keep a list of books I've read and write entries about them

I’m doing this on librarything.com now :)

Last book on this list but not the last book I read was ‘The Kite Runner’. I ought to have read it in English but my mother already had it in Dutch so I just read it in Dutch. We had to read it with the Literaturecommittee I’m a member of. I liked it, though not as much as the mass of people (it’s a bestseller as you probably know) likes it. It’s good but not great. I was touched by the book and that suprised me. It contained alot of feeling. What I disliked slightly were the cliches that were in there, especially near the end. That was a pity. The writer however is talking a lot about cliches as well and I think he did it on purpose. He believes a cliche is good if it is a good cliche and if it is written in a good style despite his teachers words. So he puts in cliches and in some way he proved to be right since he sold millions of copies and good criticism.

One of the last books I read was ‘the Sheltering Sky’ by Paul Bowles. It’s a great book, especially if you love cultures, if you love travelling. I do. I could smell and feel the story. The clash of cultures and having to cope with life and death. I started to collect good quotes from books. One of the quotes from ‘The Sheltering Sky’ is this one; (most famous one)

“Because we don’t know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, an afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you can’t even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four, five times more, perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps 20. And yet it all seems limitless.”

This book made me understand how it is to be old and to become demented. How slowly it goes, how strangly. Every nurse working in a senior’s home, working with Alzheimer’s patients should read this, as well as every son, every daughter of dementing parents. It’s literature

I’m not sure, but I think that after I read ‘Snow White and Russian Red’ it was ‘boekenweek/bookweek’ in the Netherlands, which means that you get a small book for free (this year written by Geert Mak – called ‘de brug’/’the bridge’) when you buy one by a Dutch writer. I bought ‘Twee Koffers Vol’ by Carl Friedman (a pseudonym) and ‘Hersenschimmen’ by Bernlef. ‘Hersenschimmen’ happened to be in the top 10 of the most Dutch popular books of all time. So far I’ve read 6 out of 10 from that top. ‘Nooit Meer Slapen’ was in there two. W.F. Hermans was in their twice in fact. Anyway. ‘Twee Koffers Vol’ was also good, about being Jewish and developing you identity I guess. Hmm. It reminded me of my foster brother. I miss him.

After ‘Nooit Meer Slapen’ I red a book by a Polish writer, recommened by my Polish Literature Teacher, called ‘Snow White and Russian Red’. It’s about the thoughts and actions of a Junkie, written in such a speedy style it reflects the protagonist perfectly. It is very famous in Poland and translated in many languages. It reminded me a bit of Trainspotting. I quite liked it. Hurray!

Okay, so now other books I read these past weeks. After the dutch book ‘de grot’ I read ‘Nooit Meer Slapen’ (never to sleep again?) by W.F. Hermans. It’s good, written in a typical W.F. Hermans style who is one of the best writers the Netherlands has ever had. The story is about a young man who studied for years and now finally is going on an expedition to Norway to do research with some norwegian friends. He questions himself a lot and in the desolated place of his research has to face himself and fight against himself. With the death of his friend he realises that his desire to become anything with geology is death as well, that it probably never existed in the first place. (crappy description which does not sound like the book at all)

I admit, I haven’t kept up with this. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you the amount of work I got upon me from university! Well anyway, I’m hopefully of to study French in Lille next month! I read about three or four more books since the last one I wrote about in here and I will start with the one I finished today because I loved it so so so much. It’s to kill a mockingbird by Harper Lee and it is great. That is probably well-known by all of you who read this since it won the pulitzer prize in 1960 and was voted “Best Novel of the Century” in a poll conducted by the Library Journal (USA). I could not put it aside for two days while I need to finish 4 essays and one presentation by Thursday. This book about the world of children and the world of adults, seen from the point of view of children; about racism, american struggles for equality, life in alabama – is great. It made me in some way think about my own childhood, my own brother, and growing up. It makes you remember how it was to be a child and how hard it is to be humane. This book is great because it enables you to see through a child’s eyes once again and enables you to do so without cliches or anything of that sort. READ IT.

Another famous Dutch Writer. Again the style of writing is short and simple; not as sceptical and sarcastic as Gimmick! A very well-built story. I also read Vertraging (Delay) of Tim Krabbé – the two books have quite some resemblances. Themes of both books are for example: lost (and old) love, disappearance and ill-fate (should I say it like this?)
The way stories and lives come together and mix with each other is fascinating. The ending fascinates me. The themes fascinate me. The whole book does. There is some sort of tension in this book, as well as in Vertraging (Delay) that covers everything.

I liked this. I read it in Dutch (my motherlanguage) so I was able to read it in 1 day. It was very easy lecture, yet very interesting. Literature actually. Written in what I sometimes consider a typical Dutch Style; simple, short, sometimes hard, critical, sceptical and yet full of feeling.