“The Book Thief” Left Me Speechless

I finished reading “The Book Thief” this afternoon, on the train back from Munich and for the rest of the journey I thought about how to adequately review it. But I just couldn’t think of anything I could say that would do this masterpiece justice. I’m still stunned by it’s brilliance. I think the key element was the narrative, but of course the story was heartbreaking in itself. I really have no idea how to express on how many levels and in how many ways this novel impressed and moved me. This acclaim from the “Guardian” sums it up pretty well:

“Unsettling, thought-provoking, life affirming, triumphant and tragic, this is a novel of breathtaking scope, masterfully told. An important piece of work, but also a wonderful page-turner.”

The Art of Procrastination

Probably everybody does it every once in a while. Spend time with all kinds of activities instead of doing the one thing that should be done. Like working on termpaper, which is due at the beginning of November. And/or work on other school stuff, which has to be done sooner or later. The funny thing is, once I actually can get myself to work on this termpaper, I actually enjoy doing so. Well, as much as you can “enjoy” working on school stuff :-) If it just weren’t so difficult to actually get started. There are just too many much more entertaining and distracting ways to spend my time before or even during I work on the paper.

Things like…

Trying to deal with Jamie Fraser withdrawal

“I feel… empty”

I couldn’t help myself to start this post with this Grey’s Anatomy quote from early season 2 :-) I’m a nerd that way, that I perfectly remember some dialogues, which probably has something to do with watching the episodes or favourite moments of it multiple times. But this line just came to my mind, when I thought how to write about the strange feeling I woke up to this morning. And no, it has nothing to do with being sick and throwing up *g*. Just with having said goodbye to some very lovely people, who I spent most of my spare time with during the last few days. Yes, I’ve finished reading “An Echo in the Bone” late last night, very late last night. Early this morning to be exact. I just couldn’t put it down and go to sleep not knowing what’s going to happen to the Frasers. And the MacKenzies. And of course Lord John and William Ransom. And now I know, or at least I know parts of it, because of course there were some cliffhangers and in fact I don’t know anything at all really. Which sucks a little. But I guess that’s the price you have to pay when you let yourself get sucked into this fictional world and get so so attached to all these wonderful characters.

This 7th novel of the Outlander series was just published last week so I’ll try to now give anything away and to not spoil anyone’s pleasure of reading it. Because it has been a tremendous pleasure. I know I’ve said it before, when I have spent almost two months this summer reading the first six novels in a row. But I really have to express my deepest thanks to Diana Gabaldon for creating these characters and to make them so loveable, that I couldn’t help but fall in love with them and care about their fate. Gabaldon has a wonderful way with words and she made these broad range of various characters with their different ways of living and their sense of honor and morality come alive, which is really fascinating.

Can’t think of a decent headline for this…

I had the most relaxing vacation last week. And now just a couple of days after I got back home to my ordinary life I’m wanting to leave again, because my life is so boring and… well, unexciting. So was my vacation, but at least I relocated for that and I spend time in other surroundings and all that. One of the reasons I will take a break from the project365 for a while is that I feel that my every day life is restricted to this small and restricted part of the world, which is the same every day. The same places, the same roads, the same shops, the same just everything. I know it’s up to me to change that. To change my routine at least during my spare time. To go and visit different places. To just go and DO stuff. With all the election campaigning going on for the last few months and keeping me insanely busy I obviously forgot how to do other stuff. But there are so many things to do and places to visit, if just for an afternoon. I really should get off my lazy bum and do just that. I hopefully will on the weekend.  At least I’m planning to.

I still have to pick up working on my termpaper again. I got a good start during my vacation, but then there was the campaign and the election and having a hard time to come to terms with the outcome. And of course there also was work. And some other stuff like music and books and… :-)

List of Unread Books

I included this list in a post in May, but it was at the bottom of a longer post, so I thought I’d better make a seperate post to use as a reference on the “I’ve read” page. [G/E] indicates the language and it’s interesting to see that most of the books are in English. I don’t know if I actually buy more English books or if I just read the German ones earlier. The last purchased on on top, the one at the bottom was purchased in 2004 :-)

The Outlandish Companion – Diana Gabaldon, 1999 [E]
Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blades - Diana Gabaldon, 2007 [E]
Lord John and the Hand of Devils - Diana Gabaldon, 2007 [E]
Die Bastardin – Juliane Korelski, 2009 [G]
The Film Club – David Gilmour 2007 [E]
Bad Monkeys – Matt Ruff, 2007 [E]
The Post-Birthday World - Lionel Shriver, 2008 [E]
The Autograph Man - Zadie Smith, 2002 [E]
Hot, Flat and Crowded - Thomas L. Friedman, 2008 [E]
Der Nobelpreis - Andreas Eschbach, 2005 [G]
Confessions of an Eco Sinner - Fred Pearce, 2008 [E]
Dreams from My Father - Barack Obama, 2004 [E]
Was glaubst denn du? – Andrea Fischer, 2008 [G]
The Book Thief – Markus Zusak, 2007 [E]
The Princess Bride - William Goldman, 1973 [E]
Drachenläufer – Kahled Hosseini, 2003 [G]
Der Geschmack von Apfelkernen - Katharina Hagena, 2008 [G]
Deja Dead - Kathy Reichs, 1998 [E]
What Came Before He Shot Her - Elizabeth George, 2007 [E]
The Eyre Affair - Jasper Forte, 2001 [E]
The History of Love - Nicole Krauss, 2005 [E]
Tea-Bag – Henning Mankell, 2005 [G]
Angela’s Ashes - Frank McCourt, 1996 [E]
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell - Susanna Clarke, 2004 [G]
Die Kapuzinergruft - Joseph Roth, 1967 [G]
Drehen Sie sich um, Frau Lot! - Ephraim Kishon, 1980 [G]
Die Tote im Götakanal – Sjöwall/Wahlöö, 1968 [G]
David Copperfield – Charles Dickens, 1850 [E]
Das Mädchen - Stephan King, 1999 [G]
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde, 1891 [E]

I miss the Fraser & MacKenzie Clan

55 days ago – on the train to Bruxelles on my way to my summer vacation – I started reading “Outlander”. Until I finished reading book 6 yesterday afternoon I carried one of the books of the Outlander series in my bag everyday and wherever I went. London, Glasgow, Highlands, Edinburgh and as well here back home in Germany. I spent most of my spare time (which was rare to begin with) reading about Jamie & Claire, Bree & Roger, Fergus & Marsali, Ian, Germain, Jemmy and all the other members of the Fraser McKenzie Clan.

Sometimes – and during the last two or three books more often then at the beginning of the story – I rolled my eyes about some of the sub-plots. I was a bit bored by some of the detours Diana Gabaldon took in telling her story. What bothered me the most – of the things that bothered me at all – was that quite often I had the impression, that she hadn’t thought the plot through in advance. The last book contains an interview with her and she kind of admits to starting to write and see where it takes her. At least that explained to me how some of the “facts” which were carefully constructed in earlier parts of the story where later dropped with a rather plain and quite often not believable explanation. Like why there were these two gravestones in that Scottish churchyard.
There are a few more things I could criticize more detailed, but I feel like I’m not really entitled to that, because I couldn’t put any of the books down after all. So Diana Gabaldon must have done something right. And she did with creating these characters and with making me care about them so much, that I was moved to tears on a few occasions.

Book 7 will be released (as hardcover) on 22nd September which is much less than 55 days ahead. And from what I’ve read so far about book 7 (at Amazon etc) it’s going to be a lot like book 2, which I liked a lot. I might be on vacation that week and I am already trying to figure out how to get the book that day anyway. I already checked for bookstores which might sell English books near my vacation spot and it doesn’t look good. I might have to order it from Amazon and spend the day at home in the cottage to make sure the postman can actually delivers it to me :-)

And it really feels weird to not be able to escape into this world of fiction when I have a few moments to spare and want to relax ore when I just want to escape the real world. But on the other hand I might finally be able to catch up with season 5 of “The West Wing”. And I also started reading Krista Vernoff’s “The Game On! Diet” Book and I really enjoy it because it’s not just informative but also very very entertaining. I’m determined to play that game as soon as possible and I hope I’ll find a nice team among the Grey’s fans / Gameondieters community on twitter. Or is there anyone among my readers here is up for that challenge as well and might want to team up with me.

Project365, Week 06: Books

Somehow it was kind of difficult to me to take some decent photos for this themes. I thought it might be easier, but… I don’t know. For next week I’m going to choose “Time” and I hope this will inspire me a bit more…

My List of Unread Books

Instead of writing the Grey’s review, which I know would take me more than an hour, I decided to put together the list of all the unread books on my shelf. Lined up on the shelf and where there wasn’t enough space to line up, there are a couple of stacks. Since yesterday I’m officially out of shelfspace and really have to consider to buy another bookshelf, even though I have no idea how to put it. Until then I probably can use part of the only half filled DVD rack. I usually note the date of purchase on the first page of the book, for my own reference. I knew that one of the stacks contains books I bought quite a while ago and probably won’t read for another couple of years. If I ever read them at all. But I just can’t throw them away (you don’t throw away books!) and I’m too lazy to sell them on ebay or to donate them to some charity thing. I probably got them at some charity bookfair years ago :-)

I don’t know why I buy books when I still have so many books I haven’t read yet. I guess, because the new books sound so interesting and intriguing. I actually read quite a few of the newly purchased books within a couple of months. But every once in a while I have kind of a book shopping spree and the books just pile up, because I can’t read as fast as I buy new ones. For example, from the seven books I read in 2009 so far, there were 5 new ones and only 2 out of the collection of unread books. But until I have a bigger apartment and more space for bookshelves I should really refrain from buying books on a regular basis.

Anyway, here is my current list of unread books. [G/E] indicates the language and it’s interesting to see that most of the books are in English. I don’t know if I actually buy more English books or if I just read the German ones earlier… The last purchased on on top, the one at the bottom was purchased in 2004 :-)

Book Review: “The Art of Racing in the Rain” by Garth Stein (2008)

I’m not a dog person. And I’m not a fan of race car driving. Despite all that I spent several hours today reading about a race car driver and his dog and his family. And I LOVED it. So much, that I have to recommend this novel. This recommendation comes with a tissue warning though, because this story will make you cry. At least it made me cry so hard.

A couple of weeks ago I read or maybe even saw in a clip that Patrick Dempsey (a race car driver at heart himself) has bough the movie rights to this book. Or planning to buy the rights? Anyway, Paddy had read the book and loved it, which was reason enough for me to at least check what kind of story it was. And I liked the plot and the reviews and bought it a while ago. I haven’t found the time or wasn’t in the mood to read any novel during the last few weeks, but this morning I decided to take a book with me for the trainride to work. I choose this book, because it seemed a less complex story than most of the book on my Unread Books Shelf. With so many things on my mind, I can’t concentrate on complex drama or thrillers.

My Book-List 2008

It’s time to start the 2008 retrospect posts. I don’t know if I will also do a “best/worst moment” sort of thing, but I can definitely do this one about the books I’ve read. I won’t manage to finish another one this year, so I can already post it. And I’ll have to keep better track of how many books I’ve bought in 2009. And I will definitely keep track of the ones I’ve read in a slightly different way.

So this is the list of 2008, in chronological order. [G/E] stands for German/English. And there also have been lots and lots of novel-like Grey’s Anatomy fanfictions.