Tolkien in Trieste

Holidays are also a great time to visit exhibitions. So we drove to Trieste and visited the exhibition about J.R.R. Tolkien. 

Away, again

Oh dear, I haven't posted anything in the last month because I've been extremely busy.

And I've been away. 

To Prague, obviously.

 

And I've visited the wonderful Strahov Library. This book from the early 17th century describes - and depicts - the itinerary of Friedrich von Dohna.

 

Away ...

I've been away.

I spent a few days in ...

 

Austria, of course ;-)

Seeing a book title like this, I just had to order it. 

A shame they had a wine-tasting and not Marillenknödel :-)

And the chocolates are super-delicious!

Really, Penguin, really?

You know I've got a soft spot for penguins...

And I usually like Penguin books. 

But this (taken from Life in Space):

Really? Really?!? This is what you're teaching our kids?

Almost perfect

Imagine compiling a 326 page document in latex and ending up with:

0 errors, 0 warnings, 2 badboxes...

You cannot imagine how these two underfills bother me. But they are in the table of contents and I just gave up on tweaking the toc line spacing. Oh well.

Almost perfect. Almost happy.

What to do Nr. 9

Read Asterix.

RIP, Uderzo.

What to do Nr. 1

Reading, obviously.

These books are currently on my nightstand waiting to be read.

:-D

Don't you just love the smell of freshly printed books in the afternoon?

Especially if you are the author of the book?

The book that you have been working on for years?

:-D

Updates - B

B as books.

I've been reading a lot lately, some books were good, some were average and some ... meh.

- Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster. That was a nice surprise! Easy and entertaining to read albeit a tad predictable. Great writing style and a very likeable main character. I could easily imagine myself writing such letters :-) Thumbs up.

"The world is full of happiness, and plenty to go round, if you are only willing to take the kind that comes your way. The whole secret is in being pliable."

"I've discovered the true secret of happiness, Daddy, and that is to live in the now. Not to be for ever regretting the past, or anticipating the future; but to get the most that you can out of this very instant... Most people don't live; they just race."

- The Daffodil Mystery by Edgar Wallace. A lovely classical mystery with some likable characters and unexpected twists.

- The Mystery of Three Quarters by Sophie Hannah. Another wanna-be Poirot story. While the book starts very very promising with a highly interesting plot, it fades away and becomes increasingly dumb towards the end. I've read it about a month ago and I already cannot remember who the killer was. No surprises, nothing special, nothing memorable. And why can't the Battenberg cake be called by its name? In the age of The Great British Bake Off, we know all the cakes by their names :-)

- The Boy Who Followed Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. Oh, boy... No wonder I got this book for 2 € only. Nothing happens in the first 150 pages, then Tom randomly kills a guy, dresses up as a woman, goes into a gay bar, does not steal the ransom money, which he could, and... that's it. No twists, no surprises, no action, no subplots - no plot, actually. Meh.

- Arsène Lupin, Gentleman Burglar by Maurice Leblanc. Oh, a classic. Needs no description. Pure joy to read. Except one or two stories that I didn't like, the rest is just ... charming.

Reading update

It's been a while since I've written a reading post. In the meantime I've read:

 - Gestatten, mein Name ist Cox. I loved this book as a kid and still quite like it now. It's a shame I've only got the second book in the series so the beginning and the introduction of the characters is missing... But not a bad book at all.

- Doctor in Love by Richard Gordon. Bwahahaha... A true stereotypical and quite hilarious romantic comedy. You can tell that it was written by an actual doctor. So, so enjoyable.

- The Cuckoo’s Calling,  

- The Silkworm and 

- Career of Evil by JK's alter-ego. I liked the first one, the second one was OK, the third was meh at best. The main characters are cool but her books need some good editing before publishing. 

- Simon Reeve's Step by Step. Brilliant. Interesting and just brilliant.

Reading update

So, I've been reading quite a lot lately.

Not because I'm stressed but rather because I'm relaxed :-)

I've read:

1) Turtles all the Way Down by John Green. Loved it. Fresh and young and entertaining and serious and relaxed at the same time.

2) Boccaccio's Decameron. Ooooh, a classic. In a way I'm surprised that I haven't read it yet, although I quite understand now why we haven't read it at school :-) Needless to say, loved it. Such a classic cannot be rated, it's hors catégorie.

3) Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes. Oh, dear. Ooooh, dear. I liked the film but the book is a) nothing like the film, b) boring as hell, c) shallow and empty and d) almost impossible to read. Do I have to say I didn't like it?

4) The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna. Another one of his books that doesn't disappoint. So lovely predictably unpredictibe and amusingly entertaining.

5) Blindness by Jose Saramago. Whooaaa. Disturbing. Thought-provoking. Brilliant.

If you can see, look. If you can look, observe.

6) A Little History of the World or rather Eine kurze Weltgeschichte für junge Leser by Ernst H. Gombrich. This is probably THE one history book that everyone should read. A little unconventional (it turns out it was originally written in 1935! and only slightly revised) but explains history in a way I never heard it. It is Euro-centric and obviously catholic but nevertheless, highly recommended.

Old!

My absence, again, is excused :-)

No wonder I got really interested in history.

PS. Assisi, Assisi, Todi, Spoleto, Perugia, Cesena, Cesena.

Unfair!

We visited the island of Elba and all the time we watched the Montecristo Island.

So I decided to read the Count of Monte Cristo. Appropriately, right?

I went to the local bookstore and the only translation they had (I don't feel like reading the French original) was a shortened version for children and well... ok, I got it.

The book was quite enjoyable until I reached page 142. It has a footnote:

"Till this sentence, the text is, although a bit shortened, a faithful copy of the first part of the famous novel by Alexandre Dumas The Count of Monte Cristo. The end of the first part as well as the second and third parts were omitted by the translator, who also added her own ending, which differs from the original."

I kid you not.

Random thoughts

1. I saw a billboard today announcing the premiere of Bridget Jones's Baby. And I was wondering why they put the ad so soon as the film won't open till September, several months from now ... wait ... ooops!

2. Within one hour and all within a couple of hundred yards from my home I spoke to one of the national best gymnasts (multiple world champion), sat in a meeting with the singer of the nationally most famous rock band, and met probably the most (nationally) known TV presenter. A funny place, my hometown.

3. I decided to follow this year's Bake Off and started with the famous Jaffa cakes. Well, they tasted really delicious.  Their appearance, however, well ... let's not talk about it.

4. Somehow I stumbled upon Glee radio where they only play Glee covers.  24 hours a day. I mean... Seriously? 

5. Reading Kobo Abe, Herman Hesse, Nick Hornby and John C. Parkin. How many books can one read at a time?

Hmmm...

Just watching The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

And reading Green's Paper Towns.

And there I go and buy a book on houseplants.

Must. Do. Something. About. It.

Just for Q's and old time's sake some photos from Everglades.

Everglades, about 10 years ago

An alligator we accidentally ran into

PS. Paper towns are very (too?) similar to Finding Alaska, but since I liked Alaska, I also liked Paper Towns. Even more so.

Reading update

Just a quick recap on the books I've recently read.

Four Colin Dexter novels. I quite enjoy reading them but I just wish he would write about Cambridge and not Oxford so that I would recongnise every street, every bridge and every house.

I've read two further Jo Nesbø novels, including the Leopard. As uncomfortable as it is to read (especially the beginning), I quite liked the location -  a mountain hut in the middle of nowhere in Norway.

I've also re-read several Edgar Wallace novels, just because I have them at home. Ah, the English countryside...

And oddly enough, I read a John Green novel, Looking for Alaska, just because I got it for free in a bookstore. And I must admit I enjoyed it. Maybe just because it was so different from what I read currently or maybe because I miss some teenage immaturity in my life or maybe just because it's a good book. And no, I don't have any photos of Alaska :-)

Some more quotes

"Science is spectral analysis. Art is light synthesis."
Karl Krauss.

"Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing but nobody else does."
Steuart Henderson Britt 

In case you're wondering where I'm getting these deep quotes from - Inspector Morse :-)

Responsibility

A quote from the second Harry Hole novel, Cockroaches:

"You can't run away from responsibility [...] That's how civilisations crumble."

So, so true.

Books, books, books.

To relax my mind, I need to read. So I read a lot. Recently I've read

- Jo Nesbø's The Bat: 
not bad, will surely read some more Harry Hole novels.

- Nick Hornby's Juliet, Naked:
I bought this book ages ago but hated the cover design so much that I never touched it. Surprisingly enjoyable, actually. And someone even recorded You and Your Perfect Life and uploaded it to Youtube. The Naked version :-) 

- Mike Gayle's Turning Thirty: 
Aah, the good old times :-)

-Mike Gayle's Turning Forty:
Hmmm. Kind of depressing, innit? 

What worries me is that when I was 30 and read the Turning Thirty book, I didn't like it. Now I think it's quite enjoyable to read. Now I'm 40 and reading the Turning Forty book. And I don't really like it. Will I find it enjoyable in ten years' time? Hope not. 

Anyway, the reason why I haven't posted much recently is that I'm preparing yet another book myself. This time it's a book for graduate students. A lot of work. A lot.

2016!

Wow, I can't believe I haven't posted anything in 2016 yet. Well, I have a good excuse. I was working really hard to get everything done before ... leaving on a jet plane :-)

I've only been here a couple of days and have already way over 1k photos! It will take me ages to sort them, but here is a sneak peek.

It finally stopped raining after a couple of days so I could make some decent photos.  Oh, did I say I quite like it here :-)