Been away

I've been abroad (Egypt) from March 28. until April 11 (got back before the European airspace was closed!) and haven't had time to be much online since I got back. But I am still here and feel like I've missed a ton of things. Hope to see you all soon - have read a lot of books while I was away which I look forward to review soon.

Book Blogger Hop & Finally Weekend

I haven't been much around for the past weeks. I've been caught up in work and personal stuff, and am wondering when I will ever find the time to post on a regular basis. I miss it, and I miss visiting all the other great blogs around.

Through Trisha of eclectic / eccentric I found a link to Jennifer's blog Crazy-for-Books, which is a new-to-me book blog. Jennifer has a fun Friday feature which is Book Blogger Hop. I know that most of us have loads of blogs to visit, but its always great fun to discover new bookish blogs, so I think you should take a look at Jennifer's blog and the Book Blogger Hop-feature. I am going to Blog Hop a bit this weekend, and visit as many blogs as possible.

Have a great weekend! Its not that I am going abroad - just wanted to post a warm and sunny pic.

Happy New Year & Welcome to 2010

Happy New Year to all and a big welcome to 2010.

I am looking forward to begin a new year and happy to put the old one behind me. The last half of 2009 wasn't that great. Among other things I lost a close friend, who died of cancer, and shortly before Christmas my father died totally unexpectedly. Added to that, it was a hell of time at work during those last weeks of December, and now I am sitting here looking at the dreary January sky with a massive cold making me feel stuffed and slightly depressed. So GOODBYE 2009 and a warm welcome to 2010. It can only get better.

Don't want to make this a too depressed post, so I hasten to add that the first part of 2009 was great. I finished my Master's Degree at university, got a good job (and a new job description later), I went travelling with family and I read a lot of good books! I also met so many new friends in the book blogging community and I am grateful for all your well wishes and messages. Thanks again. It means a lot.

My father's death meant that I haven't really had the time or energy to blog or be much online. I had a lot of things planned for the last week's of the year, but I guess I will have to plan and make those things happen in January instead. I am sorry I haven't been round visiting and commenting. That will improve over the next weeks as well.

Until then, I wish you all a very Happy New Year and I look forward to see you all :-D

The photo is from flickr and is taken by zeropro.

NaBloPoMo # 24: A couple of used book finds

Some months ago a small used books book store opened only a single block from where I live. I have passed by this little shop many times, but either I haven't had time to drop by or else I haven't had any cash on me  (they only accept cash) or I haven't been able to spot something interesting or some other excuse - like not buying any books. So it has taken some months before I actually went in there. A young guy, a student I think, runs this little shop complete with free coffee whether you purchase anything or not. All books are used, some more than others, and while there are expensive things among the shelves, most are really, really cheap. Last week I went in there for the first time, and this past Sunday, I sort of happened by again. I came out of there both times with one book. On my first visit I found one which I have been meaning to read for ages, ever since it was recommended to me in an online book club I used to be a member of. I found it in it's Danish translation, but that will not matter much, hopefully. Have you read it? The book I am talking about is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.

On Sunday I was back in there, not looking for anything in particular, just browsing. While I browsed around I found The Faber Book of America, and while it looks very interesting, it also looks like a book where one can only read a few of the essays in it at a time. But now I have it, and can get to it whenever I like. Its not like it was a book I knew about, it just looked intersting and a bit challenging and I just had to have it. Synopsis from Mary Ward Books: Gathering together poetry and memoirs, speeches and letters, fiction and reportage, the editors of this book present the world of the American dream, of American nightmares, and of American days.

I am sure I am going to visit that little shop again very soon. The owner told me that he gets new (old) books down there often, and that he is right now trying to find old copies of books in their original language, mainly English. Hooray for that.

This is the 24th post in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. See my page here.

NaBloPoMo # 23: Upcoming Happenings in Book Blog Land and an award

There are always lots of fun things going on in Book Blog Land: Read-a-thons, challenges, memes, weekly features, giveaways and much more. This post is written in order to highlight a few of those happenings which I plan to take part in myself. Some of them I already talked about like the Thankfully Reading Weekend, The 2009 Virtual Advent Tour and the Book Bloggers Holiday Swap. And also, lets not forget the Women Unbound Reading Challenge.

But there are also exciting new stuff which I would like to present and for which you can still sign up. The first event is GalleySmith's Seriespalooza. Head over to her page and have a look at what that is all about. Another challenge which looks like a lot of fun is Darren's TwentyTen Reading Challenge on Bart's Bookshelf. I haven't signed up for this yet, but as soon as I get some free time to compile a reading list, I think I will.

I was also honored with the One Lovely Blog award by Esme of the wonderful blog Chocolate and Croissants. Thanks Esme, it means a lot and I really appreciate it.

This is the 23rd post in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. See my page here.

NaBloPoMo # 5: My Australian Adventure with the help of Mim

Some of you will know that I am currently reading Australian writer John Marsden's Tomorrow-series about a group of teenagers who find their country (Australia) invaded, under siege and taken over by unfriendly forces. See John Marsden's cool website here.

I've only read two books so far - there are seven books in the series in total. I have never been to Australia and only know little about that big country. And when reading the Tomorrow-books it became clear to me that I actually had a hard time picturing "The Bush", which plays a rather important role in the books. It began to annoy me, so I headed over to Mim's blog Mim's muddle. Mim is an Australian, mom of three, and in her own words she spends her time

doing mum stuff, volunteering at the kids' school, making jewellery and occasionally pretending to be a viking and I also work part-time for a small magazine publisher. I'm a book addict and I'm always in need of new bookshelves.

I have "known" Mim through blogging for about a year, and always enjoy her posts about family, activities, books and much more. I asked Mim if she knew where I could find some images of "The Bush", because the way I picture it, a "bush" is something rather flat with almost dead shrubbery going on as far as the eye can see...and I couldn't picture how on earth a bunch of teenagers could actually hide out in "The Bush". So Mim went above and beyond and set up a post about the Australian bush with images of the very varied landscapes one find there. Now I see how the kids in the Tomorrow-books are able to hide. Specially from an enemy who are not familiar with those magnificent landscapes.

Head over to Mim's blog and check out the post The Australian Bush. The images posted here on my pages are loaned from Mim's blog with her blessing, but there are many more on her page. They show landscapes all considered "The Bush". I want to go to Australia!!!

This is the fifth post in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. See my page here.

Can you see them? The widgets?

I have a short question. I need to find out if it is my computer or a general problem. Where my Good Reads widgets (and others) are supposed to be, I can only see empty boxes. If someone posts a video on their blog, I am unable to see it. Just see an empty box. I need to log on from work and see if its general or just my computer. Can you see my widgets?

Should I get one? Kindle experiences.

Until now, I haven't had to think about this. Kindle and other readers were not available in Denmark (or Europe for that matter). Yes, I guess there has been some readers available, but none has really been advertized - and if they have been available and/or advertized, people have had bad experiences with them. So, last night I get an e-mail from Amazon.co.uk telling me, that Kindle is now available in Europe. I am immediately tempted. I will never stop buying books (I think), but the thought of being able to take a ton of books with me when I travel instead of just two or three is appealing. Very appealing. The fact that I also love gadgets (but don't necessarily know how to use them) is also a huge factor here. A Kindle is quite expensive (at least to me) though, so I am not rushing out there to get it. I want to think more about it.

So I am asking you, do you own one/have tried one, and how do you like it? No doubt we all like the feel and smell of new books and the look of a towering TBR-pile. So this is not so much a question of whether "the book is dead or not" as it is a question of how you like Kindle. Also, if you haven't got one, would you consider it? The look of the new Kindle is lovely ;-) although the image is of the first generation Kindle. The new one is slimmer, but I could not find an image of it, perhaps because it is not being released until October 19.

The image is from The Same Rowdy Crowd.

Should I feel bad or am I just like you? Book Buying Binge!

I have always bought books - as well as using the library. No news in that. I also like to browse used books at irl-sales and on eBay (among other places). Still no news in that.

Due to various things (economy, room, studying fees, having to buy books for studies etc) over the past years, I haven't bought as many as I used to. I know I don't have to say again that books are rather expensive in Denmark (although it is better now than it was some years back), and that we have special taxes on books here.

Anyway, I am lucky these days that things has changed. I finally have a full time job again after years of studying and only working part time, and I also got some GC's for books recently. So I have been buying books like there was no tomorrow (and books about there being no tomorrow by the way). For a couple of months now.

And I am buying the books faster than I can read them, and I am thinking: Am I just BAD and a sorry slow reader?! What about you? I am aware that most of us have TBR-mountains, so I guess some of you are bad like me. LOL. But seriously. I am starting to actually feel bad about it when yet another package landed today from Amazon. Easy solution, you think, why doesn't she just stop buying those dang books? I don't know. I love to be able to browse and actually be able to buy a few here and there. Its not so much that the TBR is growing, because that is fine. Its more like all those wonderful new books are putting me into a situation where I have so many up-coming reads to choose from, that I really can't decide.

Do you know what I mean? Or do you never have this "problem" as well (which, granted, is a luxury problem compared to world hunger, war, illness and death. Kinda up the same alley as "I have nothing to wear").

Have a look at some of the books I have gotten the past week or so:

206 Bones by Kathy Reichs
One Day by David Nicholls
A Quiet Belief in Angelse by R.J. Ellory (recommended by Cathy at Kittling: Books)
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (recommended by Vivienne at Serendipity, but have seen it around other blogs as well after I began noticing)
The Forest of Hands & Teeth by Carrie Ryan (recommended by Beth F at Beth Fish Reads)
Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden (recommended by Beth F at Beth Fish Reads)
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
The Life of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
The Dead and the Gone by Susan Pfeffer
Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris
Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

Right now I am reading one of my recently bought Inspector Banks-series books, and I like it. Having just made this list is making me think of what should be up next, although I am still not through another batch of books I bought earlier with highlights such as that Guernsey Potato-book, an Anne Rivers Siddons novel, Property by Valerie Martin, Tender Graces by Kathryn Magendie, The Road by Cormac McCarthy etc etc. Well, I certainly have enough newly purchased books to last me a few months!

Banned Books Week

We don't have a thing like Banned Books Week in Denmark - mainly because we do not ban books. Some may argue that we use our right to freedom of speech, freedom to read, say and do whatever we want (within the framework of the law) too much, and sometimes in a wrong way, but that is another debate, albeit an interesting one.

However. I have to say that I sometimes laugh when I see Where's Waldo, Winnie The Pooh and dusty classics which cannot offend ANYONE in 2009 featuring prominently on various Banned Books Lists. COME ON!!!!

Yeah, I know that some of the "dusty classics" were written in a time where for instance racism was considered a-okay. And as Lynn (Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile) also touches upon in her post from yesterday, it may be a good idea to discuss with your child why racial slurs were okay in time where Huck Finn was written and not today. And I agree wholeheartedly.

Trisha, the eclectic/eccentric reader has a fun challenge going, and I think you should check it out by clicking the link. It is a long term challenge involving books you may have read already - banned books that is. You should also take time to read Trisha's thoughtprovoking post about book banning. I am taking the liberty to quote Trisha here:

"I am 100% against any form of overt censorship in public forums. No one has the right to tell me what I can or can not read, watch, or hear. If I, an adult, want to sit down with Madonna's Sex book while watching Debbie Does Dallas and listening to some rapper talk about killing cops...well that's my right. Now I'm not quite so loosey-goosey when it comes to those under 18. I'm pretty sure letting a 12 year old do the above is not necessarily the best idea, BUT when people no longer see the distinction between allowing a 12 year old to read Madonna's Sex and freaking Bridge to Terabithia, we have a serious problem."

I urge you all to travel around the book blogosphere, where there are many interesting posts up now about book banning. From what I can see, we all pretty much agree. It would be interesting to hear from the other side though.



The image is also from Trisha's blog.

My Life, According to Literature

I found this fun thing at Rebecca's blog Rebecca Reads.
The simple rules are:

Using only books you have read this year (2009), cleverly answer these questions. Try not to repeat a book title. It’s a lot harder than you think!

I'd say! Takes a lot of thinking just trying to remember some of the books I read earlier this year. But try yourself. Here are the questions (and the books used for answers links to reviews here where possible):

Describe yourself: Can't Let Go

How do you feel: Remember Me?

Describe where you currently live: The Ponder Heart

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: The Summer That Never Was

Your favorite form of transportation:

Your best friend is: The Associate

You and your friends are: Playing With Fire

What's the weather like:

Favorite time of the day: Oracle Night

If your life was a: The Hunger Games

What is life to you: Strange Affair

Your fear: What Never Happens

What is the best advice you have to give: We Need To Talk About Kevin

Thought for the day: Uncle Tom's Children

How would I like to die: The Girl Who Stopped Swimming

My soul's present condition: Undone

You may have noted that there are two questions left unanswered. That is simply because I have read no books with a title which would be meaningful to put there. Try this yourself. It was fun.

Bad Blogger me

Well, I haven't really been a good blogger for a long time. I have not been visiting and commenting as much as I want to. I haven't been blogging much. My Twitter account is still disabled because I am apparently a spammer (just mailed them again today). I am not overly busy at work and I am not in a reading slump at all.

I guess I have been in more of a blogging slump. I really want to blog at least twice a week, if not more, about books or book-related stuff, but recently I have just felt so non-inspired. Am I the only one feeling like that from time to time?

Anyway, I have been spending fortunes on books the past months, and have also been posting about that from time to time. Since last time I know that I have at least gotten a handful of new books. I am most excited about Catching Fire/Hunger Games 2, which I got this Friday. It is only because I am keeping myself on a very tight leash, that I haven't devoured it yet. I want to finish Tyskerungen (The German Kid) by Swedish author Camilla Läckberg and Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse # 2) before I read Catching Fire. Any of you read it yet?

I also bought Fractured by Karin Slaughter, which is # 2 in her Atlanta cops-series. I recently read genesis (see below) which mixed her Grant County and Atlanta-series. I also found Life as we knew it by Susan Beth Pfeffer for a bargain price on eBay, and picked that one up from the posthouse today. It was recommended by a fellow blogger, and I am SO SORRY I cannot recall who. But I look very much forward to read it.

I have two new Inspector Banks mysteries by Peter Robinson waiting (Cold is the Grave and Aftermath), and then I also found Mermaids in the Basement by Michael Lee West sitting on a shelf, and that title sounded promising, so I bought it.

I am going to spend the next couple of days catching up on my favorite blogs, voting for the BBAWs and checking what I have missed out on. Probably a lot, knowing how active bloggers you all are ;-)

Twitter has suspended my account

I am upset. Twitter has suspended my account because of suspicious activities, and I am at a complete loss. I only use Twitter on and off, not on a daily basis. I never send spam or pornography or nudity. I do not harrass other users. I have signed up under my real name and a real e-mail-adress. What in the heck happened? Any of you ever experienced this? I just sent a note to Twitter asking them to open up the account again and explain why it was closed in the first place. I am no longer following anyone and no one are following me. How sad is that, being frozen out of the loop? Now that I cannot use it, I REALLY miss it ;o)

Cleaning out my closet....

Or rather cleaning out my bookshelves....

I have way too many books. Some may ask: Can one have too many books? I believe the answer is yes. I am not really a collector. Back in the day when we listened to records on a record player, I was never the one who absolutely needed the special edition of this or that record. Same with CDs - I did not care if it was some limited thing with a special cover. Now I do not buy records or CDs anymore, but I still buy books. Always have and always will :o)

But also concerning my books, I never had to go for the special edition, the first edition, the signed edition etc. I am usually happy with the paperback and I do not mind used books.

All that said, I guess I do collect books after all, since there are many of my books that I do not want to give away/throw out. I have some old books which used to belong to desceased family members, and I like to keep those. I also have a few series that I want to keep. And then I just have a lot of books I want to keep for any number of reasons.

But no doubt - I have too many books, and since I live in a small apartment and since I cannot fill the WHOLE place with books, I need to clean out my shelves every now and then. I will say that I usually take a good look at my shelves every second year. I may toss out the odd book now and then, but every two years or so, I sort my book with the intention of simply getting rid of as many as I can bear.

I have spent most of today cleaning shelves and taking bag after bag to the trash-room. The good thing is that I did not just trash the books, I took them to our special trash-room, where people put their old and used stuff, and then anyone can grab it. I remember I actually got a sofa that way once. After a week or two, the special trash-room is emptied, but I am fairly sure that most of my books will be taken by then. After all, your trash could be my treasure ;o)

But the real beaty of it is, that now I have ample space on my shelves to buy new books, and I think there is enough space for at least a year's shopping for books ;o)

What do you do when the books are taking over your rooms? Trash them? Give them away to charity? Yard sale? Or do you just live with them?

NB. The image above is NOT of my room or my shelves. Mine are not that empty. The image is from a website that I for some reason cannot link to.

Lovely new books

I don't buy or loan as many books as some - and since I am in Denmark I am unable to do Paperback Swap - it would cost me double the price of the book to ship an old paperback across the pond anyway. So I have never done the Library Loot/Mailbox weeklies. I don't think I get enough in my mailbox or from the library to do that.

But in the past month, I have both been to the library and also bought some books. All of them are loaned or bought through blogger's recommendations, for which I am eternally grateful!

While I love to browse old books and make cheap finds, I also think it is lovely when a package filled with brand new books arrive. New books are wonderful and they smell good! This past month I bought the following books:

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson (Southern Reading Challenge. I read Jackson's two previous novels. Loved the first one -Gods in Alabama - the second one was so-so - Between, Georgia)

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan (Southern Reading Challenge. So many bloggers raved about this one, and I hope its as wonderful as they say)

Stuck by Herman Bang (Danish author from 19th Century, writing at the same time as the Impressionists painted their famous paintings)

We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver (because I've heard so much about this book the past years, and then saw it mentioned again, and thought that NOW I will read it)

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (this is part of my own personal quest to try reading the much-talked-about YA, and this one came very higly recommended)

Tender Graces by Kathryn Magendie (a blogger reviewed this one, and I just felt like that was a book I really wanted to read)

The Curse of the Mummy and other Mysteries of Ancient Egypt by Charlotte Booth (Ms Booth is an Egyptologist herself, and this book is the Egyptologist's take on those mysteries, which may not be mysteries after all)
Property by Valerie Martin (This one I chose to read a long time ago when I compiled my list for the Dewey Reading Challenge, and I think it looks very good)

Did you read any of the books I bought? Heard any good/bad about them? Then please share :-)

Going away for 10 days

I am going to be away on a work-related trip from July 2 - 12, and while I will bring my laptop, I don't know how much time I will have to blog. I hope I will be able to check in here, but since I am going to be out and about most of the time researching, I am not sure. I have prepared some posts to be published while I am away, so that this blog doesn't die down completely.

I am going to United Arab Emirates. I will be landing in Dubai and then travel directly to the small, northern Emirate called Ras al-Khaimah or RAK as it is called for short. RAK begun developing tourism only a few years ago. They were standing in the shadow of big brother Dubai, and since they have some wonderful beaches and amazing natural scenery in RAK, they thought that, hey, let us try and lure some of the many visitors to Dubai up here to our little emirate. So now there has been build some wonderful hotels on the beaches, which are perfect for relaxing and sunny vacations, but still only about an hour's drive from Dubai with all its trademark craziness, mega-buildings and what not.

Our base will be at the great Al Hamra Fort Beach Resort, which you can see a part of on the image below, lower right corner.

I have never been to UAE, and am looking much forward to it. I am going to do some research on various tours like beduoin camel-trips, dune bashing, shopping-trips (YAY) and much more.

The image on top of the Dubai skyline has been taken by momentaryawe.com and the beach image was shot by Henzelle - be back soon. Both images can be found on flickr.

Suggetions Young Adult

While I certainly have a major TBR with "adult" literature, a lot of challenges that I am determined to finish etc, I have thought about broadening my horizon a bit and stepping out of my comfort zone (whatever that is, since I read pretty much any genre and don't have genres I refuse to read) and read some YA-literature.

One of the reasons is, that I have noticed that it is a very, very popular genre, also with adults. I am aware that there are many parents out there who read those books in order to see what their kids are reading, but it is also my feeling, that many of you simply read this genre because you enjoy it.

Another reason is that I plan writing an article about this genre later this year or next year, and in order to do that, I think I should sort of know what I am talking about ;o)

However, what defines YA for you? The themes? The writing-style? Or somenthing else? I mean, the themes I guess are seen in YA, are more or less the same themes we read in the "adult" literature, isn't it?

Since I am in Denmark, I do not have the possibility to get those books you will hopefully recommend by the truckload from the library and need to purchase them along the way. Therefore I need to be a bit picky, because books are expensive in Denmark (and we cannot buy from Amazon.com due to tax-rules).

I have read a good deal of vampire- and fantasy books aimed at the adult reader, so I am not primarily interested in reading YA with that theme. But anything else goes. Do you have any suggestions? Also "classic" YA books are okay, although I think I have read some of them when I was a YA myself if they were among those which were translated into Danish. But fire away :-)

I look much forward to your recommandations.

The image is taken from this website.

I need help

I have played around for some time now, trying to change my blog to a Blogger Minima (which is what it is now) with three columns instead of two. Long time ago I also found the html-code for a three columned blog, which I have used with success in a new blog I have set up. No problems there.

But whenever I try "imposing" this code on my already existing blogs (this one and the identical one in Danish) I risk deleting everything here. At least that is what the warning which comes up says.

Any of you know how to avoid this? Or is that the way its done? Meaning I can change it, but after changing, I have to start from skratch? It was the same thing which happened when I tried to add tabs.....

I really need that third column now. Can anybody help?

Back in the loop

I have completed my thesis - almost. I still have a few images to scan and my last meeting with my advisor (Monday), but its written, I have made my conclusive remarks and I am beat! It has been some long months, where I have been working day and night (so it feels) writing this thesis. It is being delivered Tuesday June 2 at 12.00 and then I have to wait two months to get the result, but right now I don't give a damn about the result, I just want to get it over and done with ;o)

I shall spare you the details, but my subject has been a certain genre of mummy portraits from the Roman period (circa 30 BCE - AD 400) in Egypt. You probably know those portraits from museums around the world - they are painted in this style:

One of these days I shall be happy to talk more about these portraits, but not now ;o) I have set up an Egyptology blog for those kinds of things, but also more about that later.
Right now I am dying to get back into the loop and will begin this evening by visiting blogs. And I can barely wait!
I want to thank all of you who has been commenting here while I've been gone. I really appreciate it and will visit all of you over the next days. Cannot wait to see what is going on in the book-blogger world. I have missed you all!

See you in a couple of weeks

I am leaving for Egypt tomorrow, Thuesday 26th of February and I return March 12.

Not sure I will be able to get online much but look forward to return to Blogland when I am back home!

I haven't been as active the past weeks as I have wanted to, but life has gotten in the way.

Thanks for all your comments on my blog and thanks for writing such enjoyable blogs all over the world!

See you :o)

River Nile and western mountains of Luxor in Egypt (ancient Thebes)