A shared love of reading ❤

Last week I encountered this couple waiting for their flight back to France. They looked absolutely adorable, so I had to capture them as best as I could. They were both reading fiction, I believe. Too cute, right?

The hundred-year-old man who...

...climbed out of the window and disappeared

By Jonas Jonasson

This book is originally written in Swedish. It is a quirky story about a man who does not want to celebrate his one hundreth birthday with a bunch of oldies and nurses on his nursing home, so he decides to carefully climb out the window into the flower beds - in his slippers, of course - and walk away from the whole celebration.

Now, this is the start of a story so complex and funny you have most likely never seen anything like it. Have you ever wondered what a person can achieve if said person lives to be a hundred years old, by any chance? A century, that is? Well, this guy has done it all...and more. He has played a part in a rather large number of scientific discoveries and historical events during his time. The result is a life so remarkable it is hard to even know where to begin telling about it. If I may, I will simply suggest you sit down with a couple of free hours and a cuppa or two and read it for yourself. Find the hidden geek in you - and enjoy the story!

Here is a teaser from the book:

"The problem now was that Allan, Julius, Benny and The Beauty had one thing in common: an almost total absence of relatives and friends. How were they going to find someone who would shelter a yellow bus with four people, a dog and an elephant?"

from p. 152

More teasers, anyone?
Flukten fra virkeligheten
Should Be Reading

_____________Come change_____________

The Autumn

Go, sit upon the lofty hill, And turn your eyes around, Where waving woods and waters wild Do hymn an autumn sound. The summer sun is faint on them — The summer flowers depart — Sit still — as all transform’d to stone, Except your musing heart. How there you sat in summer-time, May yet be in your mind; And how you heard the green woods sing Beneath the freshening wind. Though the same wind now blows around, You would its blast recall; For every breath that stirs the trees, Doth cause a leaf to fall. Oh! like that wind, is all the mirth That flesh and dust impart: We cannot bear its visitings, When change is on the heart. Gay words and jests may make us smile, When Sorrow is asleep; But other things must make us smile, When Sorrow bids us weep! The dearest hands that clasp our hands, — Their presence may be o’er; The dearest voice that meets our ear, That tone may come no more! Youth fades; and then, the joys of youth, Which once refresh’d our mind, Shall come — as, on those sighing woods, The chilling autumn wind. Hear not the wind — view not the woods; Look out o’er vale and hill — In spring, the sky encircled them — The sky is round them still. Come autumn’s scathe — come winter’s cold — Come change — and human fate! Whatever prospect Heaven doth bound, Can ne’er be desolate.                                                              Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1833)

The first snow arrived yesterday ❤

The awe of a book collection

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A free short story or two, anyone?

I found this amazing link to some of Neil Gaiman's short stories:

http://www.openculture.com/2011/12/neil_gaimans_free_short_stories.html

I have not tried all the links, so I am not sure if they all works, but it is definitely worth a try for those of you who like Gaiman's work!

You can also find a fun song sung by Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer here, if you want to.

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At the bottom of the article they posted one of Gaiman's New Year's Eve messages - and I had to re-post it here as it is so beautifully put:

"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art – write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. May your coming year be a wonderful thing in which you dream both dangerously and outrageously. 

I hope you will make something that didn’t exist before you made it, that you will be loved and you will be liked and you will have people to love and to like in return. And most importantly, because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now – I hope that you will, when you need to, be wise and that you will always be kind. And I hope that somewhere in the next year you surprise yourself."

I hope all of you have done some of these things in the past year, and that you will keep doing them in the years to come. Best wishes to you all ❤

Ocean and ocean... Any resemblance here?

I love this song. It is beautiful, haunting - and today it reminded me of one of my new books! Though, I should probably say it reminded me of the title and cover of one of my new books, namely "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" by Neil Gaiman. I bought this in hardcover edition last time I was home, but have not started reading it just yet. Gaiman is one of my favourite authors, and I want to save it for a little while. Do any of you ever do that with a long-awaited book? Simply put it on the table or nightstand for some time before you read it - a place where you can keep glancing at it and feel that little spark of anticipation?

Never judge a book..

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Yeah.