starsthatshine @ dreamwidth

I went on a book sale today and I bought two books; A Russian Diary: A Journalist's Final Account of Life, Corruption, and Death in Putin's Russia by Anna Politkovskaya and Mein lieber Reichskanzler! by Staffan Thorsell. The later is googable for English speaking people (and also the title is really revealing) but the latter book deals with the relationship between Sweden and Germany during the Nazi era. I think both books are going to be incredibly interesting and I can't wait to read them. Seriously. *loves them* And they were really cheap too; 89 SEK and 99 SEK respectively.

Welcome vkitty to my flist :D I hope you're gonna enjoy it here :D

I'm looking for a romantic fantasy book that is not Twilight. And that is relatively easy to come by. And I didn't really get The Time Traveler's Wife.

Recs? I wanna go on a book-buying spree.

I just saw The Notebook for the second time. I cried like a baby. Those scenes at the end (I won't go into details in case someone hasn't seen this wonderful movie) are just beautiful. Just beautiful.

At school, me and a few classmates are sort of adapting Pride and Prejudice into a one-act intro kind of play. I wrote the script and what I did was that I took the key lines that are said in the beginning of the '95 adaption and sort of moved things around a little and... voilá! A script was born. It's only five pages but I'm really excited about it, it's not going to be brilliant or anything, but it's going to be fun. Lots and lots of it. I can't wait!

House was just brilliant as well. Hugh Larie and Robert Sean Leonard are such terrific actors.

I am diving into - and loving - Pride and Prejudice again. The reason? I bought it today at the bookstore along with some other things but it's P&P that's important. The first time I read this lovely and completely brilliant book, I fell asleep during the point where Mr. Collins entered the book in his boring fashion. I'm not there yet in the book during my reread but I'm absolutely devouring it. I had originally thought to borrow it from the library but once I saw that it was already lent, I went by the bookstore with the idea to buy a notebook but then stumbled upon Pride and Prejudice and I couldn't help myself since it was such a nice edition (the Oxford edition with notes and stuff in it) and it's such a wonderful book. And the cashier agreed with me. When she saw the book, she commented:

"Best book in the world."
"Yeah, something like that," I said.
"Are you buy it as a present or?..."
"I'm buying it for myself. I'm that selfish."
(politely laughs, lightly amused) "Haha. Well, I can understand you."

Austen fans unite!

Know any good, active, community where you can discuss her books and/or your experiences of the books? I'd love to join one. ♥ There's a reason why she is the only author who has a tag in my LiveJournal. It's not that P&P is particularly girlish or "in style" or something like that, even though it's the ultimate love story as far as I'm concerned, whose only competitor is Heathcliffe/Catherine in Wuthering Heights. Austen writes so many splendid pairings and some I might even prefer over Darcy/Elizabeth, but P&P is the ultimate love story. Not because Darcy is all that either. It simply... is, you know? The language is flawless, you can really picture yourself in the environment and with all the people and see the culture that influenced Austen's world. It's an engaging story where you both pity and love each characters as though they were part of your family. Because in a way, we've all met our Mrs. Bennets, Marys, Lydias, Mr. Bingleys etc. even though the gender might vary, at least I have met variations of these characters and I can recognize aspects of myself in most of them as well.

I'm gushing but I do so shamelessly because I cannot stop talking about Pride and Prejudice right now. It's sort of to the point where I wish that her books were real life. Because even though it might appear to some that the only point in the book is to find a suitable partner (even though I argue it's not the case), it still has more substance than most of our lives these days, or even contains more substance than modern literature (some exceptions). At least to me. I sort of have this idea that love has more substance than money, work or anything like that (maybe considered naive, but whatever - in the world that I live in, love is about the most essential part of life and there is nothing that I can think of at the moment which is more important - regardless what kind of love it is, love is always going to be important to me). Which is maybe why I adore Austen's books. Also not solely because they're so romantic but also because the languge is, as I mentioned before, so incredibly captivating and beautiful.

I can talk forever and make no excuses, but... I adore this book so darn much and I'll probably read this book until the letters on the page fade away and can't be read any more.

I hope you saw the icons I made (if not, a link is provided in my previous entry, or it will be provided here). I think I made so many pretty ones (I've started to use texts and textures and stuff more which makes the icons so much more fun because you start focusing on the icons as individuals rather than as a group which gives each of them a specific character), I'm only sad because I don't have enough space to use each of them, which is unusual to me. I usually hate my own icons, with a few, very rare exceptions.

I saw another FNL episode. Probably eight hundred episodes behind everyone else but whatever. ( Friday Night Lights - 1x09 Full Hearts )

I'm really excited about True Blood. I can't wait to see it. Anna Paquin is awesome (or at least she is in X-Men, I haven't seen her in anything else unfortunately).

Lately I've gotten a bit of a cough which is a bummer to start your vacation off like that, but I'll survive.

I borrowed American Psycho and some other book... Love Lies Bleeding, at the library but I think I'm going to return them because... they aren't really books that I felt really psyched about reading. *sigh* I've been going back and forth there all week, or so it feels like, returning books I haven't even read because I realized I'm not in the mood to read them.

Also, I'm planning to write a book as my final project (It's a thing we do in Sweden - we have a project which we do our final year and then we turn it in at the end of the year and do a presentation on it and then get graded for it). At first I was thinking that I was going to write a book with vampires in them, now I'm thinking about taking a page out of Friday Night Lights (because I'm so damn in love with this show at the moment) and center it around people who like football à la FNL style (although put my personal spin on it). That way I learn something about American football (which totally makes no sense to me whatsoever. Please explain why it is called football) and if I put it in an... oh well, I don't know. I don't even know if I wanna write it in Swedish or English, which I think would have a huge impact on who I get as a supervisor - even if it's perhaps a minor detail.

So, what do you think? English or Swedish? Help!

Huge happy birthday to blossomslut, malinion and perfect_oasis (the clock just passed midnight so I guess it's your birthday :)) :D I hope you have had/will have amazing ones :D

Edit: Woops. This entry accidentally turned epically big. Sorry :/ I guess I have a lot to type ;)

I started to make icons again, but this time I did them a bit... creative. This time I've started to look into textures, brushes and fonts, things that I had almost forgotten and sure, they might not look so high tech (the icon I'm using for this entry is part of that batch), but who cares? They are fun. It just kills me that the majority of the brushes available at 100x100_brushes aren't compatable with my version of Photoshop which I received from my school (7.0). Oh well, I'll survive with what I've got I suppose.

I spent a lot of time (an hour or two) reading some more on A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray and I'm surprised to learn the wonderfulness of just sitting down and read. To take some time out of your otherwise pretty murdane day to sit down and read about some sort of incredible adventure that happens to people. It was such a long time ago since I "took time" to do something, you know? It feels great that my summer holiday is approaching (even though I couldn't find a job) because it enables me to do all these things I haven't had the luxury of doing before.

A Great and Terrible Beauty is so far vastly entertaining, even though at times partly confusing. I'm currently at page 126 (or if it was 146, I'm not sure...) but I'm interested enough to keep going. My goal is to read through the book till Monday, at which point I will go to the library and borrow more summer reading. Suggestions? I'm still trying to find some good vampire book which is not Twilight (I don't have the energy to read New Moon and Eclipse for some reason. I want to have them in a book form, in my hand, printed. Because they don't have Twilight or New Moon or anything of the sort in English at my library)

I also need to finish Anne Frank's Diary. I started a month or so ago but I need to finish it. Just makes me so sad to think what happened to her...

Oh, and a new tag! Just because I felt like it ;)

Edit: Am I the only one who LiveJournal likes to mess with after posting a new entry? I do not approve of this, LiveJournal. Badly done, badly done indeed.

I have a feeling I need a book icon because I have a feeling I'll be reading a lot this summer.

Remember how I mentioned in my previous entry that I was going to the library? Well, after returning my books I saw that I had some extra time until my bus departed, so I went back in and I went to the young adult section and walked out with A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. I have no idea if it's at all good or anything but it seemed like something right up my alley. I need to read more fantasy and this seemed as good a book as any.

According to the writer's website the book is about the following:

"Gemma Doyle, sixteen and proud, must leave the warmth of her childhood home in India for the rigid Spence Academy, a cold finishing school outside of London, followed by a stranger who bears puzzling warnings. Using her sharp tongue and agile mind, she navigates the stormy seas of friendship with high-born daughters and her roommate, a plain scholarship case. As Gemma discovers that her mother's death may have an otherworldly cause, and that she herself may have innate powers, Gemma is forced to face her own frightening, yet exciting destiny . . . if only she can believe in it."

What do you think? It seems good?

Five things that would make my life a little bit better

• Some new clothes


• A haircut


• A subscription to some magazine or a book


• A meal at Max (it's sorta like McDonalds only a lot better and well... yeah... Swedish)


• A self-cleaning room. (although that's like... impossible unless I get like a maid) But oh well... I guess the inspiration to not let it turn into a huge mess is a better one ^^

I'm going to go to the library tomorrow (or possibly the bookstore because I still have a little left from my gift certificate) to search for a book. Do you have any suggestions?

Man, I suddenly wanted to rewatch Buffy. Like, seriously. Or even better, Angel - I don't remember anything from that show.

I've decided to rewatch It Started With A Kiss (check it out on YouTube, y'all! :D) because it's so extremely lovely. ♥ I also came across this icon - pretty ship, non? :D

Edit: I've forgotten how much Zhi Shu's mother owns. Seriously. She kicks butt ♥ Also, Ariel sort of looks like a goldfish, I think - she's really adorable :P

Anyhow, I think I'm going to watch an episode or two and then I'm going to read some from Stieg Larsson's "Flickan som lekte med elden" ("The Girl Who Played With Fire") - the prologue was really disturbing, which I think really shows what an awesome writer he was (one of my favourite Swedish authors, if not the favourite) but I can't help but groan every time he writes the male character. God, he's such... Why is it that every Swedish author feels like creating some sort of... Casanova when it comes to their male characters? They have to be all butch, women have to fall all over them etc. and it just... bothers me. Male characters in Swedish literature are stone cold in Swedish literature, they are filled with domestic problems (usually going through a divorce or children that doesn't want to speak with them, which they are usually fine with), they've had at least one office romance and the person still caries a torch for them somehow etc.

*groan* Swedish (adult) literature is so unimaginative, but when it comes to the crime bits and writing the female character, I think Stieg Larsson really manages to write extremely well.

Also, I think everyone should listen to this ♥

It's a Swedish group who's called Nordman. They are amazing and my mother (and the rest of my family) are huge fans. It doesn't matter if you understand the words (even if they are awesome) - just listen to the voice *drool*

I really want to read more fantasy/sci-fi books. I know they are totally two different genres but they are two genres I read too little. And with fantasy I really don't want to read like "knight fantasy" where a knight goes off to fight a dragon with a magic sword or something. So therefore, I turn to you, flist, do you know any good books about vampires, time travel, ghosts, spirits, faeries... whatever. Do you know any good ones? What can you recommend. I really don't feel like reading books which seems like those you can read time and time again. You, that have covers that seem to be picked up from Ivanhoe and basically contains the same plot with a kingdom etc. I'd rather read a "one in a million" kind of book.

Suggestions?