I'm Aliiiiiive... etc.
In case you were, you know, wondering.
The thing is - people always used to ask, how DO you find the time to read so much? (Sometimes in that nasty, WHY would you EVER read so much? tone of voice, but let's not go there!) and I always pretty straightforwardly answered that I just like reading better than most things, and I don't do sports, and I don't have the same responsibilities someone who has for example a family or a time-consuming hobby like matchstick collecting has, so obviously, I have a lot of time to read. But now I've started being all active and shit, and as a consequence I actually have less time, and instead of reading a lot less, I'd rather read just a little less and not blog about it afterwards.
Still, I miss blogging. Maybe I'll make it a bi-weekly thing. So, here's the deal. These are the books I bought since the last time I listed the books I bought, just to get that out of the way:
King, Laurie R.: "The Beekeeper's Apprentice", "A Monstrous Regiment of Women"
Weeeell ... I felt like Pastiches, you know, to get a broader look at things, and German television was airing "Sherlock", which also had to do with it?
London, Jack: "Das Alaska-Mädchen"
Because, remember when I used to be all over Yukon-related stuff? So that book jumped out from the shelf and I wanted it.
Veit, Karl L.: "Erforschung außerirdischer Weltraumschiffe"
Because sometimes you need to read about UFOs.
Martin, George R.R.: "A Game of Thrones"
Because I'm on the Internet sometimes and that stuff was everywhere when the tv-series started to air.
Mitchell, David: "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet"
Manguel, Alberto: "Die Bibliothek bei Nacht"
Those were gifts, and quite honestly, perfect gifts <3
So as you can see I even bought less than usual. It's a cycle. But do look forward to the end of October, when that one book bazaar, the one in the church, will be happening again. I sure am.
And I read:
43) Boyer, Rick: "Sherlock Holmes und die Riesenratte von Sumatra" ***
Do you know, this book cannot have been all that good, because I remember squat about it? It was about the Giant Rat of Sumatra, one of those cases that get a name in canon, but not a story. But what else happened? Why did I not like it? I think Irene Adler was in it in that annoying way she sometimes is?
44), 45) King, Laurie R.: "The Beekeeper's Apprentice", "A Monstrous Regiment of Women" *****
Oh, Lord. So, Sherlock Holmes is retired, and meets a 15(?)year-old prodigy and makes her his apprentice. And Laurie R. King cannot have read the canon material even once, because, ugh. So many reasons. Bumbling old idiot Watson, for one. Sherlock has a son, and Irene Adler was a love interest OF COURSE and it's all very fanfictiony and I ran the main character Mary Russell through that Mary Sue Litmus Test thingy that you can find online and she scored like a 110% or something, she's so annoying, even her flaws are her fashionably lythe figure and her keen intelligence, I think. But the worst thing is I really enjoyed reading these books anyway. They were fun and rompy and exciting and if it weren't for the self-loathing I'd get them all.
46) Valdes, Zoe: "Das tägliche Nichts" *****
Do you also find it confusing when books are hailed as the "big" novel of their time, or their place, and then they're less than 200 pages? Anyway. I watched a documentary about the author, who hails from Cuba, and that was very interesting, so I got one of her books and promptly read it three or four years later. It was a very short, very poignant look at a woman living in Cuba and her lovers, all set of course before the background of communism, and yes, it was a very big book indeed. I found it fascinating and extremely rich, although the translator - actually, let me make this a separate sentence. Unfortunatly, I had the feeling the translator wasn't able to get inside a female mindset (he is, by name, a man). He uses words, especially in the more sensual scenes, that felt grating from a feminine perspective, though of course, that might be the same in the original language and I'm just a cow.
47) Kolb, Annette: "Die Schaukel" *****
I actually watched a documentary about this author as well, so, having been pleasantly surprised by the former book, I decided I'd read this as well, and I was absolutely not disappointed. A family history, set in the early 20th century, with a lot of drama, on the small scale, and on the large one. a book about a society that is now extinct, about religion, about North&South (ha), a book that could have gone on to 800 pages and I would not have been bored.
48) Worth, Jennifer: "Call the Midwife" *****
I bought this because a friend bought it and it sounded very interesting, but I read it because the BBC made a series out of it and one of the characters is played by Miranda Hart, whom I adore (for obvious reasons. If you know me, google her, and you'll know.). It's about a midwife in the London East End of the 1950s, in the spirit of James Heriott, though by default infinitely more tragic. I loved the characters and the stories a lot and I will one day read all her books.
49) Veit, Karl L.: "Erforschung außerirdischer Weltraumschiffe"
Uh, yeah ... it's about UFOs, but also IFOs, which are Identified Flying Objects, and yes, you, the enlightened reader, now think "What, about weather balloons and stuff?" but no, it's about actual flying saucers that landed on earth. Apparently, in the 1950s, that was a thing. There are books about people flying with the spacemen and everything. I honestly though the whole UFO-thing was very niche and for lunatics even back then, but the list of people who claim to be in contact with aliens include high-ranking millitary officials and ivy-league professors, apparently? I feel that was not touched upon enough on X-Files. So now I know that, I guess. The book's obviously a stinking pile of crap, not well-written, unstructured, and the author a known (I say known but does a notation on a UFO-wiki count?) fraud. Oh, also, almost forgot, it all tied in with believing in God again somehow.
That's all, folks.
And currently, I am reading a book about the Norse Gods, you know, Thor and his folks, and at one point, Loki is pregnant by a horse. I bet there's fanfiction.
I am also reading "Menschen im Hotel" by Vicki Baum, which I love, because it's set in an old Grand Hotel in the early 20th century, and there's an aging ballerina in it and a gentleman thief!
And I'm still not done with the last Harry Potter audiobook.
Oh, and Pottermore is kind of a let-down, isn't it?
Anyway, that's really all, and it still hasn't stopped pouring, so I guess I'll go for a run and take my shampoo.
The thing is - people always used to ask, how DO you find the time to read so much? (Sometimes in that nasty, WHY would you EVER read so much? tone of voice, but let's not go there!) and I always pretty straightforwardly answered that I just like reading better than most things, and I don't do sports, and I don't have the same responsibilities someone who has for example a family or a time-consuming hobby like matchstick collecting has, so obviously, I have a lot of time to read. But now I've started being all active and shit, and as a consequence I actually have less time, and instead of reading a lot less, I'd rather read just a little less and not blog about it afterwards.
Still, I miss blogging. Maybe I'll make it a bi-weekly thing. So, here's the deal. These are the books I bought since the last time I listed the books I bought, just to get that out of the way:
King, Laurie R.: "The Beekeeper's Apprentice", "A Monstrous Regiment of Women"
Weeeell ... I felt like Pastiches, you know, to get a broader look at things, and German television was airing "Sherlock", which also had to do with it?
London, Jack: "Das Alaska-Mädchen"
Because, remember when I used to be all over Yukon-related stuff? So that book jumped out from the shelf and I wanted it.
Veit, Karl L.: "Erforschung außerirdischer Weltraumschiffe"
Because sometimes you need to read about UFOs.
Martin, George R.R.: "A Game of Thrones"
Because I'm on the Internet sometimes and that stuff was everywhere when the tv-series started to air.
Mitchell, David: "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet"
Manguel, Alberto: "Die Bibliothek bei Nacht"
Those were gifts, and quite honestly, perfect gifts <3
So as you can see I even bought less than usual. It's a cycle. But do look forward to the end of October, when that one book bazaar, the one in the church, will be happening again. I sure am.
And I read:
43) Boyer, Rick: "Sherlock Holmes und die Riesenratte von Sumatra" ***
Do you know, this book cannot have been all that good, because I remember squat about it? It was about the Giant Rat of Sumatra, one of those cases that get a name in canon, but not a story. But what else happened? Why did I not like it? I think Irene Adler was in it in that annoying way she sometimes is?
44), 45) King, Laurie R.: "The Beekeeper's Apprentice", "A Monstrous Regiment of Women" *****
Oh, Lord. So, Sherlock Holmes is retired, and meets a 15(?)year-old prodigy and makes her his apprentice. And Laurie R. King cannot have read the canon material even once, because, ugh. So many reasons. Bumbling old idiot Watson, for one. Sherlock has a son, and Irene Adler was a love interest OF COURSE and it's all very fanfictiony and I ran the main character Mary Russell through that Mary Sue Litmus Test thingy that you can find online and she scored like a 110% or something, she's so annoying, even her flaws are her fashionably lythe figure and her keen intelligence, I think. But the worst thing is I really enjoyed reading these books anyway. They were fun and rompy and exciting and if it weren't for the self-loathing I'd get them all.
46) Valdes, Zoe: "Das tägliche Nichts" *****
Do you also find it confusing when books are hailed as the "big" novel of their time, or their place, and then they're less than 200 pages? Anyway. I watched a documentary about the author, who hails from Cuba, and that was very interesting, so I got one of her books and promptly read it three or four years later. It was a very short, very poignant look at a woman living in Cuba and her lovers, all set of course before the background of communism, and yes, it was a very big book indeed. I found it fascinating and extremely rich, although the translator - actually, let me make this a separate sentence. Unfortunatly, I had the feeling the translator wasn't able to get inside a female mindset (he is, by name, a man). He uses words, especially in the more sensual scenes, that felt grating from a feminine perspective, though of course, that might be the same in the original language and I'm just a cow.
47) Kolb, Annette: "Die Schaukel" *****
I actually watched a documentary about this author as well, so, having been pleasantly surprised by the former book, I decided I'd read this as well, and I was absolutely not disappointed. A family history, set in the early 20th century, with a lot of drama, on the small scale, and on the large one. a book about a society that is now extinct, about religion, about North&South (ha), a book that could have gone on to 800 pages and I would not have been bored.
48) Worth, Jennifer: "Call the Midwife" *****
I bought this because a friend bought it and it sounded very interesting, but I read it because the BBC made a series out of it and one of the characters is played by Miranda Hart, whom I adore (for obvious reasons. If you know me, google her, and you'll know.). It's about a midwife in the London East End of the 1950s, in the spirit of James Heriott, though by default infinitely more tragic. I loved the characters and the stories a lot and I will one day read all her books.
49) Veit, Karl L.: "Erforschung außerirdischer Weltraumschiffe"
Uh, yeah ... it's about UFOs, but also IFOs, which are Identified Flying Objects, and yes, you, the enlightened reader, now think "What, about weather balloons and stuff?" but no, it's about actual flying saucers that landed on earth. Apparently, in the 1950s, that was a thing. There are books about people flying with the spacemen and everything. I honestly though the whole UFO-thing was very niche and for lunatics even back then, but the list of people who claim to be in contact with aliens include high-ranking millitary officials and ivy-league professors, apparently? I feel that was not touched upon enough on X-Files. So now I know that, I guess. The book's obviously a stinking pile of crap, not well-written, unstructured, and the author a known (I say known but does a notation on a UFO-wiki count?) fraud. Oh, also, almost forgot, it all tied in with believing in God again somehow.
That's all, folks.
And currently, I am reading a book about the Norse Gods, you know, Thor and his folks, and at one point, Loki is pregnant by a horse. I bet there's fanfiction.
I am also reading "Menschen im Hotel" by Vicki Baum, which I love, because it's set in an old Grand Hotel in the early 20th century, and there's an aging ballerina in it and a gentleman thief!
And I'm still not done with the last Harry Potter audiobook.
Oh, and Pottermore is kind of a let-down, isn't it?
Anyway, that's really all, and it still hasn't stopped pouring, so I guess I'll go for a run and take my shampoo.