2008
Time for this again! No really, this is like the biggest failure of the year, I haven't lsted anything in months. So, it just remains here, but I won't be updating the list anymore, boo.
Books 08
January 1st Ewan McGregor & Charley Boorman: Long Way Down ***
Not as good as Long Way Down back in 2004/2005 (?!), but an enjoyable travelling account of two guys on a motorbike - especially considering the reader was a girl without any knowledge of motorbikes whatsoever. This book is not a masterpiece, but its descriptions of Africa and the African people are beautiful to read; not to mention the fact that my love for Ewan can certainly not be diminished by a book like this, marking his and Charley's thoughts along the way from Scotland to Africa, with all the good and bad things they face during the trip. It was a good way of spending a Christmas holiday; and now, I have a burning desire to go to Africa as well.
January 26th Virginia Woolf: Mrs Dalloway ****
Slowly read but wonderfully written, not my favourite of Woolf's stories but an excellent Number Two when compared to To the Lighthouse! The amount of things that manage to be going on within one day, and the way Woolf describes it all, is absolutely wonderful, yet sometimes incredibly hard to follow. This is one of the main reasons why it was such a difficult book to finish; but overall, by the time I reached the very final page and the very final line, I felt more than satisfaction. I can easily find a Clarissa Dalloway inside myself, too; and the way all the characters mingle with each other is just wonderful, yet a little bit confusing at times. The ending, too, left me feeling very unsure and, confused even, but that doesn't really matter, and I can see why Woolf is constantly praised for this piece of writing. Nevertheless, I can't help saying how much more I enjoyed reading To the Lighthouse...sigh.
January 28th Meg Cabot: Prinsessa hermoromahduksen partaalla (Princess on the Brink) ***
February 28th Katharine Mansfield: Bliss and Other Stories ****½
March 4th Juha Itkonen: Myöhempien aikojen pyhiä ****
March 13th Jane Austen: Kasvattitytön tarina (Mansfield Park) ****
March 14th J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter ja kuoleman varjelukset (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) ****
March 15th Mick Short: Exploring the language of Poems, Plays and Prose ***½
March 16th R.L. Trask: Language: The Basics ****
March 22nd Jane Austen: Neito vanhassa linnassa (Northanger Abbey) ****
March 27th Sylvia Plath: The Bell Jar *****
This will be, by no doubt, one of my favourite books this year. It took me a while to get started with it (and I can't deny the fact that seeing Sylvia gave me the final push), but once I did, and got past, say, page 30, I was taken by a spell. Knowing how easily one can drop into depression, it wasn't just a writer's account on a person's mental breakdown (and as in this case, her own), but an account of a thing a bit too familiar to me. It is a struggle one cannot easily win, and seeing the protagonist push herself through it all (noting how the real life may seem like a bad dream to a depressed person) but knowing how the writer's own battle was lost in 1963, it is a highly touching book, too. It was easy to relate to Esther, her feelings, her thoughts, her motives; and it was almost a thrilling experience to read through the 200-pages of the almost broken library book I found. Now I can only hope to find some poems by Plath in the local library as well!
April 3rd Agatha Christie: Helmeilevä kuolema (Sparkling Cyanide) ****
April 3rd edt. Leith, Gillen &al.: Changing English ****
April 5th Agatha Christie: Ruskeapukuinen mies (The man in the Brown suit) ***½
April 11th Ted Hughes: Syntymäpäiväkirjeitä (Birthday letters) ****½/*****
April 12th Plag, Braun, Lappe, Schramm: Introduction to English Linguistics ****
April 13th Kazuo Ishiguro: An Artist of the Floating World ****½
17/50
My book list
Jack Kerouac: Matkalla (On the Road)
Charles Baudelaire: The Flowers of Evil
Long Way Round - The Illustrated Version
The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde
Mary Shelley: Frankenstein - Uusi Prometheus (Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus)
William Shakespeare: Macbeth
Virginia Woolf: Mrs. Dalloway
Virginia Woolf: Orlando
J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter ja kuoleman varjelukset (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows)
Movies 08
January 9th Sense and Sensibility ****½
February 25th Closer ****
March 4th Hud ***½/****
March 20th Sylvia ****
March 29th The Hours ****
March 29th Sweeney Todd - the demon barber of Fleet Street ****
April 3rd Miss Potter ***½
7/?
Any recommendations are more than welcome, for both books and movies! I was thinking about trying to read books as a challenge this year, 50 books by the end of this year, so I think I'll be needing some ideas for that...
last updated: April 13th
!Last year's list!
Books 08
January 1st Ewan McGregor & Charley Boorman: Long Way Down ***
Not as good as Long Way Down back in 2004/2005 (?!), but an enjoyable travelling account of two guys on a motorbike - especially considering the reader was a girl without any knowledge of motorbikes whatsoever. This book is not a masterpiece, but its descriptions of Africa and the African people are beautiful to read; not to mention the fact that my love for Ewan can certainly not be diminished by a book like this, marking his and Charley's thoughts along the way from Scotland to Africa, with all the good and bad things they face during the trip. It was a good way of spending a Christmas holiday; and now, I have a burning desire to go to Africa as well.
January 26th Virginia Woolf: Mrs Dalloway ****
Slowly read but wonderfully written, not my favourite of Woolf's stories but an excellent Number Two when compared to To the Lighthouse! The amount of things that manage to be going on within one day, and the way Woolf describes it all, is absolutely wonderful, yet sometimes incredibly hard to follow. This is one of the main reasons why it was such a difficult book to finish; but overall, by the time I reached the very final page and the very final line, I felt more than satisfaction. I can easily find a Clarissa Dalloway inside myself, too; and the way all the characters mingle with each other is just wonderful, yet a little bit confusing at times. The ending, too, left me feeling very unsure and, confused even, but that doesn't really matter, and I can see why Woolf is constantly praised for this piece of writing. Nevertheless, I can't help saying how much more I enjoyed reading To the Lighthouse...sigh.
January 28th Meg Cabot: Prinsessa hermoromahduksen partaalla (Princess on the Brink) ***
February 28th Katharine Mansfield: Bliss and Other Stories ****½
March 4th Juha Itkonen: Myöhempien aikojen pyhiä ****
March 13th Jane Austen: Kasvattitytön tarina (Mansfield Park) ****
March 14th J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter ja kuoleman varjelukset (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) ****
March 15th Mick Short: Exploring the language of Poems, Plays and Prose ***½
March 16th R.L. Trask: Language: The Basics ****
March 22nd Jane Austen: Neito vanhassa linnassa (Northanger Abbey) ****
March 27th Sylvia Plath: The Bell Jar *****
This will be, by no doubt, one of my favourite books this year. It took me a while to get started with it (and I can't deny the fact that seeing Sylvia gave me the final push), but once I did, and got past, say, page 30, I was taken by a spell. Knowing how easily one can drop into depression, it wasn't just a writer's account on a person's mental breakdown (and as in this case, her own), but an account of a thing a bit too familiar to me. It is a struggle one cannot easily win, and seeing the protagonist push herself through it all (noting how the real life may seem like a bad dream to a depressed person) but knowing how the writer's own battle was lost in 1963, it is a highly touching book, too. It was easy to relate to Esther, her feelings, her thoughts, her motives; and it was almost a thrilling experience to read through the 200-pages of the almost broken library book I found. Now I can only hope to find some poems by Plath in the local library as well!
April 3rd Agatha Christie: Helmeilevä kuolema (Sparkling Cyanide) ****
April 3rd edt. Leith, Gillen &al.: Changing English ****
April 5th Agatha Christie: Ruskeapukuinen mies (The man in the Brown suit) ***½
April 11th Ted Hughes: Syntymäpäiväkirjeitä (Birthday letters) ****½/*****
April 12th Plag, Braun, Lappe, Schramm: Introduction to English Linguistics ****
April 13th Kazuo Ishiguro: An Artist of the Floating World ****½
17/50
My book list
Jack Kerouac: Matkalla (On the Road)
Charles Baudelaire: The Flowers of Evil
Long Way Round - The Illustrated Version
The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde
Mary Shelley: Frankenstein - Uusi Prometheus (Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus)
William Shakespeare: Macbeth
Virginia Woolf: Mrs. Dalloway
Virginia Woolf: Orlando
J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter ja kuoleman varjelukset (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows)
Movies 08
January 9th Sense and Sensibility ****½
February 25th Closer ****
March 4th Hud ***½/****
March 20th Sylvia ****
March 29th The Hours ****
March 29th Sweeney Todd - the demon barber of Fleet Street ****
April 3rd Miss Potter ***½
7/?
Any recommendations are more than welcome, for both books and movies! I was thinking about trying to read books as a challenge this year, 50 books by the end of this year, so I think I'll be needing some ideas for that...
last updated: April 13th
!Last year's list!