Thursday, May 24, 2012

Lighthouse & Ocean (global reading challenge #18)



Our local library recently had a book sale, and when looking through the books on offer, i checked for books that looked interesting and are written by authors from countries i haven't read books from yet since a while. That's how i arrived in Peru with Sergio Bambaren, and in Sweden with Inger AlfvĂ©n.

I knew already that after reading Open City, it would be difficult to find a book that is as engaging - and Sergio Bambaren is probably the full counterpart with his very optimistic and esoteric open-your-heart and connect to the world philosophy that is the base of the book The original title of his book isn't in Spanish, though, but in English, and gives an idea of the mood and style: "The Guardian of the Light - Tales of a Lighthouse Love". In German, they turned that to: "The Lighthousekeeper's Dream". I read it to the end, though - it's like a warm sunset, and also like an extension of the island time from last month.

Maybe it also was the island mood that let me pick the second book, with it's ocean cover and title: "Das weite Meer" - "The wide ocean". It's written as a diary, and i guess i hoped for a travel story, but it actually is a double-family-tragedy, with the boat as connecting place of hope that turned into drama. I read the first 20 pages, browsed the next, then felt it isn't really for me.  Which now leaves me with the question again: what to read?

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Global + European Reading Challenge & the world in books
In the read this year, i am taking part in a global and in an european reading challenge. the idea: to read books from each continent of the world / several countries of europe. here are the other books from the series: reading challenge

and here are 2 post on books and reading, seen from a global perspective: the world in 7 books (or: mapping our world by continents), and the other link is: 1 million books published, 9 books read, and 25% non-readers: book figures from around the world

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