Home of Translated fiction and #translationthurs
Just a quick Post. I’ve opted to take a week or so away from Blogging. I’m hoping to come back on 28th April. I have a couple more Club 1961 books I’ve read, but not just got to reviewing. Amanda had surgery last week on her wrist, and I think with that and yesterday’s record streak day, which was an early start. I didn’t even listen to the records I got yesterday. I just need a break, some early nights, and a quick reset to recharge the batteries for a week.
I have been racing through the Booker International longlist this year. I think the fact I like most of the books on the list is that they are ones I would read at some point. I think we all, as readers, have this list of books. If I see if I find, if I have time, the last being the main problem, too many books, too little time. I think of the years I have never quite got what motivates my reading, but this year it has changed, and the change is coming because I have decided that one of the things I need to do this year is fill the gaps. I always read a number of Japanese books in January as there are events then. We go to March, and it’s the Booker International longlist. Then we have the bi-annual Year clubs Simon and Karen run, which are maybe my favourite online blog event all year. Then there are things I have dived in an out of in recent year the EBRD prize which i think has a great selection of literature every year but it is so near the booker I end up burnt out on the prize list and then I have like the Wainwright prize for nature writing but maybe need to just focus on either the shortlist or the books that jump out on me. So the idea this year is to have more of these little projects, read a new book from a new country every month, is one such idea, and I have gone and brought a lot of books for that project for this year. Then I had looked at Mookse doing the NYRB books and Muriel Spark, but I am not a joiner in person; I like to either have an idea for myself or a couple of people on board. So what other project has he up his sleeve? Well, I had thought of Spark and liked Beryl Bainbridge to read their books in order. But then I remember Kim doing a number of Iris Murdoch last year, and I had read The Sea, The Sea a long time ago, and her back catalogue is huge; she had multiple Booker nominations over the years. include a win for The Sea, The Sea. So, as I always say, I fell under read. I know in a lot of ways I am not, but I feel I need to read a few more English writers, and this is the start. I will be reading all her novels in publication order, hopefully. This is the first of two writers I am thinking of; I’m thinking of flipping between them, but at the moment, I’m not quite decided who. I think C P Snow, maybe, or Anthony Powell; I have circled both their multiple-novel collections and have nearly all of them on TBR. But I haven’t yet decicded as I may pick an older writer say Dicken or Trollope or maybe some one else the idea is ovber time to cross of names so I read the complete ouvre of a female and male writer and this to be a constantly rolling idea with Murdoch having twenty plus novel that is a few years reading so the Male may have less books. I will let you know who I pick in a few weeks. Then in the summer, I will do my book-a-day idea with Novellas. I can’t do a month, but I will try for one month to read as many as I can, with my shifts being 12-hour days. I lose a few days each week to this, so I struggle to blog on those days. But I like the idea of summer days and short books outside in coffee shops, etc. I will be doing Hungarian lit month, and at some point Spanish and Portuguese lit month and of course some reading on the run up to the Nobel, with a lot of recent deaths of people that have been near the top of thebetting lists in recent years, there is maybe a name or two out there to come to the surface. I am trying to be a lot more proactive in my reading, so those periods of not having a little or large project are less, and thus, meaning I always have rabbit holes to find books, learn about the writers and countries, and what books are available and waiting to be read. I love my sail boat idea of reading but now I am mor eof a cruise and trying to have a little newsletter of upcoming event like you do on a cruise ship (not that I have ever been on a cruise ) I love watch you tube videos of cruises and love the idea of a daily news letter I am so 20th century with my list of books piles of books and just liking the printed word. How do you plan your reading? Are you ad hoc, like plans, like ideas, book clubs, etc., or a solo traveller in the world of books?
I have picked ten books that have stuck with me as we near the end of the year. I won’t be doing another review, a mix of old and new titles in no particular order.
Gifted by Suzumi Suzuki
A look at the darker side of Japanese life through the crystal of a mother-daughter relationship was part of my Japanese reading in January, and I felt this would been on the Booker international list. I like the autofiction feel mof it and to get a female perspectibve of the same streets Murakami used to write about.
2 Solenoid Mircea Cǎrtǎescu
This Labyrinth of a novel, with its twists and turns, the grim reality of communist-era Romania, and often surreal side stories, is a book I put off reviewing, not feeling worthy of it, and still don’t. But I like a challenging book, this is one I look forward to reading, Blinding at some point. if you are a fan of Pynchon or Nadas, you should try this
3. Celebration by Damir Karakaš
Now, there were two books I read from the Balkans that hit me hard, this interlocking collection of stories from Croatia from the 1920s through to the end of World War II, following one man’s Journey into Fascism. This is one for fans of short fiction that hit the reader like a tequila shot
4. The Palm Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola
The oldest book on this list reminds me I need to read more Books from around the various countries in Africa. This classic mix of tribal myths with a man’s hunt for a new person to make his palm wine. This appeals to people wanting to read one of the first writers to be published from Nigeria, and people who like slightly surreal stories
5. In Late Summer by Magdalena Blažević
I said two books from the Balkans had hit me hard this year. This Bosnian book follows a little girl from her peaceful Valley and a rural existence, to the horror of war, and memories of the summer mix with the violence that unfolds. I remember the Balkan war and working alongside a Couple of people who had escaped the violence. If you like a story that mixes rural beauty and the horror of war, this is for you
6. The river by Laura Vinogradova
Open letter did a tryptich of books from Latvia; all of them could have been on this list, but it was this tale of a daughter finding out about a father she didn’t know, who had stuck with me. If you are a fan of books that slowly unfurl as the daughter learns more about her father, whom she never knew, then you will love this.
7. Attila by Javier Serena
Another from Open Letter Books: this is a pair of books released under the same title. This book is called Attilia and is about the man who wrote the other book of the same title, Alioscha Coll, that captures this man’s life as he quits being a doctor to write and descends into his own world of books and literature in Paris. This is the sort of Anti of Human Bondage, another write, ar century apart, but both struggling to write and on the edge of madness one falls down the hole the other doesn’t |!
8. Just a little dinner by CécileTlili
I haven’t put any of the Booker International books on this list. But for me, this book is betterthan one of the longlist books. Perfection, for me, captures the ins and outs of the modern world and life so well in a dinner party and in its fallout. An Abigails party of the 21st century in Paris
9. The Splendor of Portugal by António Lobo Antunes
I think I have had an Antunes in my end-of-year list when I have read a book by him. This one, like his other books, deals with the dark colonial past of his Homeland in Africa, and, more than the others I have read by him, it also looks at the wider conflicts of the era in southern Africa through the prism of one family. If you like Faulkner, you will like Atunes.
10. Sad tiger by Neige Sinno
This brutal piece of auto fiction covers the years she spent with her stepfather, who sexually abused her, but the man himsellf remind me of my stepfather, a brooding man like this man that casts a shadow over a family. For fans of Annie Ernaux or Édouard Louis
Bonus book: The Ship by Hans Henny Jahn
A difficult book about a couple who are on the girlfriend’s father’s ships as they sail with a mysterious cargo, and the boat is almost a living thing in this quirky, unusual piece of German fiction of a vessel that seems to grow over time and a constant feeling of unease as you read the book. Fans of weird fantasy that should be better known
Thanks for the lovely comments. Life is slowly getting back to normal here. Amanda will need a further op and is on a slow road to recovery. We had booked a trip away, which we still did, but had to take it easy and came home early. It was just lovely to spend some time together after all that happened. We were in Northumberland, a place we both love, and, of course, we made a small visit to Barter Books, where I picked up a few books that I will add here at a later date. I hadn’t read much the few days after Amanda had her Heart attack, as my mind was a whirl of emotions and just wasn’t in the mood to read. I have since read a few books, including the recent book about Erik Satie and Hisham Matar’s book. A month in Sienna, which had been on my TBR a while. I am currently on a Latin American kick with The Shipyard by Juan Carlos Onetti and A Question of Belonging by Hebe Uhart, one of the most unique voices in Latin American writing. This is a collection of memories from the writer’s life. Anyway, this is just a quick check to thank everyone. I’m intending to return to reviews by the end of next week. I return to work this week, so I will be posting reviews at the end of the week. Hope everyoneios well and has been reading loads recently.
I’ve been thinking of writing this post for a week or two. I’m not sure how I want to proceed, but let’s go anyway. I watch a bit of BookTube and other things on YouTube, and one of the things I’ve seen a lot recently is reactions to various posts about studies on men and reading. A lot is about how younger men, I’ll admit, I’m in my early fifties, so I know I look younger for my age. Some of the main points from the various posts I have read are, firstly, around specific figures in the Manosphere, as it is called. I won’t mention their names, as this particular field of people is something I have never had nor will I have an interest in. Anyway, they seem to promote anti-art, anti-reading ideas. Well, as someone who grew up loving culture, I find this whole thing just beyond me. I am going off track here, I’ll get back to the title as that captures what I am a straight male that reads fiction, we may be on the WWF endanger species, it seems. I wonder how we got here. How have my early years and life to the current situation with younger generations? I l start with me and then see how that may show how things have changed. I grew up with seeing my dad and granddad reading. They read lots of books, went to the library, and brought books. I already had a lead on most people, as males tend to read less than females, even years ago. Having a male reading role model is harder for some people. I also grew up in maybe a golden age of books, Roald Dahl , William Price maybe as early examples. Then on in my mid to late teens Great Fantasy this was a time of wonderfully evocative covers for books like The dragonlance series, Raymond Feist books. Then, Stephen King, I loved and literally just ate his books as a reader. Now, I didn’t go to university, and yes, like many men, I read less after my teenage years. I still brought books. Mainly literary fiction I will hold my hand upo and say I read mostly male writers, Thompson, Burroughs etc. Then it is Updike, Bellow, etc. I never got into Martin Amis but loved Will Self and Irvine Welsh. Then, maybe twenty years ago I became more drawn to world lit. I had read one or two books in translation in my twenties. Till now, where it is all translation bar the few books I pick in English still occasionally (i could do a whole post why this is less than it used to be as a straight male reader ) . Because my reading is so focused and driven, I have had a say in the way things have gone over the last twenty years. Translated fiction has first grown. But it has also become more and more diverse, and I tend to read more female writers than male writers, which sets me apart from many readers. So, I’m maybe an oddity. I love books, and I also grew up watching a lot of arts TV, back when it was actually arts TV, not what passes for arts TV or book shows these days. Sorry, I think about the poor state of Arts TV in the UK is an utter disgrace, and what these sorts of let’s make it hip and trendy and about the book tok or half dozen books that the UK press now seems to think are essential needs to change.Off on another tangent, let’s get back to the whole point of this: why do men read less, and why do they not read fiction ? I will throw my hat in with a few thoughts. The first and often mentioned is screens, whether it’s a computer, a game console, a phone, etc. These were so much less of a distraction and i can even see on my own reading how they have an effect, and I remember a pre-Games, pre smart phone age. So, that’s maybe the first issue. Then I am wary of saying this, but we may have, in a way, let the male novelist die out slightly over the last ten years. I think of the writers I grew up with, yes, they aren’t by today’s standard acceptable. Not that said, they did draw in males to reading. I think we need a new wave of charismatic male writers. But also maybe the demise of music papers, etc, has something as well. I remember a lot of the books I first read, which were new to me, came from interviews with singers in NME or Melody Maker, etc. List like Bowie’s favourite books. Then there is this sort of anti culture manosphere all about productivity, being a man or just how to be a complete arse really. Isn’t there enough of them? Surely, we need new male role models who can draw young men into books. In the early days of the blog, I did things like books about Eurovision. Books from teams involved in the World Cup. I used to do these to try to connect my love of football with my love of books. There are many great travel shows made these days that capture the world, but they often miss the writers and spirit of the place. I think translated fiction offers some great male writers, but also so many other avenues for male readers. The real answer is I don’t know what the anser is only it needs to be addressed soon rather than later or we will lose more and more men to boring how to be a better this that and the other productivity books. Rather than that, let’s stick to something that will feed there mind and take them elsewhere, or even give them empathy. What are your thoughts about this? Sorry to ramble on, I’m not sure what this does, if anything. I wish more people had my path and sheer desire to discover and read. I start with the picture from a well-known image of a woman reading, I saw it in Cambridge, nd will end with a sort of aAIhomage with a man ,this man in the style of that reading . WHta are your thoughts about men reading habits or lack of reading
Now, this month’s reviews have solely been from the Booker International longlist. I reviewed 8 of the 13 books this month. I start in Switzerland with a SOn and his mother on a journey into their past as they go on a road trip. Then, a friend remembered that it was one of those who must have had some sort of mental illness, but subtle in its narrative style. Then, various females live on the rougher side of Mexico. Then a disabled woman writes erotic tales, and her carer finds out it is her writing these tales and then sees what happens. A couple caught up in an Instagram world of image seeking a way out via politics, but getting more extreme due to it. Then a woman finds herself running out of marriage after just eight days. The first books I have read from Suriname. Then, the first of several books is about a woman stuck in the loop of the same day, a book about being stuck, and the little day-to-day changes of reliving the same day for a year. Then a female coast guard is the scapegoat when a boat sinks in the channel. A heartwrenching tale of immigration. With it being the Booker International longlist, I am on the shadow jury. I won’t pick a book of the month as it isn’t fair; this year’s longlist is a lot more palatable than last year’s, for me.I hope to read the last few books in the first week of April.
Non book moments
I had finished my room this month, which I had been doing for the last couple of months, and am now starting to read more in there and use it a little bit more every week, and thus I am going to get more productive on the blog, I hope. When the room was don I brought two new albums that recently came iut, The Throwing Muse Moonlight and the latest Richard Dawson album I have slowed up on viynl buying as I need to thin my collection out and it is record store day this month and I have a few records I have my eye on from the list coming out. TV-wise, I haven’t watched a series all month. It’s been a lot of old episodes of things like Murder She Wrote, Madame Blanc, The Good ship murders, etc. These are things that I can just watch and not be too invested in. I had a month where I had things going on and just needed to watch this sort of TV.
Month Ahead
I am not bothered about how many books I have read or am going to read each month; these days, it is the quality of the books I read and the journey I end up in them. I’d just like to find a little more time to read. With the clocks moving forward, I think that brightens the nights, my mental health, and the fact that I have time off from work this month, I may read a little more than I have been. I haver brought the EBRD shortlist (That is actually there longlist in a way, they then have a final of a few books and announce a winner this Iist is Eastern European Heavy and there is a couple of books from Croatia that I now I will like and also the excellent Engagement by Ciler Ilhan that I reviewed here and its great see it on a prize list. I won’t be reading them back to back like the Booker International long list, I’ve just finished, I need a little variety, and there are several books I’ve been sent. Plus, at the end of the month, is Simon and Karen’s Year club; this time,e it is 1952, I have seen a few books I will be taking a deeper dive to find some books in the next few days I’m sure there is a Haildor Laxness book among the ones I had first looked at. What are your plans moving forward in April?
I will be back to reviewing books later this week, I was out at a 60th birthday party at the weekend for someone I looked after 30 years ago that I have kept in contact with over the years. It was nice to celebrate it. I was in between shifts at work, so I didn’t drink, but then overnight, something in the buffet mustn’t have agreed with means had left me feeling a little drained. Until today, but as it is my birthday, we head to Sheffield, it’s been a while since we have been, and the Waterstones is a little larger there. They also have a couple of great coffee shops I like too. So the first part of the post is the books I have just returned home with, plus two my Amanda had brought me.
Amana asked me for some birthday ideas. I had sent her these two books. First, Peanuts has long been in my mind to collect I love Charlie Brown cartoons, so I have been eyeing these collected series of his cartoons over the last few years. Then the second is First Love, the first novella in the new Mookse and Gripes Novella club next month, and when it was described, it sounded like a book I would love.
From Sheffield, firstly, this is Sebald’s latest book. This is his writing about mainly fellow writers and a lot about Austrian writers. I have read a number of Austrian writers, so having Sebald’s views on them will be great. Has anyone else got this yet?
Next is a pair of Latin AMerican novellas , these caught my eye and I am not to aware of either writers other than in recent years I have read some great female writing from Latin America.
Then, the last in this trilogy is also from a Latin American writer. I heave the other two books and hope to read all three in one go later this year. Then hope to catch the film of the first book and see if they plan to make films of the other books. Have you read any of the books ?
I also finally moved all the books and old shelves out last weekend and then built new shelves with doors and lights. They are deeper shelves, so they seem less likely to tip over. I can also store all my LPs on the bottom shelf of the bookcases. I also managed to get all my CDs out for the first time in many a year. I haven’t organised the shelves in any order yet., I may at a later date sort them but for now I and finally pleased to have a less chaotic room for both working from home and to blog in. Many thanks to Amanda who had helped me loads through out the weeks of getting the room done.
Amanda and I head for a coffee to Matlock, which is a few miles from us but has an Oxfam Bookshop. This second-hand shop was open to Peak Dragon books, which I have always missed as it only opens a few days a week, so catching it today was a bonus as it was a little gold mine. So what follows is the books I brought today as they have a three for five-pound deal.
As though I haven’t enough Josef Škvorecki over the years, he is one of the writers I have accumulated several books, but this is the first work of nonfiction by him I have got a collection of essay. Also love the old Faber covers.
I brought this book thinking it was a book that had been missed by this writer. Svevo was championed by James Joyce with his books Zeno’s Conscience I Have That and A Tree Grows Older, so when I got home, I found this is actually that book with a different US title
I am now going try and buy every Balzac that comes my way. Harlot High and Low collected four pieces Balzac nad collected into a single book and was part of his more significant work, Human Comedy.
Miookse and Gripes had talked about doing Carr’s mopunth in the country as a readalong this year, so I thought I’d like to try some of his other books I have How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the F.A. Cup on my tbr and this was his second novel. It jumped out as it was about Cricket, during the war and there are few novels about cricket. Plus, I remember the Backlisted show talking about how quirky he was on an episode.
I was vaguely aware of Emanuel Livintoff, the Jewish writer who came from Russia to the East End and wrote this book about his childhood in the East End and how the Jewish community was when he was growing up in the twenties in London as it seemed to go well with another book I have been sent recently from Noir books East Broiadway to Whitechapel which is by the writer David Katz the fact the books follow journey to the UK from The US and Russia appealed to me so I will be reviewing these books soon.
Old Tony, as Tony’s reading list, covered this as his first book of 2025, so to see it so soon after I was captured by his review of it was a real turn-up for the books. Endo is also a writer I would like to read more from; I have just covered just once on the blog over the years.
So that was my ten-pound investment today, not a bad see; selection of books. I missed Oxfam but did call in the second chapter is a new bookshop in Matlock that has recently opened. They are the second shop to be opened by High Peak Bookshops. They also have a shop and Cafe in Buxton, which is worth a visit. They sell mainly remainder books, but there are always a few gems about, especially if you are into the more commercial fiction. I think it is a goldmine. But they also have a nice classics selection which I found this
A Gogol for this years classics reading. I hope to be back tot reviewing soon , I’ve just had a busy few weeks that has meant I am not reading a lot and also just had a number of things happening. I think I will go to the Oxfam bookshop next time as they are always a shop I tend to find books. Have you a local place with a few bookshops in it ?
I love to visit our Oxfam. I may go twice a week, but unfortunately, we don’t have a bookshop, just a regular store, but it can turn up some real gems. So when Amanda and I headed to town, I wasn’t sure what would turn up as I had only been a few days earlier, so when I found four great books today, it was a real turn-up for the books as I had only been in a few days earlier. But the book gods had looked down and said you need these gems on your shelves, I found two and Amanda saw two for me.
Now, the two I found would be ones on my long, long list of books to get. The first is Jessica Au’s Cold Enough for Snow, a tale of a mother and daughter who wander around Tokyo looking at art and talking weather horoscopes and clothes as one would in Tokyo, a city on my list of places I want to go most in the world who knows one day Amanda. I may get there/ Then Another book on my trip around the works of Cesar Aira. The proof was one of the books from him I hadn’t got. There is a number I need to get, and when I see them over time, I will be getting them as I want to read all his books over the coming year. I feel that the more you read from him, the clearer the picture of the bigger view of the world he has as a writer. I had hoped for a few more gems as they were on the first part of the shelf, but I had no such luck. There is nothing else in the fiction. Now Amanda loves a little bit of true life and was looking through the biography section, she will look at books she thinks I may like as she says usually an unusual name will be the ones she may show me the book and today she found two gems. For me
Amanda showed me the Pamuk, which has been on my list of books to find at some point, and his memoir of Istanbul and his books around the city he lives in are always an ode to the chaos and world that is Istanbul, I had this down significantly as the collection of his illustrated journals has just come out. I first saw these on a BBC tv show he did a few years ago, and you saw him painting and writing in his journal. And I remember thinking at the time, I wondered if we would ever get to see these in English, and we have, so I will be getting a copy of them at some point. I can’t wait to read this. Next to that was Tove Jansson’s collected letters. I have read most of her adult works and thought her letters would be insightful and excellent books to dip in and out of over the years. A great selection of books from three writers I have read before and one I really wanted to read,
Here is the Shortlisted books
Written by Selva Almada
I think this is one of my favourites to win it tackles being male in a tough world but also secrets and set in the hinterlands,make it a wild ride.
Written by Hwang Sok-yong
I have yet to review this, but I have read it as an insight into the political past of Korea through the lens of strikers in a rail strike. My review is to come shortly. He got the idea for the story from someone that he meet.
Written by Jente Posthuma
A sister looks back on her and her twin brother’s life as she tries to get to the heart of why he has taken his life and what brought him there and left her as the only twin.
Written by Itamar Vieira Junior
Twins the second book with twins this time twin sisters story told after they cut there tongues which lost there tongue and how do there lives and the world around them pan out after that event.
Written by Jenny Erpenbeck
A love affair falls apart as the country they arelibving in the Old East Germany falls apart partly based on the writers own life.
Written by Ia Genberg
A woman remembers four relationships whilst in a fever in a fever dream state
Well I had picked
Karios
Not a river
Undiscovered
Lost on me
white nights
A dictator calls
The house on Via Gemito
Well as you see I have two books on the official shortlist. I feel one of these two will win the prize but I haven’t got much right this year. I feel this years list is aim at a young readership than me but has a great selection of autofiction , rural tales father figures and poverty all make the shortlist. I finished the last book off the longlist today and will have my reviews finished in the next week or two.
This month is the same as every year. It starts with a couple of hopeful reads for the Booker International longlist. This book from Korea was written in Japanaese about two generations of runners. Then a story of the wall coming down in Germany as one part of a family heads West and their son stays in the West, Then the Bokker international longlist came out. I started with a historical crime novel with a touch of Magic realism set In Kyiv. Then to a tale of twins what happens to the other when ones decides to take their own life .It picks apart their lives and asks why. Then what happens when you see objects taken from your homeland and then see it was a relative that brought them what does this say about your family history. Then, a slice of history is replayed. What really happened when Stalin called Boris Pasternack? Then, four friends and a woman’s interactions with them are recalled as she is getting over a fever in a fever dream of a book.
Book of the month
How this epic work of the wall falling down missed the list I don’t know. As for the long list, I am now on book 12 of the 13. Part of the reason I have blogged a little less is to push on and get them all read I had hoped by today but I failed in that but a small insight into the longlist from me is that I had only one book I had mentioned in my longlist and had only read two books from the longlist when it came out the lowest total for a long time. For me as a reader, this list may be the one I have least enjoyed reading. not that any book is terrible, but that said, no book is a stand-alone book, possibly barring the two I had already read, Karios and Not a River. I then wonder if it is time for me to consider swapping prizes. I have questioned this the last couple of years as there is a new prize that has been around for a few years called the ERBD Book prize; now, if I hadn’t brought the books for the Booker international longlist, I could have shadowed this prize this year. I will be from next year, though, as the last few longlists of this prize have appealed to me if you are a publisher on this year’s list, I would love to review your books. So if you would like to join the SHADOW EBRD prize from next year let me know.
Non book events
as for records, I got the new album from Adrianne Lenker called Bright future,I loved the debut record from the Big Thief singer.
TV-wise, the new series of the short comedy show Mandy has come out. This surreal series is just laugh-out-loud at times as we follow the jobs Mandy gets and loses, usually in a surreal nature. I just watched a film, Cat Person from a New Yorker story, a comic horror film that is cut above most of what is around, and earlier in the month, I watched American fiction after I read Erasure, the book it is based on last month.
Next month plans.
I hope to get the booker reviews finished in the next week or two. I will move on to the backlog of new books I have and hopefully a few books from the EBRD prize I do hope get a few read. I have the book at the end of the list and have reviewed another book on the list. I also hope to review Until august the last Marquez book as well. What are your plans? what are your thoughts on the Booker international longlist?
I managed seven books last month. I started with an affair in France. Through time travel in Switzerland. A family tried to make their way home during the pandemic in Croatia. Then a road trip and chase and a murde with a large dose of myths and magic realism in Lapland. Then, I will be a student at the Bauhaus during the day. Then a Jewish family in Berlin as the Nazis take over. Then, there are 48 stories in tribute to the German Jewish judge Fritz Bauer.
Book of the Month
so many great books but The Oppermanns is a lovely book as it is from Perseohone. Still, it is also a book that should be more well known as with the work from Kluge I read this is about Germany ten years before Kluge’s work and the dark clouds are just starting to go over the Jewish family as the world they live in slowly changes as the events that would become the Holocaust starts to happen.
Non-book events
Vinyl finds l I managed to get the live version of Flaming Lips Yoshimi battles the pink robots that came out for Black Friday for record store day. I also got the 25th anniversary of the REM up album I brought it on cd 25 years ago but it is one of theirs I have grown to love over the years, so I was pleased to get it on vinyl. I signed up on a black Friday deal to the Paramount app so I watched nearly all of the Star Trek series Strange New World the first captain of the Enterprise, Pike is in the original series, and that is used here as he knows when he is due to die how. They also had Frasier I loved the first episode it has nods to both Frasier and Cheers. I also started the Apple TV show Monarch, a series from their Godzilla universe it has a great turn by Kurt Russell and his son Wyatt who plays the younger version of his father’s character a US officer and founder of the Monarch organisation that monitors these beasts like Godzilla. I love how it is unfolding with past and present mixing. I also watched The Velveteen Rabbit I loved this of drama of a classic book about a boy and his rabbit sad and a new favourite for Christmas. I love kids shows from this time of year, like Box of Delights, which I loved as a kid this is perfect for kids now.
Next months reading
I am on 90 reviews for the year and have read 112 books I hope to get ten reviews done to reach the 100 reviews mark. I am on the verge of 100,000 words on here for this year. I have a number of books I have been sent I want to finish the year out with from some of my favourite presses and all in Translation.
I been inspired t write this by the recent Mookse and Gripes episode, where Trevor and Paul talked over their habits and other bits around them as a reader. I thought I would talk a bit about my reading life and world. I am not as organized as Trevor and Paul. I never will be. My dyspraxia mind is chaotic a lot of the time. But I do have some routines, and over the years, I have blogged how me as a reader work has constantly evolved. I still manage to read over 100 books every year I may not review them all, but since I started last year to track my reading more on Goodreads, I have seen that it is about 120 books a year I read, and I think I will move the stat keeping to Storuy graph as supposedly it can give you more detail even this is a struggle at times for some that constantly will forget to update things due to my dyspraxia one of the worst things I have is this lack of constancy with doing things like this. But over the last few years, I am getting a little better. When do I read well, I am a chunk reader I am not someone who puts bits in here and there. I read the morning I hope to get between 30-45 minutes most mornings work or not. On my days off, I try to read for a couple of hours during the day. I tend to work 3 days one week and four days the week after. I read every evening for about an hour times more if I’m nearing the end of a book, so that means I tend to read 18-20 hours a week, which sometimes is less, sometimes more. I find I read more in the winter, more so this year, since I inherited my aunt’s serious read lamp. This lamp has a natural light, and I think will add a little more reading in the evening this winter.
Paper/e-book I do have a paperwhite kindle. But I have maybe read 10 e-books in the last ten years I just don’t get on with it. I love the idea the change of font size and font is all brilliant it is just an interaction with the kindle for me never quite works.,I love seeing my progress in a paper book. I keep the Kindle mainly for Booker International reading as I sometimes need to spend a lot on books, and the books I have read in recent years have been for Booker International. I have tried to use Netgalley but never read the e-books I try to get. So yes I am a paper books man.
Audiobooks had you asked me this a year ago, I said no. I would always say I love book-based podcasts like The Mookse and the Gripes. But I finally decided to try Audible and have since then read and listened to four books so yes, for me yes I LIKE Audio books if they will add another few books to what I read or help me tackle longer books that be great. Book length I am someone that have always preferred books under 300 pages. I have more and more in recent years been avoiding longer books in fact, this was the one tip I did get from Trevor and Paul to spread longer books court over a long time, a chapter or section of pages at a time. I will be trying this more next year. Thanks guys. I have posted about being a single book read I have a hybrid version of this these days where I’ll read multiple, but I will tend to read chunks of books like Base Camps on Everest. This is something I have done for the last few months, and it has meant I have read more books than I used to as I tend to switch if I feel my reading of a book slowing
MyTBR I have two yellow trolleys, one in my library and the other in our lounge. One is the current TBR books. The other will be when I have a project reading like Czech Lit Month or Club 1962 etc, where I will find all the books for the said project and put them in my library trolley. This is something I have seen Simon Savidge do and I thought it was a great idea to sort them once a month as they tend to also get overloaded with books. I love project reading the year clubs Simon and Karen do are highlights of my years, as is the booker international longlist reading Czech Lit Month, German Lit Month and, of course, Spanish and Portuguese Lit Month. As for me and my mind, the focus it brings gives me clarity, and I’m sure these periods are when I read most. Where I read well I have my sofa downstairs which is by my serious light and upstairs my old reading light is next to a chair from Ikea in my library. I like listening to instrumental music and can cope with some lyrics but more on the acoustic country vibe than some of the punk, new wave industrial goth music I like, which is too distracting to read. Notes I use a few book tabs on passages I love and take pictures of pages I think I will quote, and with longer books take a few notes on index cards this is something I am doing more and more every year. I think in the process of writing my post these days, they are longer I like meaty quotes that I usually mention in the review. Well that’s me, nothing new A chaotic reader who has more order than I did when I started this blog but will be the most planned and ordered reader, but this chaos I have in my mind is what drives the wanderlust in my reading and the driving passion for books in translation as I have a very obsessional mind which is what makes me constant look for those underlooked gems and the sheer solo drive in my mind is for books in translation and world lit which will never change. I am so passionate about this as any of you who have met me will agree with it.
I managed 6 books this month but I did read four for the first Czech lit month I only review Male writers which I ran out of time and the other book I read unfortunately had a print error which is a shame as it was from a female writer. I feel I managed to get a number of the great writers of the 20th-century Czech fiction reviewed. We went from a village in the thirties to an imagined island , a novel handed around in the seventies and a detective story that isn’t a detective story. So I will do this again next year and have more female writers. I do have a couple of female writers under review already. I also read a great piece of magic realism from a writer I love and a short Italian novella that I loved. It was a great selection this month. I will hope to get a few more reviews done next month and I have a number of days off next month.
Book of the month
I chose this as I love a twisty tale and a number of the books this month have been twisting tales but this detective story isn’t a detective story I loved it I like books that fragment narrative and twist plots. I could have chosen any of the books I read this month as they were all great reads.
Non-book events.
We had a holiday and I wrote a post about that. I brought a second-hand Suede Album which I never got on cd so when it was quite cheap the B-side collection was on three vinyls. But end the month on a YouTube rabbit hole of old disaster movies some made for TV and some like City on fire from the late seventies with a great cast led by Henry Fonda. These were big films back in the day. I also started watching an Australian black snow that has been shown on BBC 4 here.
Czech Lit month
Thanks for all that took part if you’d kindly link your reviews in the comments below I d be very grateful. I will try and add comments to you all. I will be doing it all again next year.
Next month
I have a few books read to review four at least so I’ll get to them first I have a lot of new books to read so I think next month will be a mix of new and African fiction I’m aiming to add a number more books from Africa by the end of the year.
