Some years ago, before blogging, I used to write "Booktalks from Norway", an almost weekly column. When I started blogging I had every intention to let my booktalks be included in my blogging, but when I now look back on 25 months as a blogger, I see that I have written very little about books. So now I plan to start a "Booktalk on a Sunday" column.
I know there are other bookloving bloggers out there. If you leave me a comment with a link to your booktalks, I will include the link next Sunday.
At the monastery last week I read alot. Actually I finished one book every day, but after I came home last Friday my reading has more or less been a backwater activity. I have my very special reading spot in the livingroom, one half of a love seat we have, with a small table besides with a pile of books.
For some time now I have had two books by Jan Morris on top of the pile, Europe and Venice, and a couple of days ago I started to read Venice. It is only two months now till Terje, Marta and I go there, and for years I have almost constantly had at least one Venice book "on the read". Jan Morris' book is quite interesting, she has a good knowledge of Venice through more than 60 years, but it took me some time to get into her writing. It might be because it is stuffed with information, and I am always so afraid that I will miss some of it if I read too fast. Another Venice book, which is situated on the stone shelf in front of our livingroom fire, is a Norwegian book by Trond Berg Eriksen. He is a philosopher and an Italy lover, and has written several travel books from Italy illustrated by Norwegian artists. The one I am reading is "South of The Alps, North of Po - travel notes from 12 Italian cities". I met Berg Eriksen last summer and managed to get a Venice talk with him. He travels to Venice several times a year and really has so much to tell and to share. There are still two more Venice books in the pile, H.V.Morton's A Traveller in Italy (which has the Norwegian title Fra Venezia til Assisi) - an old hardbound book in a beautyful blue marble binding. I read a few pages from time to time, and enjoy the oldfashioned style. The last one is a little jewel though. I found it a few weeks ago at an antiquarian here in Trondheim - Venice and Neighbourhood, A Practical Guide for the Foreigner. The book was written in the 1920ies and is filled with information and ink drawings, and a beautiful fold out map in colours at the end of the book.
Marie Noëlle in the Armchairtravelling yahoo group, has mentioned Thomas Hardy lately. I have three of his books, Under the Greenwood Tree, Far From the Madding Crowd (both in paperback) and a beautiful hardbound edition of The Mayor of Casterbridge. I took them out from the shelves in the basement where I keep my classics this morning, and plan to start The Mayor, may be already with a cup of rooibush tea a little later.
Speaking of rooibush tea takes me of course right over to the topic of Mma Ramotswe and The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency. A women at work is working on her English, and wanted some easy and nice litterature to read. I will lend her the two first books in Alexandet McCall Smith's series, and also the first Harry Potter.
So you see, I will not have a boring day, I will travel worldwide with my best friends, The Books.
