Top Ten Tuesday ~ Top Favourite Book Quotes

"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.

Favourite Book Quotes
(these could be quotes from books you love, or bookish quotes in general)

Word cloud made with WordItOut

This is a topic close to my heart. As many of my book friends know, I publish some quotes every Friday (well, most Fridays) and then add them to my long list of quotes here.

Therefore, it was not easy to find the Top Ten from those hundreds of quotes I've collected so far. I'm sure I missed some of the best ones while going through the list.

There is one, though, that I had to think about right away because it is my all-time favourite by Jorge Louis Borges:
"I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library."
It's probably time for me to read one of his books.

One of my favourite authors, Jane Austen, has said a lot about reading, as well. Here's a quote I totally subscribe. I have a house of my own with my husband and we do have an excellent library, even if I do say so myself.
"I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! - When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library."

And another of my favourite authors, Orhan Pamuk, said
"I read a book one day and my whole life was changed."
I think this has happened to many of us, even if it was changed into being an avid reader.

I also like this one by P.J. O'Rourke:
"Always read something that will make you look great if you die in the middle of it."
Made me laugh but it's got something.

And then there's one, by one of the cleverest presidents the United States ever had, Barack Obama:
"Reading is important. If you know how to read then the whole world opens up to you"
This is so true. If we keep on reading, we keep on education ourselves. The amount of stuff I learned through reading is a lot larger than anything I learned at school, even though I learned a lot there, as well.

This one by Luisa Moats goes out to all the teachers in the world who passed on their knowledge to the next generation. I remember my very first teacher. She gave me a great start in life and who knows where I would be without her. I felt extremely honoured when she had a baby and gave her the same name as mine.
"Teaching reading IS rocket science."

Imagine a house without windows! I feel the same as Horace Mann does, we definitely need books in every house. I feel sorry for everyone who would have the possibility but still doesn't have anything to read in the house.
"A house without books is like a room without windows."

St. Augustine is right. The world IS a book and we can travel wherever we want with very little money and effort.
"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page."

And who wouldn't agree with Lailah Gifty Akita. I can't remember the last time I was bored. The same went for my children, if they had no idea what to play, they selected a book.
"How can you be bored? There are so many books to read!"

And, last, but not least, a quote by William Feather. Good books are great friends, they are there for you whenever you need them.
"Finishing a good book is like leaving a good friend."

Sanders, Ella Frances "Lost in Translation

 

Sanders, Ella Frances "Lost in Translation. An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World" - 2014

I recently read that a linguaphile is a person who loves language and words. They can be interested in many different things such as learning to speak several different languages or simply nerding out about words in general.

I think they definitely go together. You just want everyone to partake in your wisdom you acquired by learning those languages. LOL. I certainly nerd out everyone in my environment and thoroughly enjoy it.

So, a book like "Lost in Translation" is just the right one for me. I saw words I know well like "gezellig" from the Dutch = The feeling of butterflies in your stomach, usually when something romantic or cute takes place. Mind you, the Dutch also use it in the same form as the Danes use "hygge". Or "Kummerspeck" from German, literally meaning "grief-bacon". It's excess weight we gain from emotional overeating. And "Ubuntu", meaning "I find my worth in you, and you find your worth in me." More or less human kindness. While this is a Bantu word and I don't speak that language, I've learned this word through my Esperanto life, just another reason to learn the international language. And "Tsundoku", from the Japanese, which means you leave a book unread after buying it. This, of course, I know because I tend to do that, as well. Another word from my native language you might like is "Kabelsalat", literally "cable salad", it describes a mess of very tangled cables, as one can imagine when one hears the word.

These are just a few of the many interesting words the author has put together and illustrated with her beautiful drawings. A great book for any language nerd.

From the back cover:

"Did you know that there's a Finnish word, PORONKUSEMA, meaning the distance a reindeer can travel before needing to rest?

Or that in Germany they have the very handy KUMMERSPECK: literally, grief-bacon, the weight we gain from emotional overeating?

Ever wished there was a word to convey the time it takes to eat a banana (approximately 2 minutes)? No sweat, in Malay it's PISANZAPRA?

This delightful compendium celebrates the words from across the globe that remains stubbornly - tantalizingly - not quite translatable."

P.S.: Don't confuse this with the following, though that is also brilliant:
Croker, Charlie "Løst in Tränšlatioπ. Misadventures in English Abroad" (Lost in Translation) - 2006

Book Quotes of the Week

Word cloud made with WordItOut

"A book may be compared to your neighbour; if it be good, it cannot last too long; if bad, you cannot get rid of it too early." Henry Brooke
I never thought of that before but a good comparison. Luckily, I have great neighbours at the moment.

"The great American novel has not only already been written, it has already been rejected." Frank Dane
That's probably true for many great novels.

"I love the world of words, where life and literature connect." Denise J Hughes
So do I. And I guess so does anyone who reads this blog.

Find more book quotes here.

Collister, Linda et al. "Great British Bake Off: How to Bake"

Collister, Linda; Berry, Mary; Hollywood, Paul "Great British Bake Off: How to Bake: The Perfect Victoria Sponge and Other Baking Secrets" - 2011

A while ago, we had a TTT topic "Books that made me hungry". This brought up the discussion that we should probably post a few cookbooks from time to time.

It just so happens that one of my favourite shows has started again this week: The Great British Bake-Off. I love everything about it, the people most of all, the humour that they bring, the cakes that are all so wonderful, even the ones that seem a disaster.

The book is just as great. I already have a cookbook from Mary Berry (might review it another time) but here she - together with Linda Collister and her sidekick, Mr. Hollywood - gives more hints and tips to perfect baking. Like, how to make the perfect shortcrust. There is everything from sweet cakes, great pies, perfect bread. Everything is explained in a simple and easy way to copy, the pictures give an added bonus, so you can see what it should look like. I haven't counted the recipes but I am sure you can bake something new every day for a whole year and not repeat yourself.

There are chapters about cakes, biscuits and teatime treats, bread, pies and savoury pastry, tarts and sweet pastry, patisserie, puddings and desserts, celebration cakes along with a whole page of conversion charts.

Of course, I also have some other GBBO books but this was my first one and is giving some great beginner's tips.

If you haven't seen the series, yet, and can watch it, give it a go, even if you don't bake. And if you love it, like I do, and want to see more, there's always "An Extra Slice" by the fabulous Jo Brand. Every Friday.

From the back cover:

"This delightful cookbook takes you through the baking challenges from the second series of the Great British Bake Off and shows you how to achieve baking perfection. Throughout the book, Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood are on hand with practical tips to help you bake perfect cakes, biscuits, breads, pastries, pies and teatime treats every time, as well as showing you how to tackle their 'technical challenges', as seen on the show.

There are more than 120 baking recipes in this book, including traditional British bakes and imaginative twists using classic ingredients, as well as the best contestant recipes from the series. There is plenty to challenge keen bakers here, from brandy snaps to elaborate pastries, pavlovas to iced celebration cakes, and with a sensuous and yet practical design and full-colour, step-by-step photography, this really will become the baking book that you will turn to for years to come."

Top Ten Tuesday ~ Books On My Autumn 2020 TBR

"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.

Books On My Autumn/Fall 2020 TBR 

(or spring if you live in the Southern Hemisphere)

I don't know when I'm going to read the next books on my TBR list because it's so huge but I thought I'll list the ones that I either bought most recently or that came up in a challenge or the book club. So, these are my books I will try to read in the next three months (among others, of course, LOL). 

 

Camus, Albert "Les Justes" (The Just Assassins) - 1949

Dumas, Alexandre "Le comte de Monte-Cristo" (The Count of Monte Cristo) - 1844-46

Fatland, Erika "Sovietistan: Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan" (Sovjetistan. En reise gjennom Turkmenistan, Kasakhstan, Tadsjikistan, Kirgisistan og Usbekistan) - 2014

Grass, Günter "Grimms Wörter. Eine Liebeserklärung" (Autobiographical Trilogy #3) [Grimms Words - A Declaration of Love] - 2010 - read, but it hasn't been translated (yet)

Harris, Joanne "A Cat, a Hat and a Piece of String" - 2012

Metalious, Grace "Peyton Place" - 1957

Patchett, Ann "The Dutch House" - 2019

Rutherford, Edward "Sarum: the Novel of England" - 1987

Stroyar, J.N. "Becoming Them" (The Children's War Book 3) - 2017

Whitehead, Colson "The Nickel Boys" - 2019

Gilbreth, Frank + Gilbreth Carey, Elizabeth "Cheaper by the Dozen" and "Belles on their Toes"

Gilbreth, Frank + Gilbreth Carey, Elizabeth "Cheaper by the Dozen" and "Belles on their Toes" - 1948/1950

This is one of the stories where I've seen the movie(s) first. Clifton Webb as Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Myrna Loy as his wife Lillian, they portrayed great parents of a dozen children. Can't imagine what life must have been for them but it seems just very funny in the story.

The same in the book that was written by two of their children, Frank and Elizabeth. They only talk about the love in the family. Of course, they mention that money was always more a rarity than a rule but it sounds as if they didn't miss anything.

Both the parents are scientists and they work on methods how to do anything more efficient. They train young people to work in certain jobs and try out all their findings on their children. As an Esperanto speaker myself, I loved it when they mentioned that their father also wanted them to learn the international language.

Anyway, a hilarious story with lots of love. A feel-good novel. And, by the way, I didn't even try to watch the one with Steve Martin, I'm sure It's too slapstick-y for me.

From the back cover:

"'Dad had enough gall to be divided into three parts.' Dad was Frank B. Gilbreth, to the world a distinguished innovator in scientific factory management, and to his family of six boys and six girls a lively, unpredictable and wholly beloved autocrat.

Their house in Montclair, New Jersey, was a sort of laboratory for the elimination of waste motions - 'motion study' as the elder Gilbreth called it. The children made excellent, if occasionally unwilling, guinea pigs.

Only a motion-study expert could have coped with their temperamental Pierce Arrow (nicknamed 'Foolish Carriage'). But Dad found no difficulty in blowing all three horns (one electric, two of the bulb variety) as he stepped on the gas, steered madly through traffic, puffed on his cigar, cuffed a noisy youngster in the back seat, and bellowed, 'Road hog, road hog,' at the unwary.

The annual trip to their summer home in Nantucket, Massachusetts, was always fraught with drama. They inevitably caused a sensation when they passed through a small town, and were once taken for an entire orphanage on an outing. Stops were, of course, frequent and once when one of the twelve got left behind, the loss was not discovered for several hours.

Democracy was religiously practiced in the Gilbreth family through the medium of the family council. There was the matter of the dog, for instance. Dad firmly believed that 'any pet which didn't lay eggs was an extravagance that a man with twelve children could ill afford.' But the vote was twelve to one, with Mother abstaining, and the dog was added to the general bedlam.

The Gilbreths astounded the Nantucket natives (who considered the Gilbreth homestead - a pair of lighthouses with a cottage squeezed between - a must stopping place for visiting tourists), paralyzed the Montclair schools, and routed the visiting psychiatrists. Their high jinks are faithfully reported by two of the famous dozen in this uproarious book."

Book Quotes of the Week

Word cloud made with WordItOut

"If you cannot say what you are going to say in 20 minutes you ought to go away and write a book about it." John Cuthbert Moore-Brabazon
Many people should take this to heart before boring the world out of everyone.