Source

This was quite a roman/christian themed reading week for some reason, and I’ve been completely wrapped up in reading and not wanting to do much else.

4. Kvarnen och Korset – Vibeke Olsson
++++
Such a nostalgic trip for me to re-read those books! I was in 6th grade when I first read them, that means it was 12 years ago = half my life ago. This is a book about the roman Callistrate and her life as an ex-christian raising her daughter Sabina in some 200 years a.c.

5. Sabina – Vibeke Olsson
+++
I like the person Sabina way less than I like her mother Callistrate which is the reason I didn’t like this book as much. Looking forward to finding the first book in the series instead, since it’s about Callistrate before Sabina was born. The book series continues with more books about Sabina and then her son but I am not as thrilled with reading those as with reading Hedningarnas Förgård about Callistrate.

6. Barabbas – Pär Lagerkvist
+++
This is a swedish classic about the man who was given mercy instead of Jesus when they were to be crucified. It’s about his thoughts on christianity and belonging and rahh rahh I didn’t particulary find it very moving. Liked his other books way more, like Dvärgen or Onda Sagor.

I’m in a hurry to meet up with Frej in town! I went thrifting today and found:

Tjärhandlaren – Aksel Sandemose (2 kr)
Kampen mot Hitler – Leo Trotskij (5 kr)
Pappan och Havet – Tove Jansson (5 kr)
Barabbas – Pär Lagerkvist (5 kr)
Farväl till Vapnen – Ernest Hemingway (20 kr)
A Fate Worse than Debt – Susan George (5 kr)
Vaggan – Kurt Vonnegut (5 kr)

Grand total: 47 kr

Otherwise it’s been quite a frustrating day where I took the wrong tram and ended up on the other side of town because I was reading and didn’t notice. After that it was super cold & the trams kept having troubles and delays. I was going to exercise (!) with my friend Anna but we have to do that tomorrow instead.
Hope you’re having a better day! What are you reading right now?

A point which I got away from last year (as I always do) was that one of the parts of the resolution I had was to read the books I already owned. I have a lot of books, 98% bought at second hand stores, and I keep buying more whenever I find books I want to read at some point in my life. It’s hard to walk away from a book that is 5 kr (less than a dollar) even if you’ve got a whole pile of unread books at home. In some way, paying more for a book when buying it new, also motivates you to read it quicker.

I have now realised it is impossible for me to go to thrift stores without looking at the book section, and impossible for me to not buy books I want to read even if that makes the ones I own less prioritised. I will read them at some point in my life.

But I moved almost all my books into my room. Now I am surrounded and can’t escape them!

I think I need a bookshelf.

Here’s what I read so far. I haven’t really started school yet plus Frej’s internet isn’t working yet in his new apartment while he is running around decorating and won’t attend to me much… So I have had a lot of time to read. Now I am going to try to at least say a few sentences about each book!

1. Berättelserna – Torgny Lindgren
This is an edition where the short story books Merabs Skönhet, I Brokiga Blads Vatten and Legender are put together but in a new order. Plus some extra material if I got it right. Sounds like a trick to make more money out of the same books but I also noticed a lot of new things when I red the short stories in a new way. I think it’s a great book to give as a gift to someone who hasn’t read anything by him before.

2. Kyra Kyralina – Panait Istrati
This is the third book I have read by Panait Istrati and I think it’s my second favourite though it’s hard to say. It’s about the life and destiny of a homosexual lemonade salesman in Braila, Romania. His mother takes her life after having her face broken by the boy’s father, him and his sister (Kyra) lose eachother and she ends up in a brothel. The book is mainly on his search after her. Now I am starting to think it’s hard to write just a few sentences. It is a wonderful book though.

3. Kastellet - Vibeke Olsson
Vibeke Olsson was my favourite writer when I was a kid. I read the books about the roman woman Sabina when I was about 12 and thought it was the best things I had ever read. She has written loads about the roman empire and this was the first one of those I read as an adult now. And I liked it but not much more. I think I will re-read the books about Sabina some day instead.

At Frej’s place I also keep a few books that I will read a little in from time to time when I don’t feel like reading novels. One of them is this, Polisen lägger pussel – större svenska kriminalfall 1900-1950, about large crimes committed in Sweden between 1900-1950. It was printed in 1951 and it’s interesting, not only with all the fantastically strange murder stories in it but also how it as a voice of society has a quite nazi friendly approach. When I get too tired of it I move over to the other large coffee table-esque books I keep there; which are the chronicles of the working class in Sweden.

I found this list at Alice’s blog, but when I was to copy the link to the Guardian I found it was broken. When looking for the list I found a slightly different one at the Guardians site, but I am still going to use this one.

Bold the books you have read.
Emphasise ones you want to read.
and Strike Through those you have no interest in reading.

1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien (when I was a kid)
3. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11. Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the d’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13. Catch-22 – Joseph Heller (have it, have started it a couple of times without being too enthusiastic)
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare – William Shakespeare
15. Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger (for the sake of it)
19. The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch – George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34. Emma – Jane Austen
35.Persuasion – Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis de Bernières
39. Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41. Animal Farm – George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez (another one I own and have started on)
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50. Atonement – Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52. Dune – Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72. Dracula – Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses – James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal – Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession – AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert (own this one aswell)
86. A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web – EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94. Watership Down – Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole (started on once)
96. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100. Les Misérables – Victor Hugo

18/100, though none of the books I have already read here except the Little Prince would go on a list of my own favourites so I wouldn’t put much trust in this list to provide must read books for me.

1. The Shock Doctrine – Naomi Klein
2. Anne Franks Dagbok – Anne Frank
3. Mor Gifter Sig – Moa Martinson
4. Veganerna, en bok om dom som stör – Magnus Linton
5. Frihetlig Socialistisk Politik – Murray Bookchin
6. Kyrkbröllop – Moa Martinson
7. Vingklippt Ängel – Berny Pålsson
8. Det Omöjliga – Göran Sonnevi
9. Vadå Vegan – Lisa Gålmark
10. Det är vår bestämda uppfattning att om ingenting görs nu kommer det att vara för sent – Andreas Malm
11. Skrattets och Glömskans Bok – Milan Kundera
12. I Dalarne – Selma Lagerlöf
13. I Det Heliga Landet – Selma Lagerlöf
14. Gäst hos Verkligheten – Pär Lagerkvist
15. Stängsel och Öppningar – Naomi Klein
16. Kvinnor och Äppelträd – Moa Martinson
17. Sallys Söner – Moa Martinson
18. Temperamenten i kristlig belysning – O. Hallesby
19. Kungens Rosor – Moa Martinson
20. Min Barndom – Maksim Gorkij
21. Skärseld – Linda Lovelace
22. Det Kallas Kärlek – Carin Holmberg
23. Hudens Tid – Anja Snellman
24. Tango för Enbenta – Sture Dahlström
25. Högerns Skuld – Den Svenska Högern och Demokratin - Various writers
26. Slå Tillbaka – Petra Östergren
27. Ormens Väg Över Hälleberget – Torgny Lindgren
28. Till Sanningens Lov – Torgny Lindgren
29. Hummelhonung – Torgny Lindgren
30. Sfär-fäderna – Maria-Pia Boëthius
31. Human Ecology – G.Marten
32. Herr Arnes Penningar – Selma Lagerlöf
33. Tiden är ingenting – Hans Alfredson
34. Attentatet i Pålsjö Skog – Hans Alfredson
35. Yppighetens nytta – Jonas Frycklund
36. Origins of the Modern World – Robert B. Marks
37. Sex Grader – Mark Lynas
38. Konsumera Mera, dyrköpt lycka – various columnists
39. Inkvartering – Tora Dahl
40. Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides
41. Ljuset – Torgny Lindgren
42. Vad hände med Sverige i Göteborg? – Mikael Löfgren
43. Heder och Samvete; Sverige under andra världskriget – Maria-Pia Boëthius
43. Vegansk näringslära på vetenskaplig grund – Björn Pettersson
44. Fosterbarn – Tora Dahl
45. Tyst Hav – Isabella Lövin
46. Molnfri Bombnatt – Vibeke Olsson
47. Graylight – Naomi Nowak
48. Kvinnorna på Kummelsjö – Moa Martinson
49. Ecocities – Rebuilding Cities in Balance with Nature – Richard Register
50. Branden i Hjärtat – Mahasweta Devi
51. Glaskupan – Sylvia Plath
52. Skylla Sig Själv – Maria-Pia Boëthius
53. Huset Thüringer – Panait Istrati

(I did read a bunch more but not from cover to cover which is my law for being allowed to put them in the list)

Whew! Listing those felt like when I was a kid and a total book nerd. I used to read about three books per day and when I was 11-12 I would keep a little database in some Office program with writer, title, ISBN-number, year of production and if it was a re-print or not, what it was about and my review. One year I had read 900 books I think. Though then i had more time, no friends and easier books!
New years promise for 2010 is to keep it up plus at least rating the book on a scale from 1-5.

The best book of the entire year was Ljuset (Light) by Torgny Lindgren. I know it’s been translated and I’d recommend it to you all. Though you’re luckier if you get to read it in swedish.

50. Branden i Hjärtat – Mahasweta Devi
51. Glaskupan – Sylvia Plath

I didn’t like the Bell Jar much. Mahasweta Devi though, she was wonderful.
I have also read Det Sovande Folket by Sweden’s prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt this year. However, I do not count this as a book. There were sentences in there, but it would be like counting those joke books they put in the bathroom to read while you are doing your thing as books. So I have to read another and then I have kept my entire new years promise from last year!

Picture from Ecocity Builders

I only  need to read three more books before the year is over! Then I will have completed a new year’s promise for the first time in my life I think! (Read one book/week this entire year) I SHALL PREVAIL!

48. Kvinnorna på Kummelsjö – Moa Martinson
49. Ecocities – Rebuilding Cities in Balance with Nature – Richard Register