Digital reading

Screenshot from my iPhone Kindle app.

Since the previous post I have found a new way to read books. You may argue that I have had time to find quite a few new ways, possibly even invent some, but there is only the one. And it is the kindle app on my phone. I started out thinking the tiny phone screen would not do, so I installed the app on my iPad mini instead. It is, after all, book sized. But guess what? It only comes along with me when I remember to bring it, much like an ordinary, old fashioned, non digital, paper book. My phone, on the other hand, is never far from my grasp. So it follows that it was not long before I installed the app there too, and that is where I have been using it. It supplies its own very adjustable reading light in tunnels and in bed, and I can customize letter size and line spacing to make reading easier or page turning less frequent.

Facebook - useful for
finding new and interesting literature.

All the books in my kindle library have something in common. I have decided to read them after reading about them on the internet. The wonderful The absolutely true diary of a part-time indian I wanted more of after reading an excerpt from ndla.no (teaching resource for Norwegian high school), the First law trilogy I read about on my local newspaper online (adressa.no), The Phantom Tollbooth and Walk two moons were in an article shared on Facebook (and apparently impossible to find again) showing what adult books might suit you based on your favorite children's/young adult books, and the absolutely lovely The ocean at the end of the lane was picked up after a colleague posted about it on Facebook. The graveyard book I found all by myself on Amazon after having finished The ocean at the end of the lane. 

The genius of digital reading is that my book is always at hand, it weighs nothing extra, adds no handbag bulk (I use lipstick for that), and I actually find it quite pleasant reading on my phone screen. If you have read my post about audio books, you know that I like to feel and smell my books. This of course is a missing element also with Kindle books, and is a small drawback. (But my phone feels nice. And it is pink. And green. Which always helps.) The major drawback, however, is that none of these books are "lending enabled", so I can only talk about them with my friends, not actually hand them over for them to enjoy. And I paid for them. I own them. I should be allowed to do with them whatever I damn well please! Shame on you, Amazon. 

(Note: This post is apparently in English. I assume that is because all of the books I have read on my Kindle app are in English. I have not checked the selection of Norwegian language books for it.)

off topic (proud sister, again!)

Live har laget ny musikkvideo! Og litt av eggeskallet er altså mitt. Jeg hjalp til med å spare :)

"Ho tok av seg blusen og sa ho var bibliotekar" (Bjørn Sortland)

Denne hadde eg gledd meg til. For det første hadde eg høyrd gode ting om boka på norsklærarkurs om bøker  på nynorsk, for det andre er omslaget superlekkert, berre sjå her:

(bilete frå nettsida til forfattaren sitt eige forlag, Pinnsvin)

og for det tredje lovar tittelen eigentleg pupp. Og kven treng ikkje pupp i livet sitt? Hovudpersonen i boka, Ivar, treng absolutt meir pupp. Men så er han personleg kristen, og ifølge eiga utsegn ekstremist på den måten at han trur både på kjærleiken og ekteskapet. No er han førti og blir skrivekursleiar for eit par eksnarkomane damer, og Sonya som held til hos dei to damene.

Venninna mi (òg norsklærar) møtte meg då eg kom hoppande og dansande ut frå biblioteket på skulen med denne boka, og sa noko slikt som "Å, ja, eg vart ikkje så imponert over den der, eg. Men så liker eg ingen bøker for tida. Forresten, den første delen var ganske morosam". Hm, tenkte eg. Seier du det. Så sette eg i gang med å lese. Og vart ikkje imponert, eigentleg. Og dette skulle vere den morosame delen? Eg må innrømme at eg tykte første delen av boka var meir trist enn morosam, men når det er sagt, så måtte eg trekkje på smilebandet nokre gonger òg. Og så fann eg, da eg las vidare, at eg likte den andre delen av boka best. Det byrja å skje ting, og det blei både litt spennande og morosamt. Så eg las ut boka, og angra ikkje på tidsbruken. Sjølv om eg kjende meg litt snytt på puppefronten :)

Boka ser forresten ikkje berre lekker ut utanpå, inni er det fine illustrasjonar. Boka er nynorsk (og har godt språk), er lettlesen, og til tider ganske morosam. Nokre gonger på ein litt pinsam måte, andre gonger berre komisk. Så eg kan anbefale hanne til dei som likar lettlesne, ganske morosamme bøker, og som liker å kose seg med lekre ting. For lekker er ho, denne boka. Ein god start for den som ikkje er van med å lese nynorsk er ho òg!

Feit - mitt liv som tjukkas (Kristian Fjellanger)

Då har det gått ei stund att, sidan eg var innom her og skreiv noko sist. Men no har eg altså lese noko som eg likte att. Denne gongen er det ei sakprosabok. Ei sjølvbiografisk bok om ein som slankar seg. På nynorsk. Altså, han slankar seg ikkje på nynorsk, men han skriv på nynorsk, om at han slankar seg.

Boka på min vesle mac air 13"

Som de ser er ikkje boka feit i det heile. Ho er lita, tynn og morosam. Eg våga meg til å tagge dette innlegget med klasseromserfaring, basert på at eg har lånt bort boka til ein elev. Ein vanleg tredjeklassing som ville førebu seg til nynorskeksamen. Han er ikkje ein av elevane eg ser les oftast, men før han leverte denne boka tilbake til meg, la eg merke til at han las dei siste sidene. Boka er altså så god underhaldning at ein normal norsk avgangselev i vidaregåande skule valde å lese henne ut sjølv om han allereie var ferdig med eksamen. Det var då eg bestemde at denne må eg lese sjølv òg. 

Eg spurde karen kva det var han likte med boka. Svaret var "tja, han har no nokre problem, men det er morosamt å lese om han likevel". Og det kan eg seie meg einig i. Det er Kristian Fjellanger dette, som skriv om korleis det gjekk til at han byrja å slanke seg, om korleis det er å vere tjukk og kva problem ein mann møter når han skal gjere noko med det. Og ikkje minst om kva som motiverer (til dømes å få pult). Som de ser av biletet under, er eg ikkje heilt framand for problematikken eg heller.

Begge desse damene er meg, med eitt einaste års mellomrom. 

Eg er dame, og det er vanlegare for oss å slanke oss, men vi møter mange av dei same utfordringane. Det kjende eg til dømes då eg las om den første som sa noko til Kristian om slankinga hans: "Ja, det må eg seie, du ha ti tå de ein del!" seier kollegaen hans frå Nordmøre, og tåren trillar nesten på meg som sitt på bussen og les. Eg hugsar kor utruleg godt det var at nokon såg det, at eg ikkje var like tjukk lenger. Og så hugsar eg godt det han skriv om all oppmerksemda ein får når en har vorte tynn. Alle som skal skryte av ein, og spørje om etevegring og om ein et nok. Vi damer får klemmar òg, av folk vi nesten ikkje kjenner.

Samstundes er ikkje dette berre ei forteljing om ein kar som slankar seg. Fjellanger stiller spørsmål ved slankeindustrien, gjengjev korrespondanse med politikarar og treningsstudio, deler vonde og gode augneblinkar, og bidreg med tips om kva ein kan gjere for å unngå at Läkerolen verkar enda meir lakserande enn han er til å byrje med. Eg anbefaler denne boka. Til tjukke og tynne og alle andre.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Ransom Riggs)

Book, blanket and cat - lovely :)

This book I bought on a whim. I had to order some new books from amazon. Or reorder, really, since some book loans sometimes extend themselves into gift giving, and I like to have a small library at work to share with my students. As I was finishing up my order of well loved familiar books, I saw this one advertized. It looked interesting enough, both the levitating girl on the cover, and the description:

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs. Fiction is based on real black and white photographs.
 

The plot is catchy. It had me in its thrall immediately, but what can you expect when it is about a troubled teen finding himself struggling with monsters and impossible peculiarities, I love that kind of stories! I also love the photographs, although these are perhaps also the major drawback of the book. They come from museum collections, and Riggs has looked through them finding the strangest ones. Sometimes, though, it just feels like he writes parts of his story to make an image fit in. In these instances the story feels strangely constructed and fake. I liked the rest of the book, and the actual photos, enough to be able to forgive this, though. I particularly liked the ending, and this is not very like me. I am a sucker for the beginning of fantasy books, I love being allowed to get to know a new fictional universe. I often enjoy exploring the setting more than I enjoy the actual plot. This time, though, both are equally captivating.


As you can probably tell from the image, my book is a large print edition. This makes it an easy read. The language isn't too complicated either, and this book should suit most young adults, given that they enjoy non-realistic fiction. There is however *possible spoiler alert (white letters - mark the text to read it)* some time travel logic that needs to be followed, and that can, as you may know, be slightly complicated. I enjoyed this book very much, and wholehearedly recommend it!

A song of Ice and Fire (George R. R. Martin)

You may have picked up that HBO is making a vastly popular tv series that is called Game of Thrones. It has beautiful princesses, smart dwarfs, pure evil, sweet children, and nasty ones, dragons, knights, magical swords, love, war, and oh, yes, sex, and is based on George R. R. Martin's now 5 books long series A song of Ice and Fire.

This is however not my first meeting with Martin's vast fantasy world of Westeros (and the lands beyond the sea). My first meeting with it was years and years ago, playing the boardgame (which I found horribly boring, as I don't particularly enjoy strategizing), and hearing some of the other players talk about the books. Finally, maybe about a year or two ago, I got to know them as well. As audiobooks. And I fell in love. They are every bit as fantastic as everybody said back then. I don't even know where to start to give you an idea of what they are about. There are so many characters, and so many storylines. The books do however follow some of the powerful families of the Iron Kingdoms. We learn the stories and ambitions of some of their members, we follow their strategies in their struggle for what they want, be it love, power, wealth, or justice.

To cover all of this (so far published) material, poor Roy Dotrice has had to read 201,5 hours for the audiobooks. And still there is more to come. Apparently, Martin planned for there to be fewer books, but then there was so much that needed to be told. According to wikipedia he is writing two more.

If you are at all interested in fantasy literature, let me just say: do yourself a favor and read (or listen to) these books if you haven't already.

This time I am treating you to the trailer for the tv series rather than a picture :)

Skulduggery Pleasant (Derek Landy)

So, is she dead or what? No, she isn't, she's just been busy. Life you know. And, actually, reading. Yes, busy reading. This has happened several evenings now, that I have found myself not turning on my xbox, but rather grabbing for a book. Very odd indeed.

Someone who actually is dead, though, is Skulduggery Pleasant. He is however even busier than me. And also quite odd. He is, in fact, both a skeleton and a detective. I found out about him researching literature that might suit the male population in my classes. In general, girls like reading more than boys do, and language teachers are more often female than male. This means the the books we suggest to our students, perhaps tend to suit the tastes of girls a little better than those of boys. So, I looked for books for boys. Imagine my surprise, then, when I started reading the first book about Mr Pleasant (Scepter of the Ancients), and the main character is 12 years old Stephanie. A girl. Wouldn't boys like a book about boys? Perhaps they would, but I would very much advise them to give Skulduggery and Stephanie a chance.

Stephanie inherits her uncle's huge house, and, staying there alone because of a storm, meets a completely new reality, of which the living skeleton detective is a part. This book isn't very difficult to read. It has fairly large letters, the language isn't very complicated, and it is very exciting. I just had to keep reading to see what would happen next. And that is, I think, what many young readers are looking for. Excitement on pretty much every page. Or, at least every second. If this is what you are looking for, give Skulduggery a try.