I finished Dead Souls, which brings my finished book count to very impressive 2! (Kidding of course.) But I am very happy still, because this means I'm 1/6 through my Russian Literature challenge for this year, and it's also the first chunkster I read this year (and it's, like, 10th of January only).
After that I tried to get into The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, but Packing for Mars just continued glaring at me with its shiny cover with the astronaut on it, so in the end I thought "sod it!" and gave in to the call of the space exploration. It's so good!
The books I read on Thursday: Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol, Packing for Mars by Mary Roach, Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
Pages read on Thursday: 165 (50+105+10)
Books finished so far: 2
What do my cats think about the books at hand:
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| Robert expresses his opinion on The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and thinks I should read Packing for Mars instead. I am happy to oblige. |
Flavour of the day: Hmm a tough one... I'd say that herb-crusted oven salmon with cheesy cauliflower-broccoli gratin I had for lunch. Followed by whipped cream-raspberry jam pancakes. (Yep, I'm living the life.)
I really enjoyed The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Flavia was a bit of a card. But you've got to read what your heart (or your cat), tells you to read!
ReplyDeleteI think I will enjoy The Sweetness too, it was just the case of another book drawing my attention more at that moment :) I have the three first Flavia books so I intend to get the first one done soon. Thanks for stopping by!
DeleteThat happens to me all the time, I tend to have multiple books on the go because something else will catch my eye. But I think book-a-thons can be good for that. A book I read today I'd had for ages and only finally just read and another I'd been reading for a while as well.
DeleteI'm really enjoying your cat reaction photos! Usually read-a-thon updates are not very exciting to read, especially if you have several participants in your feed, but cats is a nice touch! Cats make things awesome :) Keep it up! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteThere isn't a thing that a cat photo doesn't cure! The whole Internet knows that :D I know the daily updates can be a bit dry, but for me they are also motivating to write and they keep me continuing the Bout of Books, so maybe often they are written as much for bloggers themselves as for readers of the blog. But of course, a photo adds a bit to the post and makes it easier to read as well :)
Two is definitely impressive when one is a chunky Russian classic! I'm still working myself up to start reading Russian - I think I'll start in February (it means buying a book first, though!).
ReplyDeleteWhich book are you planning to read first? I'm not even sure which one to take next, my copy of War and Peace should come in next week though.... (What a commitment that will be!) Although since I picked 6 books, reading one in every two months would be all nice and balanced :))
DeleteHehe, my cat is so very like this. She has pretty good instincts when it comes to books, I think. How was Dead Souls? I've heard all excellent things, but haven't managed to find it in either of my local bookshops! Also YAY MARY ROACH. I love a woman who isn't afraid to ask the questions we REALLY want to hear about - like how the hell space toilets work. :D
ReplyDeleteDead Souls was completely something else than I expected. It was highly satirical, funny, with some over-the-top comical characters and very interesting language (at least in my Estonian translation - I really am unsure how all these specific things translate into English...), plus some lovely Russian countryside and atmosphere in general (ya know, foods and beverages).
DeleteHave you read Packing for Mars? I learnt A LOT about how space toilets work (plus ton of other stuff), and I agree and this is why I also loved this book - she didn't shy away from anything (including watching a porn movie for the sake of "science" aka the book).
I would consider I week in which I read two books quite excellent :) I really should join Bout of Books sometime to dedicate a week to extra reading -- wouldn't have worked this week as my husband and I were lost in the Game of Thrones DVDs, but the more I watch, the more I want to read the books because books are always better than TV or movies -- and your recommendation is definitely helping tip the scales!
ReplyDeleteA week-long readathons work really well for me, they are not overly high-pressure (like 24-h ones), but at the same time they motivate me to pick up a book instead of doing some other things more often. I think if I was you, I'd give the first Martin book a try and if you like it then consider continuing. The first one is not the longest of them and is easy to follow because there are not that many characters included yet! :)
DeleteGood to know!
DeleteCongrats - 2 isn't bad at all! I'm thinking of having a weekend of nothing but reading, sipping tea, and eating chocolate to catch up with my reading. It sounds a lot more fun than it does healthy ;)
ReplyDeleteSuch a great photo!
Thanks, Lucy. The weekend of reading, hot beverages and nice snacks is the best thing ever, in my world! :)
DeleteLOL Robert. AND wow your food sounds good... I have chicken taco chili for lunch and dinner yesterday, which I'm okay with only because this batch came out particularly good, and we had really good chips to go with it.
ReplyDeleteMy copy of Packing for Mars came! I'm going to try to read big chunks of it this weekend, I'm positive I'll enjoy the paper copy a lot more than the audio.
I hope you will enjoy the print copy. I have problems with concentrating when listening audiobooks anyway, but the worst thing was when I attempted to listen to a Bill Bryson book once - it was just so packed with all kinds of information and detail that I decided this was not a good choice, and I think it would have been a similar experience with the audiobook of this one (for me).
DeleteI love Russian Literature!! Especially Russian Classics!! I've read Dead Souls ages ago and liked it!! What did you think of it?? I was a Russian language major in college and loved reading Russian novels as well as learning the language. :-)
ReplyDeleteA couple of days ago, for the Introduce Someone to Your Favorite Genre challenge on Bout of Books 9.0 I chose Russian Classics as one of my favorite genres. I selected the following three novels for this challenge:
1. The Master & Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (One of my all time favorite books ever written.)
2. A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov (Another one of my all time favorite books ever written.)
3.Queen of Spades & Other Tales by Alexander Pushkin
I haven't read *that* much Russian literature, but I did take a course on Russian classics in uni (I was studying Estonian myself), and from there I started reading more of them. The Idiot is probably the closest to my heart (I'm planning to re-read it this year). I did enjoy Dead Souls - did you read it in original language? I think this is one of those books that really shines when reading in original, although my Estonian translation was also pretty decent.
DeleteThe Master and Margarita is also one of my all-time favourite books! I just re-read it in the end of 2012 :)) I remember reading A Hero of Our Time (or Meie aja kangelane, as my version was titled) when in high school, I remember some things but not a whole lot, so a re-read of that is maybe also in order. I haven't read a whole lot of Pushkin, but I want to! Thanks for the recommendations :)
Unfortunately, I didn't read Dead Souls in its original language... Although, it would have been ideal to do so.
DeleteI should also probably re-read The Master and Margarita as it has been awhile for me.
Thank you for following my book blog. I appreciate it!
My own Russian-skills are almost non-existent so I can't read Russians in original language either. But I bet it would be quite a different experience :)
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