Martini

On the 20th I got James Tiptree Jr.'s Crown of Stars. Another one of those butt-ugly covers. Ugh. I haven't read any of her books so far, so I'll be starting with this short story collection with some of her late works.

Yesterday I drew Carson McCullers' The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, a recommendation from somebody who had seen that I had liked Capote's The Grass Harp and thinks I might enjoy this one as well.

Today I got a book with collected texts from my favorite columnist, Max Goldt. Although the title suggests that this is an English book, it is not. He always has the strangest titles. Here are some of the weirdest ones:

• "The ashtray gymnastics" (Die Aschenbechergymnastik)
• "Bilingually educated bisexuals with bicycles on their car tops" (Zweisprachig erzogene Bisexuelle mit Fahrrädern auf dem Autodach)
• "A life on the run from the coral" (Ein Leben auf der Flucht vor der Koralle)
• "On the magic of passing something sideways" (Vom Zauber des seitlich dran Vorbeigehens)
• "Naked in a fairytale castle full of really bad people" (Nackt in einem Märchenschloß voll wirklich schlechter Menschen)
• "Ä"
  Needless to say that I adore him.

You can find my other posts about the Book Advent Calendar here:

• Book Advent Calendar
• Day 1 to 3
• Day 4 to 6
• Day 7 to 9
• Day 10 to 15
• Day 16 to 19

On the 16th, I drew Sara Gran's Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead, a mystery I chose because of its strong, kick-ass, substance abusing female protagonist, who makes the story sound really promising.

Day 17 was Paul Auster's Sunset Park, a novel that I want to read because (as I have said here) I recently read Moon Palace and really liked it, but couldn't get into the reading flow, so reading another one of Auster's books might tell me if it was because of the book or me.

On day 18 I got David Weber's Honor, which contains the first two books in the series, On Basilisk Station and The Honor of the Queen. Did I already mention that I love strong female protagonists?

Today was Elizabeth Moon's Remnant Population. Some time ago, I asked for recommendations regarding female protagonists that are not in their twenties or early thirties, and this was one of those that were suggested. Ain't the cover ugly? I hope the story is better...

And in case you were womdering: I haven't added any of the books from the advent calendar to my shelves for statistical reasons - if you know what I mean *coughtbrcough* ;)

You can find my other posts about the Book Advent Calendar here:

• Book Advent Calendar
• Day 1 to 3
• Day 4 to 6
• Day 7 to 9
• Day 10 to 15

I have been busy last week. Busy collecting cats. Not real cats, ouf course. Although... err...

There is a new (not really new, but it has just been translated from Japanese to English) game for Android and iOS based phones, Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector, where your only task is to collect kitties. Yes, that's right! You don't have to worry anymore about adopting too many cats, and what it says about your mental health if you do!

The game is quite simple: You have a yard (and later a part of your house) where you put out food and other goodies for cats, and just sit back and wait until they visit you. As a thank-you, they will leave you fish, which you can use to buy more goodies. Don't worry, you won't have to spend a lot of precious reading time with the game; actually, it requires you to close the app and leave it alone for some time in order for new cats to appear.

It is so unbelievably relaxing!

The artwork is pretty simple, but absolutely cute. At first I thought this would perhaps be a bit too plain, but when I had three cats in my yard for the first time, I went *SQUEEEEE* and now I'm hooked.

Just look at the adorable kitty butt! *_*

And now for the best part: The game is free. There is the option to buy more fish with real money, but you'll only want to resort to that if you're really impatient - and let's be honest: if you're that impatient, this game is not for you.

You can get the Android version at the Google Play Store and the iOS version at the Apple Store.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go and look if Tubbs has eaten all the food again.

Unfortunately it seems as if Murakami's short stories and me are not made for one another.
They are good, of course, but they don't give me as much as his novels do. They just don't draw me in and leave me speechless.
To me they are just okay.

I am a bit late with this update, but I have been suffering from migraine the last two days, so today you'll get the books of the last six days in one post.

On day 10 I got Gerald Durell's My Family and Other Animals, a book that is out of print in Germany, and used copies are quite expensive. Fortunately I was lucky to find a pre-loved edition from the 90s at an affordable price.

Day 11 was Stanislaw Lem's Solaris. I haven't seen the movie, but I have read and loved The Star Diaries, so I want to read more from this author.

On the 12th it was was J.K. Rowling's The Casual Vacancy, her first mystery. I want to find out how well she does in this genre. I haven't read any of the "Robert Galbraith" books so far, and I'll make it conditional on how much I enjoy this one.

Day 13 was José Saramango's Blindness; the premise of having an epidemic that makes everybody lose their eyesight sounds captivating.

Yesterday I drew the Gears' People of the Wolf, a recommendation when talking about Auel's Ayla series, or at least the better ones of its books.

And today I got Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October. I simply can't resist a humorous fantasy novel that has so many well-known classical characters in it.

You can find my other posts about the Book Advent Calendar here:

• Book Advent Calendar
• Day 1 to 3
• Day 4 to 6
• Day 7 to 9

Again, three different genres:

Day 7 was Equal Rites, one of the very few books by Terry Pratchett that I haven't yet read.

This year, the holidays will not be quite the way they used to be, because one thing will be missing: for the last 20 years, whenever there was a new Discworld novel out, my parents would give it to me for Christmas. But not this year. Sadly, never again.

I miss his books, his imagination and his humor. I miss waiting for the next novel, waiting to visit Discworld and meet old friends again. And I miss being totally excited to read the next book when I finally got it.

I miss P'Terry. A lot.

Day 8 was Charles Stross' The Atrocity Archives. Originally I was thinking about reading Accelerando, but someone pointed out that it was not the best book to start with unless you're a quantum physicist. They suggested this one instead, and here it is.

And today I got Jennifer Egan's A Visit From the Goon Squad. I heard somebody say that there is a chapter that consists only of PowerPoint slides, and that made me curious.

BTW, whenever I say "somebody recommended" or "someone suggested", I am usually talking about one of my BookLikes or GoodReads friends. Thanks, y'all!

You can find my other posts about the Book Advent Calendar here:

• Book Advent Calendar
• Day 1 to 3
• Day 4 to 6

I have just finished cooking some glasses of pear-whisky-jam, as part of the presents for the family, and I fear that I have inhaled a bit too much of its vapor, because now I feel quite intoxicated.

Great, it's not yet noon around here, and I'm drunk.

I guess I'd better wait with preparing S.O.'s birthday cake until I'm sober again.

In the last three days I got a bunch of completely different novels:

Day 4 was Daphne du Maurier's classic gothic novel Rebecca. The book itself does not look very impressive; it is an old hardback copy from 1955 that has lost its dust jacket, but everything else is still intact - no torn or missing pages or such. I have wanted to read Rebecca for quite some time. Would anybody perhaps be interested in a buddy read?

On day 5 I got Cormac McCarthy's dystopian novel The Road. I have read No Country for Old Men by the same author and was pretty underwhelmed, not to say disgusted. Still I am curious about this book, as is seems to polarize readers so much.

Today I got Jo Walton's Among Others. I haven't read any of her books, but this one was highly recommended to me, and it is one of the very few of her works that has been translated, so I will give it a try.

You can find my other posts about the Book Advent Calendar here:

• Book Advent Calendar
• Day 1 to 3

Moon Palace was a really good book, so much that it reminded me a lot of Haruki Murakami’s novels. Not that there was any Magical Realism in it, although some of the occurrences seemed to happen so much by sheer coincidence, that they almost had a touch of magic to them.

But Moon Palace had something that has always fascinated me in Murakami’s books, which is that the language was so wonderful that, no matter what sad or weird things happened in the story, they were coated. Coated by the marvelous wording, so that at first they didn’t seem as dreadful or strange as they actually were. As if the language distracted the reader for a moment when something bad occurred, just to make them realize with a bit of a shock few moments later that indeed something had happened, so that their belated reaction to the events was even more intense than it normally would have been.

Still I have to deduct one star, because I could not really get into my reading flow with this book. I usually read a Murakami novel in one or two days; Moon Palace took me twenty days to finish. I am not sure if it was the book’s or my fault, so I guess I will have to read more of Auster’s work to find out. I have already bought Sunset Park, and if he continues to amaze me with his language, I think I might have found a new favorite author.

As I promised in my post about the book Advent calendar, here's the first update about the books I have drawn so far:

On the first day it was Isaac Asimov's Meine Freunde, die Roboter, which contains his short story collections I, Robot, Earth Is Room Enough and The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories. 

On the second day I got another SF novel, Peter Watts' Blindsight, which is supposed to be quite a difficult read, but as I have read Ancillary Justice and the Southern Reach trilogy this year, which were also regarded as diffcult, and which I thoroughly enjoyed, I hope that I'll be able to handle this one as well.

Today I got a historical fiction novel, a genre that I barely read anymore, but I have to admit that I bought John Saturnall's Feast almost only because of the beautiful cover. Almost. Also because the protagonist is a cook, and I'm hoping for some cooking inspirations.

Since this year wasn't really a good year, I have decided to give myself a treat by making a book Advent calendar. Over the last months I have bought several (mostly second-hand and remaindered) books and put them aside so that I won't be tempted to read them immediately.

I have put them in a gift box into which I have cut a slot, and now I get to draw one of them each day and three on Christmas Eve.

Please note that the size of the slot is wide enough for my hand holding a book, but too small for one of the little fur faces to climb inside and make it their new favorite napping spot. :D

The first book, the one I drew this morning, is Isaac Asimov's Meine Freunde, die Roboter, which contains his short story collections I, Robot, Earth Is Room Enough and The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories. 

Don't worry, I'm not going to bother you each and every day with posts of the books I have drawn, only every few days. ;)

Since I have seen other bloggers posting shelfies, I thought it was time for me to do the same, so here it is:

The books are placed in two rows behind each other; it is very useful to have deep shelves when you're a hoarder. They are sorted by author, the most recent ones in the front rows. The shelf on the right contains (part of) my TBR.

Yesterday I was notified that a blogger called BloggerX (*) had liked one of my older reviews (Metro 2033: As Exciting as a Metro Train Ride). Because I did not know that person, I went to their profile and also had a look at their timeline, to see what else they had liked. It showed that they had liked my review, but to my surprise it was shown with the profile picture of another blogger, BloggerY (*) besides it:

(picture painted over for privacy reasons)

Curious why MY review would show with BloggerY's picture on BloggerX's timeline, I clicked on the link to the review and was directly taken to BloggerY's blog! It did not lead to my blog or my review, but to their blog, although the review was not (or no longer) there! Even the URL of the link (from the timeline) says the review is connected to that blogger: (like this, not an actual link, of course: http://BloggerY.booklikes.com/post/1045048/metro-2033-as-exciting-as-a-metro-train-ride)!

Why did they have my review on their blog? And it could NOT have been a REBLOG, because then the “like” would have been attributed to BloggerY as the reblogger, and not to me, the original poster, but it was me who got the notification for the like.

There are two other aspects that make this issue even more confusing:

As I said, I received the notification that BloggerX had liked my review, but at the same time received an email that said that BloggerZ (*) (Yes, there's a third one!) had liked the review: A notification for BloggerX, but not for BloggerZ, and an email for BloggerZ, but not for BloggerX. Which of them had liked the review? Well, and that’s the third aspect: If I look at my review, actually none of them have:

As you can see, the last activity is from two months ago. BloggerZ has liked the review, but it was about a year ago, when I posted it. What is going on?!

I have emailed BookLikes with this issue, because it is disturbing for me to think that one of my reviews seems to be posted by somebody else. I also wanted to post this here, in case any of you have been or will be experiencing the same issues.

(*) = names changed by me, in order to not expose anybody, if this should turn out to be a bug

Tonight we are going to the premiere of the new James Bond movie Spectre in our town!

S.O.'s parents got an invitation, will not be able to attend and therefore passed it on to us. Nothing spectacular, and not that I expect to see any celebrities. Just a nice evening at the movies, with free popcorn and drinks. Yay!

And guess who I'll be rooting for? Yep, Christoph Waltz. Yummy!

ETA short impression of the movie:

Let's say I'm underwhelmed. The plot was almost nonexistent, and there was not enough action to compensate this either. It all dragged a bit. And there wasn't enough Christoph Waltz, for my taste. On the plus side, we got to know a tiny bit about Bond's childhood, and there were lots of fancy cars, as usual. I'm a sucker for cars. I would give it 2 of 5 stars, maybe 2.5 if I take the free drinks (two Sex on the Beach, unfortunately no Martini) and popcorn into account.

Would I recommend watching it? Not at a cinema. Stream it, borrow the DVD or wait until it airs on TV. 

Tonight we are going to the premiere of the new James Bond movie Spectre in our town!

S.O.'s parents got an invitation, will not be able to attend and therefore passed it on to us. Nothing spectacular, and not that I expect to see any celebrities. Just a nice evening at the movies, with free popcorn and drinks. Yay!

And guess who I'll be rooting for? Yep, Christoph Waltz. Yummy!

ETA short impression of the movie:

Let's say I'm underwhelmed. The plot was almost nonexistent, and there was not enough action to compensate this either. It all dragged a bit. And there wasn't enough Christoph Waltz, for my taste. On the plus side, we got to know a tiny bit about Bond's childhood, and there were lots of fancy cars, as usual. I'm a sucker for cars. I would give it 2 of 5 stars, maybe 2.5 if I take the free drinks (two Sex on the Beach, unfortunately no Martini) and popcorn into account.

Would I recommend watching it? Not at a cinema. Stream it, borrow the DVD or wait until it airs on TV. 

Thanks for the nomination, Lillelara!

Today's quote is by Bill Watterson, about an attitude that I can really relate to:

And also on the last day: Since I have already lost track of who has been nominated so far and who hasn't, I hereby nominate everybody who wants to participate.

Rules:

1.  Thank the blogger who nominated you.

2.  Publish a quote on 3 consecutive days on your blog. The quote can be one of your own, from a book, movie or from anyone who inspires.

3.  Nominate 3 more bloggers each day to carry on this endeavour.