Da har jeg endelig fått lest Staalesens siste, og det passet jo bra med en krim sånn rundt påsketider. Hva kan man si om Ansikt til ansikt, annet enn at man som vanlig finner Staalesen i toppform, og at det at enkelte deler av historien fører til et visst fysisk ubehag hos leseren snarere er et kompliment enn noe annet? Lite.
Forfatter: Mirthful
The Girl who Married a Lion
Being in the habit of reading everything Alexander McCall Smith puts out, I naturally picked up The Girl who Married a Lion too. It’s a nice little collection of «folk-tales», and will find its rightful place on the shelves next to Asbjørnsen and moe and the brothers Grimm once we have bookshelves again.
The Amenities of Book-Collecting and Kindred Affections
In which we are perfectly green with envy – twice.
It’s difficult to help being green with envy, actually, when reading of book-collectors of almost a century ago. Not that I would be able to afford the majority of the current prices quoted by A.E. Newton for items I devoutly desire, he’s already talking thousands of dollars. But the same items today would run into the tens, possibly the hundreds of thousands. I don’t suppose Newton’s copy of Johnson’s Dictionary happens to be on the market just now, but his mention of it is the first point at which I turned pea green – it is the copy inscribed by Johnson himself to Mrs. Thrale. *sigh* I don’t even want to think about the sort of money you’d have to part with to lay your hands on something like that today.
The book is a reasonably diverting and informative read. If you happen to be interested in Johnson, Boswell and «that set» parts of it are positively delightful. And the bits about collecting are instantly recognisable, even if Newton operates on a somewhat different level from us 21st C. mere mortals.
A book about books, what is there to complain about?
And the second point at which my greenness reached perfection? This (emphasis mine):
My interest in Oscar Wilde is a very old story: I went to hear him lecture when I was a boy
Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand
So, I finally finished Atlas Shrugged. Phew.
Read More
The Whore’s Child
What? Two short-story collections in a row? And I actually enjoyed them? Shocking. Well, I don’t suppose there’s any reason to be surprised that The Whore’s Child was enjoyable. Russo normally is, after all. Though enjoyable might be the wrong word, certainly these stories are enjoyable on a very disturbing level.
Another disturbing thing is that the nun on the front cover of my edition (the same one as the picture above) looks like she’s a character out of The League of Gentlemen – one played by Reece Shearsmith. Really disturbing in ways you can’t imagine unless you’ve seen the show and read the book.
Birthday Party and Other Stories
I don’t seem to mind the fact of them being short-stories so much (I mean, I normally mind enough to avoid reading them) when it comes to Milne. Birthday Party and Other Stories is a rather delightful collection with subjects ranging from the downright chilling (how to commit the perfect murder) to the more typically Milnesque frivolous. And he provides us with a new (well, new to me, anyway, hardly new, really, as the book was published in 1949 – and I have the first edition, in ex-lib, state, sadly, but now I’m getting off topic, where was I? Oh, yes:) theory on how the whole Shakespeare-Bacon thing really happened. Very amusing.
Honour Among Thieves
Reread because I couldn’t really remember what it was all about. Not very surprising, on the whole, it’s definitely not one of Archer’s better books. Entertaining, sure, but not terribly memorable.
Chloe Marr
One of the novels I found when packing that I just had to read immediately, Chloe Marr (probably available on ABEBooks) is nowhere near as good as Milne’s Two People, but it’s a pleasant read. Even when writing on serious subjects, Milne writes fluff, but it’s good fluff, which makes me happy.
The Amulet of Samarkand
I don’t know why, but «fantasy» novels in the children’s section usually look a lot more tempting than the ones in the Fantasy & Sci-Fi section. So also with Jonathan Stroud’s The Amulet of Samarkand. The first book in a trilogy. Well, I know I’ve been stupid again, but I think I’ll be able to wait for the paperback editions of book 2 and 3 (3 isn’t even out yet, as far as I can tell). Anyhoo, Amulet is a pretty good read. The main character is a deamon called Bartimaeus, who is also the narrator for much of the book, summoned by Nathaniel, a gifted, but underestimated magician’s appretice. Bartimaeus is charming, if also obnoxious, and the story has a good pace to it. Of the two drawbacks I can put my finger on one is that some characters are introduced mostly to play a role later in the trilogy (at least, that’s what I’m assuming), which makes them feel incidental and unnecessary in this volume, the other that I’m not entirely sure I like Nathaniel much, and as he’s the «hero» of the story, that makes it sort of difficult to root for him. There’s no one else to root for either, except, possibly, the mysterious «Resistance», and they’re not present enough to be a viable alternative. But I’m reading book 2, definitely, just need to find a paperback edition.
Presten – Hanne Ørstavik
Jeg vant en signert utgave av Presten på Bok i Sentrum i høst og tenkte at det vel ville være høflig å lese den. Så nå har jeg fått en påminnelse om hvorfor jeg så sjelden leser ny norsk litteratur. Hanne Ørstavik fikk Brageprisen for denne boka, så man må anta at dette er noe av det beste som kom ut i Norge i fjor, og dersom det er tilfelle må jeg bare si at jeg synes tilstanden er heller laber. Det er ikke det at Presten er noen spesiellt dårlig bok, den er bare ikke spesiellt bra heller, og det synes jeg faktisk at vinneren av Brageprisen burde være.
Hva har jeg så i mot Presten? Vel, hovedproblemet mitt er vel at jeg synes Ørstavik mislykkes kraftig i å røre ved noe «viktig». Jeg prøvde så godt jeg kunne å føle noe mens jeg leste, men det var liksom ikke noe der å føle. Og det er ikke som om hun ikke prøver, hovedpersonen gjentar stadig viktigheten av det sanne og riktige, og poengterer at det sanne ofte ikke er særlig behagelig. Men det eneste ubehaget jeg følte mens jeg leste var kjedsomhet, dette til tross for både selvmord og usmakelige episoder fra Norsk-Samisk historie.
Så, nei, ikke helt fornøyd.