Why do I take the time to read?

Sometimes life spins out of hand and you only have time for the necessities work, eat and sleep, then it is nice to have a hobby where you can disappear for awhile, even if it is just for ten minutes. A good book can stop time and help recharge your batteries.
Josefine

A Place called Here

Did you ever see the movie PS I love you, or maybe you read the book? That is how I found Cecilia Ahren’s book A Place called Here. It is an interesting book about where lost things go when they disappear and about a woman who has to loose herself before she finds her way home to what she already has.
The book is a strange mix of this worlds issues and another dream world somewhere else. It took me some time to get into the book, because I had expectations of it that it didn’t fulfil. It is one of those books you have to pick up without any expectations and be open for anything to happen. I would not recommend this book to the traditional reader who doesn’t want to cross the limit of unnatural things, but otherwise it was a good read.
Josefine

My recommendations: The Horse Whisper by Nicholas Evans

Moving books

It is when you're moving, you realise how many books you actually own. I am in the process of doing just that. Even though I only lived here for a year I have collected numerous books which all now have to go into boxes and be transported to my new apartment. Some of them I have released through bookcrossing.com, but the majority will follow me. This is mostly because I haven’t read them yet and the others I like to save and at one point re-read.
It is nice to always have a vast selection of books to my disposal, just not when I am moving!
Josefine

My recommendations: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

More books released

I have released two more books through Bookcrossing.com. As I am cleaning out my bookshelf, (See why in coming posts) I have released two more books today. One in Swedish (Anyone but Him, Sheila O’Flanagan), which no one might pick up, but I didn’t want to keep it and then Adriana Trigiani’s trilogy about Big Stone Gap. Both were released on the London Underground, hopefully someone will pick them up and enjoy them as much as I do. If you found it give me a note on the website or leave me a comment here what you think in general about these books.
Josefine

My recommendations: Anyone but him, by Sheila O’Flanagan

Ernesto Che Guevara

With the release of the new movies about Ernesto Che Guevara and the new release of his own accounts of what happened Che Guevara is once again popular. I am myself currently reading Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War.
Another good book about the hero (villain?) is the biography Che by the Swedish journalist and writer Björn Kumm. It is a great biography about Che’s life from the beginning to the tragic end. The book has a nice balance of information to keep the book going without the often-common mistake of biographers to try to squeeze in too many things. I haven’t seen it in English yet, but who knows, with the new movies and increasing interest in Che Guevara maybe a translation is on its way.
Josefine

My recommendations: Son of the revolution by Liang Heng & Judith Shapiro

Reading Children’s books

I have taken up re-reading some of my children’s book. It is quite interesting to read them again and compare the experience. Peter Pan, The Wizard of Oz and Alice adventures in Wonderland, were all stories I loved as a child and have re-read as an adult. The words are the same, but their meaning is different. I see sub-stories I never thought about when I was young. Quite fascinating.
Now pick your favourite children’s book from when you were a child and re-read it.
Josefine

My recommendations: A little princess by Frances Burnett

Bookcrossing – released book

I have just released my first book with bookcrossing . I left Jane Sigaloff’s book Name and Address Withheld on the westbound District Line train towards Wimbledon yesterday (Saturday). It is the first book I have released into the wild and I am excited to see what is going to happen to it. I will follow its tracks around the world very closely on the website and I hope who ever picks it up will have as much pleasure of it as I had.
Now go catch it!
Josefine

My recommendations: Sweetland stories by E.L. Doctorow