book meme, alphabet questions: A
Through bokhora.se I found Lilla O and her alphabetical book questions. Meme time! (Translating the questions from Swedish to English, which may prove tricky with some of the letters, but the As seem okay.)
Alfa was the first letter in the Greek alphabet. Tell us about a book that makes you think of Greece in some way.
That simply has to be all four books of Hjältar och monster på himlavalvet, based on the radio series by the same name. Large bits of Greek mythology told in the narrative voice of an uncle stargazing with his nephews and niece. Very engagingly written, and the reason I'm considering getting a tattoo of Hermes. (If I can find a nice picture. Most pictures I've seen have sucked. Does anyone have a nice picture of Hermes?) As an adult, I've come to realize how very faithful the books are to their Greek sources. Sometimes the dialogue is practically verbatim, just phrased in a more modern way.
For those of you who don't read Swedish, I recently read the first Percy Jackson book, and it's pretty darn good. It has been likened to Harry Potter (and they're using the same director for the film), but I don't think it's really that similar. It's too grounded in American teen life for that, and the characters less burlesque. (Okay, apart from Percy's horrible stepdad being called Gabe Ugliani.) It's more like S.E. Hinton crossed with American Gods - or, come to think of it, it's like Supernatural with a touch of Greek mythology.
I don't know if the film will turn out any good, but holy fuck, everyone is in it. Uma Thurman, Pierce Brosnan, Rosario Dawson, Sean Bean, Kevin McKidd, Steve Coogan, Melina Kanakaredes, Ray Winstone... everyone. (Though judging by the imdb pic and the description in the book, they seem to have severely miscast Dionysos.)
Adam was, according to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the first human on earth. Tell us a book about or written by an Adam.
East of Eden by John Steinbeck. One of my yuletide wishes, and one of the most theologically and psychologically interesting books I've read. Plus pretty damn engaging. :-) In tvtropes' "Better than it sounds" category, it's described as "Unhappily married ranchers debate the exact meaning of Genesis 4:6" which cracks me up.
Adam is an interesting character, at heart a good and thoughtful man, but lacking in imagination - he figures that his wife wants what he wants because, well, who wouldn't? He doesn't understand her sociopathy, and he doesn't understand his son Cal, who grows up thinking that he has to be "bad" like his mother since he's not like his father. (To Adam's defence, I don't think he ever realized what was going on there.)
Of course, my view of the book is also coloured by the movie, which is fairly awesome too.
Which were the first books you remember reading or hearing when you were a child? Have you read them for your own or other people's children?
Oh, wow. Thing is, I don't remember there being a time when I couldn't read (though I remember the difficulty I had with writing... at the tender age of four), and my home has always been full of books, so the first? I remember reading the various Pelle Svanslös books at six, and that Madicken och Junibackens Pims was my favourite book at seven and Pinquo at eight, but picture books... Hm, there was a pretty nice pop-up book about playing hide and seek, the nephews have that one now. And I remember being very fascinated by a book where a family made a train trip and the sofas could be turned into beds. It seemed almost like magic. (Sort of like how I still have a fascination for hidden compartments in furniture.)
Humanity's cradle is, according to some scientists, in Africa. Tell us about a book that in some way relates to this huge continent.
Well, the two books that immediately come to mind I have already talked about recently, namely Purple Hibiscus and Zahrah the Windseeker, both of which are bloody brilliant. I've borrowed The Thing Around Your Neck, but I haven't read it yet, so obviously that's out. I'm going to go with Le Taxi-Brousse De Papa Diop (Papa Diops taxi in Swedish, not sure what the title is in English). It's a picture book with a very simple, yet effective, story about the narrator's uncle, who is a taxi driver in Senegal. Above all, it has absolutely gorgeous pictures. I'm often stunned at how much more fun it can be to read picture books than books for older children, because they're such visual artworks. This is definitely one of my favourites from that perspective. Just look at that front page.
That's it from the As! Bs to come some other day!
Alfa was the first letter in the Greek alphabet. Tell us about a book that makes you think of Greece in some way.
That simply has to be all four books of Hjältar och monster på himlavalvet, based on the radio series by the same name. Large bits of Greek mythology told in the narrative voice of an uncle stargazing with his nephews and niece. Very engagingly written, and the reason I'm considering getting a tattoo of Hermes. (If I can find a nice picture. Most pictures I've seen have sucked. Does anyone have a nice picture of Hermes?) As an adult, I've come to realize how very faithful the books are to their Greek sources. Sometimes the dialogue is practically verbatim, just phrased in a more modern way.
For those of you who don't read Swedish, I recently read the first Percy Jackson book, and it's pretty darn good. It has been likened to Harry Potter (and they're using the same director for the film), but I don't think it's really that similar. It's too grounded in American teen life for that, and the characters less burlesque. (Okay, apart from Percy's horrible stepdad being called Gabe Ugliani.) It's more like S.E. Hinton crossed with American Gods - or, come to think of it, it's like Supernatural with a touch of Greek mythology.
I don't know if the film will turn out any good, but holy fuck, everyone is in it. Uma Thurman, Pierce Brosnan, Rosario Dawson, Sean Bean, Kevin McKidd, Steve Coogan, Melina Kanakaredes, Ray Winstone... everyone. (Though judging by the imdb pic and the description in the book, they seem to have severely miscast Dionysos.)
Adam was, according to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the first human on earth. Tell us a book about or written by an Adam.
East of Eden by John Steinbeck. One of my yuletide wishes, and one of the most theologically and psychologically interesting books I've read. Plus pretty damn engaging. :-) In tvtropes' "Better than it sounds" category, it's described as "Unhappily married ranchers debate the exact meaning of Genesis 4:6" which cracks me up.
Adam is an interesting character, at heart a good and thoughtful man, but lacking in imagination - he figures that his wife wants what he wants because, well, who wouldn't? He doesn't understand her sociopathy, and he doesn't understand his son Cal, who grows up thinking that he has to be "bad" like his mother since he's not like his father. (To Adam's defence, I don't think he ever realized what was going on there.)
Of course, my view of the book is also coloured by the movie, which is fairly awesome too.
Which were the first books you remember reading or hearing when you were a child? Have you read them for your own or other people's children?
Oh, wow. Thing is, I don't remember there being a time when I couldn't read (though I remember the difficulty I had with writing... at the tender age of four), and my home has always been full of books, so the first? I remember reading the various Pelle Svanslös books at six, and that Madicken och Junibackens Pims was my favourite book at seven and Pinquo at eight, but picture books... Hm, there was a pretty nice pop-up book about playing hide and seek, the nephews have that one now. And I remember being very fascinated by a book where a family made a train trip and the sofas could be turned into beds. It seemed almost like magic. (Sort of like how I still have a fascination for hidden compartments in furniture.)
Humanity's cradle is, according to some scientists, in Africa. Tell us about a book that in some way relates to this huge continent.
Well, the two books that immediately come to mind I have already talked about recently, namely Purple Hibiscus and Zahrah the Windseeker, both of which are bloody brilliant. I've borrowed The Thing Around Your Neck, but I haven't read it yet, so obviously that's out. I'm going to go with Le Taxi-Brousse De Papa Diop (Papa Diops taxi in Swedish, not sure what the title is in English). It's a picture book with a very simple, yet effective, story about the narrator's uncle, who is a taxi driver in Senegal. Above all, it has absolutely gorgeous pictures. I'm often stunned at how much more fun it can be to read picture books than books for older children, because they're such visual artworks. This is definitely one of my favourites from that perspective. Just look at that front page.
That's it from the As! Bs to come some other day!