A little something from life and a few books I would make you read if I could.
Ok, let's start of with the books. This is not a "best" list, this is four books I love because I actually changed a little bit upon reading them. Such books are rare, and I have always ment that a writers number one priority should be the act of telling a story, and worry about the world and metaphysics on their own time. There are of course exeptions to this rule, theese are some books that prove this. Books that exeede the formula, without ever leaving it.
1: Patrick Suskinds(I hope my spelling is ok here..) Perfume. It's such a dark and mezmerizing fairytale, like nothing else I have ever read. And it leaves you feeling that maybe there is some small flutter of magic in the world, maybe the exeptional and bisarre might be possible after all. It's, in very short, a story of a murder, and about growing up beeing strangely gifted and then, in the end, very, very obsessive. So dark and so beautiful, a true work of art, which will amaze and shake you upon reading. So get to it will you.
2: Douglas Couplands Girlfriend in a coma. The first time I read this one I was alone at my parents house, housesitting for a few weeks in a very short but stunningly hot summer. I was out on the porch, the sun was baking(weather that actually excuses the use of a shawl is not common in northern Norway), I was drinking coke and red wine mixed together(a drink that also needs a weather oriented excuse...), wearing shades and enjoing myself. So I read this book, and it was as if some small pieces within myself fell into place. It starts out, as so many of Couplands beautiful works, with young people, doing all the stuff young people do, while trying to find some meaning to it all. Richard, our main charachter, has sex for the first time, with his long time gilfriend Karen, it's winter, everything is seemingly normal. Then Karen falls into a coma, after confessing to having had visions of a dark future. And for seventeen years Karen stays in her coma. Life should probably have gone onwards for her friends, but it somehow dosen't, they are trapped, going nowhere slow, and the world slowly unravels for each and everyone of them. And then, Karen, along with the rest of them now in her thirthies, wakes up. So far it's a slightly tragic, very human, story, a story about not beeing at home in ones own life, but that's before Coupland upps the stakes. Because now the world ends, and as a reader you start suspecting that Coupland aims for more than recognition and humorus grief for life lost to society and boredom this time. This time he's going for the truth, straight at the core of what the world seems to be missing a bit more for everyday that passes humanity by. And it's harrowing, it's terrible, it's so much death and sorrow, and such a sacriface that must be made. But there's miracles to, and it made me laugh and cry, not many other writers can put me in that place, and none in the way Coupland does. Read it, it will scare you, and ring true, for all it's incomprehencibility. Just read it will you.
3: Xinran Xues Sky burial is one of those books that has such a captivating story that it needs nothing more to be breathtaking. But of course it's got more, beautiful scenary, mystery and desperation, a glimpse into a culture totally unknown for all but a few. In short it's the story of a chinese woman, whos husbond dissapears in Tibet in 1958. This leads her to travel to Tibet to find out what happens. She stays and searches for thirthy years. A true story, no less, written by the woman behind Voices in the night. A captivating story about love, so diffrent from other romantic writings. It will make you cry and feel wonderful in the same time. So please give it a shot, you will be better off for it.
4: Douglas Adams The hitchhaikers guide to the galaxy(the whole volume). This one should not need an explanation(please don't wach the movie and think you understand the book, I loathe you people). It's just amazeing, and it's one of those few books that shape you're humor wether you awknowlege it or not. Read it! You will have tons of fun, and who dosen't want that?
We all miss you very much Douglas Adams, you left this world far to soon, luckily you left us a lot of laughter.
So that's the books then, four good things to light a love of litterature with. What else is new then? Not much indeed, I'm still happy, going on content actually, enjoyed a pecan pastry just now, coffee on the side. Finally gaining some weight again, thanks to long nights in good company on my coach/bed(I'm a student, remember), watching movies(and my beloved show of the season, Dexter, my preccious neat monster...) and snacking, such a lovely feeling. Say what you will about skydiving and horsebackriding in the sunset, sometimes all you need is a coach, some good movies, snacks, and the perfect person to enjoy it all with. All it takes to make me very happy indeed. Yes. it's sickening, I know, and I'm thinking far less about the troubles of the world theese days to. I know it's temporary, life always catches up with us all in the end, but right now I'm happy about not caring, happy about making my own small corner of the world into a warm, locked nest, smelling faintly of incence and late night sigarettes. That feeling of having something entirely private, belonging only to you and one other person, not secret, but private, your thing, is a feeling like none other. And I have every intention of enjoying it, with no worry or regret.
Because, in the end, that's all anyone can do. We don't know what hand faith will deal us on the next turn, none of us do, all we can do is play what we're given and hope for the best. Time flies, my hair is growing long again, I'm not counting days or weeks anymore. Exept in one case. Friday the thirteenth of october a year had passed since I went out into the world on my own. One whole year has flied by, I am a year older, and maybe, with luck, a little bit wiser.
Miramuffin says: Take that chance, ask that question, face your fears. Cause life is too short, the days are to few, the moment's too soon gone and turned into memories. It's your life, and life is love, so live to love it. Pick up a kitten you meet outside and rediscover just how little emotion the eyes of a cat reveal, look into them and think about the fact that the world is big, and there's just so much we don't know. Look into the eyes of a person and rediscover how much of human language that does not involve talking, think about how small the world is getting and the enormous amount of knowlege every humanbeeing posesses. See the sun behind the rain, the stars behind the clouds, and if you're lucky and lives far north like me, watch the northern lights dance across the night sky. The world is beautiful still.
1: Patrick Suskinds(I hope my spelling is ok here..) Perfume. It's such a dark and mezmerizing fairytale, like nothing else I have ever read. And it leaves you feeling that maybe there is some small flutter of magic in the world, maybe the exeptional and bisarre might be possible after all. It's, in very short, a story of a murder, and about growing up beeing strangely gifted and then, in the end, very, very obsessive. So dark and so beautiful, a true work of art, which will amaze and shake you upon reading. So get to it will you.
2: Douglas Couplands Girlfriend in a coma. The first time I read this one I was alone at my parents house, housesitting for a few weeks in a very short but stunningly hot summer. I was out on the porch, the sun was baking(weather that actually excuses the use of a shawl is not common in northern Norway), I was drinking coke and red wine mixed together(a drink that also needs a weather oriented excuse...), wearing shades and enjoing myself. So I read this book, and it was as if some small pieces within myself fell into place. It starts out, as so many of Couplands beautiful works, with young people, doing all the stuff young people do, while trying to find some meaning to it all. Richard, our main charachter, has sex for the first time, with his long time gilfriend Karen, it's winter, everything is seemingly normal. Then Karen falls into a coma, after confessing to having had visions of a dark future. And for seventeen years Karen stays in her coma. Life should probably have gone onwards for her friends, but it somehow dosen't, they are trapped, going nowhere slow, and the world slowly unravels for each and everyone of them. And then, Karen, along with the rest of them now in her thirthies, wakes up. So far it's a slightly tragic, very human, story, a story about not beeing at home in ones own life, but that's before Coupland upps the stakes. Because now the world ends, and as a reader you start suspecting that Coupland aims for more than recognition and humorus grief for life lost to society and boredom this time. This time he's going for the truth, straight at the core of what the world seems to be missing a bit more for everyday that passes humanity by. And it's harrowing, it's terrible, it's so much death and sorrow, and such a sacriface that must be made. But there's miracles to, and it made me laugh and cry, not many other writers can put me in that place, and none in the way Coupland does. Read it, it will scare you, and ring true, for all it's incomprehencibility. Just read it will you.
3: Xinran Xues Sky burial is one of those books that has such a captivating story that it needs nothing more to be breathtaking. But of course it's got more, beautiful scenary, mystery and desperation, a glimpse into a culture totally unknown for all but a few. In short it's the story of a chinese woman, whos husbond dissapears in Tibet in 1958. This leads her to travel to Tibet to find out what happens. She stays and searches for thirthy years. A true story, no less, written by the woman behind Voices in the night. A captivating story about love, so diffrent from other romantic writings. It will make you cry and feel wonderful in the same time. So please give it a shot, you will be better off for it.
4: Douglas Adams The hitchhaikers guide to the galaxy(the whole volume). This one should not need an explanation(please don't wach the movie and think you understand the book, I loathe you people). It's just amazeing, and it's one of those few books that shape you're humor wether you awknowlege it or not. Read it! You will have tons of fun, and who dosen't want that?
We all miss you very much Douglas Adams, you left this world far to soon, luckily you left us a lot of laughter.
So that's the books then, four good things to light a love of litterature with. What else is new then? Not much indeed, I'm still happy, going on content actually, enjoyed a pecan pastry just now, coffee on the side. Finally gaining some weight again, thanks to long nights in good company on my coach/bed(I'm a student, remember), watching movies(and my beloved show of the season, Dexter, my preccious neat monster...) and snacking, such a lovely feeling. Say what you will about skydiving and horsebackriding in the sunset, sometimes all you need is a coach, some good movies, snacks, and the perfect person to enjoy it all with. All it takes to make me very happy indeed. Yes. it's sickening, I know, and I'm thinking far less about the troubles of the world theese days to. I know it's temporary, life always catches up with us all in the end, but right now I'm happy about not caring, happy about making my own small corner of the world into a warm, locked nest, smelling faintly of incence and late night sigarettes. That feeling of having something entirely private, belonging only to you and one other person, not secret, but private, your thing, is a feeling like none other. And I have every intention of enjoying it, with no worry or regret.
Because, in the end, that's all anyone can do. We don't know what hand faith will deal us on the next turn, none of us do, all we can do is play what we're given and hope for the best. Time flies, my hair is growing long again, I'm not counting days or weeks anymore. Exept in one case. Friday the thirteenth of october a year had passed since I went out into the world on my own. One whole year has flied by, I am a year older, and maybe, with luck, a little bit wiser.
Miramuffin says: Take that chance, ask that question, face your fears. Cause life is too short, the days are to few, the moment's too soon gone and turned into memories. It's your life, and life is love, so live to love it. Pick up a kitten you meet outside and rediscover just how little emotion the eyes of a cat reveal, look into them and think about the fact that the world is big, and there's just so much we don't know. Look into the eyes of a person and rediscover how much of human language that does not involve talking, think about how small the world is getting and the enormous amount of knowlege every humanbeeing posesses. See the sun behind the rain, the stars behind the clouds, and if you're lucky and lives far north like me, watch the northern lights dance across the night sky. The world is beautiful still.
posted by Miramuffin at 3:09 PM
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