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!

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!

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!

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!

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.

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.

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!