Spørsmål om bøker og lesevaner

Funnet hos Julie.

Hvor leser du helst?
På sofaen, men ellers der jeg har tid; på bussen, på bussholdeplassen, på venterom, på toget, på flyplassen, på fly, på kafé osv.

Hvilke sjangre leser du helst?
Skjønnlitteratur av de fleste slag og populærvitenskapelig faglitteratur om det meste, samt reisebeskrivelser. Jeg er ganske altetende.

… og hvilke sjangre styrer du unna?
Jeg leser langt mindre chicklit enn jeg engang gjorde, den mistet en viktig funksjon når jeg (endelig) traff «den rette». Nå må det være forfattere jeg allerede vet jeg liker og som har fler strenger å spille på enn girl-meets-boy eller bøker som er svært vektig anbefalt for at jeg skal gi meg på den sjangeren.

Har du oversikt over hvor mange bøker du eier akkurat nå?
Kort svar: Nei. Jeg har tenkt å gjøre en innsats for å oppdatere bokdatabasen (selv om jeg vurderer å konvertere til excel for å forenkle), sist den ble oppdatert nogenlunde skikkelig var ved flytting i 2005 og da tok jeg ikke med mannens bøker. På det tidspunktet hadde jeg nesten 5000. Jeg tipper vi har fler nå…

Nevn de fem siste bøkene du leste:
1. The Ionian Mission – Patrick O’Brian (og de 7 bøkene som kommer før den i serien, hopper over dem siden listen ellers blir svært kjedelig)
2. One of Our Thursdays is Missing – Jasper Fforde
3. The Bridge of Sighs – Richard Russo
4. That Old Cape Magic – Richard Russo
5. At Home – Bill Bryson

Nevn fem bøker du har i hylla, som du kjøpte (eller lånte) med store planer om å lese, men som har blitt stående fordi det aldri passer seg sånn:
Dem er det mange av. Ikke at det plager meg nevneverdig, da er det jo alltids noe å lese 🙂 Akkurat nå er det et par ting som står på vent på grunn av den godeste Patrick som jeg gleder meg til å sette i gang med (men når jeg kommer så langt har det kanskje dukket opp noe annet som må leses først):
1. The Last Dragonslayer – Jasper Fforde
2. A. A. Milne – Thomas Burnett Swann
3. Hodejegerne – Jo Nesbø
4. The Gum Thief – Douglas Coupland
5. The Undercover Economist – Tim Harford

Hvilken bok eller bøker har skuffet deg mest?
Det er sjelden jeg blir skikkelig skuffet over bøker, som regel fordi jeg har mest forventninger til de som er skrevet av forfattere jeg stort sett liker all produksjonen til. Men ett eksempel er Robin Hobbs Soldier’s Son trilogi. Den er ikke dårlig, men den er langt mindre sjelsettende fantastisk enn de tidligere trilogiene hennes, så jeg var ganske skuffet over den.

… og hvilken bok eller bøker har du blitt mest positivt overrasket over?
Jeg blir alltid positiv overrasket når jeg leser en bok av en (for meg) ny forfatter som jeg ELSKER. Det nyligste eksemplet jeg kommer på akkurat nå er Never Let Me Go av Kazuo Ishiguro.

Hva synes du om folk som både skriver, skribler og bretter eselører i bøkene sine?
Jeg skriver i bøkene mine når jeg føler behov for det uten det aller minste snev av dårlig samvittighet. Eselører, derimot, prøver jeg å unngå, med mindre det er tvingende nødvendig.

Er det viktig for deg å eie bøkene du leser?
Vel, viktig? Jeg liker å kunne ha dem i hylla på ubestemt tid, så biblioteket har jeg gitt opp litt (en annen ting er at biblioteket her har så få av bøkene jeg vil lese). Jeg er også svært glad i å lese bøker om igjen, og da er det selvsagt praktisk å eie dem. Men jeg bruker jo bookcrossing aktivt, både for å finne bøker jeg vil lese og for å kvitte meg med bøker jeg er ferdig med, så sånn sett er det ikke viktig å eie den boka jeg på ethvert tidspunkt leser. Men liker jeg en bok godt nok vil jeg ha den på hylla, og da er det viktig nok.

Skal smussomslaget på den innbundne boken være på eller av?
På. Men det skal tas av mens man leser boken.

… og hvor viktig er det at boken har et fint omslag?
Lite viktig i forhold til om jeg leser (eller kjøper) en bok, men selvsagt er det større sjanse for at jeg plukker opp en bok i bokhandelen for å lese vaskeseddelen dersom utseende appelerer. Er det fler utgaver av samme bok tilgjengelig kjøper jeg selvsagt den jeg liker utseendet på best (med mindre den andre er en førsteutgave). Og det hender en sjelden gang at jeg kjøper bøker mest på grunn av utseendet.

Kan du kose deg med sakprosa (faglitteratur, dokumentarer, biografier osv) på samme måte som du koser deg med skjønnlitteratur?
Ja, godt skrevne sakprosabøker har det ingen problemer å kose meg med. At Home av Bill Bryson er det siste eksempelet på det, den ble regelrett slukt.

Har du noen gang opplevd at filmatiseringen av en bok har blitt bedre enn boka?
Svært sjelden. Jeg vil helst lese boka før jeg ser filmen, og som regel er filmen enten en skuffelse eller i beste fall «nesten like bra som boka!» Men Ringenes Herre synes jeg er bedre som film(er), faktisk.

Hva skal til for at du avbryter en bok?
Det er sjelden noe konkret, og det er ikke så ofte jeg avbryter bøker med vilje, som regel er det mer det at jeg har lagt den fra meg og av en eller annen grunn har jeg ikke plukket den opp igjen ennå. Jeg kan komme på to eksempler på bøker jeg med vilje har avbrutt. Den ene er Sorting Out Billy av Jo Brand, den synes jeg var så fryktelig at jeg ikke kom lenger enn til side 50 eller så. Synd, for Jo Brand er en kul dame. Den andre er Lessons from the Land of Pork Scratchings av Greg Gutfeld som jeg hadde tenkt å skrive en skikkelig anmeldelse av, men jeg har ikke opparbeidet energi ennå. Den var så forferdelig at jeg for første gang i mitt liv vurderte bokbål.

Hva var den forrige boka du gav bort i gave?
Det er sørgelig sjelden jeg gir bøker i gave til andre enn ungen. Den siste hen fikk var vel Revehiet Barnehage: Oisann, kjøpt på slutten av Mammutsalget og glemt i en pose. Ellers pleier jeg å prøve å finne bøker både til pappa, svigerfar, bruttern og et par venninner når det er gaveanledninger, men jeg kan ikke huske hva den siste voksenboksenboka jeg gav bort er.

… og hva var den forrige boka du fikk i gave?
Nesten like vanskelig… Jeg fikk Pride & Prejudice and Zombies, Sense & Sensibility and Sea Monsters og Torbjørn Ferøviks India til jul, det var kanskje sist jeg fikk bøker?

Finnes det noen bøker du er flau over å ha lest eller likt?
Nei, ikke egentlig. Det er en del bøker jeg leste som tenåring som jeg kanskje ikke ville lest offentlig i dag (vel, ok, jeg ville overhodet IKKE lest dem i dag), men jeg synes det må være lov å ha vært ung og dum…

… og finnes det bøker du er flau over å ikke ha lest eller likt?
Jeg klarer ikke å bli veldig flau over ikke å ha likt bøker, men jeg blir definitivt litt beskjemmet hver gang Bjørneboe dukker opp i samtaler med bruttern, siden jeg VIRKELIG burde ha kommet meg til å lese Bestialitetens historie. Om ikke annet så for å kunne fortelle ham at det er et makkverk (om det nå skulle vise seg at jeg mener det, jeg aner ikke, jeg har jo ikke lest den).

Ja eller nei til e-bøker?
De er greie til sitt bruk, og jeg har en ebokleser på ønskelisten, men jeg ser ikke for meg at det kommer til å erstatte ordentlige bøker for min del. Om ikke annet: Hva skal man gjøre under takeoff og landing når alle elektroniske dingsebomser må skrus av?

More bookshelves

I neglected to link to Bookshelf Porn in the previous entries. How remiss of me.

After asking to see more bookshelves on bokelskere.no, I was directed to Kasiopeiia’s blog and her entry on bookshelves, Julies bokbabbels entry on bookshelves and Lena on Les mye’s entry on bookshelves. And three new blogs for the rss-feed, too! Not to be sneezed at.

And I also remembered that Trine of Gult hus i svingen shared pictures of their purpose built bookshelves a while ago.

Bookshelves

So, I promised pictures, no?

The Billys in the living room
The Billys in the living room

To the left are two Bennos containing dvds, mostly children’s since that’s what we need to have readily available. What precicely we’re going to do with the rest of our dvd collection we have not decided. taking up space in the Billys are our stereo and our cd collection. At some point I suppose we’ll go all digital, in the meantime they need to stay.

You’ll notice some books are just stuffed in whereever, this will probably not be rectified until we get shelves on that wall you can see on the right there.

Austenania, biographies and whisky books
Robin Hood, Austenania, biographies and whisky books

And at the bottom, a somewhat miscellaneous bunch.

At the top: Milne
At the top: Milne

Below that books-about-books and Wildeania. A few collected works (Hamsun, Kielland and Fønhus among the old editions, those purple ones on the right there are Bjørneboe). And at the very bottom, two ineffectively used shelves, one containing a humidor, the other an old wine box with who knows what inside. And at the front Bjerke’s Moro-vers is resting on top of another pile of books I couldn’t quite find room for…

The row of Bestå along the other wall
The row of Bestå along the other wall

The husband remembered the name of the shallower bookcases: Bestå. With Innreda extra shelves (they only come with four each, which is ridiculous). Five 60 cm wide and one 30 cm wide to fill the wall as near as possible.

Sci-fi on the right, novels on the left, poetry in the top middle.
Sci-fi on the right, novels on the left, poetry in the top middle.

On top of the shelves my collection of Gerald Durrell’s books, a few by Håkon Mielche, more books-about-books, and a couple of collections of letters or diaries.

Mostly travelogues
Mostly travelogues

And the travelogues need sorting, I see. So does the non-fiction below. On top are some to-be-reads, they need a better place, but for now, this is where they live.

Sci-fi
A slightly closer look at the Sci-fi/fantasy

Though the bookcase on the left has allsorts – poetry at top, then Harry Potter (one of our sets, the others(!) have not emerged from boxes yet), then Jean M. Auel, then Jasper Fforde sharing with Bing & Bringsværd, then a few odd paperbacks then fairy tales in editions too tall for this particular shelf and lastly, at the bottom, mostly Baroness Orczy’s Scarlet Pimpernel books…

My kind of logic
My kind of logic

Sayers and Wodehouse go well together, don’t you think? McCall Smith is partnerless as of yet as I suspect he’ll need more room, what with being so prolific (you may have noticed some hardbacks a bit earlier on). Kate Atkinson and Richard Russo go well together in my head, Marian Keyes just happened to fit – specewise – in the middle there. Though I guess I should move her down, she’d sit better with L. M. Montgomery and Helen Fielding, methinks.

I may add some more pictures once we’ve got all the boxes opened and sorted.

Now you’ve seen mine, will you show me yours?

Inspired

Mihoe mentioned on Twitter (@Mihoe) that she’d blogged about her bookcases – or rather about the organising of same – which made me add another blog to Google Reader, but that’s by the by. The point is we’re in the middle of getting all our books up on shelves ourselves at the moment, so, naturally, the theme is one close to my heart. In a follow-up post Mihoe provides some useful links, amongst others a link to a post I’d already seen on Bokdama’s blog (since that was already in my Reader).

So how have we organised our shelves? Well, not alphabetically. I tried that once and quite apart from the problem of suddenly needing to move all books after A because I’d aquired a new one by Paul Auster, I found I disliked the extreme mix of sizes this led to, both from an esthetic and a practical point of view. Esthetically I find it more pleasing if most of the books on a certain shelf are of much the same height, practically I have had more books than I strictly have room for ever since I moved out of my parents’ house close on twenty years ago, and so I favour a system that lets me keep books of much the same height together.

Our current setup consists of four Billy bookcases along one wall in the living room and uhm, five pluss one bookcases also from IKEA but that I fail to remember the name of (chosen because they are shallower and so take up less room) along this wall which runs from the living room into the kitchen/dining area. There’s also this Billy bookcase in the guest/hobby room which contains comics and two 60 cm wide Billys in the lass’ room containing some of our children’s books. I’ll grab some pictures of the bookcases with actual books in them later and show you, but for now, here’s the general system:

In the living room we keep the hardbacks, mostly novels and biography, some larger size books on art, photography or nature, and my collections of Austenania, Wildeania and Milneania. Oh and some collectible children’s books. The latter categories are shelved together, as are the biographies, loosely sorted into literary and non-literary. The novels are sorted by author where possible (if we have editions of widely varying sizes author groupings may be split), and authors that are similar (in my mind) are shelved together, if possible.

Along the other wall we have mostly paperbacks, though some hardbacks have crept in. Travelogues and non-fiction are grouped (by theme/geographical area and by author where relevant) to the left, science fiction and fantasy are mostly kept to the right, sorted by size and/or author. Novels are in the middle and are organised to a certain extent;  I’ve attempted to keep books by the same author together (size comes into it again) and authors are grouped according to a logic which probably makes sense to nobody but me, a combination of how well I like their work and perceived similarities of style, theme, genre or geography.

We’ve not finished unpacking all books, and so there are gaps – on the shelves and in the system. In terms of physical gaps they are nowhere near wide enough and we’ve accepted the fact that we’ll have to add bookshelves along the «spare» wall in the living room (behind the sofa) as well if we’re to have any hope of housing everything.

En smakebit på søndag #1

fortuneWell, ok, Tuesday. As challenged by Mari at Flukten fra virkeligheten – and on bokelskere.no – here is a quote from my current read, The Fortune of War by Patrick O’Brian:

Though they liked the notion of prize-money, they could not see much sense in fighting the Americans: there were half a dozen Americans aboard at this moment, and they were practically the same as Englishmen – no airs or graces about them – and you could not say fairer than that. Fighting the French was different; they were foreigners, and somehow it came natural.

Yes, I’m at it again. So now you know what I’m reading this month or so.

Another roundup

Not to be avoided, obviously.

The Great Western Beach by Emma Smith – charming.

The Rune Blade Trilogy by Ann Marston, consisting of The Kingmaker’s Sword, The Western King and Broken Blade. Engaging, well worth the time. My one gripe, if you can call it that, was that I’d have preferred to stay with the same protagonist throughout the trilogy. But I suppose that’s more of a «the books were too short» kind of complaint, which isn’t neccessarily a bad thing. Picked up the whole set as bookcrossing copies and have been meaning to release them, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. Must see about picking up further books from Marston.

One of our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde. A delight as usual, even more twisted than its predecessors, though I’d hardly have though that possible.

At Home by Bill Bryson. If anyone can tip me off about other authors who are as good at collecting, organising and relating anecdotes as Bill Bryson, please, please do.

That Old Cape Magic and The Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo. Both quite magical in a very everyday, humdrum sort of way, if that makes any sense. Confirms Russo, again, as one of my all-time favourite authors.

And that’s mostly what I read during the holidays. Now, what did I read between March and July I wonder? Think, think, think.

———-

Update number 1: Well, of course, I reread the whole series that will not be named. That took a couple of days.

Update number 2: The School at the Chalet by Elinor Brent-Dyer. I’ve never read any of the Chalet School books before, and found this copy by chance so thought I’d try it. It’s niceish. I’ll probably buy more from the series if I come across them second-hand, but I doubt I can be bothered to search very hard.

Update numer 3: Karin Lindell, better known as Ketchupmamman, of course. I even registered it on Bookcrossing before passing it on. Her blog is hilarious at times and thought-provoking at times, which is a good mix. The book follows along the same lines, and is highly reccommended as a present for any new parents.

Started Early, Took My Dog – Kate Atkinson

atkinson_startedearlyHaving gotten my hands on Started Early, Took My Dog, I obviously had to start it as soon as possible.

Jackson Brodie gets himself mixed up, yet again, with a lot more old history than he had bargained for. This time missing children is the variation of the recurring theme. A far cry from archetypal crime, Atkinson is firmly rooted in tradition, but runs circles round most of her fellow crime writers.

For one thing, she produces passages such as this: «Schrödinger, whoever he was, and his cat, and anyone else that felt like it, had all clambered inside Pandora’s box and were dining on a can of worms. Jackson felt the beginnings of a headache, another one, on top of the one he already had.»

I’m already waiting for her next book.

The Worst Date Ever – Jane Bussmann

bussmann

We meet Jane Bussmann in Hollywood where, having failed at making it as a comedy writer, she is making a living interviewing – or making up interviews with – celebrities. Not feeling like this was, perhaps, just where her career ought to have taken her, she sets out to do something more meaningful in the best way she can, by finding a celebrity that’s doing something worthwhile. That he is also drop-dead gorgeus does not strike her as a drawback, hence the title. Through a series of events Bussmann finds herself in Uganda, without her interviewee, and starts doing her own research while waiting for him to show up. What she finds is that the drawn out conflict between the government of Uganda, headed by Museveni – regarded by «the west» as one of the Good Guys – and the rebel Kony, leading an army consisting mostly of kidnapped children, was not being carried out in such a straightforward manner as one might think, and that who was actually on which side seemed less clear the more people you talked to.

Now, finding that a conflict in an African country is not straight forward, finding that a conflict anywhere at all is not straight forward, is hardly surprising. However, Bussmann manages to narrate her investigation in such a way that you do feel personally involved, which is a good thing.

And along the way she does manage to convey the insanity of conflicts such as these and some of the plain idiocy you can be met with from those who are supposed to know better. Of the latter, here is an example:

Rebecca had had her retirement plans shelved by AIDS. I could be wrong, but I’d read that the man George Bush put in charge of foreign aid had the chance to make AIDS drugs affordable in Africa. However, the unfortunately named Andrew Natsios said it would have been irresponsible, because these drugs need to be taken at the same time every day. He really did mean Africans couldn’t tell the time.

All in all, though, it left me feeling a little… deflated? Not that I expected Bussmann to somehow, singlehandedly, solve all the political problems in Africa. That, I guess, would be an unfair expectation. However I guess I did expect… something. Something more than the book provides, anyway. Because whereas, to all intents and purposes, The Other Hand – a book still fresh in my memory – ends in disaster, it still manages to be life-affirming, and The Worst Date Ever ends on a bit of a «Meh».

The Tent, the Bucket and Me – Emma Kennedy

kennedy_tentThe Tent, the Bucket and Me was an obvious buy when I found it in London a year and a half ago. For some reason it’s been languishing on a shelf since then, until it grabbed my attention when I was looking for a book to bring on the aforementioned long weekend in Dublin. It turned out to be a good and a bad choice.

Good because it is cracking. Really. Read this book, especially if you’ve ever been dragged along on a camping trip as a child.

Bad because, well, it’s cracking. It cracked me up. Repeatedly. On public transport.

Luckily, I don’t really mind laughing out loud on public transport. Lately, though, I haven’t been reading too many books that were literally laugh out loud funny. I’ve read a few that claimed to be so on the cover but weren’t. So I was a bit out of practice. Not complaning, though. Far from it.

A long weekend in Dublin

That’s what we had last weekend. And, obviously, a few books came home with us.

From the Oxfam Bookshop:

  • No Worries – Mark McCrum (2€)
  • Great Bus Journeys of the World – Alexei Sayle and David Stafford (2€)
  • Travels with my Radio – Fi Glover (4€)
  • Just As Well I’m Leaving – Michael Booth (5€)

From Eason:

  • Started Early, Took My Dog – Kate Atkinson
  • The Brightest Star in the Sky – Marian Keyes
  • Eating Animals – Jonathan Safran Foer
  • Germania – Simon Winder

From an outdoor book market:

  • Memoir – John McGahern (4€)
  • A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole (4€)
  • The School at the Chalet – Elinor M. Brent-Dyer (4€)

From Pocketshop at Arlanda on the way back:

  • The Worst Date Ever – Jane Bussmann