To read or not to.

I wanted to write about books. So I wrote and wrote and upon looking for a reference in my stories already posted, I realized that I had basically written and published the whole thing already two years ago. Shit. Does that happen to other bloggers too? You would assume I can remember these things. Or at least check my own blog before starting to write. Anyhow, read it here and know everything is still the same except for the fact that I got a Kindle and love it to bits. Putting corners in pages is overrated.

However I wanted to write about books because I was inspired by my favourite list-lady who asked for lists with your favourite books this week. Since I have just experienced the joy of finishing a book in just a few hours (Gone Girl) again, I feel quite inspired to lay low on the Grey’s and instead read something new. So I liked the idea of exchanging book ideas with others.  But upon looking through some of the lists others had already written I realized that might be a tricky one. I might share a common interest in Harry Potter with someone, but if the rest of the reading list contains of Nicolas Spark and Lauren Conrad, I… rather not comment.

Mind you someone could feel the same about my list. After all I don’t like the Great Gatsby nor Great Expectations.  I thought instead of summarizing the books I’d rather give a short explanation why I like them so much. Know where I'm coming from and then judge away if you must. Hopefully you will rather go and buy some books,  Lauren Conrad or other…

The Travel Book – Lonely Planet.

My best book of all times. It has moved across oceans with me despite its weight. It’s my book for inspiration, for making me feel good, for dreaming about other place, for deciding where I want to go to on vacation, and for looking up capitals of the world if I need to win a bet and want to outsmart Google.

Bikram’s Beginning Yoga Class – Bikram Choudhoury

A must for a teacher, but also a really great for an avid Bikram practitioner. It is equal parts posture clinic and a really good read. The man is crazy, but really funny.

Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone – J.K. Rawling

An ex-lover gave it to me as a farewell gift when I left for New York. Call me silly sentimental, but I felt very connected with Harry as we were both thrown into new worlds that were a bit scary, but where we ultimately belonged.

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet – Reif Larsen

I smiled throughout the whole book and I still smile whenever I make corn on the cob. It is just.so.freaking.awesome.

The Brothers Lionheart – Astrid Lindgren

My favourite childhood adventure ever. Dragons, evil rulers,  revolution and cherry blossoms.

Why Do You Kill?: The Untold Story of the Iraqi Resistance - Jürgen Todenhöfer  

& A Mighty Heart – Mariane Pearl

I’d put these two together, because to me they both tragic yet wonderful stories that illustrate human compassion, tolerance and forgiveness as qualities above all else to make the world a better place.

The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern

Made me want to run away and join the circus for real. Ever since I have been bugging her on Twitter to finally write another book – she is brilliant.

The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty - Anne Rice writing as A.N. Roquelaure

Not sure why Amazon compares it to 50 Shades of Grey in their review, because it was there first and it’s a BDSM novel done right. And yes, it does live on my nightstand.

The Alexandria Quartet – Lawrence Durrell

I have tried and failed many times to get into it. For some reason I think I must try again, because something tells me I’ll love it and it will be a favourite.

For full disclosure and here comes the part you can judge me for: I love all historic novels by Ken Follet and Rebecca Gablé. Tough thanks to the latter I will also kick your butt at pub quiz when the topic of War of the Roses ever comes up.

Book tripping.

I’m not doing very well with my to-do lists these days. My chalkboard looks still quite empty after Friday in terms of checks, except for the be-kind-checks, which wasn’t so hard as I didn’t leave the house much over the weekend and when I teach, yelling at people is not not kind, it’s called motivating thus doesn’t go against getting a check for being kind. The good excuses I have are two fold – I have been feeling crappy as in not quite sick, but definitely not well. Therefore I did little writing, okay, well, no writing and no French except for this one episode of Lost I watched when a bunch of dead French people arrive on the island and I was trying to understand them without subtitles. But we know that in all honesty that doesn’t really equal a check on the board for French learning. My lack of yoga was due to my body feeling like a robot all weekend and me rather teaching instead of practising. Yes, yes, I know…excuses, excuses.
I decided since my success rate with lists is so bad right now, I wouldn’t even attempt to do one for Morocco. I have my vaccinations, passport, and ticket and everything else can sort itself out. Jaa, right. Okay, ask me again next week, but for now the only list I have made for the trip is called:

 Books to load on Kindle.*

Yes, I caved. Usually my favourite part of any given trip is buying books for the road. Once I have them I keep them locked away so I don’t read them before the travel begins. Depending on how excited I am for the books that may or may not work and sometimes I have to buy more last minute. Airport book buys are not uncommon either and especially pleasant because money spent at airports doesn’t really count as we all know.

This time around though I realized upon reading my trip notes that in addition to the usual flight time, waiting time, before bed time, and tanning on the beach time there will be lots of being on a bus/car/camel time. I am not physically strong enough to carry all the books I could possibly read in this time and yes, that includes the fact that I don’t really plan on reading while riding a camel (but can you imagine?!). The idea of being stuck on a bus for hours with nothing to read really scares me. Multiply this by approximately 10 rides (and by rides I now mean bus or car not camel!) which I will be taking to get around Morocco and the horror is so great I don’t even want to go anymore.
And that is why I caved and bought a Kindle.

It’s coming today or so I pray to the shipping gods. By now I am so excited, I feel like someone locked me in a library and threw away the key. Maybe I should throw away my credit card rather quickly as my list of Books to load on Kindle so far is getting a tiny bit long/out of hand. Though while writing this I did some more research and now I just quickly need to add one more to the list: Lonely Planet Morocco! For the Kindle! Oh the excitement!!

Picture to follow upon arrival. I think it’s pretty pretty.

*I don’t even know if that name is appropriate – are they still called books when on a Kindle? What is the correct terminology? Can someone fill me in please?!

Rainbow coloured bookworm.

I don't think me and my life are very colour coordinated. My favourite is to wear black and navy together and I think that would piss off serious colourists. I guess I can put on a snotty face though and say I know better because of my time with Italian Vogue. Or I can just not care.
Lately I have been seeing lots of interior magazines though showing people's bookcases which have been colour coordinated. To me that is just as good a way of organizing your books as any other and it definitely looks prettiest. Mind you, most of these people have bookcases big like the entire Hogwarts library, but I just thought to myself – why not me too?
The whole plan was further inspired by Julia and our nightly trip to steal a ladder in Berlin. Sorry, I am not allowed to write this as we didn't steal it. We just took it with us as it was lying on the street and did not seem to have an owner, unless you think the neat pile of bricks next to it would indicate otherwise. Though I wholeheartedly agree with Julia, if you don't tie your things down in a city like Berlin, it is kind of your own fault if your ladder gets stolen in the middle of the night by two slightly tipsy girls on heels.
She wanted the ladder to use as a bookshelf. I should add that it was a beautiful, old, shabby ladder – very vintage chic. A few weeks later I got an email from her with a picture of the ladder/bookshelf. To make it look neater she had also covered all her books in uni-colour wrapping paper and re-labelled them in neat handwriting. I was quite impressed. I think last time I actually covered a book in paper, I was in primary school and one would get a lower mark if having uncovered school books. Also, I tend not to have the patience for projects like this (one mirror from the DIY project is still unpainted on the floor under the table; my attention span for stuff like this is just short). I did however have the patience to do this:

I think I got lucky that my local book collection isn't big yet and it took me all of 7.5 minutes. Otherwise more floor space might be occupied by books now. Now...someone please call ELLE Decor!

The land before time.

Last August in New York I went to the Museum of Natural History. It was amazing. I have a tendency to sneak up to guided tours and listen in, so that way I learned all about the fossilized dinosaur eggs and I got to touch them too. I like dinosaurs lots and I do one day want to own a Night Fury. I think it’s Jacob’s doing. In case you don’t know, my little nephew Jakob has a slight obsession with dinosaurs and even when he was only 4 years old he could tell you exactly the difference between a dinosaur and a dragon and would tell you off if you mixed them up. So no surprise that he was very happy when I got him a walking and roaring dinosaur, one of those presents parents will never buy for their own kids. I’m surely going to be paid back for it in singing toy ponies once I have a child.
When carnival came along a few years ago Jacob to everybody’s surprise decided not to be Jack Sparrow, but a T-Rex. Actually that might not be accurate, but is the only dinosaur I can think of and spell. Xenia bought some fancy felt fabric and sewed him an outfit, which of course ended in tears because last minute he wanted to be some other kind of dinosaur and now the fabric wasn’t the right kind.
I was overjoyed when I found cameras at the museum that film you and you can send a video message to people via email. The best part of it? It puts you in a New York taxi which is being chased by a T-Rex. Unfortunately I don’t have the email anymore otherwise I would have posted it here. I think I looked quite heroic in the eyes of such danger. And my imaginary cabbie was cool too.
My most exciting part however was a stint at the South Sea exhibit all put together by the late Margaret Mead, cultural anthropologist. In addition to articles by her and things she had collected, they also showed films about her life and I became utterly fascinated. So fascinated that back in Cape Town I decided I had to read her autobiography. Only problem was, it had been out of print for years. I started my research and finally located it at Strand in NYC, sent Gladys the details and was now apparently responsible for my poor pregnant friend to walk all over town in the snow heaps to get my book. Not only that, but she had to climb up a ladder to get to it once there.
Though she gave it to me when she was here in February, I hadn’t yet opened it. It had just been lying on my ‘to read’ pile of books. I think sometimes I feel anxious to actually open a book that I have so looked forward to as it may just disappoint.

This Saturday I decided it was time, so I took my iced coffee and Blackberry Winter out on the balcony just to fall in love with it: To read someone describing home away from home for the first time exactly how I felt about it all my life was mesmerizing. How it doesn’t matter how long you spend in a place, but what you make of it and who you meet. Her notion of how you always take certain things with you that instantly make you feel home. I too, have the oddest assortment of things, useful and not, that I have been dragging around with me for years. Just to make home away from home...Will take some pictures tonight and show you tomorrow. I might also tell you the story of the home I shared with the little bellboy whom I watched gymnastics at the summer Olympics with. Or write about his flatmate who wrote his emails while wearing a black g-string. All for the sake of anthropoligical research of course.

Bookish revelations.

I have been lazy and glued to my DVD player instead of writing. I had an Easter story all planned and half written, but since it is already too late now I will just publish it in a few days. Maybe.

Today in preparation for my op on Thursday and to celebrate payday I went to my favorite bookstore. I could not bare the idea of being at hospital alone with Murakami who I have been fighting with for over a month now.

You may not know this about me, but I love reading. No big deal, because apparently everybody in this blogging world loves reading and can’t wait to finish their first novel overlooking some hills in Tuscany. I don’t think I’m one of them. I haven’t read a lot of classics or literary gems and most of the ones I did read, I didn’t like. I bought The Great Gatsby today, because I read that they are doing another movie on it. I was surprised by how small it was. For some reason I pictured an 800 pager. There my knowledge about the classics in a nutshell.

My taste in books might be considered common. I do read girly books and I own all of Harry Potter and I thought that Orhan Pamuk is not a nice read. Believe me I have tried. No, I’m not one of them and I don’t want to publish a book, I just want to read and bookstores are my happy place. Other girls buy shoes or chocolate when unhappy or in need of cheering up, I buy books. Nothing gives me more of a thrill than browsing, reading the first pages, discovering that a previously liked author has written another book.

The thing I always hated most when I moved and had to leave things behind was leaving books behind. I have also made a lot of movers very unhappy as I still haven’t learned to follow my mother’s advise to not pack the book boxes to the brim.

To sum it up and because I do like the lists and this was supposed to be a quick, before-bedtime-reading-post:

1. I sometimes do not buy books if they don’t have enough pages. I hate the idea of liking it and then there is just not enough of it.
2. I have read some of my favorite novels about 15 times.
3. I gained more historic knowledge about the War of the Roses through novels than through school.
4. I made my pregnant friend run all over New York to find an out of print copy of Margaret Mead’s Blackberry Winter for me.
5. I did at times choose reading over sex. Still do.
6. I dream of being locked up in a bookstore overnight.
7. The only public place I would fancy sex in is in a beautiful, old library against one of those sliding ladders.
8. I had an embossing stamp with my name made to stamp my books, only to realize that it tears the pages.
9. I will never own a Kindle, because I like to put bends in the corner of the page when I read something I really like.
10.  I get scared thinking about the fact that even if I tried, I could never read every book ever written before I die. 

Now go, turn your computer off and read a book. For me. And for you.