Kategori: Aardvark – on books in general, booklinks, bookmemes and such

Books read 2008

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  • Sahara – Michael Palin
  • The Unbearable Lightness of Scones – Alexander McCall Smith
  • The Tales of Beadle the Bard – J. K. Rowling
  • Freedom’s Landing- Anne McCaffrey
  • Nød – Are Kalvø
  • The Queen of Subtleties -Suzannah Dunn
  • Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro
  • The Secret Life of a Slummy Mummy – Fiona Neill
  • Den lille stygge sjokoladeboka – Simen Sætre
  • Ut å stjæle hester – Per Petterson
  • Police at the Funeral – Margery Allingham
  • Portnoy’s Complaint – Philip Roth
  • The Chronicles of Prydain – Lloyd Alexander
  • Sputnik Sweetheart – Haruki Murakami
  • Under the Duvet – Marian Keyes
  • Angels – Marian Keyes
  • The Other Side of the Story – Marian Keyes
  • The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox – Maggie O’Farrell
  • The Tale of Desperaux – Di Colofello
  • Small Wars Permitting – Christina Lamb
  • The Bafut Beagles – Gerald Durrell
  • Fillets of Plaice – Gerald Durrell
  • The Stationary Ark – Gerald Durrell
  • A Zoo in my Luggage – Gerald Durrell
  • Catch me a Colobus – Gerald Durrell
  • The Dunken Forest – Gerald Durrell
  • Himself and Other Animals – David Hughes (biography)
  • The Book of Lost Things – John Connolly
  • Anybody Out There? – Marian Keyes
  • Under the Duvet – Marian Keyes
  • Downsize This – Michael Moore
  • Slam – Nick Hornby
  • American Gods – Neil Gaiman
  • A Ramble Round the Globe – Tommy Dewar
  • The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid – Bill Bryson
  • The Undomestic Godess – Sofie Kinsella
  • Hoggerne – Roy Jacobsen
  • Harlequin Valentine – Neil Gaiman & John Bolton
  • In a Glass Darkly – Sheridan Le Fanu
  • Stiff – Shane Maloney
  • Perdita: The Life of Mary Robinson – Paula Byrne
  • The Tea Rose – Jennifer Donnelly
  • The Black Magician Trilogy – Trudi Cavanagh
  • Renegade’s Magic – Robin Hobb
  • Forest Mage – Robin Hobb
  • Shaman’s Crossing – Robin Hobb

Anne-Cath. Vestly-hamstring

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Hva annet kan man gjøre når Notabene har en haug Anne-Cath. Vestly-bøker til 49 kr stykket som del av Mammut-salget. Noe har vi jo fra før, så her gjelder det å holde tunga rett i munnen. Etter dagens fangst (se books bought) kan jeg i hvert fall konkludere at vi har mer enn halvparten… Med hjelp fra wikipedia skal jeg nå lage meg en har-har-ikke-liste her, så vet jeg hva jeg skal se etter senere (Norli hadde også noen, så jeg – litt dyrere riktignok.) Jeg har ikke engang lest alle disse selv, så det spørs om jeg ikke faller for fristelsen… I tillegg kjøpte jeg Maria Gripes Skygge-serie, og de skulle jeg vel også lest igjen (de er det vel dessuten ikke så aktuellt å lese høyt om noen år, de tror jeg Oda skal få oppdage på egen hånd).

Ok. Anne-Cath. De med – foran har vi nå…

Ole Aleksander

– 1953 – Ole Aleksander Filibom-bom-bom
– 1954 – Ole Aleksander på farten
– 1955 – Ole Aleksander får skjorte
– 1956 – Ole Aleksander og bestemor til værs
– 1958 – Ole Aleksander på flyttefot
1971 – Ole Aleksander hjemme og ute
1971 – Ole Aleksander og den slemme gutten
1971 – Ole Aleksander på skolen
1971 – Ole Aleksander på sirkus
1971 – Ole Aleksander og julepresangene

Mormor og de åtte ungene

– 1957 – Åtte små, to store og en lastebil
– 1958 – Mormor og de åtte ungene i skogen
– 1959 – Marte og Mormor og Mormor og Morten
– 1960 – En liten takk fra Anton
– 1961 – Mormors promenade
1986 – Mormor og de åtte ungene på sykkeltur i Danmark
1999 – Morten og Mormor og Stormvind

Knerten-bøkene

– 1962 – Lillebror og Knerten
– 1963 – Trofaste Knerten
– 1964 – Knerten gifter seg
– 1971 – Knerten i Bessby
– 1973 – Knerten og forundringspakken
– 1974 – Knerten på sykkeltur
1998 – Knerten detektiv og Handelsreisende Lillebror
– 2001 – Knerten Politimann
2002 – Den store boken om Knerten

Aurora-bøkene

– 1966 – Aurora i blokk Z
– 1967 – Aurora og pappa
– 1968 – Aurora og den vesle blå bilen
– 1969 – Aurora og Sokrates
– 1970 – Aurora i Holland
– 1971 – Aurora på Hurtigruten
– 1972 – Aurora fra Fabelvik

Guro-bøkene

– 1975 – Guro
– 1976 – Guro og nøkkerosene
– 1977 – Guro alene hjemme
– 1978 – Guro og fiolinen
– 1979 – Guro og Lille-Bjørn
– 1980 – Guro på Tirilltoppen
– 1981 – Guro og Frydefoniorkesteret

Kaos-bøkene

– 1982 – Kaos og Bjørnar
– 1983 – Lilla Olaug og Lubben
– 1984 – Kaosgutten i Vetleby og verden
– 1985 – Kaos førskolegutt
– 1987 – Kaos og hemmeligheten

Ellen Andrea-bøkene

– 1992 – Ellen Andrea og mormor
– 1993 – Forundringspakken og Lagertha rasebasse
1994 – 5 på reise
– 1995 – Kostemarsj på Tirilltoppen
1996 – Mormor og én til hos Rosa
– 2000 – Småtassene og andre folk på Tirilltoppen
– 2002 – Monrad tenker
– 2004 – Monrad og mormor i den store klubben

Og disse må jeg se etter…:
Selvbiografier
1990 – Lappeteppe fra en barndom
2000 – Nesten et helt menneske

Books read 2007

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(the lass was born in January, I did a lot of reading, but not so much blogging)

  • Special Topics in Calamity Physics – Marisha Pessl
  • The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
  • After the Quake – Haruki Murakami
  • Frost on My Moustache – Tim Moore
  • The Careful Use of Compliments – Alexander McCall Smith
  • Boksamlere forteller
  • The Imperfectly Natural Baby and Toddler – Janey Lee Grace
  • First Among Sequels – Jasper Fforde
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – J. K. Rowling
  • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – J. K. Rowling (reread)
  • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – J. K. Rowling (reread)
  • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – J. K. Rowling (reread)
  • Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – J. K. Rowling (reread)
  • Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – J. K. Rowling (reread)
  • Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – J. K. Rowling (reread)
  • A Widow for One Year – John Irving
  • Death at La Fenice – Donna Leon
  • The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner
  • Intimacy – Hanif Kureshi
  • So Many Books, so Little Time – Sarah Nelson
  • The World According to Bertie – Alexander McCall Smith
  • The Complete Polysyllabic Spree – Nick Hornby
  • Citizen Girl – Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
  • Nattelangs – Gro Jørstad Nilsen
  • Matilda, litt av en robot – Philip Newth
  • The Beet Queen – Louise Erdrich
  • Uncle Dynamite – P.G. Wodehouse
  • Blue at the Mizzen – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
  • The Hundred Days – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
  • The Yellow Admiral – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
  • The Commodore – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
  • The Wine-Dark Sea – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
  • Clarissa Oakes – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
  • The Nutmeg of Consolation – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
  • The Thirteen-Gun Salute – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
  • The Letter of Marque – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
  • The Reverse of the Medal – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
  • The Far Side of the World – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
  • Treason’s Harbour – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
  • The Ionian Mission – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
  • The Surgeon’s Mate – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
  • The Fortune of War – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
  • Desolation Island – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
  • The Mauritius Command – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
  • HMS Surprise – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
  • Post Captain – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
  • Master & Commander – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
  • American Pastorale – Philip Roth

Books read 2006

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  • Rambling on the Road to Rome – Peter Francis Browne
  • Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation – Lynne Truss
  • Faster, They’re Gaining – Peter Biddlecombe
  • A Good Man in Africa – William Boyd
  • The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • Ikoner i et vindu – John Erik Riley
  • The Arm of the Starfish – Madeleine L’Engle
  • No Logo – Naomi Klein (reread)
  • Anansi Boys – Neil Gaiman
  • Pappa for første gang – Finn Bjelke
  • ABC for spedbarnsforeldre – Nina Misvær
  • The Baboons Who Went This Way and That – Alexander McCall Smith
  • The Outlaws of Sherwood – Robin McKinley
  • Spindle’s End – Robin McKinley
  • Vita Brevis – Jostein Gaarder
  • False Impression – Jeffrey Archer
  • Tales of a Female Nomad – Rita Golden Delman
  • Misfortune – Wesley Stace
  • Goodnight Mr. Tom – Michelle Magorian
  • Running with Scissors – Augusten Burroghs
  • Dødens drabanter – Gunnar Staalesen
  • Venezia – Kjell Ola Dahl
  • Friends in High Places – Donna Leon
  • I Know You’ve got Soul – Jeremy Clarkson
  • Draogonsinger – Anne McCaffrey (reread)
  • Dragonsong – Anne McCaffrey (reread)
  • Dragonflight – Anne McCaffrey
  • Dragonquest – Anne McCaffrey
  • Sorcery and Cecelia: Or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot – Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
  • The Grand Tour: Or the Purloined Coronation Regalia – Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
  • Encounters with Animals – Gerald Durrell
  • The Overloaded Ark – Gerald Durrell (reread)
  • Dope – Sarah Gran
  • Fever Pitch – Nick Hornby (reread)
  • JPod – Douglas Coupland
  • Sudden Wealth – Robert Llewellyn
  • Peat Smoke and Spirit – Andrew Jefford
  • A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian – Marina Lewycka
  • A Piano in the Pyrenees – Tony Hawks
  • One Hit Wonderland – Tony Hawks
  • Assassin trilogy – Robin Hobb (reread)
  • Liveship Trader trilogy – Robin Hobb (reread)
  • Her Mother’s Daughter – Marilyn French
  • Inkspell – Cornelia Funke
  • Love Over Scotland – Alexander McCall Smith
  • Dragondrums – Anne McCaffrey
  • Draogonsinger – Anne McCaffrey
  • Dragonsong – Anne McCaffrey
  • Pappan och havet – Tove Jansson
  • Three Dot-books – Inge Møller
  • The Lighthouse – P. D. James
  • The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon
  • My Uncle Oswald – Roald Dahl
  • The Wicked Winter – Kate Sedley
  • Lake Wobegone Days – Garrison Keillor
  • The Fourth Estate – Jeffrey Archer
  • Hver sin verden – Marianne Fredriksson
  • Something Rotten – Jasper Fforde
  • The Well of Lost Plots – Jasper Fforde
  • Lost in a Good Book – Jasper Fforde
  • The Eyre Affair – Jasper Fforde
  • De fire og han som gjør galt verre: begynnelsen – Hans Frederik Follestad
  • Frelseren – Jo Nesbø
  • Blue Shoes and Happiness – Alexander McCall Smith
  • Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator – Roald Dahl
  • At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig: Travels in Paraguay – John Gimlette
  • Inkheart – Cornelia Funke
  • Going Solo – Roald Dahl
  • According to Queeney – Beryl Bainbridge
  • Diplomatic Baggage: The Adventures of a Trailing Spouse – Brigid Keenan
  • Waltzing Through Flaws – Paula Sharpe (reread)
  • The Last Battle – C. S. Lewis (reread)
  • The Silver Chair – C. S. Lewis (reread)
  • The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – C. S. Lewis (reread)
  • Prince Caspian – C. S. Lewis (reread)
  • The Horse and His Boy – C. S. Lewis (reread)
  • The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – C. S. Lewis (reread)
  • The Magician’s Nephew – C. S. Lewis (reread)
  • A Perfect Match – Sinead Moriarty
  • The Baby Trail – Sinead Moriarty
  • 100 Shades of White – Preethi Nair
  • Our Hearts were Young and Gay – Emily Kimbrough and Cornelia Otis Skinner
  • The Business – Iain Banks
  • The Deep Blue Goodbye – Travis McGee (reread)
  • The Chronicles of Robin Hood – Rosemary Sutcliff (reread)
  • Lost for Words – John Humphrys
  • Wedding Season – Darcy Cosper
  • The Crocodile on the Sandbank – Elisabeth Peters
  • English Journey – Beryl Bainbridge
  • Warmly Inscribed – Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone (reread)
  • Slightly Chipped – Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone (reread)
  • Used and Rare – Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone (reread)
  • 84 Charing Cross Road – Helene Hanff
  • (part of) A Game of Thrones – George R. R. Martin
  • Something Muffins – Stewart Clark
  • Broken English Spoken Perfectly – Stewart Clark
  • Typisk norsk – Petter W. Schjerven et. al.

The Baby Trail and The Perfect Match – Sinead Moriarty

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While we were trying to get me pregnant, The Baby Trail was recommended to me, and I rather enjoyed it. It captures a lot of the frustration and anxiety of trying to conceive while being a light and engaging read. We didn’t have to go through all the harrowing stuff Emma and James faced, luckily, but it’s comforting to have someone who’s worse off than yourself to read about.

Having read The Baby Trail, going on to A Perfect Match was inevitable. Highly enjoyable, though sobering at the same time, especially for someone who has seriously considered adoption.

15 Things About Me and Books (Meme)

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Clearly a must. Via lots of people at Metaxu.

1. I can’t remember not being able to read, though I wasn’t that early a starter, so this clearly says more about my memory than my reading skills. My maternal grandmother taught me to read the year before I started school (so I would’ve been 6 years old) using one of those children’s blackboards with a clock (to teach the child how to tell the time, presumably) up top. I can remember the blackboard quite clearly, but not the lessons.

2. One of my favourite picture books as a kid was a book called «Serafin og hans makeløse mesterverk» (Serafin and his incomparable masterpiece) with illustrations by Philipe Fix. A few years ago I was attending some Spanish classes with my parents and one of our assignments was to bring a picture of our ideal place for a holiday – I brought this book and opened it to the picture showing Serafin and his friend Plym in their library reading out loud, where all the characters from the various books have emerged and sit around listening to the story. My father’s comment was «That explains a lot.»

3. I’ve mentioned this before, but I reread books. Any book I really like I’ll reread, most more than once. I sometimes suspect this is mostly because my memory leaks like a sieve, and hence I need to reread in order to remember anything at all. However, I also reread books I know almost by heart, so that is not the full explanation.

4. The book I’ve read the most times is Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Chronicles of Robin Hood. I’ve been through it more than 20 times, certainly, possibly a lot more, and I’m definitely not done with it yet. The copy I used to read is the Bokklubbens barn edition in Norwegian, it was one of the books I brought with me to the Gambia when we went there in 1986 and it also came with me to the UK when I moved there in 1997. I now also own the first edition in English and a later imprint of the same. Hence, when I read it now, I read the imprint. Close on Sutcliff’s heels come C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia) and Jane Austen (Pride & Prejudice, especially if you also count the times I’ve listened to the audiobook). If you count the number of pages, Patrick O’Brian probably wins – as I’ve read the entire Aubrey/Maturin series four times now.

5. I love not only the content of (good) books, but also the physical object. I buy books. Lots of them.

6. I like first editions, though I’m not entirely sure why.

7. Except for newly published books (where I try to get hold of a first issue), I prefer to buy books second hand. I like the way a book that’s already been read feels. Other people’s scribbles in the margins delight me more often than they annoy. Other people’s bookplates or dedications like «To Ann with love, Christmas 1982. Auntie Val» give me a thrill quite out of proportion to their factual interest or relevance to the book.

8. If a book is really good, I have a hard time trying to prevent myself buying more copies of the same book. At some point in Sense & Sensibility Edward says of Marianne (in the event that she should come into a fortune):

I know her greatness of soul, there would not be music enough in London to content her. And books! — Thomson, Cowper, Scott — she would buy them all over and over again; she would buy up every copy, I believe, to prevent their falling into unworthy hands

I think it sums up Marianne pretty well, but though I normally identify more with Elinor, it also to some extent sums up my feelings towards my favourite books. Though with me it’s not so much a question of preventing them falling into unworthy hands – though that comes into it, certainly – as a very unreasonable feeling that having more than one copy of a book will extend the pleasure somehow. Can you tell I like the cut scenes part of DVD extras the best?

9. I seem to have most of my knowledge of the world and of history from fiction. I hardly ever read newspapers or watch the news and I have only recently (as in: in the last few years) started reading non-fiction to any serious degree (apart from school-books, obviously, but I didn’t exactly read those conscientously from cover to cover). I don’t normally perceive this as a problem myself.

10. Partly due to 9. I get annoyed when writers of (historical) fiction think that there is no need to check the facts just because they happen to be writing fiction (a note in the foreword is fine, just let me know, somehow, that you happened to move a whole continent or postpone the French revolution by 50 years).

11. It worries me majorly when people pronounce with bravado that they don’t read books. In fact, it worries me more than most other statements people pronounce with bravado except those that involve hurting or killing other beings (i.e. I’d be somewhat more worried if someone came in with a gun and said – with bravado or without – «I’m going to kill you all»).

12. The burning of books – even just as a «special effect» or illustration on film or tv – makes me feel physically ill.

13. I find some books more interesting in their idea than in their actual storyline. For example, I have yet to finish Franz Kafka’s The Trial (I’ve read the first half twice), despite having it as a set text for two different exams, but I’ve had many wonderful discussions about it nevertheless.

14. My parents used to read to me every night when I was a kid, my father especially. Sometimes he would be so caught up in the story that he forgot to read out loud and I’d have to prod him. After I learnt to read myself, however, I’d just continue where he left off. After a while, I also found that I could get to the end of the page quicker (tempting, if the story was an exciting one) by shutting out his voice and reading to myself instead. I think the point when he decided there was no longer any point in reading to me was when I’d done precicely that and asked him to turn the page so I could continue when he was still only half-way through.

15. The first book I can remember paying for with my own money was a selection of stories from the arabian nights. It was on sale and cost all of 20 kr (appr. USD 2.50 at today’s exchange rate), I think. It seemed like a lot of money at the time, though.

Books read 2005

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Books read 2004

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Wish You Were Here: The Official Biography of Douglas Adams – Nick Webb

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In which Robin is annoyed yet again.

adams.jpg

After an unintentionally expensive trip to one of the kiosks selling paperbacks at the central station, Nick Webb’s Wish You Were Here: The Official Biography of Douglas Adams came home with me. It pleased me somewhat more than the last biography of Adams that I read – however, Webb annoyed me by spending a lot of time referring to either Simpson or Gaiman, leaving the reader with a feeling that Webb’s own book was something of a waste of time and that he/she would have been better off with just the other two.

I’d still rather read Gaiman if I were you.