What kinds of books do I like?

After reading the two first books about Abarat, I have realized a few things about books, and what kinds of books I like. The four main things are:

• I like fantasy books, especially about magic, and in surroundings similar to the real world.
• I like scary books, and this is almost any genre.
• I like vampire books! 
• Books by Neil Gaiman

I have read a lot of fantasy, magic, horror/terror, vampires recently, and some from the Romance era, and these three things are part(s) of my favorite books.

Okay, I liked Abarat, but I found some things in it, similar to other books, that I read first, and liked, and therefore I prefer those over Abarat.

Some of my favorite books are therefore:

• Emma Bull - War for the oaks
• Gaiman - Interworld
• Pamela Dean - Tam Lin
• J.K Rowling - Harry Potter
• Charlaine Harris - The Sookie Stackhouse novels
• Desperation - Stephen King
• Del Toro & Hogan - The Strain
• Gaiman & Pratchett - Good Omens
• Anderas Roman - Mörkrädd

And you get my point! Because I'm not going to write anymore books, that would most probably take me forever to finish, but most of the books in my bookshelves ARE fantasy, scary or contains lots of vampires.

But that doesn't mean I don't like other books.

Jostein Gaarder's books for young adults and children are really great, Sigge Eklund writes amazing books, and I like some people memoirs really a lot. One of my most read books is Nikki Sixx memoirs, and the book I'm the most disappointed in losing, is Tommy Lee's book!

What is kind of books do you like?

David Bordwell blogging on books? How interesting...

David Bordwell brought in his blog up an interesting question. He asked whether blog-readers are book-readers, and even book buyers?

I don't know really how you feel, but in my world, and the generation I was brought up in, reading is really nice, so, did the "net" change the way of reading?

No I don't think so. For a more modern generation, yes possibly, but right now, reading is not as popular I think as it used to be, in any form. Young adults wants easy read books, and mostly because they have to read. I know lots of younger people still do read a lot, but I don't see people sit around reading, or standing reading in odd places anymore. I still do it.

The thing with books in print is that they are easy to bring, you can easily fit them in a bag. Pocket books really can fit into almost any small bag (except for my tiny, tiny one, made for keys, passport and phone only).

Printed books smell, and they smell good! Reading e-books or listening to mp3-book, they just don't have that smell. That smell alone can make you disappear into a fantasy land. (Okay, of course these things are amazing for people who need help to read, like blind or people with dyslexia or other reading disabilities but not all of us have...)

Of course, for some people e-books might be easier, but I do read a lot of blogs, and I do read some e-books, but it will never beat walking around in a book store, reading the backs of the books, trying to decide if it's good enough.

To weigh the books in a hand.

To whoa over the title, or the author.

To buy the next in a great series.

To not know what sort of world this specific book will bring you into.

To be glad. To be disappointed.

To compare the books front pages on which ones to buy.

to get that feeling when you have the book in you hand when it's bought.

I can walk around in bookstores for hours. Just watching the books. Wondering about them. What tale do they convey?

A book is easier to hide away with than a computer. You can hide in small spaces without any electricity.

You won't get interrupted or distracted by anything.

A book give you, you time. A computer or other reading device never does.

Lunchtid

Så, nu har man piggnat till, var svårt att somna inatt, och var riktigt trött i morse.

Jonatans alarm har nog det läskigaste och obehagligaste ljudet någonsin också!

Men...

Nu ska jag ta och komma igång med saker. Schemat ser ut som följer:

Fram till 12: Läsa så långt jag hinner i Radways bok.

12-c:a13: Grupp chatt på skräck och romantik kursen

13-15: Lunch, göra skolarbete.

15: ut och jogga lite. Har ju faktiskt mina joggingskor här. Bra tillfälle att börja ta reda på vart vägarna går här omkring också. Har nu i alla fall lärt mig att hitta ner till Ryd i alla fall! Efter det... Mer skoljobb!

17: Jonatan kommer hem? Äta!

18: Jonatan åker på träning *lessen* grupp chatt på romantik kursen igen.

21: Jonatan kommer hem *glad* se på Död Snö och sen sova! För imorgon åker jag hem igen.

Kom för typ 20 min sen på en så genial sak att blogga om, men glömde direkt bort vad det var när jag loggade in på bloggen. Så typiskt mig!

Får se om jag kommer ihåg vad det var senare...

Fast... Det jag egentligen vill göra just nu.. Det är att gå och sätta mig och läsa. Skönlitteratur alltså. Läsa ska jag ju... Typ.

Köpte lite böcker på bokrea igår. Bland annat boken "Vampyrjägarens handbok". De vill jag läsa nu!

Sen köpte jag också en bok skriven av en väldigt un författare, tror det stod på baksidan att hon bara var 17 år gammal. Måste se om ungdomslitteratur skriven av ungdomar är bättre än den skriven av "gamla".

Även om Gaiman, Gaarder, Ibbotson, Roman, Eklund, Bull, Lee och så vidare kommer att vara det bästa som finns och alltid skriva riktigt bra böcker.

Läser för tillfället en samlings bok av Neil Gaiman som heter "Coraline & other stories" där man får läsa det som senare blev "The Churchyard book".

har snott en av Jonatans hyllplan och har mina saker i! *yay*

Bild: http://www.adlibris.com/se/covers/M/9/13/9132154976.jpg

Författarporträtt?

Nu ska vi slå ett slag för en annan av mina favorit författare.

Jostein Gaarder

Har precis läst ur boken Brev från ljusårs avstånd, vilket låter som en äkta Gaarder bok, men lite besviken blev jag att de inte hade översatt den till Apelsinflickan, för det hade faktiskt varit ännu bättre.

Av hans böcker har jag hititlls läst Sofies Värld, Spelkortsmysteriet och nu sist Brev från ljusårsavstånd, men böckerna Vita Brev: Floria Aemilias brev till Augustinus och Cirkusdirektörens dotter ligger på nattduksbordet och väntar på att bli lästa.

Jostein skriver spännande ungdomsböcker om ungdomar som är påväg att bli vuxna, han introducerar dem till de här sista stegen som gör att man går från att vara barn/ungdom till att börja tänka och resonera som en vuxen människa.

Han tar upp livets stora gåtor, och filosofi.

Brev från ljusårs avstånd

Plot

Georg, femton år och utan pappa.

När hans farmor en dag kommer förbi med ett brev som hans far skrev alldeles innan han dog (elva år tidigare), så bestämmer sig Georg för att skriva en bok, tillsammans med sin pappa. Hans pappa berättar om hur han på spårvagnen springer på en mycket annorlunda flicka. Hon blir kallad Apelsinflickan på grund av att hon springer omkring med en hel påse apelsiner flera av gångerna de träffas.

Vem är denna flicka?

Vad har hon med Georg att göra, och varför berättar hans pappa den berättelsen för honom?

Och sist men inte minns, vad har Hubble-teleskopet med berättelsen om Apelsinflickan att göra?

Åsikter

Vi har ju ett annorlunda narrativ i form av att vi inte riktigt har någon att identifiera oss med, Gaarder är författare av boken, men samtidigt är det Georg och hans pappa som faktiskt författar boken, är då Georg huvudperson eller författare? Man har ett sorts metafiction i boken som är spännande. En saga inom sagan. (Påminner lite som den presentationella filmen).

Bra bok annars, den liknar många av Gaarders andra böcker, men ämnet är inte uttjatat (i alla fall inte än).

Han tar som vanligt upp (fast den här gången i lite annorlunda form) ungdomar på gränsen till att bli vuxna, men den här gången är det egentligen inte Georg, utan hans pappa som boken handlar om till större del, om hur han jagar omkring på en flicka som han inte känner, men är förälskad

i. Dock känns det som att brevet är menat för att hjälpa Georg att veta vem han är som människa, och känna till sitt arv.

Boken känns mer påhittad än exempelvis Sofies värld där man ändå får filosofiska "tankar", utan den här känns mer som en ren skönlitterär bok än vad Sofies värld gör, men den tar fortfarande upp gränslandet mellan barn och vuxen och undran vem man är och varför man gör som man gör.

Om författaren

Jostein är en norsk författare (Född: 8 Augusti 1952; Oslo, Norge). Han skriver barnböcker från barns synvinklar med en filosofiks twist, där han går in på barnens tankar och funderingar.

Han startade 1997 Sophie Prize, som är ett pris inom männskliga rättigheter.

Han har jobbat som lärare tidigare inom filosofi och religion, men jobbar nu som författare på heltid.

Han har bland annat skrivit böcker som:

Sofies Värld

Spelkortsmysteriet

Julmysteriet

Cirkusdirektörens dotter

Maya

Hallå!

Bild:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFY1aJvN6q5xLbFuXhYpH7HXj38xVbUb4SynAsHp6BN-QHBjcDKbois1c5gFcmROt1kQ4Z4ZvsffdRkWTRKeYAyuQXLE3DsluRBWo_XWkaSiACYiRV3uoWJ4n8mSAu7dJ0UHBgo_XeIqE9/s320/JOSTEIN_GAARDER.jpg

Good Omens - Gaiman/Pratchett

I was just going to put a suggestion in here for a book, that I haven't read in ages, but that is so incredibly amazing!

The books is written by Neil Gaiman (the dark and gloomy world view) and Terry Pratchett (writing very fun books), and at first, I was thinking that the combo was, for sure odd, but a bit intriguing. I was amazed how very well executed the books was!

For anyone who has seen the film Dogma (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120655/) from 1999 with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, you will sort of get the idea with the book. They are not extremely similar, but, some bits are.

Plot

Aziraphael and Crowley... An angel, and a demon, a part of the Great Plan. Both have their own mission and this unlikely friendship which has became trough thousands of years of spending time together, has made them look out for their others, not ruining to much for each other.

Anti- Christ is born.

(that's mostly Crowley's fault)

Armageddon is coming.

Soon...

As soon as next saturday.

The Four Bikers of the Apocalypse are on their way and Aziraphael and Crowley tries to solve the problem, as they have became fond of living on earth. So the idea is to kill Anti-Christ, it's just... He seams to have been misplaced!

Opinion

What's interesting is that, to understand this book, you have to assume that, all Christian beliefs and values are true. If you do not set your mind to that stage, you will most probably think the books is silly and weird and hard to understand.

The books is rather "jumpy", just because a chapter ends in a way, does not mean the next start even closely similar! At the same time the book is thick, but it is so worth it to read trough it, and (just as with the Watchmen comic) the more times you read it, the more you get, the more jokes gets funny and so on.

The story is hilarious, and, you can really see (well, read) that Pratchett have been a part of it, but it seams like Mr Gaiman has once again managed to do a book based on religion (other books with the same theme from him is for example American Gods, Anansi Boys and Odd and The Frost Giants http://aiki-samurailady.blogspot.com/2011/02/bit-inspired.html)

Seriously, if you haven't read it... Do it! It's sooooo worth the time and effort if you like fantasy!

A bit inspired

Well, studying religion this semester, and right now, Old Scandinavian religion, I had to re-read the book "Odd and The Frost Giants" by Neil Gaiman.

It is not a very long book, you read it in a few hours, but you have that Neil Gaiman feeling from the first page to the last.

Odd and The Frost Giants

Plot

The books protagonist is Odd, a (looking at the name, Neil is most probably inspired by the Norse and Norwegian names) boy who lives with his mother in Norway in ancient Scandinavian times.

Odd was crippled as his right leg had been injured, but he still moved away from his mother. In the woods (where he lived in his fathers old woodcutting cabin) he met three animals, a fox, a bear and an eagle. The animals brings Odd on an adventure trough the cold and ice Norway. The creatures turn out to be Tor, Odin and Loki, three of the most famous gods from the Old Scandinavia myths and legends.

Opinion

The book is cute, very suitable for one familiar with Old Scandinavian religious myths and believes. You can see the fun, but still dark and serious side of Neil Gaiman in the book, and it reminds a lot about other books he has written (Anansi Boy, American Gods for example). It is not a genuine "this happened" but it has many elements know, like the gods fights with the giants, nicely woven together with Odds daily life. This is not really uncommon in ancient beliefs with gods associating with humans. You can really see that Gaiman knows very much about this.

Read it if you can! If you are a teacher in religion or something, get your students to read it!

Picture found on:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51t-H6ss1hL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Home again

Well, then, home again from Gothenburg.
I must say, ut just gets harder and harder to say good bye to the Mr everytime he or I have to go home. That sucks!

So this was my weekend. On Friday I went down to Gothenburg, quite late in the evening, around 22, as the train was more than 30 minutes late. So I went over to my granpas cousin where I watched an episode of the new season of Wire in the Blood, which has became really bad compared to the first seasons I must say, and then staright to bed.
Saturday: Woho! Up early to go met the wonderful one at the bus station! Went back so he could eat something and then we went to do some window (and regular) shopping. Bought a Gaiman book; Interwolds.
In the evening we went to see Micmacs!
Quite an awesome film!

Micmacs
Bazil dad dies when he is very young and he gets sent away to a boarding school when his mother can't take care of him. He runs away, but his life up till adulthood seems quite alright, until he got shot in the head. Then he loses his flat, his job and all his things, so he gets adopted by some people who lives on the junkyard.
When he find the company who makes the mine his dad was trying to disarm, and the company who made the bullet that he got shot with, he and his friends decides it is payback time!

A wonderful film by the amazing Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who is also famous for his films Amélie from Montmartre, Delicatessen and The Long Engagement. The mice-en-scene is recognizable from all other of his films (maybe except Alien:Ressurection...) and the funniest thing is that in parts of the film, he makes commercial for the films! The shot in the film is also shown as a billboard, or the cover of a DVD. The whole idea with some people aveniging the whole weapons industry is so surreal, and without all the things and stuff that exists in the film, it would not have worked, you would not have believed how they could get such things to where they got them, or how they could pull some stunts. The tone of it was fun, but with a dark undertone that people DO get killed in war, and that war is never beautiful. The war Bazil and his friends are fighting with the weapon dealers, are just as bad, just hidden under fun incidents.

A very good movie, and all of Jean-Pierre Jeunets french movies should be seen, they are usually awesome, even though some most probably would see them as a bit odd, and weird but if you like one of them, you will probably like all of them.

Well, furter on with the weekend...
Sunday: Book fair today, walking and walking and walking. Unfortunate, I didn't find any good books, a few films and the Mr bought me my Christmas present, a doctoral dissertation that I had as course literature this summer, which I could have a lot of use for when I do my own Bachelor's degree. Well, not as much fun as last year, but I got some valuable tips on Photoshop, which I will be trying next time I have time to do some photoshopping (most probably on wednesday).

So this weekend I have really only done things and learned thins revolved around things I love, books, film, the Mr, photoshop.
I have to say, life is just great at the moment, I hope they continue like this for a while, and that my oral examination will go alright tomorrow, I really don't feel prepared enough for it at the moment, and a horrible head ache is sneaking up on me! Uh oh!

Well, I'll see you in a day or so as I will have to read quite a lot these following days!

Bye!

My reason

http://www.tam-lin.org/front.html

There are reasons for everything I think, some reasons might be good, some might be not as good as some might be just as fucked up as...

Tam Lin, the reason for so much in my life.

(http://www.tam-lin.org/tamlin1.html ; other versions for those who wants to check both musical and poems)

A scottish ballad, as beautiful as anything. If you listen to any of any of the musical adaptions of it you will be in awe as it will touch your depest.

It's hard to say exactly what it is that makes it so beautiful.

My first encounter with the ballad when I read the book "Tam Lin" by Pamela Dean, which is not an especially great book, it's very american, as the author is paid by how much she writes, not how good it is. But it was the book who made me realize I really want to study English, it was the book who got me to appreciate fantasy-litterature in a different way, it proved that you don't have to write books like The Lord of The Rings to be able to call them fantasy.
The way I can relate to the main character is probably the reason why I like it so much.
Usually when someone says he or she can relate to the main character (or some other character in a book) it's usually when it comes to something "cooler", like how your parents don't understand you or your teachers or friends, how you do not fit into society or something, but this girl, what she worries about is, school, and not her friends and teachers (not so much), but what to study, to study litterature, to study classics..?
And that is how my life has been the past year...
What to study? What to research? Do I want to be a double profferssor? Do I want to study more film science or English? Do I want to study in the US? When am I going to Ireland?
All those questions just floating around and everyone around me says to stop bothering, but, that's hard. I'm used to always know what will happen, what year I will be studying what, syllabus that are exact for years to follow, and now... I have to make this all by my self, to decide, what do I think is the funniest thing to study? Where to study? Do I wanna move away? How will I be able to cope being so far away from family? Will I be able to sort my finances...
Just more and more questions, and those questions can't be answerd till I am there, till I have taken the decision that takes me there.

Well, maybe sometimes just a book, or a song, or something else who touches you are what will show you the way, no matter how stupid it looks to everyone else, if it matters to you, then it has to be important.

See you again on Monday, book fair this weekend, and I hope all of you will make a great decision this weekend! :)

Wild Seed - Octavia E. Butler

En mycket annorlunda bok skulle jag vilja säga.

En kort resumé av handlingen:
Anyanwu, en afrikans kvinna med förmågan att hela sig själv och kunna anta vilken skepnad som helst, träffar en dag på anden Doro som lever genom att inta människors kroppar.
Doro lyckas övertyga Anyanwu att hon ska följa med till "det nya landet", då närmare bestämt USA.
På båten träffar Anyanwu Doros son Isaac. När de kommer i land så tar Doro med henne till sin by Wheatley. När de kommer dit tvingar Doro Anyanwu att gifta sig med Isaac, och den händelsen gör att Anyanwu börjar hata Doro.
Doro vet precis vart han har alla genom att han kan känna dem, men av någon anledning så kan han inte känna av Anyanwus närvaro när hon är i djurform, och genom ren tur är det på det viset som hon lyckas fly från honom.

Boken är som sagt väldigt annorlunda. I början får man lite Neil Gaiman känsla, men den försvinner sen, och det blir en obeskrivbar känsla. Boken är mycket bra och rekommenderas starkt.
Octavia E. Butler visar att folk kan vara starka i många olika situationer även om saker går emot en och folk försöker sätta käppar i hjulen för en.
Jag tycker boken hade ett intressant upplägg att varken Anyanwu eller Doro var helt perfekta som det kan va i vissa böcker. Men de var båda väldigt självständiga människor och var inte rädda för att slåss för vad de trodde var det rätta, även om det tedde sig konstigt i andras ögon, eller i den nya kulturen.


En bok som jag rekommenderar ska läsas istället för att läsas om!

3rd March

Tam Lin - Pamela Dean

The book started out very well, but then was a disappointment. The story is about Janet, who starts college in her hometown in Minnesota. She's a English Major who will share the room with two unknown girls, and she is worried they won't get along, but they do and they are going trough the ups and downs of college and college boyfriends together, the drama is not on high school level but there is some in the begining but the characters are quickly faling into their characters.

First point of disappointment is the lack of fantasy for the first 300 or so pages in a fantasy novel, not until the last few chapters there are something unnatural in the picture. Also, those 300 pages seem to be all about the characters developing, but not growing, you just get to know new things about them, but they are still the same.

Very flat in that sort of way.

The book is based upon the old scottish ballad Tam Lin (which is printed in the end of the book), and what is really a downside to the whole book is that almost nothing of the ballad comes to show until the last two or three chapters and that was very devestating, as you are looking forward to find the story and the ballad entangeld troughout the whole story. Unfortunaltey there are not many signs of the ballad in the text, but for the english litterature interested there are a lot of different poems quoted and a lot of different quotes. Also it feels like you need to have some sort of knouwing about least some of the english (and greek) big poets and literary works (even if they get very well explained in the book too).

The books is not a poorly written book, Pamela Dean is a very vivid writer, but it seems like she want to tell to much about the people, to make them as complex as she can and forgets about the story (I haven't read any other of her books, but I will and see if this is something common in her way of writing).

This makes it feel like she had to come up with an ending about 2/3 in the book as things seem to be more "jumpy" and like there are no real ending to things, as she can't write such an enormous amount of pages.

But there was a nice twist to the end and the very end pleased me much even thought the lack of fantasy in the first 300-350 pages, having an open mind about whats fantas and whats "just" fiction and remember after all it is a fantasy book and not just a fiction book, and things can be easier to comprehend. The fact Janet went out with Nick for so long, even though you knew she was going to date someone else at the end (as it was hinted at the back of the book), was accorinf to me both annoying and quite alright so that it didn't turn out to a big romance between those two and no one else could have space. The focaliser is definatley Janet, but her friends are really taking up space in the book too.

Beeing just about 20 myself I think that it was easier to relate to Janet, also I think those who went to college in the beginning of the 70's could recognize themselves in the book, in one or another way. But I think that (even if you went to college once) that if you read it at 30 or 50 you will have different experience than a 20 year old or someone experience the era in the book. I would definatley say the implied reader of this book is either younger girls or people in their 40's who has a college degree, and will regognize themselves in the feeling of the book. That means the implied reader would be quite well educated but still nostalgic, and not to whealthy, most probably (if older) a mother and having a family. Also I would suggest that the one reading this novel has a big interest (as said earlier) in litterature of the old english (and greek) authors, and maybe have a degree in that or possibly works as an english teacher, or something similar, but not a high educated work, more of a simpler one.

The fantasy found in the book I would say is intrusive fantasy as that is desribed as "something fantasic entering our familiar world" and the best evidence for that is when Thomas explains to Janet about the ritual every 7th year with the classics students and their head teacher, and that Robin and Nick actually knew Shakespear (I thought that was a quite interesting twist, and would loved to have that more elaborated a lot earlier in the end of the novel). And also you can find hints of estranged fantasy in Robin and Nick, as that is explaind as fantasic things seem normal and the the opposite, and as they are "regular" classics/theather majors they arenot seen as fantastic, but when you in the end of the novel will find out they have know Shakespear, the "regular" guys seems fantastic instead, but the main sort of fantasy is the intrusive (but not found until the very end). The only not regular thing in the first parts of the book are the story about the Thompson ghost, but that is during the wholw novel just talk and insinuations whether she is real or not.

Summary

The book might not be the best of fantasy novels, but are recommended as light reading if you want an "non-fantasy" fantasy book. Also it don't seem to fit everyone, I think you have to like somewhat romantic fantasy novels to be able to dig trough all the boyfriend stuff, and you definatley have to be interested in English authors as there are a lot of poetry and play quotes from classical works like Keats and Shakespear, but they are (I think) very good at wanting you to want to learn a lot about english litterature and check up on the poems and get your own opinion on them (unless you already have).

Is as said recommended if you want something easy to read (even if its 400+ pages it don't take that long time to read trough it) and are maybe not that hard on it having to be fantasy.

Also, if you read it, take light on the mid-part as it's not the best, put down more attention on the end and the beginning.