Shakespeare, William "Hamlet"

Shakespeare, William "Hamlet" - 1599-1602

I am not a big fan of reading plays. I think they should be watched, not read. Preferably in a theatre. However, since we don't have a good one nearby, and certainly not one that plays classics in English, I am determined to read some of the classics that I really would like to know.

"Hamlet" is one of them. You always hear about the Danish Prince, the Skull, "To be or not to be", Elsinore, Ophelia, Rosenkrantz & Guildenstern etc. etc. But you never know the whole story until you have seen the play or read the story.

Well, I made it. A fascinating story. Quite complex. I am sure I will have to read it again to fully comprehend it. And again. And hopefully I will be able to watch it one day.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"There is arguably no work of fiction quoted as often as William Shakespeare's Hamlet. This haunting tragedy has touched audiences for centuries.

Hamlet is the story of the Prince of Denmark who learns of the death of his father at the hands of his uncle, Claudius. Claudius murders Hamlet's father, his own brother, to take the throne of Denmark and to marry Hamlet's widowed mother. Hamlet is sunk into a state of great despair as a result of discovering the murder of his father and the infidelity of his mother. Hamlet is torn between his great sadness and his desire for the revenge of his father's murder."

Photo ABC

I am a member of a photo group where we get a prompt for every day and have to take an appropriate picture. Because we had the alphabet one month, I decided to do a book theme.

I always added either the link to my blog or to the books. I have decided to post a picture every week so my booky friends can enjoy them, as well.
 
U is for ... U is for ... Utopian (and dystopian) literature

 

  

All the utopian/distopian books I read can be found here.

Orsenna, Erik "Grammar Is a Sweet, Gentle Song"

Orsenna, Érik "Grammar Is a Sweet, Gentle Song" (French: La grammaire est une chanson douce) - 2001

An interesting book. A different book. A grammar book. A story.

An interesting story that explains grammar not only to children but also to learners of the French language. I have no idea how the translation compares because grammar is not the same in every language and especially English misses many of the different kind of tenses the French have, for example.

Still, a beautifully written story about two kids who relearn their own language. Lots of plays with words, lots of background information. I liked this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in languages. A very creative story, written with a lot of imagination. It also has some lovely illustrations.

I read this book in the original French.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"At the heart of its message is an impassioned plea for the magic and power of words. Jeanne, the tough-minded ten-year-old narrator, and Thomas, fourteen, are traveling to America on an ocean liner to visit their mother when a violent storm sinks their ship and tosses them up on an island. They are unhurt, but the shock of the experience leaves them without the ability to speak. Taken into the care of Monsieur Henri, an elderly islander, Jeanne and Thomas discover that the island is unlike any place they've ever been. There is the Word Market, where Monsieur Henri visits the Poets' and Song-Writers' Corner to see if they have any rhymes for sweet and mom. At town hall, pairs of words are married by the mayor. And Jeanne sneaks off to the Vocabulary of Love Shop, where a woman whose husband has left her wants to buy "a word that will make him understand how hurt I am, a mighty word that will make him ashamed." A celebration of language in all its forms, Grammar Is a Sweet, Gentle Song will delight confirmed word-lovers and inspire the uninitiated with the pleasures of the spoken and written word."

Book Quotes of the Week

"No matter what his rank or position may be, the lover of books is the richest and the happiest of the children of men." J.A. Langford

"'Tell me what you read and I’ll tell you who you are' is true enough, but I’d know you better if you told me what you reread." François Mauriac

"There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves." Will Rogers

"How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book." Henry David Thoreau, Walden

"Books have a way of making you homesick for a place you've never been to." N.N.
[If anyone can tell me the originator of this quote, I'd be very thankful and would happily include the name.] 

Find more book quotes here.

Photo ABC

I am a member of a photo group where we get a prompt for every day and have to take an appropriate picture. Because we had the alphabet one month, I decided to do a book theme.

I always added either the link to my blog or to the books. I have decided to post a picture every week so my booky friends can enjoy them, as well.

T is for ... Travel.

All the books I read that belong only remotely to the category "travel" can be found here.

Bryson, Bill "Notes from a Small Island"

Bryson, Bill "Notes from a Small Island" - 1995

In preparation of Bill Bryson's next book "The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes from a Small Island", I just had to reread his first book about my beloved island, Great Britain. It had been far too long that I had picked it up.

I should remember this and will give you this peace of advice: Always pick up a travel book by Bill Bryson when gloomy. It is the best remedy against depression, even if he describes a place I miss so much that it might have started the depression. He is better than any psychologist. Will go and get more of his travel books because I realized that I haven't read all of them, yet.

I have talked about this book before here.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

From the back cover: 

 

"After nearly two decades spent on British soil, Bill Bryson - bestselling author of The Mother Tongue and Made in America - decided to return to the United States. ('I had recently read,' Bryson writes, 'that 3.7 million Americans believed that they had been abducted by aliens at one time or another,so it was clear that my people needed me.') But before departing, he set out on a grand farewell tour of the green and kindly island that had so long been his home.

Veering from the ludicrous to the endearing and back again, Notes from a Small Island is a delightfully irreverent jaunt around the unparalleled floating nation that has produced zebra crossings, Shakespeare, Twiggie Winkie's Farm, and places with names like Farleigh Wallop and Titsey. The result is an uproarious social commentary that conveys the true glory of Britain, from the satiric pen of an unapologetic Anglophile."

I love all of Bill Bryson's books. Find a link to my reviews here.

Ghosh, Amitav "Flood of Fire"

Ghosh, Amitav "Flood of Fire" (Ibis Trilogy #3) - 2015

After reading "Sea of Poppies" two years ago, I was happy that the second book "River of Smoke" had already been published and I could just carry on reading. Then I was so disappointed to find that the third book had not even been written, yet.

Well, it was worth the wait. I probably should have reread the first two first and then carried on with the last one but I just couldn't wait. Characters, scenes, events did come back but I would have liked a little more reintroduction in some cases. I was also happy to see what happened to some of the characters from "Sea of Poppies" that were hardly or not at all mentioned in "River of Smoke" so that it all came back together again. I was not happy to learn that the author abandoned the thought of carrying on further with the story as he had intended after the second book. What a shame. I do hope he will write more, though, because I do love his style which I already admired in "The Glass Palace".

Just  a fantastic read. Mesmerizing, captivating. So much more history of a part of the world I don't know much about. I don't think we went into much detail in our lessons about the opium war because I certainly didn't remember that but I know a lot about it today.

If you are really interested in the history of this part of the world or if you just would like to read a good adventure story or like a captivating tale about a lot of people, this trilogy is for you. Enjoy.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"It is 1839 and tension has been rapidly mounting between China and British India following the crackdown on opium smuggling by Beijing. With no resolution in sight, the colonial government declares war.

One of the vessels requisitioned for the attack, the Hind, travels eastwards from Bengal to China, sailing into the midst of the First Opium War. The turbulent voyage brings together a diverse group of travellers, each with their own agenda to pursue. Among them is Kesri Singh, a sepoy in the East India Company who leads a company of Indian sepoys; Zachary Reid, an impoverished young sailor searching for his lost love, and Shireen Modi, a determined widow en route to China to reclaim her opium-trader husband's wealth and reputation. Flood of Fire follows a varied cast of characters from India to China, through the outbreak of the First Opium War and China's devastating defeat, to Britain's seizure of Hong Kong."

This is also a book about books. Quite a few are mentioned, either because the characters are reading them or because they quote from them.

Defoe, Daniel "Robinson Crusoe"
Goldsmith, Oliver "The Vicar of Wakefield"
Haywood, Eliza "Love in Excess"
Richardson, Samuel "Pamela"
Sterne, Laurence "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman"
Voltaire "Zadig"

You can find my reviews of other Amitav Ghosh novels here.