Top Ten Tuesday ~ Top Ten Books I Abandoned

"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 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.

The Last Ten Books I Abandoned 

I hardly ever abandon a book. That's probably because I have a wide range of books I like and don't really touch those I'm not interested in (chick lit, fantasy, science fiction …).

So, I've decided to list the books I would not have finished (probably never even started), if they hadn't been a book club read. I disliked most of them from the beginning but persisted because I always want to be ready for our next discussion. Have I learned anything from those books? Probably not, just that I wouldn't read those authors again. And that is also the main reason I didn't like them. There was nothing to draw from, no education and also no pleasure.

If you compare this list to the one of the books we read, there are really very few that I didn't like.

I still found 11 books but couldn't really exclude one from that list.

Berg, Elizabeth "Open House" - 2000
Fuller, Alexandra "Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight" - 2002
Gruen, Sara "Water for Elephants" - 2006
Ishiguro, Kazuo "When We Were Orphans" - 2000
Kladstrup, Donald & Petie "Wine and War" - 2001
Krasnow, Iris "The Surrendering to Motherhood: Losing Your Mind, Finding Your Soul" - 1997
McEwan, Ian "Atonement" - 2001
Niffenegger, Audrey "The Time Traveler’s Wife" - 2003
Pearson, Allison "I Don’t Know How She Does It: The Life of Kate Reddy, Working Mother" (Working Mum) - 2002
Picoult, Jodi "My Sister’s Keeper" - 2004
Wisner, Franz "How the World Makes Love: And What It Taught a Jilted Groom" - 2009

The Stay Home Reading Tag

Image credit: Reading positions by Kate Beaton (via beatonna.tumblr.com and lectricevorace)

She's done it again. Lectrice-Vorace has a great tag for anyone who loves reading and had to stay at home at the moment: The Stay Home Reading Tag.

How is your reading going while staying home?

Not as good as I would have expected, I can't concentrate too long on a story. Might have to do with hubby being around and not having anything to do, either.

Where have you been reading at home?

Where I've always been reading, sofa, bed, but lately also outside on our new patio furniture.

Best book you’ve read during isolation?

Rand, Ayn "We the Living" - 1936

What’s your favourite feel good book?

Anything by Mary Scott

Book you wish you could buy or borrow from the library?

I have it but I would love for everyone else to be able to read. But it's out of print, not translated and I haven't seen a library where you can borrow it.

Stroyar, J.N. "The Children's War" and "A Change of Regime"

Author you want to shout out during this time?

Orhan Pamuk

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Book Quotes of the Week

"There’s many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good teacher." Flannery O’Connor
True, but if people wouldn't like it, it wouldn't be a bestseller. So, maybe they are good for something.

"My job is not to explain the Turks to the Europeans and the Europeans to the Turks, but to write good books." Orhan Pamuk
One of my favourite authors. Even though he doesn't think that's his job, he fulfils it pretty well. 
 
"Literature is Freedom." Susan Sontag
Amen to that.

"I just got out of the hospital. I was in a speed-reading accident. I hit a book mark and flew across the room." Steven Wright

Find more book quotes here.

Mayle, Peter "A Year in Provence"

Mayle, Peter "A Year in Provence" - 1989

I have read several books of people who left their country (mainly England) in order to settle elsewhere (mainly Southern Europe, France, Spain, Italy).

My favourites there: The Olive Series by Carol Drinkwater and "Driving Over Lemons" by Chris Stewart.

But I had also read some not so good ones and over time, they get a little repetitive. But a friend told me she had read all of Peter Mayle's books about his settling in Provence and they were hilarious, so I decided I'll give it a try.

I liked that book but not as much as the ones mentioned above. The author has a nice sense of humour, his stories about his French neighbours, the handymen, the food, everything is quite interesting. If you like this type of book, read it. He has written more about his life in Provence but, as I've already read so many, I won't accompany him and his wife on their journey.

From the back cover:

"Peter Mayle and his wife did what most of us only imagine doing when they made their long-cherished dream of a life abroad a reality: throwing caution to the wind, they bought a glorious two hundred year-old farmhouse in the Lubéron Valley and began a new life.

In a year that begins with a marathon lunch and continues with a host of gastronomic delights, they also survive the unexpected and often hilarious curiosities of rural life. From mastering the local accent and enduring invasion by bumbling builders, to discovering the finer points of boules and goat-racing, all the earthy pleasures of Provençal life are conjured up in this enchanting portrait."

Top Ten Tuesday ~ Things I’d Have at My Bookish Party

"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 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.

Things I’d Have at My Bookish Party 

(choose 10 things: items, accessories, foods, people (real or fictional), decorations, activities, etc.)

I have never had a themed party, even my kids only had one or two when they were little. We just enjoy having friends over to talk, eat, play games etc. We don't have to dress up in order to have fun.

1. I guess, the main thing I would have is books. That's easy because my house is full of books, you won't find a room without books.
2. Ask people to bring a wrapped book they no longer want and exchange them at the end.
3. Years ago, I bought an aluminiun book cake pan in order to make cakes in the form of a book. I've used it several times for weddings, first communions, confirmations etc. So, definitely a cake like that.
4. I have a stamp that looks like a library card, so I'd use that for place cards.
5. Then there'd be games, I suppose. One I can think of is "Guess who you are". You get the name of an author (or a book) on your back, everyone can read it except you. With asking questions that can only be answered with "yes" or "no", you have to guess your identity.
6. Play a game where everyone writes a sentence without seeing the ones before theirs. Read out as a story in the end.
7. Install a photo booth where people can dress up as their favourite character and take selfies with themselves and their dressed-up friends. Would be nice if Charles Dickens and Jane Austen met, for example.
8. For any writing purposes, have pencils with book themes.
9. Have a table for people to make their own bookmark.
10. Make an album about the party. Use the selfies made by people in the booth. Let them draw and write something about their favourite books or whatever else they might want to add.

The second idea I had to this subject:

Top Ten Authors I’d Have At My Bookish Party.

But what's even more important is the people you invite to your party. In real life, I'd invite all my bookworm friends. But this is fantasy, so I try to think about the authors I would love to have at my book party. First, those that I can't invite because, sadly, they are not with us any longer:

1. Austen, Jane
2. Buck, Pearl S.
3. Dickens, Charles
4. Dostoevsky, Fyodor
5. Eliot, George
6. Ephron, Nora
7. Grass, Günter
8. Mahfouz, Naguib
9. Mann, Thomas
10. Scott, Mary

But then there are some that I'd love to invite that are still around. Wouldn’t it be fantastic, if they attended?

1. Bryson, Bill
2. Follett, Ken
3. Frazier, Charles
4. Kingsolver, Barbara
5. Lawson, Mary
6. Oates, Joyce Carol
7. Pamuk, Orhan
8. Ruiz Zafón, Carlos
9. Schami, Rafik
10. Weir, Alison 

And, last but not least:
Top Ten Fictional Characters I’d Have At My Bookish Party.

1. Jo March from "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
2. Offred from "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
3. Anne Elliot from "Persuasion" by Jane Austen
4. David Copperfield from "David Copperfield" by Charles Dickens
5. Dorothea Brooke from "Middlemarch" by George Eliot
6. Peter Halifax from "The Children's War" by J.N. Stroyar
   
7. Christian Hoffmann from "The Tower" (Der Turm) by Uwe Tellkamp
8. Natasha Rostova from "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy
   
9. Eleanor Harding from "Barchester Chronicles" by Anthony Trollope
10. Regina Redlich from "Nowhere in Africa" (Nirgendwo in Afrika) by Stefanie Zweig
    

Granted, many women but these are some of my favourite characters.

Adjective Order in the English Language

I haven't read the book "The Elements of Eloquence: How to Turn the Perfect English Phrase" by Mark Forsyth but maybe I should.

I happened upon this quote from his book that is interesting to any non-native speaker of English but probably also to any native speaker who wants to know more about their language.

Anyway, the quote is:

"Adjectives, absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun. So, you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that order in the slightest, you’ll sound like a maniac."

Of course, I've looked it up elsewhere and found some more information, so "Google is my best friend" … and they gave me the following list:

Generally, the adjective order in English is:
•    Quantity or number.
•    Quality or opinion.
•    Size.
•    Age.
•    Shape.
•    Colour.
•    Proper adjective (often nationality, other place of origin, or material)
•    Purpose or qualifier.

Beginnings
• Initially
• At first
• To start with
• First of all
• Firstly
• To begin with
• In the beginning

Middles
• Secondly
• thirdly
• later
• then
• afterwards
• at this point
• meanwhile
• next
• after that
• subsequently
• later on
• during this time

Endings
• Finally
• Eventually
• In time
• In the end
• Ultimately
• Lastly

You can never stop learning a language, even your own, and I know that most readers are also interested in language, so I thought more people might be interested in this.

Apparently, the British Council disagrees but I think we all need some sort of guidance when learning a foreign language, so I say, stick to one or the other, most native speakers won't notice anyway. 😉

Happy May!

Happy May to all my friends and readers

New Calendar picture with this
beautiful watercolour painting by Frank Koebsch

"Frühling an der Ahrenshooper Mühle"
"Spring at the Mill in Ahrenshoop"

Corona keeps us from going to many places, so it's a good thing we have the internet. And art. Isn't this a beautiful windmill? Since I grew up in Northern Germany, there were always a couple of windmills in the area and I love them as much as I love lighthouses, my two favourite buildings. Therefore, I'm happy that I can see this windmill for the rest of the month.

April was a slow month but we had lovely weather so we could go and explore the area. I even found a bookshelf that I didn't know of before where you can bring the books you no longer want and find some new ones if you like.

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I have started to incorporate animals and towns of the year in my monthly greetings. This month, I was going to talk about the European Capitals of Culture 2020 this time: Galway, Rijeka. While I've been to the first one, Galway in North-western Ireland (beautiful town), I have never even been to Croatia (Rijeka). I doubt I would have visited those countries this year but it's always nice to dream. Out of the 40 designated cities I have only visited 14 so far but I do love visiting places for their culture.

Galway is known as Ireland's Cultural Heart. It already hosts the Tulca Festival of Visual Arts and several other festivals. Rijeka as the "Port of Diversity" had planned more than 600 events.

Of course, they all had to cancel most of their plans. So, go and visit their websites (links under the names of the towns above). They do show you a lot about their cities, another way to travel there. There is also a European website about the culture capitals in general here.

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While we all would like life to get back to normal as quickly as possible, nature doesn't seem to have that same desire. The air and many rivers are a lot cleaner; animals return to places where they haven't been seen for a long time (like dolphins in the Marmara Sea). So, maybe it's not so bad that we can't travel. Mind you, I wouldn't mind having to go shopping under the present conditions. You wait until there is space in front of a shelf and as soon as you're there picking your groceries someone else comes along and almost touches you. I try to shop as seldom as possible and I know that's not good for the economy but it's better for my health.

* * *

Have a happy May with this beautiful watercolour painting by Frank Koebsch. Stay safe!

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You can find many more wonderful pictures on their website here. 

You can also have a look under my labels Artist: Frank Koebsch and Artist: Hanka Koebsch where you can find all my posts about them.