Books I've read in 2010 - April

Regnbogane by Olav H Hauge
Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
Slaves and Obsession by Anne Perry – AUDIO
The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or The Murder at Road Hill House by Kate Summerscale
Jenta som lekte med ilden by Stieg Larsson – AUDIO
Babettes gjestebud by Karen Blixen (Gyldendals lille bibliotek)
The Monk by Matthew Lewis
Reven var alt dengang jeger by Herta Müller
Kong Leopolds arv by Adam Hochschild
Luftslottet som sprengtes by Stieg Larsson – AUDIO
Åpent sinn eller høl i hue? by Dyrendal/Pettersen/Søderlind, eds.
Appelsinpigen by Jostein Gaarder
Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
Tapte døtre by Xinran
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
Monster by Knut Nærum - AUDIO
Släpp inte taget by Harlan Coben – AUDIO

12 printed books, 2,836 pages.
5 audiobooks, 76h 30m.

Favorite fiction:
Meh. I've read several books this month that were good, in fact I haven't read any that were bad. But at the same time none of them really stood out. It's hard to choose one this month, I don't feel like I really have a favorite among these books. Maybe Babette's Feast, because that one I really really liked. :-) I guess I have to say The Monk. It was a good read, but also a pretty difficult one ... the plot goes off in so many directions and the language is so old-fashioned. Understandable, but still. :-)

Favorite nonfiction:
Now in this category I have the opposite problem ... !! :-D I've read so much wonderful nonfiction this month. I can hardly choose just one of them. The Xinran book was fantastic, especially since I'd just heard her speak about it here in Oslo a few days before reading it. But since I do have to pick just one, I think I have to say King Leopold's Ghost. A harrowing read, but just amazing. An absolute must read.

Favorite audio:
The Girl Who Played With Fire ... ? Same as last month, a reread, but it is such a good read and the audiobooks I've read this month that have been new haven't been all that. Except maybe Monster ... ? I guess Stieg Larsson wins again. :-)

Please note that I've read a book of poetry this month. Out of the box, hell yeah!

Melville among the Viking ships

I released a BookCrossing book today ... something of a themed release.

I think Melville would have appreciated this. ;-)

Fun @ BookCrossing.com

I released a book tonight ... a copy of Jaws by Peter Benchley. Right after I'd written and entered the release notes, I saw the book pop up under 'Recently Released' in the sidebar. Whee! That so rarely happens - I see the books I get under 'Recently Caught' a lot, but rarely the other way. Fun ... to me anyway. :-)

Books I've read in 2009 - October

A Chocolate A Day Keeps the Doctor Away by Ashton/Ashton
På kjøret av Jack Kerouac – AUDIO
The Floating Brothel by Siân Rees
Frp-koden by Magnus E Marsdal
I den skogen by Harlan Coben – AUDIO
The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James
The Broken Crown by Michelle West
Sula by Toni Morrison
Maria Q by Cecilie Løveid
Sky på flukt by Muniam Alfaker
Pol Pots leende by Peter Fröberg Idling
The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst – AUDIO
Skryt og skrøner by unknown [Baron von Münchausen] – AUDIO
Kjærligheten skjærer dype sår by Helena von Zweigbergk
Hannah's Garden by Midori Snyder
The Timewaster Letters by Robin Cooper
Den ulende mølleren by Arto Paasilinna

13 printed books, 3,507 pages.
4 audiobooks, 42h 38m.

Favorite fiction:
The von Zweigbergk, I guess. I could hardly put it down ... just like the last book by her that I read. It's interesting, because the main character isn't that ... likeable, or however I should phrase it, but still the whole setting is so gripping, and I can't really put my finger on why. I really recommend these books to anyone who's interested in unusual crime fiction.

Favorite nonfiction:
Frp-koden, definitely ... even though there were other strong contenders too this month. It was so interesting, it really made me think things over and gave me new insight. Also quite well written. Don't know what more one could ask for in a book, really. :-)

Favorite audio:
The Line of Beauty. An interesting 80s retrospective ... convincing and moving. Very well read too IMO.

All the books that don't currently have links will be reviewed here on this blog shortly.

OsloS-OBCZ

New photo of the zone, taken after the September 2nd meetup. The books were kind of thin on the shelves when we got there, but afterwards it was well and truly filled up. :-)

An update: By the next day five of the books had already been picked up. :-D

Some favorite books

Recently on the Scandinavian forum on BookCrossing, one of the Swedish members posted to ask if there was any interest in trying to create a BC Scandinavia List of Bests (of books, obviously ;-). If you're not familiar with the Lists of Bests site, take a look at it here. She wants to try to make up a list like that ... but we're going to start small, with everyone just suggesting ten books. These were the criteria that she set up for us to use:

The books were supposed to be
1: books that we think everyone ought to read before they die
2: books that have given us fantastic reading experiences (even though the rest of the world may be shaking its collective head)
3: books that represent several different genres

I had to think about it for a while, but I managed to come up with a list of only ten books. This is it. Obviously all books that I recommend very strongly. :-)

The Count of Monte Christo by Alexandre Dumas
Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite
Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner
Lord Valentine's Castle by Robert Silverberg
Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart
Illusion by Paula Volsky
The Horrific Sufferings of the Mind-Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot, His Wonderful Love and Terrible Hatred
by Carl-Johan Vallgren

No particular order ... although The Count of Monte Christo is in fact my #1 favorite book of all time. :-)

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Cross-posted from my main blog, here.

I love books. :-)

Yes, I love books. :-) And I love the things books inspire people to. I mean, look at this ... !!

This is the Arma de Instruccion Masiva, a 'weapon of mass instruction'. :-D It's the creation of the Argentinian artist Raul Lemesoff, and these days it can be seen on the streets of Buenos Aires. He's actually a BookCrosser although he may not really know it - he both gives away books from the sculpture as well as accepting donations of books. I think this is so fantastic. Just look at that thing. Brilliant. I'm not really into cars, but I think I'd want one like this. ;-)

A few of Lemesoff's photos can be seen on his photostream on Flickr, here - some pretty good shots IMO. More pictures of the Arma, if anyone's interested. Three days ago I'd never heard about this guy, but I like him already. :-)

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Cross-posted from my main blog, here.

Books I've read in 2009 - March

Tyvenes marked by Jan Guillou - AUDIO
Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
Dongola by Idris Ali
Tricks of the Mind by Derren Brown
Nobels testamente by Liza Marklund - AUDIO
Millioner by Frank Cottrell Boyce
Lakse-enka by Ingrid Bjørnov - AUDIO
Tortoises, Terrapins and Turtles by Ivor & Audrey Noel-Hume
The Black Swan by Mercedes Lackey
Livstid by Liza Marklund - AUDIO
Unge Tørless by Robert Musil
Harens år by Arto Paasilinna
Overtalelse by Jane Austen - AUDIO

8 printed books, 1,752 pages.
5 audiobooks, 49h 20m.

Best fiction: Ella Minnow Pea, no question. So creative, so clever, so entertaining and yet so thought-provoking. It dealt with an unreal and unrealistic situation, yet it held a mirror up to reality for me, in some ways. I can't recommend it enough.

Best nonfiction: I've only read two, so there isn't much to choose from. :-) I have to say Tricks of the Mind. An interesting read, entertaining, certainly well written. Not all the material held my interest equally but there was more than enough there to make it worthwhile. And Brown is a funny guy. :-)

Best audio: Kind of hard to choose. But I think I'll have to go with Overtalelse (original title: Persuasion). I'd read it before, of course, and I know the story well, which makes it all the more impressive that I enjoyed it so much this time too. The ending moved me almost to tears even though I knew exactly what would happen. The book was beautifully read by the actress Petronella Barker. She did a wonderful job, really made the story and characters come alive. I don't think I've 'read' this book for the last time. ;-)

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Cross-posted from my main blog, here.

Books I've read in 2009 - February

The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Girl Meets Boy by Ali Smith
Spiral by Koji Suzuki
Skuggor från det förflutna by Nora Roberts - AUDIO
Heng ham ikke vent til jeg kommer by Per Egil Hegge
Fisken by Erlend Loe - AUDIO
How to Be a Villain by Neil Zawacki
Tulpanfeber by Deborah Moggach
Prime Time by Liza Marklund - AUDIO
The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng
Den røde vargen by Liza Marklund - AUDIO
Hvis en reisende en vinternatt by Italo Calvino
Affluenza by de Graaf/Wann/Naylor
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

10 printed books, 2,474 pages.
4 audiobooks, 42h 47m.

Best fiction: Difficult to choose, but I think I have to say Tulpanfeber. Very moving, beautifully written and very well translated, a fascinating look into the past, convincingly described.
Best nonfiction: Heng ham ikke ... - a great read on issues that are close to my heart; proper language & grammar.
Best audio: Maybe the Nora Roberts book?? Just because it was quite a pleasant surprise - I got this book from a BookCrossing friend and had low expectations, as I had assumed that this author wouldn't be up to much. But I liked the book much better than I thought I would. A good lesson not to trust my unfounded expectations. ;-)

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Cross-posted from my main blog, here.

Upcoming reads

Some books I plan to read over the next month or so. Not in order.

Tricks of the Mind by Derren Brown.
This was a gift - a Random Act of BookCrossing Kindness :-) - from a BookCrosser in the UK, miketroll. I've never read anything by Brown, I've just watched a number of episodes of his various TV series. Everything I've seen has been very interesting. His approach is especially interesting to me because of his background - he's been there and done it and now he sees right through it. :-) I'm really looking forward to reading this.

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde and Tom Bouden. A graphic novel version of Wilde's famous play, with a contemporary setting. It looks like a lot of fun. I've only looked at it a little bit, but already I'm quite taken with Bouden's drawing style - reminiscent of Hergé ... :-)

Mr Darcy Takes A Wife by Linda Berdoll. I know ... o_O I seriously do not expect this book to be any good. It's a Pride & Prejudice sequel with a bad rep ... too much sex and too little plot, basically. But I compulsively read everything P&P-related that I can get my hands on, so I definitely want to read this too. :-)

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn. A book I've been wanting to read for quite a while. I'm not familiar with the author, but the book sounds original, creative and clever.

Evelina, or The History of a Young Woman's Entrance Into the World by Fanny Burney. #958 on the list of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. An 18th-century classic that I don't know much about, but it's supposed to be very entertaining.

The Black Swan by Mercedes Lackey. Another gift ... a Christmas gift, I think, from my best friend, a couple of years ago. A standalone fantasy novel based on Swan Lake. It's supposed to be good. And it's been too long since I read anything by Misty, so it's about time. (Not even to mention how long this book has been sitting in a box waiting to be read ... I don't want to think about it.)

Millioner by Frank Cottrell Boyce. A book for young readers that I don't really know anything about, but which was highly recommended by fellow BookCrosser Jannike a couple of BookCrossing meetups ago. :-)

Nobels testamente and Livstid by Liza Marklund. Both audiobooks and both from the library. Two more Annika Bengtzon books - I'm going to get through the entire series. :-) I'm trying to read them in chronological order ... at least as close as I can manage. I just listened to two of them this month. I'm not sure if this is the best idea; some of the characters are really starting to annoy me ... ! ;-)

Relatively varied, IMO. :-) I will of course also continue with the audiobook I'm currently listening to, Tyvenes marked by Jan Guillou. Quite enjoying it so far ... as I hope to do with all these other books as well. :-)

Books I've read in 2009 - January

Nattvakten by Sarah Waters - AUDIO Begun in 2008
Bagdad brenner by Riverbend Begun in 2008
Krigsbarn by Gretelise Holm - AUDIO
Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon
The President's Child by Fay Weldon
Sementhagen by Ian McEwan
The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe
Afrika – en vakker dag by Tomm Kristiansen - AUDIO
The Asti Spumante Code by Toby Clements
Mission to Kala by Mongo Beti
Historiens största mordgåtor
DARLAH. 172 timer på månen by Johan Harstad - AUDIO
Ferdaminne fraa sumaren 1860 by Aasmund Olavsson Vinje
The United States of Wal-Mart by John Dicker
Den hellige liga, volume one, by Alexandre Dumas

10 printed books, 2,067 pages.
3 audiobooks, 33h 45m.

Best fiction: No really great read, but I guess Wonder Boys. The movie's fantastic, I recommend it. :-)
Best nonfiction: Hard to choose!! Ferdaminne was a very pleasant surprise. Much more entertaining than I expected.
Best audio: Afrika maybe? A lot of very moving stories in that book, had me in tears several times.

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Cross-posted from my main blog, here.

Authors A-Z challenge

The Authors A-Z Challenge is a reading challenge that has been going on for years among BookCrossers (and I'm sure elsewhere too :-) in which the goal is to read, over the course of the year, one book each by one author with a surname that matches one letter in the alphabet. (Obviously you can read as many books as you want in addition. ;-) Some who do this also add the qualification that the authors must all be new to them, but IMO that makes it way too difficult. At least if you're going to try to do it every year. So I don't use that rule. I go with first letter of author's surname. I've been doing this challenge as one of my personal reading challenges for two years - this will be the third year. I failed in 2007, missed three letters (Q, U and X). But in 2008 I aced it, managed to do all 26 letters. :-D So far this year I've crossed seven letters off my list, let's see ... B, C, H, K, M, P and W. I'm working on three more, V, E and D. So I'll have this done in no time. >:-)

Here's a thread on the BookCrossing forums on this challenge.