One year older

Today I’ve added another year to my age, let’s hope that this also means that I’m one year wiser, or at least better in some way, any way…?

Books

I got some books for Christmas, and I’ve spent the last few weeks reading most of them. Now I thought I’d share what I think of them with you, just in case you might be looking for something to read and need some recommendations, or not…

For my English blog readers: the books are all Norwegian and I’m not sure if they’ve actually been published in English yet, so I guess this might not be very interesting for you.

Ingvar Ambjørnsen – En lang natt på jord
I have quite enjoyed Ambjørnsen in the past, and I was looking forward to reading one of his books again, BUT I was disappointed in this one. I just did not get it. It’s about this character who is clearly a bit disturbed, and I have the impression he thinks that the people around him admire him a lot more than the probably do. He is old, and troubled by the fact that he is no longer as famous as he used to be. I did not like the way this story was written, in parts the sentences were way to long, and it made me lose where I was in the chapter and several times I had to go back to understand what was going on. Some books are worth the trouble of being really hard and difficult to read, I’m afraid this is not one of those books. I considered giving up on it half way through, but remembered that I didn’t really care for Babylon Badlands (by Levi Henriksen) in the beginning either – but by the time I finished the book I really liked it. En lang natt på jord didn’t have that surprise towards the end that could’ve made me change my mind about it. I’m sure there are people out there who might enjoy this one, but I certainly would not recommend this book to most of my friends.

Johan Harstad – Buss Aldrin – Hvor ble det av deg i alt mylderet?
This book caught my attention almost from the first page. You’re just gripped by the main characters struggles and difficulties in handling the world around him. It is quite a thick book, and it is really hard to put it down once you’ve started reading. This one really gave me some late nights (I always read in bed before going to sleep at night) because I just could not stop reading. This book is also written with some fairly long sentences at times, but in this book that really works, and it just makes the story better. I will make one complaint against it though: the author should have taken a longer time, more pages, more words to end it. It seems like 90% of the book is pretty much spent during quite a short time and in one place, and then during the remaining 10% so much happens in so few pages that I feel that that brings the book down a little. I was a little disappointed in that, but all in all – GREAT book: go – buy – read!

Erlend Loe – Muleum
Erlend Loe is a very good author. I’ve read quite a few of his books before – and I enjoyed this one as well. It is very short, I read it in three hours or something, but it is a very well told story – and very entertaining. Though it is quite a tragic story at times, I’d still say that this is the kind of book you should pick up if you don’t want to be challenged too much, just relax and be entertained. This book will do that for you.

Jo Nesbø – Snømannen
Can’t really give you a full review of this one, as I’m only half way through it at the moment – but so far – loving it! I started reading it yesterday, and it took some hours off my sleep last night – and I suspect it will be doing that tonight as well. Will, let you know what I think of it when I’m finished.

And just yesterday I also went to the local book shop and picked up the trilogy about Arn, written by the Swedish writer Jan Guillou. This story starts in 1150, and even though my Viking story starts just before 800, I’m thinking there might be things to learn from how Guillou tells his story set in that time. I’ve read books by him before that I’ve enjoyed so I’m looking forward to reading these.

I survived New Year

You might have thought that I partied so hard, or something, at New Year that I didn’t survive and that this is the reason why this place’s been so dead lately. Well, as you can see, I’m still alive and kickin’… hmmm, maybe not kickin’ that much these days, but you know what I mean.

I have been very busy. Two days before New Year my mum slipped on ice while getting the mail in the mailbox twenty metres from our front door, she fell, on her hip, the hip broke and she had to spend the next five days in the hospital. She’s been home for about 1 ½ weeks now, but she’s not very mobile. Since I live in a basement flat in the same house as them, this means that I now have a lot of more stuff to do around the house than I normally do, since I’ve taken up her chores as well. My dad is also not on top form, since he slipped on some ice at his work place about six weeks ago and broke three ribs in his back. Those of you who know me also knows that I’m not so much housewife material, but I do the best I can in making sure that my parents get through this alright.

But all this means that my energy levels are very low these days. I’m doing a bit of writing, but not much – and I’m waiting for my correspondence studies to start again. I’ve know that the exams are in March so I’m eager to get started and try not to fall as far behind on my reading this semester as I did last semester.

Other than that, I’m going on Nöjeskryssen 2008. It’s a booze cruise between Gothenburg and Kiel, in the period 27 January to 29 January. It’s a great party and I’m really looking forward to that.