The last day of summer

The other day we had what I believe was the last day of this summer. At least it felt like it to me. That day it was entirely possible to sit outside on the verandah, in the sun, with a cuppa tea and a book - still in summer clothing, I should point out - and soak in the sun. I do not think this will be possible again, not here, not until spring arrives with warm summer rays next year. In a way it is a shame, but autumn has its own pleasures just waiting to be re-discovered: crackling fires, hot chocolate, cozy blankets, homemade cookies, plenty of new books arriving in the book stores...to name but a few. I cannot not be looking forward to that, right?

So, here is a picture from that loveliest of days:

Only thing missing is my cat!

Old prints/drawings

I would like my library to become a place where you can find unexpected things - and answers to your questions. Maybe one day it will look like that antique, labyrinthlike and slightly chaotic place you imagine a professor's den to be: a place overflowing of surprises you would never have imagined.

I mentioned in an earlier blog post that I love old prints or drawings of plants, insects and animals. Some of them are truly beautiful - plus, quite often they give you at least something of scientific value. That be the correct name of the item in question, naming of structural or skeletal parts, some latin to add to your vocabulary...perhaps simply a better understanding of the diversity of nature.

 The pictures certainly are a step in the right direction of that professor's den, don't you think?

Drawings of spiders.
Found in an antique store in Prague.
I love the details!

A bird and a flower. Prints from the 1800's sometime.
Found in an antiquarian in Oslo.
Not sure when the colour came to. 

A picture of a dragonfly I have had for a while.
This is where the idea came from.

Nowadays I find myself flipping through stacks of pictures (in addition to the usual stacks of books, of course) in second hand stores. Who knows where my next picture is waiting to be found!

A thought experiment - and a teaser

Today I am cheating a little. As I am still reading "Beautiful creatures", I thought I would give you a teaser from a book I read some time ago.

"The end of Mr. Y" by Scarlett Thomas left me mind boggled. It really plays with strange and exceptional theories, and it is written as a huge thought experiment. It really left me wondering - what if all this was even remotely possible? What if it was possible to leap through other people's minds, experience their memories? That sure would change the way we view the world.

So, here is my teaser:

"   'And this is all for a magazine article? ' 

    'Yeah. I do it pretty intensively. For a month I'll live and breathe, say, Samuel Butler. Then I'll find some link from him to take me to the next piece. The column is called Free Association. I started with the Big Bang about three years ago.' 

               Burlem laughs. 'And what did that lead to?'

    'The properties of hydrogen, the speed of light, relativity, quantum mechanics, probability theory, Schrödinger's cat, the wavefunction, light, the luminiferous ether - which is my personal favourite - experiment, paradox...'

    'So you're a scientist? You understand all that stuff?'

     I laughed. 'God, no. Not at all. I wish I did. I probably should'nt have started with the Big Bang, but when you do, that's what you get. At some point I went from artificial intelligence to Butler, and now here I am with Lumas. While I'm working on him I'll probably decide on what link I'm going to follow through next so I can order all the books. I might do something about the history of photography, actually, following through from "The Daguerreotype". Or I might follow it through to the fourth dimension, and that Zollner book, although that takes me back to science again.'  " 

"The end of Mr. Y" by Scarlett Thomas

More teaser's:
Flukten fra virkeligheten
Should Be Reading

A book igloo

I just love this idea. Imagine sitting inside the igloo, completely surrounded by books - that is a place for dreams and discoveries. It is just lacking some blankets and pillows and cozy lights... Cannot really figure out how they made this - some of it looks rather haphazardly stacked to me. Quite an achievement to pull this off!

Miler Lagos' Book Igloo

A teaser from Beautiful creatures

I am so far really enjoying the start of the Caster Chronicles series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. The characters are so cute, there is magic and a curse - what more to ask for? I am really looking forward to the next books...and to the movie, too!

" I felt like I had sucked the air out of a giant balloon, like my brain wasn't getting enough oxygen. 

  Clouds were more interesting, the lunchroom less disgusting, music sounded better, the same old jokes were funnier, and Jackson went from being a clump of grayish-green industrial buildings to a map of times and places where I might run into her. 

  I found myself smiling for no reason, keeping my earphones in and replaying our conversations in my head, just so I could listen to them again. 

  I had seen this kind of thing before. I had just never felt it. "

More teaser's:
Flukten fra virkeligheten
Should Be Reading

Treading on dreams

I heard this wonderful poem the other day. Do try reading it aloud - it is most charming.

 " Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light, 
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths 
Of night and light and half-light, 
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams; 
I have spread my dreams under your feet; 
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams. "

William Butler Yeats

I wish I knew more about poetry - I am completely mystified as to where to look for great poems and poets. I have never heard of this particular poem before, and that just shows how frightfully ignorant I am.

A fun weekend at Oslo book festival!

Last weekend there was a book festival in our capital, Oslo. There were several tents filled with books and authors just waiting to be discovered! I obviously wanted to go, but as it is an hour drive from us to Oslo I knew I was in for spending the whole day there. Which, by the way, I was already inclined to do...! My boyfriend, however, was much less inclined to do just that - so the quest was on to find something for him to occupy his hours with. Fortunately, there was a food festival just around the block from the book tents, so that was easy going. He was quite happy to drop me off at the book festival before he went off in the persuit of delicacies down at the food market!

This is my dream scenario, you know - loads of books stacked in high piles on every available surface, authors to meet and get signed copies of, new book stores to explore, discussions, shows... - and (almost) all the time in the world! Needless to say - I loved it!

Firstly, I wandered past this little antiquarian shop. I have never seen it before, so, as you might have already guessed, I spun around on a dime and went straight in. It was big, had all these lovely old books and was covered in owls! Yep, that is right - owls. Porcelain owls, wooden owls, glass owls, paper owls, pictures and drawings of owls - the place was covered in them. They were standing in between the books, hanging from the ceiling, lying in baskets, on the walls...quite astonishing! I was (and am) completely mesmerized. Believe me, I could have spent hours in there.

So colourful! Cannot wait
to read them!

As it happens, though, I was a good girl. I found three books I just had to take with me home and two old printings. I love old printings or drawings of animals, birds or plants. Anything accurate - like old biology posters from schools. These two were of a bird and of a flower - both had been a part of old books once upon a time. I will get them framed and hang them up in my library. I will post pictures later.

The rest of the time was spent roaming about between the book tents. I queued up and got several authors to sign my books - Victoria Hislop, Cecilia Samartin, Jennifer Cody Epstein and Linda Eide. Great fun to meet them! They were all so nice and even took their time to chat a little. I did not have a camera, so sadly I have no pictures of them. That is something I should remember the next time!

Sadly, I could only find one
of these in English

I also met this old man when I was waiting for Victoria Hislop. He said he was so old that he no longer had a home, and so did not have the space to store books anymore. Instead he collected signatures. He had this bunch of nice little blank cards which he got people to sign on. He was ever so cute - he just kept on talking and talking as he showed me the signatures he had got on the festival so far. An adorable man.

Last stop of the day was down on the food market where I found my boyfriend. We sat on a bench there, munching away on a trout wrap and a deer burger with some apple cider samples. Quite tasty, all of it. We stopped by my grandma on our drive home. I gave her a book I got signed for her about the history of Oslo itself by Nils Petter Thuesen, and I told her all about our day over some tea and coffee ♥