lauantai 14. tammikuuta 2012
Goodbye to Berlin
Title: Goodbye to Berlin
Author: Christopher Isherwood
Published: Originally in 1939, this edition by Vintage considerably later.
Genre: Drama!
Pages: 256
Okay, so THIS is blog post #100! Yay! Nice way to start 2012! And it's a classy book, too!
2/2 of the books Santa brought me. I discovered I like Mr. Isherwood's style while reading A Single Man last year, and these new editions have absolutely gorgeous cover art. This one is a collection of short stories which tie together through people in the early 1930's Berlin. There's six stories altogether, told in first person. The person's name happens to be Christopher Isherwood, but the reader apparently shouldn't assume this to mean that the stories are purely autobiographical.
The book tells in honest details how people of that time lived, when Hitler didn't really seem all that bad yet. There are, for instance, the Nowaks, a family of five living in an inhabitable attic room where Christopher also stays for a while, and the Landauers, wealthy Jewish family who own a famous department store. The bottom and top of the society, and oh, the society can be so decadent. There's also the rather mismatched couple of Peter and Otto, and Sally Bowles, perhaps Isherwood's most famous character, an upper-class English girl trying to make a legend of herself in Berlin.
What else could I say... well, nothing smart, apparently, since I've erased every attempt I've made so far, and I have to run in a minute! So, a small quote:
Sally made no reply. She lit a cigarette, slightly frowning.
'You say I seem to have changed,' I continued. 'To be quite frank, I've been thinking the same thing about you.'
Sally didn't seem surprised: 'Have you, Christopher? Perhaps you're right. I don't know... or perhaps we've neither of us changed. Perhaps we're just seeing each other as we really are. We're awfully different in lots of ways, you know.'
'Yes, I've noticed that.'
'I think,' said Sally, smoking meditatively, her eyes on her shoes, 'that we may have sort of outgrown each other, a bit.'
Book meme thing for 2011
Right-o! I snagged this from http://blog.catherinepope.co.uk/2011/12/end-of-year-book-meme-2/
How many books read in 2011?
23. 23?! I’m ashamed of myself. But, in my defense, I’ve also drawn a few dozen comic pages this year, plus written ~20 short stories and one 170-page long one. And I read most of the books on lunch breaks at work, and on the buses home. Plus, full-time job. So not too much free time for reading. Which makes me sad. Except that drawing and writing makes me really happy.
Also, I’ve left out all the comics I’ve read/re-read, since I haven’t kept tabs on those.
Fiction/Non-Fiction ratio?
All fiction, although Paul is Undead is music history. Kind of. With zombies.
Male/Female authors?
Oh gosh, only 3 females versus 15 male. Although I don’t know for sure how many people had their pencils in Teleny, and whether any of them were female.
Favourite book read?
I can’t decide. There’s books in the list I’ve read so many times, and new favourites, too. Let’s say, though, that it’s a tie between Chuck Palahniuk’s Invisible Monsters and Martin Millar’s Lux the Poet. Both re-reads.
Least favourite?
Paul Hoffman’s The Left Hand of God. I wanted several times to just quit reading because… I don’t remember what it was exactly with the book, but something just was off. Maybe it was because of the fact that it was so hard to get a grip of the main characters, although that was how they had been brought up. To be unreadable. But I finished it since it kept going in surprising directions all the time. There’s a sequel out there, but I think I’ll skip it. Too many other things to read.
Oldest book read?
Must be Teleny, from 1893, written by Oscar Wilde and friends. Victorian porn of all sorts, and then some.
Newest?
Alan Goldsher’s Paul is Undead, from 2010. A zombie Beatles history.
Longest book title?
The above: its full title is Paul is Undead – The British ZomBie Invasion.
Shortest title?
Teleny with six letters.
How many re-reads?
Let’s see… Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk, Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto, The Night Watch by Sarah Waters and Pedestrian Wolves by James L. Grant for the second time, Lux the Poet by Martin Millar for the third, and I’ve no idea how many times I’ve read Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting, or parts of it.
Most books read by one author this year?
George R. R. Martin wins, with the first three huuuuuge bricks from the Song of Ice and Fire saga. Third one was separated into two volumes, though, so one could argue it was four books. But one will not.
Chuck Palahniuk, James Lear and Martin Millar take shared second place, all with two books each, although if I’d finished Millar’s Lonely Werewolf Girl instead of hopping into Martin’s A Game of Thrones on my visit to London, dear Mr. Millar would be on the shared first spot.
Any in translation? *
Banana Yoshimoto’s Kitchen is translated from its original Japanese: I read the English translation this time, but I’ve read it in Finnish as well. John Irving’s Garpin maailma, The World According to Garp, and Neil Gaiman’s Unohdetut Jumalat, American Gods, plus Teleny were also translated into Finnish from their original English.
I liked Garp’s translation, and Kitchen, was a bit iffy about American Gods, but enjoyed the Finnish version, too. Teleny? Sooo much purple prose. And porn. Would be interesting to read in the original language, but this Finnish version fell into my lap for one euro. One does not look near-free porn in the… uhh… yeah. Next question.
And how many of this year’s books were from the library?
None. I own them all. ALTHOUGH. I did borrow four gay and lesbian anthologies over the summer from the local library –which is a very small one- but I didn’t blog about them, since I didn’t read the whole things, just a story here, another there.
I really should go to one of the bigger libraries in Helsinki more often. I mean, I went last week and found ElfQuest collections from the beginning of the 80’s. In practically mint condition, for their age. So, who knows what the hell else I could find there!
Onwards to 2012!
* This question may have meant how many the original blogger had translated herself, I'm not sure. I just mentioned all the translations I'd read.
How many books read in 2011?
23. 23?! I’m ashamed of myself. But, in my defense, I’ve also drawn a few dozen comic pages this year, plus written ~20 short stories and one 170-page long one. And I read most of the books on lunch breaks at work, and on the buses home. Plus, full-time job. So not too much free time for reading. Which makes me sad. Except that drawing and writing makes me really happy.
Also, I’ve left out all the comics I’ve read/re-read, since I haven’t kept tabs on those.
Fiction/Non-Fiction ratio?
All fiction, although Paul is Undead is music history. Kind of. With zombies.
Male/Female authors?
Oh gosh, only 3 females versus 15 male. Although I don’t know for sure how many people had their pencils in Teleny, and whether any of them were female.
Favourite book read?
I can’t decide. There’s books in the list I’ve read so many times, and new favourites, too. Let’s say, though, that it’s a tie between Chuck Palahniuk’s Invisible Monsters and Martin Millar’s Lux the Poet. Both re-reads.
Least favourite?
Paul Hoffman’s The Left Hand of God. I wanted several times to just quit reading because… I don’t remember what it was exactly with the book, but something just was off. Maybe it was because of the fact that it was so hard to get a grip of the main characters, although that was how they had been brought up. To be unreadable. But I finished it since it kept going in surprising directions all the time. There’s a sequel out there, but I think I’ll skip it. Too many other things to read.
Oldest book read?
Must be Teleny, from 1893, written by Oscar Wilde and friends. Victorian porn of all sorts, and then some.
Newest?
Alan Goldsher’s Paul is Undead, from 2010. A zombie Beatles history.
Longest book title?
The above: its full title is Paul is Undead – The British ZomBie Invasion.
Shortest title?
Teleny with six letters.
How many re-reads?
Let’s see… Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk, Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto, The Night Watch by Sarah Waters and Pedestrian Wolves by James L. Grant for the second time, Lux the Poet by Martin Millar for the third, and I’ve no idea how many times I’ve read Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting, or parts of it.
Most books read by one author this year?
George R. R. Martin wins, with the first three huuuuuge bricks from the Song of Ice and Fire saga. Third one was separated into two volumes, though, so one could argue it was four books. But one will not.
Chuck Palahniuk, James Lear and Martin Millar take shared second place, all with two books each, although if I’d finished Millar’s Lonely Werewolf Girl instead of hopping into Martin’s A Game of Thrones on my visit to London, dear Mr. Millar would be on the shared first spot.
Any in translation? *
Banana Yoshimoto’s Kitchen is translated from its original Japanese: I read the English translation this time, but I’ve read it in Finnish as well. John Irving’s Garpin maailma, The World According to Garp, and Neil Gaiman’s Unohdetut Jumalat, American Gods, plus Teleny were also translated into Finnish from their original English.
I liked Garp’s translation, and Kitchen, was a bit iffy about American Gods, but enjoyed the Finnish version, too. Teleny? Sooo much purple prose. And porn. Would be interesting to read in the original language, but this Finnish version fell into my lap for one euro. One does not look near-free porn in the… uhh… yeah. Next question.
And how many of this year’s books were from the library?
None. I own them all. ALTHOUGH. I did borrow four gay and lesbian anthologies over the summer from the local library –which is a very small one- but I didn’t blog about them, since I didn’t read the whole things, just a story here, another there.
I really should go to one of the bigger libraries in Helsinki more often. I mean, I went last week and found ElfQuest collections from the beginning of the 80’s. In practically mint condition, for their age. So, who knows what the hell else I could find there!
Onwards to 2012!
* This question may have meant how many the original blogger had translated herself, I'm not sure. I just mentioned all the translations I'd read.
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