I doubt I need to ask any of my fellow bloggers what group they belong to. All I know is, we always had a lot of books in our house. We always read to our children. They both became avid readers.
If you are interested in the nitty-gritty, I did find some information on how many books are read supposedly in Germany. I translated directly from the sites what I thought might be interesting for this post.
"On average, a household with children between the ages of six and 13 has 132 books, and the children have an average of 26 books of their own. In households with higher formal education (high school diploma/university degree), the inventory is significantly higher at 297 books (children: 43 books).
Reading and reading frequency prove to be extremely stable over time. 83% of the population aged 15 and over read at least one book (including e-books) in 2019, and almost 30% even read more than one book per month.
This was the result of a recent YouGov survey (see here). According to this, 13 percent of Germans estimate their private book collection to be 10 books or fewer, 30 percent to be between 11 and 50 books. According to their own estimates, 22 percent have between 51 and 100 books on their shelves, and one in three (31 percent) have even more.
April 23 is celebrated as World Book and Copyright Day following a decision by the 28th General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1995. (see here). In India, the country where the most books are read in the world, every citizen spends about 10 hours and 42 minutes reading per week.
Research has shown that reading books regularly can likely help reduce the risk of dementia. Researchers found that the disease rate was lower in intellectually active people. And not only that. Normally, the performance of the brain decreases with age.
Although people still read a lot in Germany, who reads how much is unevenly distributed. The biggest readers are those aged 50-59; in this age group, 28 percent read almost every day."
"An average of 151 books in German households
The study collected data from adults between the ages of 25 and 65 from 31 countries. The results were astonishing: The average number of books per household is 115, with Scandinavian and former Soviet countries showing the highest number at 212.
The front runner is Estonia with 218. The lowest number of books is in Turkish households with an average of 27, while Germany is in the upper midfield with 151.
The research shows that with about 80 books in the home library, the children's literacy rate increases to average.
The connection between reading books and professional success, or at least a higher future salary, is also clear in a 2012 study by the economist Giorgio Brunello. If adolescents voluntarily read at least ten books in their youth, they earn around 21 percent more as adults. The amazing thing was that the type of books read had no influence on the result. The main thing is that there were ten or more..." (see here)
Hamsun, Knut "Growth of the Soil" (Norwegian: Markens Grøde) - 1917
For the Classics Spin #37, we received #8 and this was my novel.
"Speak the truth in a million voices. It is silence that kills!" St. Catherine of Siena
It's always best to stick to the truth. Especially if you don't have a really great memory.
"In journalism just one fact that is false prejudices the entire work. In contrast, in fiction one single fact hat is true gives legitimacy to the entire work. That's the only difference, and it lies in the commitment of the writer. A novelist can do anything he wants so long as he makes people believe in it." Gabriel García Márquez
Well, I have a problem with fiction that contradicts itself. If you are twenty and someone else is thirty at the same time, you better not be twenty-five and the other one is forty a couple of pages later.
"Book's are time travel. True readers all know this. But books don't just take you back to the time in which they were written; they can take you back to different versions of yourself." Peter Swanson, Eight Perfect Murders
That's the only time travel I believe in.
Find more book quotes here.
Young, William Paul "The Shack" - 2007
An extraordinary spiritual book, even if that is not your thing.
A man has to come to terms with the death of his daughter. When he receives a
mysterious invitation to a meeting in a shack, hee drives there and meets
three special people.
Read my original review here.
Top Five Tuesday was originally created by Shanah @ Bionic Book Worm, but is now hosted by Meeghan @ Meeghan Reads. To participate, link your post back to Meeghan’s blog or leave a comment on her weekly post.
I found this on Davida's Page @ The Chocolate Lady.
"Top Ten Tuesday" is an original feature/weekly meme created on the blog "The Broke and the Bookish". It was created because they are particularly fond of lists.
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.
Authors I’d Love a New Book From (These could be authors that have passed away, who have retired from writing, who have inexplicably gone quiet, or who might jut not be able to keep up with how quickly you read their books!)
Bryson, Bill
Bill Bryson is one of my favourite authors. Unfortunately, he has retired from writing. What a shame!
Hislop, Victoria
I am sure Victoria Hislop will write more books about her beloved Greece. At least I hope so.
Lawson, Mary
Mary Lawson is not one of the authors who writes another new book every year but I hope she will have many more to come.
Pamuk, Orhan
Orhan Pamuk is a great writer. No wonder he received the Nobel Prize for Literature. His books are fantastic and always different, so I hope there will be more.
Rutherfurd, Edward
Edward Rutherfurd writes the best historic novels, always describing a certain area or country. I saw some facts about Egypt he is collecting, so maybe that will be the next one?
And these are the authors who passed away way too early or too long ago.
Austen, Jane
She was only 41 when she died. What great novels could she still have been able to write!!
Powers, Charles T.
He turned 53 but only wrote one novel. 😞
Ruiz Zafón, Carlos
Also just 55. At least he wrote lots of novels before but what could have been ...
Scott, Mary
She turned 90 and wrote lots and lots of novels. However, I would love to see what she would have today about life today.
Shaffer, Mary Ann & Barrows, Annie
73 years old but only wrote the one novel. Or started it, her niece finished it. Still, such a nice novel, I am sure she would have had more in her.
📚 Happy Reading! 📚
Unfortunately, Alice Munro passed away this week at the age of 92. She was a Nobel Prize winner and wrote some great books.
In order to commemorate her, here are some of her wonderful quotes.
"A story is not like a road to follow … it's more like a house. You go inside and stay there for a while, wandering back and forth and settling where you like and discovering how the room and corridors relate to each other, how the world outside is altered by being viewed from these windows. And you, the visitor, the reader, are altered as well by being in this enclosed space, whether it is ample and easy or full of crooked turns, or sparsely or opulently furnished. You can go back again and again, and the house, the story, always contains more than you saw the last time. It also has a sturdy sense of itself of being built out of its own necessity, not just to shelter or beguile you." Alice Munro (Selected stories)
Such a great allegory.
"Life would be grand if it weren't for the people."
I would agree for some part, it would be easier without some of the people but then there are the good ones ...
"The thing is to be happy, he said. No matter what. Just try that. You can. It gets to be easier and easier. It's nothing to do with circumstances. You wouldn't believe how good it is. Accept everything and then tragedy disappears. Or tragedy lightens, anyway, you're just there, going along easy in the world." Alice Munro (Dear Life)
Not always easy but certainly worth a try.
Find more book quotes here.
100 Best Books Written by Women
I often see interesting lists on other blogs and if I like them, I try to share them, as well. This one, I found on Brona's Books @ This Reading Life who had seen it on Paula's blog @ Book Jotter. The list was made by Good Housekeeping and there are a lot of interesting books there. While I don't agree that they all should be on that list (*), there are still quite a few I haven't read yet. 41 so far, plus 17 where I read at least one other book by that author (which I have added in brackets).
1. Yanagihara, Hanya "A Little Life"
2. Austen, Jane "Pride & Prejudice" - 1813 (The Motherhood and Jane Austen)
3. Rooney, Sally "Normal People"
4. Brontë, Emily "Wuthering Heights" - 1887
5. Evaristo, Bernadine "Girl, Woman, Other" - 2019
6. Honeyman, Gail "Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine"
7. Carty-Williams, Candice "Queenie"
8. Alcott, Louisa May "Little Women Series" - 1868-86
9. Ferrante, Elena "My Brilliant Friend"
10. Winterson, Jeannette "Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit"
11. Walker, Alice "The Color Purple" - 1982
12. Smith, Zadie "White Teeth" - 1999
13. Lee, Harper "To Kill a Mockingbird" - 1960
14. Blackman, Malorie "Noughts + Crosses"
15. Ephron, Nora "Heartburn" - 1983
16. Levy, Deborah "Swimming Home"
17. Mantel, Hilary "Wolf Hall" - 2009
18. Patchett, Ann "Bel Canto" (The Patron Saint of Liars - 1992)
19. Atwood, Margaret "The Handmaid’s Tale" (Re-Read) - 1985
20. Munro, Alice "Selected Stories 1 and 2" (Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage" - 2001)
21. Alderman, Naomi "The Power"
22. Smith, Dodie "I Capture the Castle" - 1948
23. Gilbert, Elizabeth "City of Girls"
24. Rubenhold, Hallie "The Five"
25. Tartt, Donna "The Secret History" (The Goldfinch - 2013)
26. Jacques, Juliet "Trans"
27. Brontë, Charlotte"Jane Eyre" - 1847
28. Petty, Ann "The Street"
29. Woolf, Virginia "Mrs. Dalloway" - 1925
30. Lahiri, Jhumpa "The Lowland" - 2013
31. Catton, Eleanor "The Luminaries"
32. Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi "Half of a Yellow Sun" - 2006
33. Dove, Ella "Five Steps to Happy"
34. Eliot, George "Middlemarch" - 1871-72
35. Hurston, Zora Neale "Their Eyes Were Watching God"
36. Mitchell, Margaret "Gone With the Wind" - 1936
37. Satrapi, Marjane "Persepolis. The Story of a Childhood" (F: Persepolis) - 2000
38. Christie, Agatha "And then there were none" - 1939
39. Ali, Monica "Brick Lane" - 2003
40. Smith, Ali "How To Be Both" (The Accidental - 2004)
41. Waters, Sara "Fintersmith" (The Night Watch - 2006)
42. Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft "Frankenstein" - 1888
43. Tyler, Anne "A Spool of Blue Thread" - 2015
44. Morrison, Toni "Beloved" - 1987
45. Wharton, Edith "The Age Of Innocence" (The House of Mirth - 1905)
46. Burnett, Frances Hodgson "The Secret Garden" - 1911
47. Mansfield, Katherine "The Garden Party And Other Stories"
48. Du Maurier, Daphne "Rebecca" - 1938
49. Roy, Arundhati "The God of Small Things" - 1997
50. Shriver, Lionel "We Need to Talk About Kevin" - 2003
51. Didion, Joan "Play It As It Lays"
52. Gaskell, Elizabeth "Mary Barton" (North and South - 1854/55)
53. Jansson, Tove "The Summer Book" (Moominsummer Madness, FIN: Vaarallinen juhannus/SW: Farlig midsommar) - 1954)
54. Gibbons, Stella "Cold Comfort Farm" - 1932 *
55. Egan, Jennifer "A Visit From The Goon Squad"
56. Stockett, Kathryn "The Help" - 2009
57. Atkinson, Kate "Life After Life" (Behind the Scenes at the Museum - 1995)
58. Niffenegger, Audrey "The Time Traveler's Wife" - 2003 *
59. Heiny, Katherine "Standard Deviation"
60. Jones, Tayari "An American Marriage"
61. Levy, Andrea "Small Island"
62. Howard, Elizabeth Jane "The Cazalet Chronicles"
63. Daré, Abi "The Girl with the Louding Voice"
64. Braithwaite, Oyinkan "My Sister, The Serial Killer"
65. Moore, Lorrie "Who Will Run The Frog Hospital"
66. Shields, Carol "Happenstance" (The Stone Diaries - 1993)
67. Tremain, Rose "Restoration" (Music & Silence - 1999)
68. Robinson, Marilynne "Housekeeping" (Gilead - 2004) *
69. Jackson, Shirley "We Have Always Lived In The Castle"
70. Yoshimoto, Banana "Kitchen"
71. Batuman, Elif "The Idiot"
72. Rowling, J.K. "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" - 1997
73. Moyes, Jojo "Me Before You" - 2012 *
74. O’Farrell, Maggie "Hamnet"
75. Chevalier, Tracy "Girl with a Pearl Earring" - 1999
76. Hinton, S.E. "The Outsiders"
77. Highsmith, Patricia "Carol" (The Talented Mr. Ripley - 1955)
78. Spark, Muriel "The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie"
79. Donoghue, Emma "Room"
80. Cusk, Rachel "Outline"
81. Proulx, Annie "The Shipping News" - 2003
82. Murdoch, Iris "The Sea, The Sea" (The Philosopher's Pupil - 1983)
83. Oates, Joyce Carol "We Were the Mulvaneys" - 1996
84. O’Brien, Edna "Girl"
85. Strout, Elizabeth "Olive Kitteridge"
86. Tan, Amy "The Joy Luck Club" - 1989
87. Cather, Willa "My Ántonia" - 1918
88. Barker, Pat "The Regeneration Trilogy"
89. Rhys, Jean "Wide Sargasso Sea" - 1966
90. Carter, Angela "The Bloody Chamber"
91. Fowler, Karen Joy "We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves" (The Jane Austen Book Club - 2004)
92. Allende, Isabel "The House of the Spirits" (E: La casa de los espíritus) - 1982
93. Smiley, Jane "A Thousand Acres" - 1991
94. Homes, A.M. "May We Be Forgiven"
95. McBride, Eimear "A Girl is a Half-formed Thing"
96. Lessing, Doris "The Golden Notebook" - 1962
97. Le Guin, Ursula "The Earthsea Cycle" (The Left Hand of Darkness - 1969) *
98. Byatt, A.S. "The Children’s Book" (Possession - 1990)
99. Clarke, Susanna "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell" - 2004
100. Kingsolver, Barbara "Flight Behaviour" - 2012
As so often with these lists, there are very few international books (only three!) and I always feel sorry for my English speaking friends that they don't get such a broad impact as we do. I know that many of them would like to read more books from other countries but don't have the chance.
I also miss some other great authors, Nobel Prize or winners of other prestigious awards, even English speaking authors. South African Nadine Gordimer comes to mind. Or Pearl S. Buck who wrote great literature about China.
Maybe I should put together a list of non-English books that are worth reading. Mind you, you will find a lot of them already on my Reading List.
Top Five Tuesday was originally created by Shanah @ Bionic Book Worm, but is now hosted by Meeghan @ Meeghan Reads. To participate, link your post back to Meeghan’s blog or leave a comment on her weekly post.
I found this on Davida's Page @ The Chocolate Lady.
"All the highs and lows of over sixty years of Eurovision, from Céline Dion to Dustin the Turkey, and from ABBA to Conchita Wurst: plenty of silly constumes, truly terrible lyrics and all-round unbeatable entertainment.
Since 1956, the Eurovision Song Contest has existed in a parallel universe that continues to beguine and bemuse in equal measure. In this glittering, magical world, a song about the construction of a hydro-electric power station is cutting edge-pop, half a dozen warbling Russian grandmothers make up a band, a song that repeats the word 'la' 138 times is a winner, and Australia is part of Europe.
There has been scandal, too, in the form of an over-long kiss; national outrage in 1976 as a result of the Greek entry's savage indictment of Turkish foreign policy in Cyprus; and a night of near-death in Luxembourg when the floor manager warned the audience against standing up to applaud because they might be shot by security forces."
By the way, my favourites this year was France, followed by Norway. They made #4 and 25 respectively. Shows how much my taste goes with the majority. LOL
Top Five Tuesday was originally created by Shanah @ Bionic Book Worm, but is now hosted by Meeghan @ Meeghan Reads. To participate, link your post back to Meeghan’s blog or leave a comment on her weekly post.
I found this on Davida's Page @ The Chocolate Lady.
"Top Ten Tuesday" is an original feature/weekly meme created on the blog "The Broke and the Bookish". It was created because they are particularly fond of lists.
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.
May is the month of flowers, so I was not surprised about this week's topic.
May Flowers - Pick your own title for this one to reflect the direction you choose to go with this prompt (books with flowers on the cover, flower names in the title, characters whose names are flower names, stories involving flowers/gardeners).
📚 Happy Reading! 📚
P.S. I only noticed afterwards, that I only did five books. Must have mixed it up with Top 5 Tuesday. Sorry.
Tsumura, Kikuko "There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job" (Konoyoni tayasui shigoto wa na/この世にたやすい仕事はない) - 2015
This was our international online book club book for April 2024.
My first impression was, this is a weird book that talks about weird jobs. Some that I never heard about it. A young woman goes from one of them to the next. Jobs that don't seem to require any special experience or talents.
Or is that so? The more we get to know the protagonist, we get to recognize that she has a lot of talents and uses them well to go through her various tasks.
I doubt I would have picked up this novel if I had just come across it in a book shop. And even if I had, despite a pink cover, I don't think the description would have convinced me that this would be a book for me.
But, since it was a book club book, I started and finished it and I can honestly say, it was a nice read.
And - the title is correct, there is no such thing as an easy job.
Comments from members:
The focused on differences between Japanese and Western culture and attitudes to working life.
Only after listening to club members who are more familiar with Japanese culture did I understand the point of the book and why it became popular.
Participating in the discussion added a lot to the reading experience.
From the back cover:
"A young woman walks into an employment agency and requests a job that has the following traits: it is close to her home, and it requires no reading, no writing - and ideally, very little thinking.
She is sent to a nondescript office building where she is tasked with watching the hidden-camera feed of an author suspected of storing contraband goods. But observing someone for hours on end can be so inconvenient and tiresome. How will she stay awake? When can she take delivery of her favourite brand of tea? And, perhaps more importantly - how did she find herself in this situation in the first place?
As she moves from job to job, writing bus adverts for shops that mysteriously disappear, and composing advice for rice cracker wrappers that generate thousands of devoted followers, it becomes increasingly apparent that she's not searching for the easiest job at all, but something altogether more meaningful..."
One of our members recommended this essay: "The Absurdity of Labor in There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job"
#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.
