Booktalk on a Sunday - 11

Naturally, today the whole booktalk will have Venezia as its theme. We came home late last night, and today I have all day settled to unpack, do laundry, sort through books and paper, enjoy the sunny day......and pack for my next travel. I will take the night train down to Oslo (for work)

I always pack too many books when I travel. It is a problem when I travel alone, allowed to take only 20 kilos in the suitcase. This time though I could fit in extra books with both Terje and Marta. The first thing I do when I come to a new place is to unpack the books. Make neat piles on the kitchentable and near the bed, and pick out a few for the backpack I carry with me through the day. Guidebooks, travel stories, novels, artbooks, my Moleskins, my diary......there are always enough books to chose from.

Nati House already has a good bookshelf. Two years ago I read A Thousand Days in Venice by Marlene Di Blasi, and loved to browse the fish market following her steps. This book was not in the shelf anymore, but I found a few others which I enjoyed. Regis Debray's Against Venice, a small booklet actually where the French author pointed out all his views which he held against Venice, especially when he compared the city to Naples. I did not agree with him most of the time, but still he had some good points. "In Rome, Naples and Milan we are forced to improvise; in most foreign towns we wander about haphazardly like characters in search of an authos; in search of lines. But here (in Venice) the parts are already written, the moves chalked on the stage, and everyone can sidle into a libretto known by heart: in Naples we play an amateur walk - on part, but in Venice we are professionals"

I read all of Salley Vickers Miss Garnet's Angel during the week, like I also did during my last visit. But I am still only halfway through The Wings of the Doveand Venice Observed.

Venezia has its own place in my heart, and will always have. But today I am on to explore life here up in the northern hemisphere. The Botanical Garden is calling out my name, there must be alot of new colours there now.