SaraPepparkaka

Hello! I think you'll like it here- but your TBR pile isn't going to shrink.

By the way, has anybody ever read anything by a writer from Andorra? My Trusted Local Library didn't have anything, and I'd rather not BUY a book if it isn't something I'd normally read..

New forum looks new.. It'll be great once I get used to it. Three more books read, after a succesful raid to the library. Terry Pratchett- "Sourcery", Lily Prior -"Ardour" and Lisa Cach- "Dating without novocaine". Now, everyone knows which book I enjoyed the most. The others were.. OK. Lily Prior kept turning up on all kinds of recommendation sites for me, but I didn't fall for this book at least. I got another one at the same library visit, so I'll give that one a go as well.

I read a book that I've had on my shelf for some time. Remember last year (or was it the year before) I read "The knife of never letting go" by Patrick Ness, and thought it was the most wonderful book I'd read in a loong loong time. And it ended with the mother of all cliffhangers? Well, I got around to buying the next book pretty soon after that, but when I started reading it, I didn't like it much, so I left it. Well, I started again with "The ask and the answer", and now I could read it. I even thought it was kind of good. Way way too much action, but somewhere in between I could see something of that I loved so much with "The knife of never letting go". It says on the back cover it's a trilogy, but I can't decide if I'll look for the third book. And a Swedish mystery, by Anna Jansson, "Fr

Now, Selma Lagerl

I've never tried a Swedish novel in Finnish.. but the other way round usually works , though lately I tend to read Finnish books in Finnish. I've also never tried to read a Swedish novel in English, so I'll take your word for it.. On to books read, then! "Caipirinha med D

Sorry, no recollection of a book like that. I've never read Max Lundgren either, but now I might out of curiosity. What would be considered mandatory reading to learn Swedish.. yes, I definately have to consider this one. If you didn't like "Smilla", then more of Peter H

Strawberries!

Did you read the Mikael Niemi book? I liked it very much, but it's a few years since I read it. Well, if you give it to your dad you can borrow it again. Niemi's other books aren't as great, but this one is worth a read in my opinion. Why not "Chocolat"?

I don't remember that we read that many books, like Vinay said it was mostly texts provided in the textbooks. Much of that was Finnish and Swedish classics, but you don't really get what's great with a book if you only read like 10 pages from it, taken from the middle of the book somewhere. We'd read 2-3 books per year and do reports on those. As I remember it, you could pretty much choose what you liked from a long list. I'd always read most of the books on the list, and I didn't see the logic that they were chosen with. Mostly contemporaries, very little classics. But given that in the classroom there'll be someone like me, who has read most everything there is in the school library, and someone like my husband, who has read a grand total of 3 books in his whole life (and he read those after meeting me..), I understand that it is difficult to find something that suits us all. Much easier to concentrate on grammar. For the languages I read we never read entire books, but I remember we had a lot of newspaper material on interesting subjects like politics, gender issues, preservation of wildlife and such. I really enjoyed that. No, it's my Mom I have to thank for my habit of reading. She worked in a library when I was 7-14 years old. She'd never give explicit recommendations, she'd just say: oh I suppose you'll find something in that shelf there, and when I had found something she'd give little hints if she thought I'd like the book or not. Or she'd say, help me to put these new books in the shelf and you get to look through them and be the first to borrow them if there's something you want to read.

Just finished with "City of thieves" by David Benioff.

Oh Poppy, hilarious!

Oh, but both "The Pillars of The Earth" and "Neverwhere" are excellent books! First books, and then (if something is left over) comes food and rent and other unnecessary things!

Why is it that books translated from French to Swedish never do well in the process? I suspect that the dislike I had for Assia Djebar's " So vast the prison" has something to do with the translation. Maybe not everything, but I seem to recall other examples of this. Marguerite Duras, for example, her books also really suffer when translated to Swedish. Her book, L'amour, is one of my favourites when written in French, but not at all so great in Swedish. (Yes I can read French if I struggle a bit and use a dictionnary, I'm not so good at speaking it, though..) This was, of course for my UN challenge, for Algeria.

Edited to add a book for Algeria.

This is a form of "reading around the world" challenge. I was inspired by the book I got through BCF's Secret Santa last Christmas (2009, that is..), which was "Persepolis" by Marjane Satrapi. I decided to count the country where the writer was born, and I found a list of UN member states and decided that was to be my list of countries. Edit: .. and I always intended to list the books here too, not just on Librarything. A bit late but here they are.

Afghanistan - A thousand splendid suns by Khaled Hosseini Albania - La niche de la honte by Ismail Kadare Algeria - So vast the prison by Assia Djebar Andorra Angola - Jaime Bunda - secret agent by Pepetela Antigua and Barbuda - At the bottom of the river by Jamaica Kincaid Argentina Armenia Australia - Fighting Ruben Wolfe by Markus Zusak Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil The Zahir - Paulo Coelho Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Penelopiaden by Margaret Atwood Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad Chile - Inés of my soul by Isabel Allende China - Beijing coma by Ma Jian Colombia - Love in the time of cholera by Gabriel García Márquez Comoros Congo, Democratic Republic of the (Congo-Kinshasa) Congo, Republic of the (Congo-Brazzaville) Costa Rica Côte d'Ivoire Croatia - Katt i Warszawa by Slavenka Drakulic Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt- The Yacoubian building by Alaa Al-Aswany El Salvador Eritrea Estonia - The misadventures by the new Satan by Anton Tammsaare Ethiopia Fiji Finland- Linnunaivot by Johanna Sinisalo France- L'Echappée belle by Anna Gavalda Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany - Die Teufelsbibel by Richard Dübell Ghana Greece Grenada Guatemala Guinea, Republic of Guinea, Republic of Equatorial (Equatorial Guinea) Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Honduras Hungary- Liquidation by Imre Kertész Iceland India - Q&A by Vikas Swarup Indonesia Iran - Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi Iraq Ireland - The perfect man by Sheila O'Flanagan Israel Italy- Stål by Silvia Avallone Jamaica Japan - After dark by Haruki Murakami Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Korea, Democratic People's Republic of (North Korea) - Nordkorea: nio år på flykt från helvetet by Eunsun Kim Korea, Republic of (South Korea)- The ancient garden by Hwang Sok-Yong Kuwait Kyrgyzstan - Face to face by Chyngyz Aitmatov Laos Latvia Lebanon - Samarkand by Aamin Maalouf Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico- Un dulce olor a muerte by Guillermo Arriaga Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco- Confidences à Allah by Saphia Azzedine Mozambique Myanmar (Burma) Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Zealand - Lagunen by Janet Frame Nicaragua Niger Nigeria - "Half Of A Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Norway- "The Redeemer" by Jo Nesbo Oman Pakistan Palau Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal - Tårkommissionen by Antonio Lobo Antunes Qatar Romania Russian Federation - Den stulna drömmen by Alexandra Marinina Rwanda Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa Spain- Shadow of the wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón Sri Lanka Sudan - Minaret by Leila Aboulela Suriname Swaziland Sweden- Svampkungens son by Marie Hermanson Switzerland Syria Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia - Le trezième disciple by Claude Kayat Turkey - The prophet murders by Mehmet Murat Somer Turkmenistan Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: Taste for Death by P.D.James United States of America Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnam Yemen - I am Nujood, 10 years old and divorced by Nujood Ali Zambia Zimbabwe- Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah

An update on my reading: "Love in the time of cholera"- Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Very well suited for my challenge (to read a book by an author from all UN member countries). "The Yacoubian building" - Alaa Al-Aswany. Egyptian writer, for my challenge but also a good read. "If nobody speaks of remarkable things" by Jon McGregor. Poetic language, but a bit slow for my taste. "Stalinin lehm