Source: Wikipedia

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Have you ever stumbled upon a book quite coincidentaly, bringing it home, and finding it SO enticing you can’t put it down… just to end at the last page and finding out that it’s part of a trilogy? At least I’ve got that problem. Today I did this mistake again, when I ran into Patrick Rothfuss’ fantasy trilogy of the Kingkiller’s Chronicles. Did I know it was a trilogy before I bought it? No. Am I still gonna read it? Yes.

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Trilogies I have ongoing:

The Century Trilogy (Ken Follett)

Watch (Sergei Lukyanenko)

The Passage (Justin Cronin)

Trälen Holme (Jan Fridegård)

Mörkrets ring (Nick Perumov)

All Souls Trilogy (Deborah Harkness)

The Millennium Trilogy (Stieg Larsson)

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Now, to be fair, 4 out of the 7 trilogies listed above have not yet been released in full – but the sheer fact of having seven ongoing stories is a little unnerving to me. To begin with, I rarely read two fiction books at the same time, POSSIBLY coupling a fiction with a non-fiction, but generally – my focus and my belief in really understanding a work, is normally limited to one book at a time.

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The truth then is that I now have seven storylines to follow and remember, as well as the other ”single” novels I’m reading. But looking at the list of trilogies, they none of them are really the same, not in time, nor in genre. The Century Trilogy is purely historical fiction based around the world wars (so far) and great events of the 20th century. The Passage is a futuristic dystopia story of a virus gone wrong. Trälen Holme is a historical retelling of the Viking Era in Sweden. Mörkrets ring is a spin-off of J.R.R Tolkien’s Lord of The Rings epos. All Souls Trilogy is a historical supernatural fiction with witches and vampires. And lastly, The Millennium Trilogy is a contemporary fiction of todays’ Swedish society and abusing of women.

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Have you ever read a book to its full, realising when it’s finished, it is part of a Trilogy?

What trilogies are You engaged in at the moment?

Douglas Adams is perhaps one of the most famous science-fiction authors in the modern era. What first started out as a radio show, turned out to be no less than five books in a series, a movie adaption and television series. So what is this all about? A few years ago, I started to read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy but put it back on the shelf just a few pages in. Because really, it’s nothing logical about it all. In some way I’m not surprised that it sprung out of a radio show in the way it is written.

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Introductive passage:

Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.

Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-eight million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat thing.

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An Indian Classic. Perhaps even the most famous one, although probably more for its subjet matter more than its literary content. The Kama Sutra was not originally on my Classics list, but what is a girl to do when her fiance comes home with a present from the bookstore? (even though it was on sale).

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The edition he found

…is a new translation built mainly upon Vatsyayana’s writings and commentaries on those writings. To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure what I was expecting from this book – the ”book of love”, supposedly filled with descriptions of things far too complicated for an everyday human being… (except if you are an athlete and perhaps also an olympian medalist). But imagine my genuine surprise.

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It handles things quite ”scientifically”

…and is in no way erotic. In fact, only one out of seven parts discusses ”Sexual Union” while the rest focuses on more cultural issues and etiquette. Most of which are clearly outdated, but hence I have a great general historical interest – I found it both fascinating and, at times, comical to read about how you were supposed to behave around, and treat a woman 2000 or so years ago – also how a woman herself is to treat males of various castes and social standing. In a way, it is not so different from those classic 19th-20th century ”house wife” books – and when taking time to reflect, it is not so much different from our woman world view before 20th century. The only difference is that in India, it’s been written down in, perhaps you might say, pure scientific matter of fact.

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The Kama Sutra

…handles subjects of marriage, hetero- and homosexuality, monogami and polygami alike, how to steal a woman from another man – as well as the life of courtesans, and last mot not least, how to attract a woman by extra ”medicines”. A large part tells of how to act a wife, how to treat family and friends and so on, but in the mist of outdated views, there were a few gems worth quoting.

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Notable passages

The man who is ingenious and wise, who is accompanied by a friend, and who knows the intentions of others, and the proper time and place for doing everything, can win over even a woman who is hard to be obtained.

Men and women, being of the same nature, feel the same kind of pleasure, and therefore a man should marry such a woman as will love him ever afterwards.

[...] though a man loves a girl ever so much, he never succeeds in winning her without a great deal of talking.

It is said that a man does not care for what is easily gained, and desires a thing which can only be obtained with difficulty.

The extent of the love of women is not known, even to those who are the objects of their affection, on account of its subtlety, and on account of the avarice and natural intelligence of womankind.

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Final thoughts…

I don’t know if this is a book I would recommend to anyone ”out of the blue”, but it definitely is a worthwhile read, not so much for the tips of ”congress”, as for its historical account of the culture of India.

The earliest memory of a literary experience,

…was from when I went to fifth grade, 10 years old. We lived in a two storey villa and I remember how I walked with my nose snuggled up between the book pages everywhere I went; The toilet, the sofa, for breakfast, for lunch…even walking up and down the staircase! What was this book, that could snare a 10 year old deep into its mysteries?

The year was 1999,

… and a debut author from U.K. had gotten her first book translated into Swedish, in the end it would be a 7 book series. If you haven’t figured it out yet, it was Harry Potter och De Vises Sten (Philosopher’s Stone). Certainly I’ve read books before that time, but Harry Potter was the first book that captivated me beyond reality… and it is that feeling that I search for in every book ever since. If a book manages to draw me into its world in such a degree that I can’t put it down and I forget all about time… then it is a hit!

Books like that are rare.

I can count most of them on my fingers, mostly fantasy and historical fiction, but nonetheless:

• J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings
• Stephen King’s The Talisman
• Leo Tolstoy Anna Karenina
• Deborah Harkness A Discovery of Witches
• Kader Abdolah The House of the Mosque
• …

Reading are always both ways.

It can be magical and it can be plain dull. But in the end, I always read for myself – no one else. And that’s the way it should be. However, having blogged now for nearly 4 years, something that is only for oneself can still be shared.

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What book(s) have captivated YOU beyond time and space?

I have always been fascinated by literature.

Most of my readings have focused on historical fiction, and fantasy. I am honest when I say that I don’t know if I’ve ever read any book called a ”classic”, but then again, it all depends on how you define a ”classic” work of literature. Because there are ”classics” that no one really likes – and there are just as many that are loved by thousands – therefore, a ”classic” is perhaps just definition of a really well known book (?), but then I still have to ask myself, why I never really felt intrigued by them before. Up until now.

For several months now,

I’ve been reading the posts over at 101books, and very often I end up reading by the comments. This time I found myself over at ”A room of one’s own”, a wonderful blog that has this romantic, almost chic, atmosphere flowing of the pages. In the end, it has inspired me to join in with her ”Classics club”, to read no less than 50 classics over the course of up to five years. So my first step in this new journey for me, was to establish this list of ”classics” which I would like to explore. My list includes many of the traditional ”classics” such as Dickens, Tolstoy etc. but also a few Swedish writers such as Strindberg, and von Heidenstam, mixed with some more modern classic works.

My personal goal…

…is to finish this list in four years time, that is by 30th of April 2016. Some of the books might be read in parallell with others, for example, the bible and the koran will most likely be two longer reads over the course of this journey.

The list I’ve put up is in no way a complete list, and it’s not meant to be read in any particular order. I’ve chosen, so far, 100 books from various sources, but I reserve the right to revise it as I go along.

Quick Facts:

• Rereads: 3(100)
• Most looking forward to: Tales of 100,1 Nights, by Anonymous, The Bible, and The Koran (Hard to pick just one..)
• Most dreading: Jane Austen (Never read that kind of genre before)

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Read as of: 2012-April-03 … 0/100

This is it:

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