Interesting! I saw Americanah, in Dutch translation, in my library. I didn't pick it up, because I want to read it in English. I always try to read books written in English in English and not in translation, but your description makes that even more urgent. Although....it might be cool to see how they managed to do it. If....they managed to do it at all. OTOH, if you are recommending the audio.....the English version might be too difficult for me altogether, hmmmm. What to do, what to do.

Thank you, Kareni! That sounds like a book I will enjoy. I'm putting it on my birthday wishlist, high on my wishlist :).

I could have written your first paragraph, I never, ever visualise what I read, but your second paragraph......I have excellent directional skills and am very good in geometry and calculus. So apparently those things are not connected, at least not for me. What a great description! And for a change, it is availabe to readers outside the US for a low price too! Bought it! Thanks!

I'm so sorry, Sadie :grouphug: :grouphug: I really hope this will only be a temporary setback.

I had a similar revelation after reading 'Oorlog en terpetijn', which Loesje recently mentioned. The way the Belgians and French transported German and Jewish civilians and refugees, with the exact same cattle wagons as the Nazis, the way the Belgians and French detained the German and Jewish civilians and refugees, in the exact same sort of camps with no sanitation, very little food and armed guard and barbed wire, where they died by the hundreds. In the Netherlands we have all grown up with the same images of those horrible, horrible nazis....those cattle wagons...and of course it was horrible, but apparently.....this was how every nation transported minorities :blink: . Someone forgot something during my history lessons.... (To be fair to my history teachers, they did teach about Dutch colaboration etc during WW2, so it wasn't all rose coloured.)

Thank you! I can get 'The First Forty-Nine Stories' through ILL, that's a good start.

Thank you, Jane! I have read Fathers and Sons, but it seems that there isn't a copy of the Nick Adams stories to be found in any library around here....so that will have to wait. I like Gibson and I liked the Old Man and the Sea, so I would really like to explore this connection one day. Only after reading Things Fall Apart I read it was meant as a reaction to Conrad. It might have been better to read Conrad first then, I don't know. I'm reasonably certain that I own Heart of Darkness, but I can't find it..... I'll make a note to watch Apocalypse Now. Thanks!

I finished Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell! So wonderful! I think I'm going to have a book hangover for a couple of days......my other books, Erasmus' The Praise of Folly, Herodotus' Histories, Justin Martyr's First Apology...are just not having the same appeal. I wonder why? :lol:

Oh, oh, wait, not so quick! Jane, could you please spell this out some more for me? Both Turgenev to Hemingway to Gibson and Conrad to Achebe to Apocalypse Now? I have read some books by Turgenev and Hemingway and Gibson, but would never have made any connection. I recently read three books by Achebe, but have never read anything by Conrad or seen Apocalypse Now.

I'm reading it, too, and enjoying it very much! It started slow, but now it's wonderful! :thumbup:

That's an edorsement! I'm looking forward to it.

I'm in awe :lol: . After several discussions here, I'm much better at abandoning books than I used to be. Last year, I abandoned 10 (TEN!) books, I'm so proud of myself. I even made a list! :D That's the study group on Twitter, right? I'm still wondering how people have study groups on Twitter. All in 140 characters? City of God is on my list this year, but I want to read Peter Brown's Augustine biography first.

Wise decision! It's not a race nor a competition. Reading is fun. And yeah, that aweful, internal 'I didn't meet that goal'-list...we need to get that as short as possible, like....non-existant. And only keep fun lists, if at all. (Says the woman with a mile long 'I didn't meet that goal-list', so I know exactly what you mean :closedeyes: .)

Difficult to say. I've only read two books by Murakami, Kafka on the Shore and now Norwegian Wood, and I'm not a particularly sensitive reader. However, Kafka on the Shore had a very disturbing, nausea inducing scene, that I really wish I could unread. So I'm guessing, that's not a book for you. I was tense the whole time I was reading Norwegian Wood, for nothing it turns out, so now I'm feeling silly :glare: . Suicide is mentioned several time, but I didn't find it a depressing book. It's probably better if some of the Murakami fans answer your question.

I'll always keep the first edition, because it was written when there were almost no homeschool curricula available, which is comparable to the situation now in the Netherlands. I sold the second edition recently and would have sold the third edition, except I highlighted all through it. I'm definitely going to keep the fourth edition, love the way it is organized and updated! :wub:

After your enthousiastic reviews a couple of years back, I read the first book (that was the only one I could get) and I liked it very much! :thumbup1: The others are on my TBR list, too bad I'll have to buy them.

We have a similar 'system', I've vented about it here before. After trying to locate some biographies and finding Stephen Hawking at 'H', Albert Einstein at 'A' and Madam Curie at 'Scientists', I no longer try to locate books myself, I just put books on hold.

I'm so sorry for you (and your librarians). My local library did that a couple of years ago, it has been :banghead: .

That sounds amazing and......even more amazing.....the library one town over has a copy (this almost NEVER happens with BaW recommendations) :hurray:-------> on my Bingo card. Thank you.

Sounds like a GREAT goal! Cheering you on. :hurray:

I Am So Jealous! :blush5: We can only put 10 books on each card and only 5 holds. After *extensive begging* I now have two library cards for each of my girls (so 8 library cards total), which makes it a bit easier. I want to move to America, that Overdrive you all are talking about sounds divine.

Thank you for mentioning this list!! Wonderful. I've no doubt that Rose can handle it, but I'm still a bit traumatized by Kafka on the Shore :ack2: . I'm halfway through Norwegian Wood and I'm still tense. Can I relax now? I can handle weirdness, I don't have a problem with weirdness, I like South-American magical realism, I just do not want to lose my lunch.

Thank you for mentioning Song of Achilles! I hadn't heard of it, but I loooooove retellings of ancient myths and anything Homeric. This looks great!

Assuming you are functioning fine and you are not propping yourself up with massive doses of caffeine.....I would let your body do it's thing. If 6 hours are enough, than that's enough. (I wish it was enough for me, I really need at least 8 hours.)

If you click on a book you have read, in the middle of the page there is a section 'my review', click on 'edit review' (bottom right). Then below the block 'What did you think', click on 'more details' and 'Number of times I've read this book' appears. HTH.