Tagged: bibliophilia

31
Dec
2021

RETROSPECTIVE

t’s been another crazy pandemic year and it’s still ongoing so I don’t expect a lot from 2022 at this point. We are all managing to stay healthy, even though as I write this Anders is coughing. Both he and Karin came down with colds over Christmas week, but have tested negative multiple times and he’s at the very tail end of his. I am back at work as of Monday but it’s another short week, only 3 days, so a nice soft start to the year. Martin and I just finished the super hard jigsaw puzzle of a map...

01
Mar
2021

RABBIT RABBIT RABBIT (NOT REALLY, IT’S BOOKS)

Did you know about the tradition of saying “rabbit rabbit rabbit” on March 1st to ensure good luck throughout the rest of the year? Did we collectively forget to do it last March? Rabbit rabbit rabbit has its own Wikipedia page, even. And some people say it on the first of every month…just for extra luck! We say “rabbits rabbits rabbits” to make the smoke of bonfire go in a different direction, away from our eyes, too. To be honest, I can’t remember when that started or when I first heard about the March 1st thing. Anyway, I actually have...

27
Feb
2021

PANDEMICLY

All week long, I’m thinking: “write a post, write a post, write a post” and then it’s the weekend again and the posts were only written in my head. I don’t want to sit down in front of the computer in the evenings to write a post when I’m sitting in front of the computer all day long for work. It’s a conundrum. My brother called this morning and we talked for longer than usual, due to the fact that his family left to go for a walk without him at the beginning of the phone call. He’s longing for...

17
Dec
2020

BOOKS IN THE TIME OF CORONA

Barack Obama released his favorite books of 2020 list today and I confess to feeling a little thrill to see that the book I’m currently in the middle of was on it. And that two other books in my queue are also on it. Reflected good taste! To be honest, the book I am reading, that was on his list, is probably not going to end up on my list of best books I’ve read this year, unless it takes off or takes a rather drastic turn. It’s good, but it’s really heavy and because it’s about the consequences of...

18
Oct
2019

BIBLIOMANIA

We had book group last night and we were a small gathering, only 5 of the usual suspects, but it was cozy and made for a really nice discussion…easy to follow and jump in, without it breaking down into smaller groups, which sometimes happens. The book we discussed was interesting, though I wouldn’t have read it on my own initiative: Beautiful Exiles by Meg Waite Clayton. It’s about Hemingway’s third wife Martha Gellhorn, and while I pretty much dislike HIM, even if his books are (mostly) good, SHE was fascinating, and I found myself wondering as I often do, why...

25
Aug
2019

TRIALS OF A BIBLIOPHILE

Megsie tagged me a book meme on Facebook, which is kinda the only meme that I can’t resist. It’s posting 7 books you love for seven days. When you read as much as I do, it’s REALLY hard to only pick 7 books. Do you pick your FAVORITES? (Impossible to stick to 7, in that case). Do you stick to one genre? Do you play to your audience? Do you choose only newer books or only older ones? What if you like really quirky books or complicated books or Harlequin romances or you feel children’s literature is underrated and not...

13
Mar
2019

BOOKS I’LL NEVER READ

Have you heard of The Future Library? It’s an art project of sorts, started by a Scottish artist near Oslo, Norway. She is growing a forest that, in 100 years, will be used to print 100 books which are being donated by authors from around the world and kept, unread, in safekeeping until then. The first author to provide a manuscript was Margaret Atwood. There are 4 books so far. None of them can be read until 2114, when the 1000 trees planted in Nordmarka (assuming they are still around after 100 years of climate change and global warming) will...

18
Nov
2018

LIVING ON IN LIBRARIES

I’m reading a fantastic book. A book about books, what could be better? It’s fascinating. It’s technically about the worst library fire in American history, when the Los Angeles Public Library burned in April 1986, but it is also about the idea of libraries, the history of them, the purpose and updated use of them and how they’ve changed from a modern-day viewpoint, and the love of books in general. The first chapter, which details the spread of the fire and what it consumed, and how much it destroyed actually almost brought me to tears. The thought of all those...

06
Sep
2018

WHERE’S MY “I VOTED” STICKER?

It’s that time of year again, when we vote on books for the AWC book group after sending in our nominations. There are around 15 or so regulars and when each of them sends 3-5 book recommendations, it makes for quite a long list. We had 35 to choose from this year and the 9 winners were announced today. We actually have one book left from last year’s list, that we will be discussing next week and I just realized I’d better get going on it. I often wait until quite close to the book discussion date because if I...

30
Oct
2017

HELLO WEENIE

I just activated a new member for the AWC: a guy from Texas who has been in Sweden for 10 years, and has heard about us since before he moved here, but never thought to join because, well, duh. It’s a WOMEN’S club. Right? Except, no, not really. It’s not just Americans and not just women, though we only have a handful of men at the moment. We’ve talked about changing the name for years, but no one seems to be able to agree on a new name and the one I would have liked has already been taken by...