perjantai 14. joulukuuta 2012
sunnuntai 2. joulukuuta 2012
You'll never be lonely when you like to read
I spent the weekend with my family and that was good, even though I now feel more tired than ever. My lovely, wild and noisy family... There are things they talk so much about and then there are things they do not mention at all. My dad has cancer. I found out in the summer after my exhange year. My parents did not want me to worry while I was travelling and it seems that they do not want us to worry now either. My dad refuses to talk about it. And I understand.... But it makes me feel so tired! I have never been this tired in my life.
When I worry too much, or when I feel lonely, or when there is no-one to talk to I read. That has always been my strategy, my way to survive. You'll never be lonely when you like to read. (You can find that in Goodreads!) That is why I became so happy when I found the slides from the last lesson. I watched http://www.ted.com/talks/what_we_learned_from_5_million_books.html and it was funny. The best part was, of course, the fact that Google has decided to digitize so many books! I am wondering now how they are going to select the books that will be digitized? There are so many books in the world... They said in the clip that we are loosing our interest in history. Is it so? It was a good point that the year 1950 is important to people who used to live then but maybe not so much for people who were not even born yet. If they do digitize some books from the 1950's they have to select books that have become classics already.
Since I was not able to join the lesson on Friday I would like to answer some of the questions that were treated in the lesson. The first question was:
Do you have a favourite genre? Umm... I guess I do not have a favourite genre but I do have some favourite books from different genres. For example, one of my favourite books of all time is Wuthering Heights. From the same genre is Amor de Perdição (1862) written by Camilo Castelo Branco. I have a special relationship with this book: it was the first time I fell in love with a Portuguese romanticist. (Even though some people say that Camilo was actually not a romanticist but a realist That is exactly what is so fascinating about him!) I love Edgar Allan Poe (The Fall of House of Usher was somehow similar to "The Yellow Wallpaper", wasn't it?) and Goethe. So I have to admit that there is something that I love about in Romanticism, the darkness and the mystery. The feeling that there is something wrong with the world. (I guess everybody has that feeling sometimes?)
I like to read about mythologies and fantasy worlds. Many people find that somehow childish but I loved The Lord of the Rings (before the films!) and I still do. I admire Tolkien's imagination! Thanks to Harry Potter I learned how to read in English in primary school. It was impossible to wait until the Finnish translations were ready. I got my first Kalevala in primary school and I loved it. That time I also read Sinuhe for the first time.
I read all Jostein Gaarder's books when I was in middle school and Sofies verden is still one of my favourites. Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being is great and so is Mikhail Bukakov's The Master and Margarita, Tolstoi's Anna Karenina... How can you select your favourite books anyway? There are houndreds of amazing books in the world! Last year I found a new favourite genre! I started to read African literature written in Portuguese. Mia Couto became my favourite writer from Africa. He is a genius!
Do you enjoy the classics?
Yes I do! But there are some exceptions. In Finnish literature there are some classics I just hate like Sillanpää's Hurskas kurjuus (1918). I mean how can a book be THAT depressing? I have a certain limit for bedbugs and dirt. (I forgot this book in Greece when I was reading it and I had to by a new one for library! In my opinion, they could have survived without it as well!) Have you ever read Finnish Realism?
Have any books made a significant impact on you?
Many books have had an impact on me, but now I remember one book that helped me through the culture shock once back in Finland after living in Brazil. If you have not read Ranya ElRamly's Auringon asema (2002) yet, you should! It is a book about a girl who does not know where she belongs to. Her father is Egyptian and her mother is Finnish. The book is a story about a young woman who does not know who she is and does not know her place in the world. (She will find out her place eventually.)
Do you generally reflect upon your reading?
Yes I do, as you already know if you have read this blog at all! This is the first time that I am doing it in English.
I see now that I have been reading too many articles for my thesis and too few books just for fun! This autumn has been one of the hardests I have ever had. I feel I have drown myself in work with too many courses and the thesis and I have totally forgot to enjoy reading. I cannot wait for Christmas holidays!
P.S. I totally forgot to write about poetry and that is a shame! Maybe next time...
When I worry too much, or when I feel lonely, or when there is no-one to talk to I read. That has always been my strategy, my way to survive. You'll never be lonely when you like to read. (You can find that in Goodreads!) That is why I became so happy when I found the slides from the last lesson. I watched http://www.ted.com/talks/what_we_learned_from_5_million_books.html and it was funny. The best part was, of course, the fact that Google has decided to digitize so many books! I am wondering now how they are going to select the books that will be digitized? There are so many books in the world... They said in the clip that we are loosing our interest in history. Is it so? It was a good point that the year 1950 is important to people who used to live then but maybe not so much for people who were not even born yet. If they do digitize some books from the 1950's they have to select books that have become classics already.
Since I was not able to join the lesson on Friday I would like to answer some of the questions that were treated in the lesson. The first question was:
Do you have a favourite genre? Umm... I guess I do not have a favourite genre but I do have some favourite books from different genres. For example, one of my favourite books of all time is Wuthering Heights. From the same genre is Amor de Perdição (1862) written by Camilo Castelo Branco. I have a special relationship with this book: it was the first time I fell in love with a Portuguese romanticist. (Even though some people say that Camilo was actually not a romanticist but a realist That is exactly what is so fascinating about him!) I love Edgar Allan Poe (The Fall of House of Usher was somehow similar to "The Yellow Wallpaper", wasn't it?) and Goethe. So I have to admit that there is something that I love about in Romanticism, the darkness and the mystery. The feeling that there is something wrong with the world. (I guess everybody has that feeling sometimes?)
I like to read about mythologies and fantasy worlds. Many people find that somehow childish but I loved The Lord of the Rings (before the films!) and I still do. I admire Tolkien's imagination! Thanks to Harry Potter I learned how to read in English in primary school. It was impossible to wait until the Finnish translations were ready. I got my first Kalevala in primary school and I loved it. That time I also read Sinuhe for the first time.
I read all Jostein Gaarder's books when I was in middle school and Sofies verden is still one of my favourites. Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being is great and so is Mikhail Bukakov's The Master and Margarita, Tolstoi's Anna Karenina... How can you select your favourite books anyway? There are houndreds of amazing books in the world! Last year I found a new favourite genre! I started to read African literature written in Portuguese. Mia Couto became my favourite writer from Africa. He is a genius!
Do you enjoy the classics?
Yes I do! But there are some exceptions. In Finnish literature there are some classics I just hate like Sillanpää's Hurskas kurjuus (1918). I mean how can a book be THAT depressing? I have a certain limit for bedbugs and dirt. (I forgot this book in Greece when I was reading it and I had to by a new one for library! In my opinion, they could have survived without it as well!) Have you ever read Finnish Realism?
Have any books made a significant impact on you?
Many books have had an impact on me, but now I remember one book that helped me through the culture shock once back in Finland after living in Brazil. If you have not read Ranya ElRamly's Auringon asema (2002) yet, you should! It is a book about a girl who does not know where she belongs to. Her father is Egyptian and her mother is Finnish. The book is a story about a young woman who does not know who she is and does not know her place in the world. (She will find out her place eventually.)
Do you generally reflect upon your reading?
Yes I do, as you already know if you have read this blog at all! This is the first time that I am doing it in English.
I see now that I have been reading too many articles for my thesis and too few books just for fun! This autumn has been one of the hardests I have ever had. I feel I have drown myself in work with too many courses and the thesis and I have totally forgot to enjoy reading. I cannot wait for Christmas holidays!
P.S. I totally forgot to write about poetry and that is a shame! Maybe next time...
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