk.
(Spoiler: I wont go)

Have a great Sunday.

School Shootings and Book Burnings - 2012 Book Quest

I finished this one yesterday:

It was amazing. I cannot wait to see the movie, I hope it is just as good.

I liked the "twist" though, like most twists, I had figured it out early in the book. It still kept me wondering all the way till the end, which is what a twist should do, if  it cannot take you completely by surprise.

I wonder how they are going to pace the movie, because the book is completely in letter-form. Letters from Kevin's mom to his dad. And I hope they treat the school shooting right and don't glance over it. That would be tragic.

Next up is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (or 233 Celsius as I found one copy titled in the used bookstore).
It is set in the year 2000, but quite a different 2000 than the one we know. The main character is a firefighter, though they do not fight fires anymore, they light them.
Dun dun duuuun!

Nothing much else to report. Have a good one!

Whoops - 2012 Book Quest

I went to the second-hand bookstore. I love that place. It is just up the street from where I live and it is a mess of  books. Books stacked on the floor, on tables and on top of any free surface.
There is no alphabetical order, the only order is an unbreakable code of "This is the German author section, but with some Austrian and Belgian in the mix. Over here is the Spanish, Italian French, oh and on the bottom shelf is Eastern European. But if it is a detective novel it might be over there."

Needless to say, it is an amazing place!

I did manage to find some books while I was fighting my way through the Jungle of Used Books. So now I have read 2 and bought 9. I should feel bad, but I don't. I love books and most of the ones I bought are pretty short. I am confident I can make it up.

The books I bought were:

1. George Eliot: Middlemarch
2. Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451
3. Agatha Christie: Appointment with Death
4. Agatha Christie: Three Act Tragedy
5. Agatha Christie: Peril at the End House

Yes I have a love for Agatha Christie, it might not be big literature, but it is nice. I am currently reading a lot of books "you are supposed to have read", so Christie is like putting on a comfy blanket after all that scary, important, culture-describing, political literature.

Don't get me wrong, I like Charles Dickens, but give me a good murder mystery any day.

Anyway, my already cluttered "to-read" shelf is now even worse. I would lie if I said I did not like it.

The new books are the ones with arrows pointing at them. Obviously...

Violence - The 2012 Book Quest

I finished Dracula last night. The last 50 pages or so were a bit of a chore to get through, but as always when I finish a book, I felt a little bit high. And even if it has been a tough one to finish, I immediately start looking for the next one. For exactly that purpose I have a "to-read" shelf in one of my bookcases. Yesterday it looked like this:

The book I chose is obviously the one with the arrow next to it. (I hope you can see the arrow). It is Lionel Shriver's We Need to Talk About Kevin, a book i bought about 4 years ago because I saw it on a list called "The top 10 most disturbing novels".
The list featured American Psycho, which I had not, at that time, read yet. I had only read a chapter of it in high school English and liked it. I later discovered that the chapter we had read was the most violent and graphic in the book, that disappointed me quite a lot.

I enjoy violent novels, there is something un-apologetic about them.
If an author can write a scene like in American Psycho, where the main character is in his bedroom contemplating what suit to wear and where he should have dinner tonight, only to walk into the kitchen to calmly remark that the severed head of a hooker is looking at him from the kitchen table, then I'm sold.

So I am really looking forward to We Need to Talk About Kevin. The first 50 pages promise an interesting narrative, and I am hoping that, when I finally get to meet this Kevin, he will be every part as coldblooded as I expect him to be.

Sunday Sensations.

I think Sundays are amazing. Even if I do not have anything to do the entire week, I am still much more relaxed on Sunday. It might be because it is the legitimate day to not do anything, so it does not feel like I'm cheating by not working.

Sunday is also the day I look back at my week, I have done that for many years. I quietly reflect on what has happened in the past week and prepare myself for what is coming next. I do not have a check list for what was good and bad, I generally try not to keep score because I do not believe it will make me happier.

Mostly Sundays are quiet days, and I like the quiet. It is the day where even a little bit of work goes a long way.
It is also a day for reading, which means this day is the closest I come to having a holy day. I can just put on some headphones, listen to Jethro Tull and read my book nice and slow, no rush.

So happy Sunday everyone, spend it doing the things you love the most.

Thus far - Book Quest 2012

My quest for 2012 is to read as many books as I buy. I have a tendency to go in to a bookstore and find a bunch of books I want, and then have to put some back because I am not made of money.
It seems silly that I often buy books that stand around unread for years just because I felt like buying them, but not reading them. So to save myself some money and space I will try to limit myself, but just you wait for 2013, I'm going to buy ALL the books!

This quest also serves a great purpose, I get to rant about the books I buy. Anyone who has ever met me right after I've bought a handful of books knows that I could stare at them, talk about them, cuddle them for hours on end.

So far I have bought four books:

1. Charles Dickens: David Copperfield
2. Mary Shelley: Frankenstein
3. Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness
4. Edith Wharton: The Age of Innocence

And I have read Jane Austen's Emma. I am taking my sweet time reading the books, simply because I can. I'm enjoying actually having the time instead of having to rush through one book and on to the next.

Currently I am reading Bram Stoker's Dracula and I had the immense pleasure of, while on the train back from my parents house, correcting some young girl who was sighing about how amazingly hot and cool Edward Cullen is by firmly smacking her hand with my book. I would have gone for the head, but she was all the way across from me, and Twilight is not worth the effort of leaning forward.

Moving on from the Twilight massacre of 2012 I have discovered an interesting fact. In Dracula, the Count is not killed by sunlight, he just cannot change appearances from what he was when the sun rose. I wonder where the "no sunlight" idea came from.

Someone asked me the other day what was going to be my quest in 2013 and I was all "Whoa, it's January, let's not get ahead of ourselves". Which was mostly a cover up, because I have actually thought about it and honestly; I have NO idea. Suggestions anyone?

Old blog: Bye - New blog: Why

As I try to start a new blog I find it necessary to explain a little about the old one, and especially why it died.

I was overly ambitious, I wanted to read 52 books in a year, a quest I started in March, and I also wanted to write a review of each book. Part one of my plan was doable, but the second part I found to be a challenge. It was a lot more work than I had imagined, and I simply got sick of it. It seemed pointless to me and became a chore.

Now you know you have a problem when a hobby becomes a chore, I figured I would either drop the entire project or stop writing about it. I think I made the right choice.

Now on to this blog; Why did I start anew when it didn't work last time?
Well I want to improve my writing skills, and someone wise and probably famous once said, that if you work really hard at something you get better at it.
Someone also said "Write what you know", well I know reading (and basic math, but I doubt you want to read about me adding columns of small numbers) so I write about reading.
If I should happen to experience something exiting when I am not in my reading chair, I will most likely share that too. Consider yourselves warned!

The books of 2011.

So I thought I was in a hurry to get out the door, only to realize I had misread the clock and I was an hour early. So to spend some of the gained time I here present to the peoples of the internet the 52 novels i read in 2011.

1. Lewis Wallace: Ben Hur
2. Agatha Christie: Murder on the Nile
3. Dan Brown: The Lost Symbol
4. Rudyard Kipling: The Jungle Book
5. Jostein Gaarder: Sofie's World
6. Howard Pyle: Robin Hood
7. Jan Guillou: The Evil
8. Chris Cleave: The Other Hand
9. Flemming Jarlskov: How to Start a War
10. Fynn: Mister God, this is Anna
11. Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomasson: The Rule of Four
12. Lars Henrik Olsen: The Dwarf from Normandy
13. Shauna Cross: Derby Girl
14. Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice
15. Johannes V. Jensen: Fall of the King
16. Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird
17. Brett Easton Ellis: American Psycho
18. Thit Jensen: Stygge Krumpen vol. 1
19. James Norman Hall and Charles Nordhoff: Mutiny on the Bounty
20. Jan Guillou: The Road to Jerusalem
21. Jan Guillou: The Knight Templar
22. Jan Guillou: The Kingdom at the End of the Road
23. J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone
24. J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
25. J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
26. J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
27. J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
28. J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
29. J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
30. J. K. Rowling: The Tales of Beedle the Bard
31. Lewis Carol: Alice in Wonderland
32. Thit Jensen: Stygge Krumpen vol. 2
33. Robert Rankin: Retromancer
34. Kenneth Graeme: The Wind in the Willows
35. Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa: The Leopard
36. Alexandre Dumas: The Three Musketeers
37. Robert Rankin: Brightonomicon
38. Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose
39. Ernest Hemingway: A Farewell to Arms
40. Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter
41. Dan Brown: Digital Fortress
42. Edward Rutherfurd: New York
43. Robert Rankin: The Antipope
44. Kurt Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse-Five
45. Knud Sønderby: Midt i en Jazztid
46. William Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet
47. Laurie Halse Anderson: Speak
48. Rita MAe Brown: Rubyfruit Jungle
49. Agatha Christie: At Bertrams Hotel
50. Agatha Christie: The Moving Finger
51. Robert Rankin: The Brentford Triangle
52. John Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men

That's all. Doesn't seem like that much looking at it. 

Starting over.

This is a re-birth of a blog that died.
Well, I killed it, on purpose.

So to new beginnings, cheers.

The dead blog was mostly about books, as will this one. It was also about my 2011 book quest. A quest to read 52 novels in 2011. The blog did not die because I failed, I just found out I had made a wrong decision in how to write about the books I read, so I stopped writing.
I did however finish the quest, with a couple of weeks to spare even. It felt pretty good, so I decided I would make a 2012 quest as well.
It would not be to read a specific amount of books, instead the quest for 2012 is to read the same amount of books as i purchase. The point of this quest, I believe, is obvious; to restrain myself from buying just any book I see just because "It looked so lonely, there in the store, I'm sure it was crying too!"  
I am already doing terribly so that's a good sign.
I've been a good girl and have only bought four books so far, but I have also only read one. Oh well 2012 is a long year, I'm sure I will catch up.

That's about it,
TubA