Statistics 2022

  

My statistics for the last years are here:
Going back to 2009-12, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021

 

And these are the results of my reading lists for 2022:

* Statistics 2022 *
 

I did 286 posts in 2022 which was more than in any year before.

My regular posts are either weekly (Book Quotes, Top Ten, ThrowBack Thursday, Wordless Wednesday) or monthly (Happy Month), so I posted more or less the amount of weeks or months in a year.
Book Quotes of the Week (38 posts)
Happy Month (12)
Top Ten Tuesday (45)
ThrowBack Thursday (48)
Wordless Wednesday (9)

I didn't join any new challenges but carried on with these:
Six Degrees of Separation (12)
Spell the Month in Books (12)
10 Year Challenge Book Tag
I started my blog in 2011 and I started this in 2021. This year, I carried on with 2012.
Mid Year Freak-Out Tag
It's more or less a statistic for the first half of the year. I had read 36 books by the end of July and now there are 82.

But I also did some other tags (see here):
The Last Book I … Book Tag
The Book Blogger Memory Challenge Book Tag
Alphabet This or That
Ice Cream Book Tag
100 Questions No One Ever Asks ~ Part 1
100 Questions No One Ever Asks ~ Part 2

Same as last year, I also participated in Non-fiction November.

And then there are, of course, all the challenges I have done over the years.
I read books that contributed to the following challenges. Some of them count for more than one category:

Challenges (number of books read for the challenges in brackets)
The 100 best Non-fiction Books of All Time as Chosen by The Guardian (0)

100 Books by the BBC (1)
100 Greatest Fiction Books as Chosen by the Guardian (1)
101 Best Selling Books of All Times (0)
13 Ways of Looking at the Novel (0)
20 Classic and Important Books (0)
Only three more books on my list, maybe I'll get to "Slaughterhouse Five" one day.
2022 TBR Pile Reading Challenge (39)
7 Books That Will Radically Shift Your Perspectives (0)
Anti-Racism Books (0)
I read more on this topic but they were not on this list.

Barack Obama Reading Lists (1)

Best European Literature (2)
Bildungsroman (4)
Books That Changed the World (2)
A Century of Books (0)
Children's Books (2)

The Classics Club (37): The Classics Spin (3)
3 for the Classics Spin, 37 in total
Some of these were classic books that I read earlier but only reviewed this year.

Dutch and French Books (1 Dutch, 3 French)

Emma's Book Club - Our shared shelf (0)
An ever growing list of books about and for women, a group started by Emma Watson (better known as Hermione Granger), UN Woman Goodwill Ambassador.
Esperanto Books (0)
We read mostly short stories.

Favourite (German) Independent Books (1)
(Das Lieblingsbuch der Unabhängigen = The Favourite Book of the Independents)
German Books (20)
Le Monde - The 100 Books of the Century (0)

Modern Library 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century (0)

My Favourite Books Ever (15)
Every year I find some more books I can add to my list of favourite books. 16 this year.

Nobel Peace Prize (1)
Nobel Prize Winners and Their Books (5)
Oprah's Book Club (1)
Oscar Winning Books (0)
Paris in July (3)
Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (1)
(German: Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels)
Read the Year Club (2)
We read 1954 and 1929 this year. It's a good idea to add some reads from former years that we might not have touched before.
Reading Challenge - Chunky Books 2022 (11)
I read 11 chunky books in 2020 of which 3 are considered a chunkster.
Reading the World (1)
Suggestions from Friends (0)
I read suggestions from friends all the time, just haven't kept up with who recommended which book.
The non-western books that every student should read (0)
The only thing I miss from our old place is the library that would get me any book I wanted. Not so easy here where we only have a small church library and they only get the biggest best-sellers. And all of them in German only, of course.

Top Ten Tuesday
I took part in 45 of the challenges, this is a great way of reminiscing or planning your reads.
Travel the World Through Books (1)

Some of the challenges are older and I only add to them if I happen to read one of the books.

Book Club 2017 etc. (13)
German Book Club (5)
I joined a German book club in June and we read these books so far:
Myers, Benjamin "The Offing" - Offene See - 2019
Owens, Delia "Where the Crawdads Sing" - Der Gesang der Flusskrebse - 2018
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (Goethe English) "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship" - Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre - 1795/96
Schlink, Bernhard "Colours of Good-bye" - Abschiedsfarben - 2020
Schroeder, Steffen "Was alles in einem Menschen sein kann. Begegnung mit einem Mörder" [What can be in a person. Encountering a murderer] - 2017
Esperanto Book Club (0)

Here, we read mostly short stories.

Books Read: 73
Pages read: 20,533
281 pages/book, 56 pages/day, 6 books/month
Last year I read 84 books with 41.067 pages which resulted in 489 pages/book, 113 pages/day, 7 books/month
This year, it's 73 books with 20,533 pages, so I obviously read less this year because my average book had 281 pages only.
The average novel contains between 140 and 320 pages, i.e. 230 which still gets me up to only 89 books, i.e. 11 less than my goal of 100. Maybe next year.

Books dating from which year:
Pre 1800s: 2
1800s: 6
1900-1949: 9
1950-1999: 13
2000s: 43 (4 of which from 2022)

Male Authors: 57
Female Authors: 31
Some are by several authors, so the number is not the exact number of books read.

Nobel Prize Winners: 5

Fiction: 54
Non-Fiction: 18

Chunky Books - more than 450 pages: 1, more than 750: 3
Library: 3
Re-Read: 1
TBR Pile: 39

Oldest Book: 1668
Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) "The Miser or The School for Lies" (F: L'Avare ou l’École du mensonge) - 1668
Newest Book: 2021
Orth, Stephan "Absolutely Locked Out" (GE: Absolutely Ausgesperrt) - 2022
Greywoode, Josephine (ed.) "Why We Read. 70 Writers on Non-Fiction" - 2022
Dobbert, Steffen "Ukraine verstehen: Geschichte, Politik und Freiheitskampf" [Understanding Ukraine: History, Politics and Struggle for Freedom] - 2022
Longest book: 784
Rutherfurd, Edward "China" - 2021
Shortest book: 37
Enquist, Anna "Mei" [May] - 2007
Longest book title: 25
Alvarez, Julia "In the Time of the Butterflies" - 1994

Shortest Book Title: 5
Rutherfurd, Edward "China" - 2021

Funniest Book:
Bythell, Shaun "Confessions of a Bookseller" - 2019
Saddest Book:
Alvarez, Julia "In the Time of the Butterflies" - 1994
Weirdest Book:
Abe, Kōbō (安部 公房) "Inter Ice Age 4" (J: 第四間氷期/Dai yon kan pyouki) - 1959
Most disappointing:
Erdrich, Louise "Tracks" - 1988

New author (for me) that I would like to read more from: 5
Sara Nisha Adams, Julia Alvarez, Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz, Mariana Leky, Maren Uthaug 

Translated Books:
7 from 5 languages
2 ea from Russian and Swedish
1 from Greek, Hungarian and Spanish

Books read in another language:
Dutch: 1
French: 3
German: 25

Numbers in Book Titles: 4, 12, 21; 88, 200, 488
Place Names in Book Titles: Babylon, Brideshead, China, Gilead, Kamusari, Milk Wood, Rum Doodle, Saudi Arabia, Solace, Ukraine, Winthrop
Names in Book Titles: Emil, Eskandar, Hannah, Humboldt, Jane Austen, Julia/Juliet, Medea, Nick, Romeo, Silas Marner, Shirley, Sommer, Wilhelm Meister
Colours in Book Titles: Black, Scarlet

My Favourite Books: 14

Adams, Sara Nisha "The Reading List" - 2021
Boschwitz, Ulrich Alexander "The Passenger" aka "The Fugitive" (GE: Der Reisende) - 1939
Chevalier, Tracy "The Last Runaway" - 2013
Clinton, Hillary Rodham & Chelsea "The Book of Gutsy Women: Favourite Stories of Courage and Resilience" - 2019
Follett, Ken "The Evening and the Morning" (Kingsbridge #0.5) - 2020
Lawson, Mary "A Town Called Solace" - 2021 

Le Faye, Deirdre "Jane Austen, The World of Her Novels" - 2002
Leky, Mariana "What You Can See From Here" (GE: Was man von hier aus sehen kann) - 2017
Orth, Stephan "Absolulely Locked Out" (GE: Absolutely Ausgesperrt) - 2022
Owens, Delia "Where the Crawdads Sing" - 2018
Rutherfurd, Edward "China" - 2021
Shakib, Siba "Eskandar" (GE: Eskandar) - 2009
Uthaug, Maren "Before there were Birds" (DK: Hvor der er fugle/Hannahs Lied) - 2017
Weiler, Jan "And the puberty animal sleeps forever" (GE: Und ewig schläft das Pubertier) (Pubertiere #3) - 2017

 
With my books, I visited places in the following countries:

Africa (7):
Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania
Asia (10 ½):
Burma, China, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel/Palestine, Japan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, "Yogistan"
Australia/Oceania (1):
Australia
Europe (17):
Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom
North America (4):
Canada, Dominican Republic, Mexico,
South America (3):
Chile, Colombia, Guatemala,
Extra-terrestrial (0):
Countries "visited" in total: 42 ½

Authors come from:

Africa (1):
Tanzania
Asia (4):
Iran, Israel, Japan, South Korea
Australia/Oceania (1):
Australia
Europe (12):
Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom
North America: (3):
Canada, Dominican Republic, USA
South America (1):
Peru

Author countries in total: 22

See also "My Year in Books" on Goodreads.

You may find some even greater statistics by better bloggers than me, e.g. at "Stuck in a Book".

 

If you want more information on any of the lists mentioned, please, let me know.

🎄 Merry Christmas 🎄

🎄🎄🎄

When visiting Bremen for the Christmas market, we came upon this pretty traffic light. The interesting thing was that only the green light showed Father Christmas, the red light was the usual one. I guess they don't want Father Christmas to stop.

🎄🎄🎄

Last week, we went to a special Christmas concert by a wonderful German a capella group called Maybebop. They presented their latest Christmas CD and one of my favourite Christmas songs ever is on there: The First Noel. If you want to listen to it, here is a live video.

And here they present the different songs that are on the CD (little snippets with lots of German in between, if you understand German, it also shows you how funny the group is).

🎄📚🎄

I wish all my blogger and reading friends lots and lots of books under the Christmas tree.

🎄🎄🎄

🎼 The First Noël,
The First Noël the Angels did say
Was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay
In fields where they lay keeping their sheep
On a cold winter's night that was so deep
Noël Noël Noël Noël
Born is the King of Israel!

🎼 They looked up and saw a star
Shining in the East beyond them far
And to the earth it gave great light
And so it continued both day and night
Noël Noël Noël Noël
Born is the King of Israel!

🎼 And by the light of that same star
Three Wise men came from country far
To seek for a King was their intent
And to follow the star wherever it went
Noël Noël Noël Noël
Born is the King of Israel!

🎼 This star drew nigh to the northwest
O'er Bethlehem it took it's rest
And there it did both Pause and stay
Right o'er the place where Jesus lay
Noël Noël Noël Noël
Born is the King of Israel!

🎼 Then let us all with one accord
Sing praises to our heavenly Lord
That hath made Heaven and earth of nought
And with his blood mankind hath bought
Noël Noël Noël Noël
Born is the King of Israel!
Noël Noël Noël Noël
Born is the King
Born is the King
Born is the King of Israel!

🎄🎄🎄

The song has Cornish origins and is from the late Middle Ages. Still beautiful.

🎄🎄🎄

"Wishing you all a season full of light and laughter for you and your family."

Book Quotes of the Week

 

"A language is not just words. It's a culture, a tradition, a unification of a community, a whole history that creates what a community is. It's all embodied in a language." Noam Chomsky

Wise words, very wise ones. And every new language gives you a glimpse into that other culture, makes you part of a new community, gives you a new soul.

"I Love Books. I love that moment when you open one and sink into it you can escape from the world, into a story that's way more interesting than yours will ever be." Elizabeth Scott, Bloom

I think anyone reading this will second that. We all love books. And of course, the stories are way more interesting than our own because they are the stories from everywhere, from any time, there is always something more to your own story.

"In each book was a possibility of joy: a magical place to visit, a hero or heroine to meet, or a new friend to make." Janis Wildy, The English Bookshop

Again, books can give you so much. A lot of books can become your best friend, you can go to them again and again and find comfort in them.

Find more book quotes here.

#ThrowbackThursday. The Ya-Ya Sisterhood

Wells, Rebecca "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" - 1996
Wells, Rebecca "Little Altars Everywhere" - 1998

A story about a childhood of abuse and the approach to come to terms with its tragedies.

We discussed this in our international book club in February 2002.

Read my original review here.

Wordless Wednesday ~ The World in a Bauble

Top Ten Tuesday ~ Books I Hope Santa Brings This Year

"Top Ten Tuesday" is an original feature/weekly meme created on the blog "The Broke and the Bookish". This feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists at "The Broke and the Bookish". It is now hosted by Jana from That Artsy Reader Girl.

Since I am just as fond of them as they are, I jump at the chance to share my lists with them! Have a look at their page, there are lots of other bloggers who share their lists here.

This week, our topic is Books I Hope Santa Brings This Year

There are still quite a few books on my list from last year, so I'm not going to add many more. One that I am really looking forward for next year is "The Light We Carry". I absolutely admire Michelle Obama and will read anything she writes.

🎅🎅🎅

And then there are some other non-fiction books I think I would like:

Bake-Off Team, The "The Great British Bake Off: Favourite Flavours" - 2022 (Goodreads)
Jarman, Cat "River Kings: A New History of the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Road" - 2021 (Goodreads)
Jones, Dan "Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages" - 2021 (Goodreads)
McKay, Lauren "The Wolf Hall Companion: The People. The Places. The History." - 2020 (Goodreads)
Obama, Michelle "The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times" - 2022

🎅🎅🎅

I hope you will all get the books you wish for or at least quite a few of them.

Merry Christmas!

Hermann, Judith "The Summerhouse, Later"

Hermann, Judith "The Summerhouse, Later" (German: Sommerhaus, später) - 1998

These short stories mainly take place in Germany. As the description says, there are nine different characters, each with a different life. There's a taxi driver. And a young woman who remembers her great-grandmother. People like you and me who live in Berlin. An interesting mix. But anyone who knows me will also know what I think of it. Nine individual books would have been better.

Book Description:

"'The little jewellery box also held the red coral bracelet from Nikolai Sergeyevich. Its six hundred and seventy-five little coral beads were strung onto a silken thread, and they glowed as red as rage. My great-grandmother put the hairbrush down in her lap. She closed her eyes for a long time. Then she opened her eyes again, took the red coral bracelet from the little box and fastened it around her left wrist. Her skin was very white. That evening, for the first time in three years, she shared a meal with my great-grandfather.'

Coral bracelets 'as red as rage' from Russian lovers; a sad old woman who nonetheless 'sometimes sang and winked with her left eye and laughed till the tears came’; country houses ‘away from Berlin, linden trees out front, chestnuts in the back, sky above': 'The Summer House, Later' is an elegant, measured, reflective collection of stories which captures beautifully the promise of bright colours lying just out of reach of our grey daily routines.

Set in and around Europe's fastest-growing, fastest-living city, these stories take as their starting point the monotony of modern urban life - the endless antennas and chimneys, the pigeons in the gutters - and looks beyond them to 'the narrow strip of sky over the rooftops'. The literary sensation of the year in her native Germany, Judith Hermann is a wonderfully talented young writer whose ability to find drama and beauty in the smallest, most trivial moments makes 'The Summer House, Later' a very special debut indeed."

"In nine luminous stories of love and loss, loneliness and hope, Judith Hermann's stunning debut collection paints a vivid and poignant picture of a generation ready and anxious to turn their back on the past, to risk uncertainty in search of a fresh, if fragile, equilibrium. An international bestseller and translated into twelve languages, 'The Summerhouse, Later' heralds the arrival of one of Germanys most arresting new literary talents."

Book Quotes of the Week

 

"The decline of literature indicates the decline of a nation." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

It's interesting that Goethe already thought that. And I read something similar by one of the great Greek writers, Plato or Sokrates or so. We all always believe that the next generation will be the end of civilization. But history has shown us that every generation has its ups and downs.

"For all my students
past, present, and future
May we all meet in heaven café
writing for eternity!"
Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within

And all the readers, as well. Because otherwise, who would they be writing for?

"Human suffering anywhere concerns men and women everywhere." Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel knew what he was talking about. Let's hope that one day, everyone knows and will act accordingly.

Find more book quotes here.

#ThrowbackThursday. Dubliners

 

Joyce, James "Dubliners" - 1905

Fifteen stories offer vivid, tightly focused observations of the lives of Dublin's poorer classes. The description of the characters was very good, they came alive, the plots were interesting, I did enjoy the stories. I just would have wished them to be longer.

Read my original review here.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Trivial Pursuit

Buck, Pearl S. "Kinfolk"

Buck, Pearl S. "Kinfolk" - 1949

A story that tells us about the question everyone who has lived in a different country asks themselves, especially those that are born in another world than their parents or who moved there when they were little. Do I belong to the country where I live or to the country that my passport shows.

This is a story about a Chinese family in New York who moves "back" to China. My children have lived in different countries all their lives, the youngest wasn't even born in Germany. And while the difference between several European countries is probably not as large as that between countries from different continents, I know they don't exactly feel as belonging to a certain country, they are simply "European".

This is not so easy for the chldren of Dr. Liang, they are American but their ancestors are Asian, and they have to discover the difference between those two countries.

As any of Pearl S. Buck's books, this is a highly interesting book about a culture that is quite foreign to us. But she has depicted it so well, as always. The characters are so alive and every single one of them shows us their life.

From the back cover:

"Kinfolk is the story of a Chinese family. Dr. Liang moves to America in search of a better life, but his children long to return to China. Each responds to their new life in China differently, providing rich insight into the struggles between Eastern and Western culture, and the differences between generations.

A tale of four Chinese-American siblings in New York, and their bewildering return to their roots
In Kinfolk, a sharp dissection of the expatriate experience, Pearl S. Buck unfurls the story of a Chinese family living in New York. Dr. Liang is a comfortably well-off professor of Confucian philosophy, who spreads the notion of a pure and unchanging homeland. Under his influence, his four grown children decide to move to China, despite having spent their whole lives in America. As the siblings try in various ways to adjust to a new place and culture, they learn that the definition of home is far different from what they expected."

Find other books by Pearl S. Book that I read here.

Pearl S. Buck received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938 "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces".

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

The Last Book I … Book Tag

I found this on Dini's blog, Dinipandireads, who found it on Becky's blog @ Beckysbookblog. Thank you both.

The Last Book I Bought
Ansay, A. Manette "Blue Water" - 2006 (Goodreads)

The Last Book I Borrowed
It's been a long time since I borrowed a book since our local library doesn't have much that interests me and it is all in German. But here is one I borrowed from a good friend:
Hesse, Hermann "Narcissus and Goldmund" (GE: Narziss und Goldmund) - 1930

The Last Book I Was Gifted
Another book I received from the same friend for my birthday:
Suttner, Bertha von "Die Waffen nieder!" (Lay Down Your Arms! or Down with Weapons!) - 1889 

The Last Book I Gave to Someone
A wish from my son:
Herbert, Frank "Dune" - 1963/64 (Goodreads)

The Last Book I Started
Clinton, Hillary Rodham & Chelsea "The Book of Gutsy Women: Favourite Stories of Courage and Resilience" - 2019

The Last Book I Finished
Dobbert, Steffen "Ukraine verstehen: Geschichte, Politik und Freiheitskampf" [Understanding Ukraine: History, Politics and Struggle for Freedom] - 2022 (Goodreads)

The Last Book I Rated 5-Stars
Follett, Ken "The Evening and the Morning" (Kingsbridge #0.5) - 2020

The Last Book I Rated 2-Stars
DeLillo, Don "The Silence" - 2020

The Last Book I DNF
I almost DNF this but I had it with me one day when I couldn't walk any longer and was posted in a café so the others could have their outing. So, I finished it.
Peetz, Monika "Sommerschwestern" [Summer Sisters] - 2022

The Last Book I Listend To
That was also the first book I ever listened to. Or maybe the second … It's been so long ago, I don't even remember which one it was, I just couldn't get into them.

If you want to do this challenge, just copy the list from here:

The Last Book I Bought
The Last Book I Borrowed
The Last Book I Was Gifted
The Last Book I Gave to Someone
The Last Book I Started
The Last Book I Finished
The Last Book I Rated 5-Stars
The Last Book I Rated 2-Stars
The Last Book I DNF
The Last Book I Listend To

Spell the Month in Books ~ December 2022

 

Reviews from the Stacks

I found this on one of the blogs I follow, Books are the New Black who found it at One Book More. It was originally created by Reviews from the Stacks, and the idea is to spell the month using the first letter of book titles.

I only learned last month, that this is supposed to be published on the second Saturday of the month. I find that a good idea since I have another challenge on the first weekend, so I will try to adhere to that.

It's December, the time of Christmas and winter, so this is our topic this time:
December: Books about Christmas, winter, or general coziness

DECEMBER

D
Pasternak, Boris "Doctor Zhivago" (RUS: Доктор Живаго) - 1957
E
Austen, Jane "Emma" - 1816
C
Dickens, Charles "A Christmas Carol" - 1843
E
Cognetti, Paolo "The Eight Mountains" (I: Le otto montagne) - 2016
M
Høeg, Peter "Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow" (DK: Frøken Smillas fornemmelse for sne) - 1992
B
Robinson, Barbara "The Best Christmas Pageant" - 1972
E
Guterson, David "East of the Mountains" - 1999
R
Rutherfurd, Edward "Russka. The Novel of Russia" - 1991

I don't think I read many books with a cozy feeling but these are all definitely wintery. Some of them make me think about Christmas (Emma, A Christmas Carol, The Best Christmas Pageant) others of winter (Doctor Zhivago, The Eight Mountains, Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow, East of the Mountains, Russka)

Happy Reading!

📚 📚 📚

Book Quotes of the Week

  

"To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child." Marcus Tullius Cicero

That is a good thought. We will always have to learn everything again while we could learn so well from the mistakes made before us.

"The job of the linguist, like that of the biologist or the botanist, is not to tell us how nature should behave, or what its creations should look like, but to describe those creations in all their messy glory and try to figure out what they can teach us about life, the world, and, especially in the case of linguistics, the workings of the human mind." Arika Okrent, In the Land of Invented Languages

Definitely. We don't have to "believe" in science in order to experience it, it's there. And the same goes with language. It is growing and changing but it's also there as a tool to help us.

"People who say that I'm hard to shop for must not know where to buy books." N.N.

I have no idea who wrote this but he or she must know me pretty well. 😉

Find more book quotes here.

#ThrowbackThursday. The Discovery of Heaven

 

Mulisch, Harry "The Discovery of Heaven" (Dutch: De ontdekking van de hemel) - 1992

An extraordinary book that touches many different subjects. Science, technology, war, religion, philosophy, social values, politics, intelligence, adolescence, family life.

This novel was voted best Dutch book ever.

We discussed this in our international book club in February 2004.

Read my original review here.

The Classics Club: The Classics Spin #32

    

"Words and Peace" is a blog I've been following for a couple of years and I have always found some interesting new (or olde) books there, especially French ones.

On her page, I found the posts by "The Classics Club" asking us to create a post, this time before next Sunday 11^th December 2022, and list our choice of any twenty books that remain "to be read" on our Classics Club list. They'll then post a number from 1 through 20 and we have time until Sunday 29^th of January 2023 to read it.

In the meantime, I read four  more books from my old list (Classics Spin #31) which I usually replace by some new ones. They are all in chronological order.

1.    Aristophanes "Lysistrata and Other Plays" (Lysistrata) - 411BC
2.    Voltaire "Candide, ou l'Optimisme" (Candid, or Optimism/Candide oder der Optimismus) - 1759
3.    Dickens, Charles "A Christmas Carol" - 1843
4.    Brontë, Charlotte "The Professor" - 1857
5.    Turgenjew, Iwan Sergejewitsch "Fathers and Sons" (Отцы и дети/Otzy i deti) - 1862
6.    Suttner, Bertha von "Die Waffen nieder!" (Lay Down Your Arms! or Down with Weapons!) - 1889
7.    Mann, Heinrich "Der Untertan" (Man of Straw, The Patrioteer, or The Loyal Subject) - 1914
8.    Hamilton, Cicely "William - an Englishman" - 1920
9.    Hesse, Hermann "Wir nehmen die Welt nur zu ernst" [We just take the world too seriously] - 1928
10.    Faulkner, William "The Sound and the Fury" - 1929
11.    Hemingway, Ernest "A Farewell to Arms" - 1929
12.    Meigs, Cornelia "Invincible Louisa" - 1933
13.    Orwell, George "Down and Out in Paris and London: A Gritty Memoir on Life & Poverty in Two Cities" - 1933
14.    Canetti, Elias "Die Blendung" (Auto-da-Fé) - 1935
15.    Orwell, George "The Road to Wigan Pier" - 1937
16.    Némirovsky, Irène "Les Biens de ce monde" (All Our Wordly Goods) - 1941
17.    Mahfouz, Naguib "Midaq Alley" (Zuqaq El Midaq/زقاق المدق) - 1947
18.    Lagerkvist, Pär "Barabbas" (Barabbas) - 1950
19.    Kazantzakis, Nikos "The Last Temptation of Christ" (Ο τελευταίος πειρασμός/O telefteos pirasmos) - 1951
20.    Yates, Richard "Revolutionary Road" - 1961

This time, it's #6, so my novel is:
Suttner, Bertha von "Die Waffen nieder!" (Lay Down Your Arms! or Down with Weapons!) - 1889

If you want to take up the challenge, here is the post: The Classics Spin #32 

Here are all the books on my original Classics Club list.
And here is a list of all the books I read with the Classics Spin.

Top Ten Tuesday ~ Christmas Reads

"Top Ten Tuesday" is an original feature/weekly meme created on the blog "The Broke and the Bookish". This feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists at "The Broke and the Bookish". It is now hosted by Jana from That Artsy Reader Girl.

Since I am just as fond of them as they are, I jump at the chance to share my lists with them! Have a look at their page, there are lots of other bloggers who share their lists here.

This week, our topic is a Freebie.

🎅🎅🎅

Because of Non-Fiction November, I didn't do any TTT last month, and since Christmas is close, I thought I'll do a list of books with an appropriate theme.

Alcott, Louisa May "Little Women Series" - 1868-86
Dickens, Charles "A Christmas Carol" - 1843
Elwell Hunt, Angela "The Tale of Three Trees" - 1989
Grisham, John "Skipping Christmas: A Novel" - 2001
Ingalls Wilder, Laura "Little House Books" - 1932-71
Lagerlöf, Selma "Sancta Lucia. Weihnachtliche Geschichten" [Christmas Stories] (S: Kristuslegender) - 1893-1917
Lamb, Wally "Wishin' and Hopin': A Christmas Story" - 2009
Mann, Thomas "Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family" (GE: Buddenbrooks) - 1901
Robinson, Barbara "The Best Christmas Pageant" - 1972
Van Dyke, Henry "The Story of the Other Wise Man" - 1896

Not all of them are Christmas stories only but they all contain parts that relate to Christmas and I often have to think just about those parts when the Christmas theme comes up.

Six Degrees of Separation ~ From The Snow Child to The Diary of a Young Girl

#6Degrees of Separation:
from The Snow Child to The Diary of a Young Girl

#6Degrees is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. I love the idea. Thank you, Kate. See more about this challenge, its history, further books and how I found this here.

This month's prompt starts with The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey.

I haven't read the starter book very often but this one had been on my TBR pile for a while and I had just finished it a month before the book was set for this challenge. So, I was very pleased to go with that.

Some months, I have used the words in a title or the names of the author (I doubt I would have found another Eowyn or another Ivey, though). Last month, I went with items on the covers.

This time, I went with words again but all books are all about children, their lives, their friendships, their struggles. All of them highly interesting. I bet most people have read at least the last one.

See, Lisa "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" - 2005

Roberts, Karen "The Flower Boy" - 2001

Noa Bercovitch, Pascale "The Dolphin’s Boy: A Story of Courage and Friendship" (F: Oline, le dauphin du miracle) - 2000

O'Dell, Scott "Island of the Blue Dolphins" - 1969

Arnold, Gaynor "Girl in a Blue Dress" - 2008

Frank, Anne "The Diary of a Young Girl" (NL: Het Achterhuis) - 1942-33

Since my connection was children this time, there is still a link between the first and the last book, they are both about a girl even though their lives are very different.

Look for further monthly separation posts here.