sky alchemy, Antarctica, You-Are-There-Reading, or: I open my arms to the romance of it all

It's grey winter days here - the overcast skies made me go and browse my shelves, looking for a fitting book. That's how I arrived at "Skating to Antarctica" by Jenny Diski - it was one of the books I ordered while I was reading through all continents. In the end, I read another book for Antarctica, and since then, "Skating" is waiting. Now I started it as it felt fitting for this winter. And it was such a good surprise find, both the author, and the book.

I didn’t know about Jenny Diski. Turns out, she had a fascinating life: she had a troubled childhood, followed by stays in a psychiatric hospital in her youth, due to depression. But she had the luck that one of her classmates was the son of Doris Lessing, who recognized her early talent and supported her in an extraordinary way, offering to live in her house when she was a teenager.

The book "Skating to Antarctica" is a memoir with two focus points: her youth, and the difficult relationship with her mother - and a journey to a place that comforts her in its simple whiteness: Antarctica.

Here’s a quote from her, about the longing that inspired the journey:

But given that depression happened to me, and I did have support, I found it was possible after a time, to achieve a kind of joy totally disconnected from the world. I wanted to be unavailable and in that place without the pain. I still want it. It is coloured white and filled with a singing silence. It is an endless ice-rink. It is Antarctica.” ― Jenny Diski

The book itself, despite the topics, has a rather humorous touch and is rather connected to the details of the world. Diski herself looked for fitting reads, too, on her journey. Here's a paragraph I read today, it made me smile:

I was beguiled by the sea and so much of it; snow and ice and white places in abeyance for the time being. An hour or so later, I returned to my bunk, got under the thin duvet and watched the sky outside my porthole for a bit, before opening the copy of Moby Dick I had brought with me on the grounds that now, if ever, was the time to overcome my aversion to nautical literatur. By the third page I was thrumming with pleasure at the energy and freedom of Melville's writing.

These reflections made me a) remember the first line of Moby Dick, ("Call me Ishmael") and consider reading the start of Moby Dick, and b) think of the essay on reading which is about reading book in the very place the book is set: "You-Are-There Reading", Anne Fadiman called this.

And as a side-effect of all this, it seems I am back now to book-blogging, and to taking sky photos and writing smallstones:



Between the dark of night
And the white of snow:
The sky alchemy of winter sunrise

So far, January has been "real winter" here in the South of Germany, with snow on an almost daily basis. And there were some bright nights, with full moon and with Venus showing. Seems January is supposed to bring some interesting sky constellations. Here's a link from National Geographic: "Starstruck – 6 Great Sky Events in January"

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The other Antarctica book
The other Antarctica book I read back then for the continent challenge? That was "Icebound" by Jerri Nielsen, also a memoir, about a winter in the South Pole station. And to continue this book domino: Icebound includes an You-Are-There Reading moment, too:

"The pole station has an own small library, and it includes the books of the first Antarctica expeditions. And so "Ice Bound" transcends from the present to the past of the pole, to the first explorers, and the power of the word, the way it can share experiences and bring comfort. The quote in the video is expressing a lot in just a few sentences: "When I was feeling my worst, Big would sit up next to me at night reading passages from Endurance... The story of Shakletone's struggle in 1915 to survive and keep his crew alive touched me deeply and comforted me. He was the explorer who best understood the wild, seductive lure of Antarctica. "I have ideals," he said," and far away, in my own white South, I open my arms to the romance of it all.""

Here's the link to the blog post about "Icebound".

Moby Dick

And in case you feel like reading into Moby Dick now: there's an online version, here's the start of it: "Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation." - Moby Dick chapter 1

Links
More skies... skywatch friday
More about Jenny Diski at Wiki: Jenny Diski

little prince + last christmas

Quiet moments: 

The new “Little Prince” film was on in TV. I recorded it to watch it in parts, so that it lasts longer. It’s really good, and I now started to read the book again. And the radio keeps playing "Last Christmas" and other songs from George Michael.

So somehow this Christmas now has this touch of sweet/sad nostalgia, of childhood stories and teenage songs brought back.

(inspired by the #decemberreflections2016)

Best Book of 2016 + memories of Miro and sunnier days

It's troubled day here. With bad news following bad news, despite all the Christmas lights. I actually thought about skipping this whole DecemberReflections2016 idea. But then, it feels like a ray of colored sunlight on days like these, and a walk through memories of happier days.

And so my personal best book of 2016 is a colorful art book, one that also is a symbol: the Taschen biography / artography of Miro. It's a wonderful book. I bought it after visiting the Miro exhibition in Frankfurt in April. And learned that there is a Miro museum with Miro's atelier in Mallorca. So I took the book with me, to read it under the Spanish sun... and visit Miro there, on the island that was his home for years.

Here's the memory from back then, with a note and photos:

"Miro museum. Colors shapes emotions. And: his atelier. The place where Miro lived and worked after he moved to Mallorca. His vibe is still here. Makes me want to paint. In bright colours. In constellations."

 

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And the other fave read of this year: is a re-read of a found book. I came across it in the "telephone book box" (a book exchange installed in an old telephone box). And back home, starting to read, and not wanting to end. It's a memoir of Meike Winnetmuth, who at age 50 gets the chance to be candidate in a quiz show - and wins half a million Euro. She decides to go travelling for a year, with the plan to visit 12 countries, and live in each one for a month in a city.

   

The book is written in letters, starting with a letter from Sydney... here's the list of the 12 cities:

Sydney

Buenos Aires

Mumbai

Shanghai

Honolulu

San Francisco

London

Kopenhagen

Barcelona

Tel Aviv

Addis Abeba

Havanna

Hamburg

Like during the first read, I read the book at the pace of 1 city / day and loved it. "It's probably one of the best books I read this year so far. Found by chance," that's what I noted when I read it first. It's still true.

east + west, words + freedom, walls + borders, tax + refugees, and 2 murals

This started as a currently-reading blog post - yet the books that I recently read are both connected to my visit to the Leipzig book fair. Driving there brought up the whole theme of East and West Germany, of borders, of change, of the recent German history. It's so present there - like when you walk into the inner city of Leipzig from the train station, you walk past a giant colorful mural. It took a moment for me to see its central line: the wall, closed still on the upper corner, opening in the lower corner.

The walk through Leipzig city happened on the day before the fair opened. That morning, I strolled through the fairhalls that were both empty and buzzing with get-things-prepared-activities. One of the moments that touched me was this one: walking through the entry area, past black signs that said "Für das Wort und die Freiheit" - "For the word and for freedom":



Freedom of speech, we so often take it for granted. But it isn't. And even in Europe, just some decades ago, it was another world in many places: writing the wrong word could mean trouble and prison.

Sometimes, granting the right of freedom of speech is painful. There was one booth in the fair that felt like a slap in the face: Compact was there, a rather borderline right-wing magazine.



The police was present, to make sure there would be no trouble. The thing is, freedom of course always is also the freedom of the one with another opinion. It's just stinging to see that if they were in charge, they probably wouldn't care much for other opinions, or dialogue, or compassion, or human rights.... And their slogans! Like from a different time and place, stirring fear and anger. And as always, it is so much easier to throw around fear and to blame refugees, than to contemplate the complex problems of our days.

The complexity of problems, that was, in a good way, the slogan of one of the radio stations that was present, "DRadio". One of the stations that has a focus on interviews and information, people and themes. Their motto:

"Es ist kompliziert. Dazu guter Pop."
"It is complicated. Accompanied by good pop."

And it is complicated, Europe these days. There are so many difficult themes. Questions without easy answers. Long and hard debates. A feeling that all is connected, more than ever.

Another moment that still touches me: walking through the European hall, and seeing a "Taiwan" sign - turns out, there is a writer-in-residency exchange program between Germany and Taiwan. They had some small collections from authors who joined, the series is titled: "Life is an island". One is from author Badai. He writes in his introduction that he doesn't know Germany - but that he is deeply impressed by the fact that Germany was the first country to open borders for Syrian refugees. Interesting to get to read this outside view. It also made me think that the regions in former East Germany have the most recent own experience with living in an oppressive state. And many fled the region - becoming German-German refugees. It's strange that the right-wing is especially strong in these regions.



The book from Taiwan, I brought it home, and after reading brought it as souvenir to the local librarian - we had talked about the Leipzig bookfair before I went, I actually borrowed a travel guide there. She never was in Leipzig herself, she told me. "I bring you something from there", I said. I guess that's one of the things I like about books, that they sometimes do their own travels, connecting places and people.

In a sweet twist, I got offered a book called "Europe", on that first day - but I was on the way to the city. "I'd love to, but I would have to carry it around Leipzig atll day", I explained. Of course, I later regretted it. Fast forward two days: I walked through the halls for a final round. Actually thought of the Europe book. And walking up the next stairway, see a copy there - abandoned by someone else, and left there. So the book now has its own arrival-story for me. And it's a moving book. "My name is Europe - a political travelbook" by Alexander Cern. With a bit of a mystic touch, reflections, walks, word associations, and conversations along the way, about life and the world. With lines like this (i tried a translation):

"You talk about our capitals and economical centres?"
"I talk about all the cities and countries of this world where the lust of one group is paid by the dumbness and the death of the others."
"And how do you want to stop this mechanism?"
"The troubling thing is that the mechanisms are well known."
"But then, one could..."
"Yes, one could, if one wanted..."

And interesting, this peculiar German grammar construct of the impersonal "one", that doesn't even expect someone to act: "man könnte"....

The quoted lines, reading them now, they almost feel like a commentary on the Panama Papers and the whole system of offshore companies and tax avoidance, and the unbelievable dimension of this hidden system. One of the repeated quotes on twitter tried to link both themes, the papers and the refugees, and give a larger perspective:

“Nicht die Flüchtlinge sind unser Problem - sondern die Steuerflüchtlinge."
"Not the refugees are our problem - but the tax-refugees”."

(In German, it’s indeed the same word that is used in both cases: a refugee is a "Flüchtling", and someone who tries to avoid taxes by moving money abroad is a "tax-refugee": "Steuerflüchtling".)

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From Taiwan and Europe to... a game of chess and life
In contrast to the heavier political themes, I came across a book set on the Greek island Naxos, a story about finding ones way and following ones passion even when it's difficult, and when you are "only" working as a hotel maid. Reading it also brought back the memories of my own stay in Greece. Here's a photo that I had no memory of... a painted wall:

The book itself is not from Leipzig, but from the telephone book box. The title is: "the chess player" - or rather, the female form of it (in German, you don't have defined neutral forms for professions, you have to define the gender, or go for non-defined, "some chess-player".) so the book title is "Die Schachspielerin" -"she chess-player-woman". For that it's the turn her life takes when she comes across a chess game in process in the room of a couple from Paris. Seeing it makes her dream of Paris, and of playing chess with her own husband. It wakes a curiousity she didn't know she had. And from there, things roll on. And she starts to learn chess, and has to learn that people think her ridiculous for it, and her husband especially doesn't share her dream, and instead feels embarassed by her. "A delicate book about chance and the courage for change," is the short description. It also connects with a quote I copied before I came across the book:

"Always go with your passions. Never ask yourself if it’s realistic or not."
– Deepak Chopra

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More links
- bookshelf
- Leipzig moments

spring!, or: the power of petals + the power of words

just this.

this moment.

this color.

at this time of day.

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Still happy about the sun moments from Sunday. The weather forecast had announced that it would be overcast all day: there was a huge cloud field covering almost all of Germany, and we were at the southern cloud border.  But in the late morning, some first patches of sky started to show. Like with the flight, I hopped into my clothes and went out right away, to take a walk.

Back home, I picked up a book from the library that turned out to be funny and witty and full of life, even though it has "death" in the title. The German title is "Sophia, der Tod und ich" ("Sophia, Death and me"), written by Thees Uhlmann. Here's a sunstruck photo:  

 

As it turned out, despite the cloudy forecast, it remained sunny all afternoon. So good. And so nice to see the spring flowers pop up now, in their bright colous. Spring energy! Today it's back to clouds, but the energy is still lingering.

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Inspired by the sun, and by photofriday's new theme "powerful".... now for a revisited text that connects to powerful. hmmm.... maybe this one? It popped up on top when I tried a google-search of this blog for "power", a note written after visiting the Frankfurt Bookfair in 2009 - it's not one of the best, but fits with the book theme, and with just coming back from the Leipzig Bookfair.
And to go with it, a photo of a revolution:

The Power of Culture

Cathedrals of glass for all those words written
7000 publishers meeting in one place
The number of their books: uncountable

Police guards at the entry, checking bags -
- But who would bring a bomb to a book fair?
- Well...

I dive into hall after hall, into lakes of words and sound
Chinese poetry live, textcontext, forum book,
Prix nobel 2009, du monde entier a-z

Outside, a circusstyle reading tent, cup of coffee for 1.50,
Live words for free: Anthony McCarten: Show of Hands,
Leon de Winter: Recht auf Rückkehr.

In between halls, gateways of thought, words on a poster:
Der Kultur der Macht / die Macht der Kultur entgegensetzen
Contradict the Culture of Power / With the Power of Culture.

Moving on, into other worlds, into installations of ink on paper
I try to trace the line between fiction and fact,
And reach the fine hall of art.

I gather conceptual, (un)monumental
Keys to this world
In lines on paper

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Leipzig Bookfair moments: the day before the start, 24h later, book book and blogger coffee break

The photo the is from yesterday: the whole fair was still in the process of "Aufbau", of getting everything together.

And this is how it looked today:

I was in the Central hall just when the "Leipzig Buchpreis" was announced. more about the prize and the books, online at the international website of Radio DW (Deutsche Welle / German Wave): Leipzig Book Fair Prize rewards three epic works

And two mini moments: "Buch Buch" - "book book"

And a cup of coffee in the book blogger lounge, with blogger book (everything is about books here).

global reading US: tales, resolutions, winter butterflies, or: thought you might want to see this...

7 continents, 7 books, the next step: from Europe to America, and to #readwomen

My global reading journey started in Antarctica, and moved to Europe from there. In one of those nice coincidences, the first book I read for Europe took me both back to age of Enlightment, and back to a reading initiative from 2014:

"Reading Almqvist also reminded me of the "Readwomen"-initiative, and my own resolution to read more books written by female authors." 

So instead of moving on to move on to the next continent, to a book I had ordered already but arrived too late to take along (Laurence Bergreen's "Over the Edge of the World", which tells the story of Magellan's circumnaviagation of the globe - a journey that also included the Canary Islands, and the idea was to read the book there.)

So instead of following Bergreen's account of Magellan's journey, I browsed books again ... and arrived in the US, with 2 female authors who probably are well-known there, but not so much here in Europe: Edith Wharton and Zora Neale Hurston.



"Ethan Frome" by Edith Warthon
Edith Warthon was the first woman who won the Pulitzer Prize for literature, in 1921, for her novel "The Age of Innocence". "Ethan Frome" is an earlier work, published in 1911. The story is set in the fictitious town of Starkfield, Massachusetts.
Interesting detail: Wharton was always careful to label "Ethan Frome" as a tale rather than a novel. It's a dark story to read, and unlike fairy tales, there isn't exactly a happy end waiting for the characters. Here's more: Wikipedia/Ethan Frome

The story has two timelines, the one of the narrator, and the time of the earlier happenings. Here are two quotes that give an idea of the atmosphere (I was touched by the second one, the butterfly in winter):

"It seemed to be a part of the thickening darkness, to be the winter night itself descending on us layer by layer.”
 “They seemed to come suddenly upon happiness as if they had surprised a butterfly in the winter woods.”

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Their eyes were watching.. - Zora Neale Hurston
The second novel also reaches back in time, to 1937.  Here's the book description, from wiki: "Their Eyes Were Watching God" is a 1937 novel and the best known work by African-American writer Zora Neale Hurston. Set in central and southern Florida in the early 20th century, the novel was initially poorly received for its rejection of racial uplift literary prescriptions. Today, it has come to be regarded as a seminal work in both African-American literature and women's literature. TIME included the novel in its 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923." - more:  Wikipedia / Their Eyes...

The copy I read included a longer foreword, which reads like a tale story itself: that the book for a longer time was on the verge to go out of print, even when the first discussion panels included it. Back then, there were "reading lists" for panel visitors, to get a borrowed copy for 2 hours. And that at one point, Alice Walker went looking for Hurston's grave, and learned that it was unmarked, on the way to be almost forgotten. She couldn't bear this neglect, and took care of the grave, ordering a gravemarker with the inscription: "Zora Neale Hurston - Genius of the South - Novelist, Folklorist, Anthropologist (1891-1960). Both the story itself, and the story about the book is touching. Just like this quote from the book:

"There are years that ask questions and years that answer."

Another tale-like moment: the story leads to a particular place in Florida - to Lake Okeechobee. I was there, at that lake, once. Now I wish I had known about the book back then, and read it there.



So the timing didn't work for the read-at-the-same place, but instead something else worked out in a nice parallel of themes: while I thought about #readwomen, a message from Canada reached me - written by Mary Duffy: "Hello Dorothee thought you might want to see this as I mention your blog and book challenge"... and the link lead straight to Room Magazine, to an interview about Reading habits and resolutions:

Are you aware of your reading habits? - Reading Resolutions with Nikki Reimer and Mary Duffy

  

Such a good surprise. And how beautiful that my world reading challenge inspired a book group to read around the world, and now form a part of those reflections, which again might make other readers look at their reads from this different viewpoint.

The next reading challenge stop... won't be a continent, but an event: it's Leipzig Book Fair upcoming. Really looking forward.

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Reading Links 
Here are some additional links:

• The reading challenge - it's open to join: 7 Continents, 7 Billion People, 7 Books
• The readwomen-initiative, which started in 2014: #readwomen2014 - can a hashtah change reading habits?
• Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction Longlist 2016
• World books I read so far, listed by country: Book list by country
• The previous global reading book blog post: New places and where to start + global reading: Ice Bound (or: penguins, Antarctica, Endurance + how to count life)

global reading Europe: a random scandal book + a bestselling runaway novella (or: the joys of a telephone book box)

7 continents, 7 books, the next step: from the South Pole to ... Sweden and Germany

I started the 7 continents reading challenge well-planned in Antarctica, browsing books-from-Antarctica-lists and reading reviews. The book I picked was "Ice Bound" by Jerri Nielsen, I blogged about it here: global reading: Ice Bound (or: penguins, Antarctica, Endurance + how to count life)

For the next step, I tried a rather different, random approach: I went to our local telephone book box, and let myself be suprised by the books that were currently lined up there. I also brought some own reads in indirect exchange - and came home with thtree books.

The first is "Runaway Horse" by Martin Walser, who is a well-known author in Germany. But the real surprise was Carl Jonas Love Almqvist. I didn't know this author, and basically went with the cover, the note that it is a book about a journey, and the country of origin: Sweden. I haven't read a book from there so far, and with the Walser novella, this also neatly decided the next continent for the reading challenge: Europe.

So: the Almqvist book. Turns out, the book was originally published in 1839 in Sweden, and caused a scandal. The German edition I came across is a new edition, published in 2004. I guess Almqvist would have been thrilled to learn about the difference he made, and the still existing interest in his work - unfortunately, writing the book caused a downward spiral for himself, he lost his job,, even had to leave the country, and struggled ín exile. Here's more about him, and the book, from Wikipedia:

Carl Jonas Love Ludvig Almqvist (28 November 1793, Stockholm, Sweden – 26 September 1866, Bremen, Germany), was a romantic poet, early feminist, realist, composer, social critic, and traveller. "Sara Videbeck and the Chapel" is the English translation of Almqvist's most famous work, whose Swedish title is "Det går an" (lit. "It will do"). The novel is primarily an attack on lifelong marriage as an institution and the inability of women to become financially independent. The book's social tendency aroused lively debate and "det-går-an literature" became a concept. The controversy over the work, however, forced Almqvist out of his post as rector at the New Elementary School, Stockholm.

The book itself is a novella, and surprisingly vivid to read. It also is a reminder how much society and cultural norms changed in Europe in the last 150 years - and how books had an important role in that process. Almqvist himself was inspired by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whose political philosophy influenced the Enlightenment in France and across Europe.

But back to the back: as I browsed the links for it, I saw that it is actually available online in a place that is the very counterpart of the telephone book box: the internet library archive. Which host hundred thousands of files. Here is the link to it in the archive: Sara Videbeck and The chapel.

Now I just broswed the archive a bit, and was both amazed by its size, and overwhelmed by it. That's what's so nice about the phone box: it is simple, with maybe 200 books on its shelves. It's a good place to find books you never heard about, and read outside one's usual comfort zone, without being overwhelmed by choice. Here's a photo:


 

I discovered the book phone box 2 years ago, and wrote a longer note on it which also includes a book encounter of the sweet kind: "but there are no princess books"

Reading Almqvist also reminded me of the "Readwomen"-initiative, and my own resolution to read more books written by female authors. So that's another good global-reading match: the Antarctica book is written by a woman, and is a memoir. The European books so are written by male authors - the second book is Martin Walser's "Runaway Horse". Here's more about Walser and the book, from Wiki:

Martin Walser (born 24 March 1927) is a German writer. He became famous for describing the conflicts his anti-heroes have in his novels and stories. In 1998 he was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in Frankfurt. His most important work is "Ein fliehendes Pferd" (English: A Runaway Horse), published 1978, which was both a commercial and critical success.

The book has an own story to it: Malser wrote it during a summer-holiday stay in Sylt, as a playful small work as he paused with the longer book he worked on. And it probably is both this playful touch and the parallel to his own character and stay there that added to its success: reading it, you wonder how much is fiction and how much is observing himself and the people he meets. Altogether, the book is about pretending - both between the partners in a marriage, and between "old friends" who happen to meet again. How much of the stories we share are truth, and how much is make-believe? It's a thought-provoking read, but for me, at some point the ongoing and growing pretention started to feel tiring, as it's only in the end that the truth is revealed - I guess personally I would have been interested to read more about how the characters deal with the end-of-pretend, both on their own and in the relation to the others. But then, it's a novella from start and concept, and leaving you with the open end and question is a skilfull turn, too.

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The third book I picked brought a nice surprise, too: it's written by a German female author. And is set in Spain - which is where I am right now. I already started to read it, and will do a second half of the "Europe" reads in a seperate post..... which is now online here: island reads: The Humans, Life Lessons, Zerotime, The Hive 

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Reading Links 
Here are some additional links:

• The reading challenge - it's open to join: 7 Continents, 7 Billion People, 7 Books
• The readwomen-initiative, which started in 2014: #readwomen2014 - can a hashtah change reading habits?
• World books I read so far, listed by country: Book list by country
• The previous global reading book blog post: New places and where to start + global reading: Ice Bound (or: penguins, Antarctica, Endurance + how to count life)

island reads: The Humans, Life Lessons, Zerotime, The Hive

One of the joys of being here is.. having time to read at the pool. I brought some books, and blogged about them here already: global reading Europe: a random scandal book + a bestselling runaway novella - but I also went with chance, and tried the hotel bookshelf.

The Humans
The two books in the photo above are from there - "The Humans" by Matt Haig is a book a friend recommended last year, and it's really a great read that I enjoyed a lot, both reflective and funny and, well, human. The first chapters take a bit to get used to, but then it's picking up. Here's a quote from the introduction, about humankind as perceived from an outside / alien perspective:

“Let's not forget The Things They Do To Make Themselves Happy That Actually Make Them Miserable. This is an infinite list. It includes - shopping, watching TV, taking the better job, getting the bigger house, writing a semi-autobiographical novel, educating their young, making their skin look mildly less old and harboring a vague desire to believe there might be a meaning to it all.”

Life Lessons
The second book is a revisit: I read Grimaud's notes on her journey through Europe some years ago, and it was great to revisit it. There's so much in it, reflections and  conversations on art, wildlife, travel, life... here's my note from the first read:

 "Helene Grimaud, a French pianist who now lives in the States, at some point decided she needs to spend some time alone, and went to Europe to reflect on her life and the way to take. I didn't know her, and was amazed to read that she is a star pianist who at home, has created a home for wolves. I just started to read into her book. It's touching, open, and you can feel her two sides: the cultural/musical side, and the longing/connection to the wild."

And two other books I read here, picked at home and brought here:

Zerotime
"Nullzeit" is a novel by the German author Juli Zeh, and happens to be set right here in Lanzarote. So it's one of those "You Are There - Reading"-occasions, bringing this unique fun of reading a book in the exact place that appears in the book. It's a kind of suspense / thriller story with several twists, told from two perspectives: an expat diving instructor in Lanzarote, and one of his guests. The term "Nullzeit" ("zerotime" refers to the depth you can dive and get back to surface without having to pause below for a decompress-stop). Here's a bit about Juli Zeh, from the English wiki page:

"Juli Zeh (born 30 June 1974 in Bonn) is a German writer. Zeh lived in Leipzig from 1995, and currently resides outside of Berlin. Zeh studied law in Passau and Leipzig, passing the Zweites Juristisches Staatsexamen - comparable equivalent to the U.S. bar exam - in 2003, and holds a doctorate in international law from Universität Saarbrücken. Her first book was Adler und Engel (translated into English as Eagles and Angels by Christine Slenczka), which won the 2002 Deutscher Bücherpreis for best debut novel."

The Hive
And I read a Spanish book, from Nobel Laureate Camilo José Cela: "The Hive". A book with an unusual concept, written in short scenes that touch a lot of different characters - in some ways, it is "The Humans" as seen through a kaleidoscope of moments:

"The Hive (Spanish: La Colmena) (also translated as The Beehive) is a novel written by the Spanish author first published in 1950. The novel is set in Madrid in 1943, after the end of the Spanish Civil War, and deals with the poverty and general unhappiness found in Spain by examining a multitude of fictional characters in varying levels of detail. It is notable in that it contains over 300 characters and is considered to be the most important novel written in post civil war Spain. Because of rigorous censorship Cela was unable to get La colmena published in his native Spain, and was instead forced to publish it in Buenos Aires."

global reading: Ice Bound (or: penguins, Antarctica, Endurance + how to count life)

So there it is: the new 7 continents reading challenge. Now where to start - how to pick the first book when you have the whole world to choose from? 

Maybe Antarctica, I figured. It's the only continent I so far haven't read a book from, as there are just not that many people (and thus, even less authors!) living there. Which also fitted with this humorous facebook conversation:

7 Continents, 7 Billion People, 7 Books! For 2016, there is a new world reading challenge starting. To join the challenge, select and read seven books, one book from each continent.
- Diana: Are the antarctic books written by penguins? :)
- Chris: 7 billion penguins. :)
- Doro: That would be something :) like the typing monkeys: typing penguins.

In fact, Antarctica is the only continent without any permanent human residents. But there are some books set in Antarctica written by people who lived in the polar stations, and a number of expedition books (old and new). Here's a goodreads list: Non-fiction books set in Antarctica

Before delving into the books, I read a bit more about Antarctica. Some rather stunning facts:

• Antarctica, on average, is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent of the world. 
• Despite all the ice, it is considered a desert, as there is almost no percipitation. 
• At 14,000,000 square kilometres, it is the fifth-largest continent in area after Asia, Africa, North America, and South America. For comparison, Antarctica is nearly twice the size of Australia. 
• About 98% of Antarctica is covered by ice that averages 1.9 kilometres (1.2 miles) in thickness. 
• There are no permanent human residents, but anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 people reside throughout the year at the research stations scattered across the continent. 
• There are some permanent animal residents living in Antarctica, though. Among them: the aforementioned penguins! (But no polar bears, they live in the Arctic region)
• More here: Antarctica/wiki

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Ice Bound: A Doctor's Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole
When I browsed the goodreads list, there was one title that instantly caught my attention: Ice Bound. What fascinated me about it is that it's about the daily life in the South Pole station, written from a doctor's perspective. And that it turns from a casual pole station book to a memoir of a doctor who turns into a patient. Which at the pole in winter means: there is no outside help, and no other doctor. The book also includes some photos, I tried a short vine-video to give an idea:



Here's the book description from Publisher's Weekly:

"Nielsen spent the better part of 1999 as the physician for a team of 41 research scientists and their support group at the South Pole; a place that is completely unreachable for nine months of the year. To "winter" at the bottom of the world risks one's life; in addition, Nielsen was solely responsible for caring for the physical and emotional health of all the other "Polies." Yet, as she writes in a strong, lucid voice, she never felt afraid; in fact, as Nielsen became "of the Ice", a transformation that brings incredible clarity about what's most important in this life, one that unites the Polies in a life-and-death symbiosis in a place where resources are severely limited and the pristine beauty is incomparable. Through power outages, fires and equipment failures, Nielsen found courage, until the day-deep into the pitch-black winter-she absentmindedly discovered a hard mass at the top of her right breast... Captivating and incisive, Nielsen does not present a memoir about illness; instead, this excellent book is about life, work and the depth of human resiliency and love."

The world in an ice dome, or: what we can, what we can't  
What amazed me when I read the book was the wide spectrum of themes it included - the pole station is like a microcosmos of our civilization. Adding to that, maybe the combination of both our human virtues and our vulnerabilities stands out even more in this region where we naturally wouldn't be able to survive.

And of course, Nielsen's reflections on her own illness and the therapy spoke to me after I had been a breast cancer patient, too, just recently. But then, just to think that year after year, dozens of people go to the pole to live there - knowing that it is physically demanding, with the darkness, the high-altitude effect, the frostbite, the risk when you are out just some minutes too long - and the fact that there will be no way in or out. It's a survival challenge, only that you volunteer to go there.

It also shows how much we are able to do, and how we at the same time are still at the  mercy of fate: on the one hand, we can build a pole station and live there during the arctic winter. We can build satellites and bring them into orbit, and thus create a world-wide satellite net. We invented the internet, and combined it is possible to connect to the world from anyplace, and have all the information that is out there at ones fingertip. But on the other hand, we are still trying to figure out how our world works, and how cancer happens and how the cure for it - or a prevention of it altogether - might look like, and same with Altzheimer. We came a long way, and have countless libraries filled with knowledge, but we still don't know how to prevent catastrophes, or wars, or the next wave of flu...

But back to the book, or rather: to books. The pole station has an own small library, and it includes the books of the first Antarctica expeditions. And so "Ice Bound" transcends from the present to the past of the pole, to the first explorers, and the power of the word, the way it can share experiences and bring comfort. The quote in the video is expressing a lot in just a few sentences:

"When I was feeling my worst, Big would sit up next to me at night reading passages from Endurance... The story of Shakletone's struggle in 1915 to survive and keep his crew alive touched me deeply and comforted me. He was the explorer who best understood the wild, seductive lure of Antarctica. "I have ideals," he said," and far away, in my own white South, I open my arms to the romance of it all."

Shackleton's name also appears in a reflection at the end of the book, after the first rays of sun finally start to show again in the polar region, and the isolated station time there starts to come to an end:

"We all wondered if, like Scott and Shackelton, we would be compelled to return again and again, trying to relive the exhilaration of our first time on the Ice, and the rapture of being alive."

I followed the book, and looked for Shackelton's notes - and found that there is an e-book at the Gutenberg Project: South! The Story of Shackleton's Last Expedition, 1914-17
About Project Gutenberg: it's a digital library of free e-books. It's a good and different place to browse (it's one of the things I try, parallel to reading books from new places: to also try new places to find books). And a nice addition of Gutenberg: the book opened nicely directly in the tablet;



So I read into the past for a while, following Shackleton's Voyage. There is a second book, a collected memoir that I might also visit, by Alfred Lansing. Here's the note for it:

"The astonishing saga of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton's survival for over a year on the ice-bound Antarctic seas, as Time magazine put it, "defined heroism." Alfred Lansing's scrupulously researched and brilliantly narrated book -- with over 200,000 copies sold -- has long been acknowledged as the definitive account of the Endurance's fateful trip. To write their authoritative story, Lansing consulted with ten of the surviving members and gained access to diaries and personal accounts by eight others. The resulting book has all the immediacy of a first-hand account, expanded with maps and illustrations especially for this edition. (Goodreads)"

The immediacy of a first-hand account - that's also what makes "Ice Bound" so touching. Nielsen isn't afraid of the larger topics. There are funny stories included, too, but there are also the tougher days included. Maybe this quote sums it up:

"I don't believe that life can be counted by years or days, but by experience and how you leave the world by the way you live."

Reading Links 
So that was my first "continent", or rather: first book of the world reading challenge. Here are some additional links:

• The reading challenge - it's open to join: 7 Continents, 7 Billion People, 7 Books
• World books I read so far, listed by country: Book list by country
• The previous book blog post: New places and where to start

And some pole links:

• South Pole station website with webcam and news
• link list at the South Pole website: "More South pole sites"
• blog with 11min-video that shows the station: Maddy - South Pole Station"
• trailer of Werner Herzog's film about visiting Antarctica: "Encounters at the end of the world"

7 continents reading challenge: new places + where to start?

New year, new books! As January is the time of new year resolutions and new reading challenges, I now put a new version of the "7 continents" reading challenge together for 2016. As always, the idea of the challenge is to read books from different cultures and continents. The task is: to read one book from each continent. Here is the challenge page, with the details and with links:
7 Continents, 7 Billion People, 7 Books

Looking forward to the world reading - yesterday I went on a bit of a book browse, looking for possible reads. One thing I really like about the world read idea is that it makes me go and look for books in a different way, searching the country lists at goodreads (like this one; Goodreads/Australia), or just googling "best books Africa", and arriving at this telegraph-series for world reads, here's the link for Africa + for South America. So the new places aren't only about the books themselves, but also about the links that lead to them.

While browsing, I came across a book that might be a good starting point for me, it actually is a journey around the whole world: “Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe” by Laurence Bergreen. Here's more at the author page, there also is an interactive map.

Looking at the book, I thought: that one would neatly fit with the place I'm going to be later in January: Lanzarote. Magellan stopped at the Canary islands on his way to South America. And reading world books while staying not far from a lighthouse feels like a good match.

Some extra links + time 

While reading the Magellan description, I remembered a book website which hosts all kind of free books, but especially out-of-print books: Project Gutenberg

They have an old Magellan book listed: The Story of Magellan, from 1899

Might be interesting to read a bit into this parallel to the new book, and also to look for other "parallel" reads there - for example, for Antarctica, there are Scott's and Amundsen's Expedition notes online: Gutenberg/Antarctica. 

It would also turn the world journey into a journey through time - and in contrast to the old volumes, I might also include some future stories. Litro featured an African science fiction anthology, somehow I remembered that and found it: Litro/AfroSF. 

Reading (+crowdfunding) a global walk & road memoirs: Nepal, Europe/US, Worldtrip

Reading: trail notes from one of the longest walks through the world, and road memoirs:

Since last year, I am reading the trek notes of a global walk: Paul Salopek, a journalist who won the Pulitzer, is walking the world, following the trail of humans from the origins in Africa along the directions they walked to migrate and spread. The name of his project is “Out of Eden Walk”, it’s partly supported by National Geographic.

The walk will be 7 years long, leading through 4 continents. Salopek started walking 2 years ago, in Ethopia. From there, his journey took him to Djibuti, and to Saudi Arabei. His journey notes are collected in an online archive: Out of Eden Walk - Notes. 

To finance his walk, Salop does a yearly Kickstarter campaign. I joined in backing his previous one, and now his new one is coming to closure: 4 days left, and 43.598 of 45.000$ funded. I just backed it, too. Here's the Kickstarter link: Out of Eden Walk.

Here's a summary of the walk so far, from the Kickstarter page: 

"In January 2013, Paul walked out of Ethiopia. He’s since traversed Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, the West Bank, Cyprus, Turkey, and crossed the Caucasus Mountains into the Republic of Georgia. Pausing only when seasonal or geopolitical factors demand, Paul won’t break from the Out of Eden Walk trail until he reaches the tip of South America, where our ancestors also ran out of new horizons.
 The physical rigors of the journey, though obvious, are far from the point. The Out of Eden Walk is primarily a storytelling quest into the lives of the people and the human landscapes that Paul encounters on the trail. Moving at the slow beat of his footsteps, Paul is revealing the inner worlds of people he encounters: the nomads, villagers, traders, farmers, and fishermen who don't ordinarily make the news. The Walk is a way of being; a commitment to humanity."

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Global walks - that could also be the titel theme for some of the books I read recently:





"Even Everest Shook: Caught in the Nepal Earthquake 2015"
by  Tony Hill
This is a touching read, starting light-hearted and adventurous, and then turning a book about witnessing the devastating earthquake on a personal level, as part of a trekking group:
"After visiting the ancient temples and squares of Kathmandu, Tony Hill and a group of fellow travellers from around the world set off up the Himalayan valleys Everest bound. Only 3 days into the trek they were in a mountain village when the devastating Nepal Earthquake struck. Lucky to escape uninjured, they find themselves stranded. Journey with Tony Hill, before, during and in the aftermath of the earthquake, experience breathtaking beauty, the bonding and humour of a diverse set of characters, then overwhelming tragedy, and the fragility, resilience and spirituality of the human condition."

"2 years 4 months 2 hours : From Italy to the world - A memoir of love and travel"
by Chiara Townley
A personal and emotional memoir of Chiara, written in diary notes and mails, about the difficult journey of 2 people from different continents from the first meeting to the final reunion: "Chiara meets Tyler in London while she's working in a hotel. For her it's love at first sight. She is from Italy and he is American. There is no time for dating because he's leaving for a trip to South America then back to the US. What happens next is the journey of a woman that follows her heart against all odds."

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"Journeyman" by Fabian Körner
This is a German book: the memoir of trying to travel all continents in a year and work in each for a while - interesting read, especially with the focus on the working, which gives the journey a different spin and focus and differnet destinations, away from the usual tourist trails.


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Reading Links:

For more reading notes, click here: life as a journey with books 

A reading list by regions is online at: World Reads by country

wild reading notes: a snail memoir + a wildlife biologist life (or: slow does it)

Currently Reading...
I recently read 2 books that were about nature, but from very different viewpoints: the first let me see snails in a different light, and the second gave a peek into the work/life of biologists,


“The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating” by Elisabeth Tova Bailey

Elisabeth Tova Bailey is a journalist who dealt with long-term illness and in that time, started to learn more about the life and habits of snails. The snail she get to know was a gift from a friend, and at first it felt like an odd gift, until it became more and more of a fascinating and vivid element that kept inspiring her through the difficult weeks and months of her illness. It's one of those cases were the troubling time opens the view to elements of life and nature that usually are too slow and boring for us to notice:

"While an illness keeps her bedridden, Bailey watches as the snail takes up residence on her nightstand. Intrigued by its molluscan anatomy, cryptic defenses, clear decision making ability, hydraulic locomotion, and mysterious courtship activities, Bailey becomes an astute and amused observer. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating is a remarkable journey of survival and resilience, showing us how a small part of the natural world illuminates our own human existence."

Reading the book made me think of Susan Sontag's book "Illness as metaphor" that i read in December (here's more), and her quote on the other side of life - and how that other side is one with a different concept of time, and of mobility:

“Illness is the night-side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we all prefer to use the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place.” 

(and looking for the quote, i arrived at this awesome trailer: Regarding Susan Sontag)

But back to the book: reading it brought a different feeling for snails - so far, I've mostly seen them as trouble for the garden flowers. But reading more about them made me wonder how the world looks for a snail. And that they are an important part of our ecosystem.

There's more about the snail book on the author website, including interview links and a snail video:

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The other book is the memoir of wildlife biologist Scott Lillie, who writes  about his time out there in the field, and gives interesting insights to the work of wildlife biologists: 

Tents, Tortoises, and Tailgates: My Life as a Wildlife Biologist by Scott Lillie

Here's the book description: "Field biologist sounds like a romantic job, a job people often think how lucky one must be to have. At times, it is exactly what people think: seeing amazing and remote places, holding cute and fuzzy animals, and trying to save the environment. But those moments are the rewards after hours of grueling work and surviving some of the harshest environmental conditions nature can throw at you. Some people do it their whole lives, others only a few years. I have been working as a field biologist for nearly ten years. This is my story, from face to face encounters with rattlesnakes and mountain lions in the burning deserts of the Southwest, to dealing with snow, ice, and tornadoes in the Midwest."

So in some ways, it's a book about being out there, but also a book about patience. And it is fascinating to read about work of such a different kind, and to read about all those who try to protect the evironment and the habitats of wild animals. I already had a glimpse of that when reading the nemoir by Meera Lee Sethi a while ago - she worked for a summer in Sweden as volunteer in a bird observatory: Mountainfit.

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Reading Links:

For more reading notes, click here: life as a journey with books 

A reading list by regions is online at: World Reads by country

reading while driving: Laos, Vietnam, Australia, Pacific Crest Trail, Armenia, Morocco....

Reading this week: reads to drive along to. Since this week, I have to drive about 1 to 1,5 hours on a route that often comes with traffic jams, and the destination isn't that great either: to the hospital and back, each day of the week, for 7 weeks. To make that drive less frustrating, I now revived my old e-book reader. Which comes with a really nice feature: it has an audio setting. So it can read stories and books to me while I drive. Works pretty well, and makes the drive easier. To add some spin to that, the idea is to read stories and books from different countries.

Here are the books and stories I read this week, and the places they took me to:

LAOS, VIETNAM, AUSTRALIA...

"Scared to Life: A Memoir Paperback" by Jillian Webster
This is a beautiful and reflective memoir of a long world trip, a trip that leads from Europe to Asia, and to Australia. What I enjoy is the mix of places, some I know and been to myself: Ireland, France, Switzerland, Italy...and also the South-Asian loop: Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand. Reading those chapters brings back my own memories of travelling in South Asia, while the chapter about Australia takes me to a continent I've never been to myself.
Beyond the places, the book includes the time before and after the journey, which gives the book a larger horizon. Here's the summary: "After years of heartache, she walks away from the Jehovah's Witnesses, losing her family forever. Forging ahead with nothing but her backpack, Jillian sets out on a global journey across Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia and Australia in search of the life she risked all for."
Jillian Webster also has a website about her travels and the book: scaredtolife.net

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PACIFIC CREST TRAIL

"Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart" 
Another book I came across while browsing and searching for good "driving" reads is about a long-distance hike. Carrot Quinn is a long distance hiker, and like Cheryl Strayed with her memoir “Wild”, she wrote a book about her trail experience – and now is blogging from another trail. I started to read her current blog entries, and now bought the memoir "Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart", which starts near the border of Mexico and leads to Canada.

So far, I never hiked long-distance, but I once did long bike rides, including a marathon. And I have fond memories of going for short hikes in the French Alps, stunned by the way the scenery keeps changing every couple of minutes. Above is a photo from one of those hikes.

Just reading about being out there and reaching out to the horizon brings a freshness to the day. Plus, I hadn't thought about it when ordering, but some unexpected parallels between those long hikes, and long times of treatment come to mind: that you need to keep going, and get up each morning. That it's not comfortable, but that you do it anyway. That no one can take that walk for you, but that there is a solidarity growing between you and all other who are on that walk. And that there is, somewhere in the distance, the point that waits to be reached.

If you want to read a bit of the hike, Carrot Quinn's website is "Dispatches from the wild". She also  blogs there from her current hike.

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Next to the books, I read some short stories - and just looking for interenational  short stories was interesting.

ARMENIA
When looking for a story from Armenia, I arrived at a new online magazine: The Amenite, which is "an online media outlet of Armenian news, culture, politics, society, and history, with showcases of art and literature,"

Here are two links from it, the first is an essay on language and storytelling, and the second is a short story that reaches from Syria to Armenia and the US:

• Learning Armenian: The Art of Telling an Armenian Story by Kharmun Khoo
• “Saved From What?" by Elizabeth Mkhitarian

MOROCCO
The same happened when I looked for stories from Morocco: I arrived at an online magazine of Moroccan writing. “al-hakawati Arab Cultural Trust is an independent non-profit educational organization. Management and staff are located in Beirut, Lebanon, and New Jersey, USA. al-hakawati is the Arabic word for “the storyteller”. They feature an online anthology of Moroccan stories called "The Moroccan Dream". The first dream is a dream about writing and stortelling: The Interpretation of Dreams

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Global Reading Challenge 2015 + Currently Reading:

For 2015, I try to read books / authors from different countries, the idea is to visit all continents. Here's more about that plan: 7 Continents, 7 Billion People, 7 Books.

In a previous book post, I put together some reading statistics and book memories of 2014 - so if you are into geeky reading statistics, try this link: A year in reading in geek statistics +  book memories

For more reading notes, click here: life as a journey with books. A reading list by regions is online at: World Reads by country

found flower, found book, found poem

3 precious "finds" of this month:

Found Flower
Shopping for groceries and coming across those lovely "Margeriten" (Leucantehmum), and planting them in the garden.. which then lead to a bit more gardening. So good, to have arrived in May, to sit and enjoy the fresh colors of spring flowers.

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Found Book
Picking a book I hadn't heard about in the "telephone book box" (a book exchange installed in an old telephone box). And back home, starting to read, and not wanting to end. It's a memoir of Meike Winnetmuth, who at age 50 gets the chance to be candidate in a quiz show - and wins half a million Euro. She decides to go travelling for a year, with the plan to visit 12 countries, and live in each one for a month in a city. The book is written in letters, starting with a letter from Sydney... here's the list of the 12 cities:

Sydney

Buenos Aires

Mumbai

Shanghai

Honolulu

San Francisco

London

Kopenhagen

Barcelona

Tel Aviv

Addis Abeba

Havanna

Hamburg

I read the book at the pace of 1 city / day and loved it. She also wrote a blog during this year, with many photos - here's the starting page: Sydney

It's probably one of the best books I read this year so far. Found by chance.

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Found Poem
And the third precious find: coming across the found poem that fellow blogger Rose Hunter once wrote based on lines of my "in transit" collection:

you have to pretend you don't feel how
we can learn lessons then
forget them again
they are 10 cent a piece
against expectations, this idea of days of space this promise
to see and think and think and
see, until it makes sense -
his breath
at the edge of the ocean
this almost tenderness

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reading notes: books from Japan, Bahamas, France, Baltic Sea + august at 11

"If this would have been a year like the ones before, I would be in Mallorca right now. Walking along the ocean. Enjoying the island atmosphere... But it isn't.." - that's how the blog post from last week started (here's the whole post: If. Then., Bravery + Joy + Fear, and May.). Now, looking through the books I read this month, I had to smile: 3 of them are set at the ocean. And the fourth is.. a travel memoir. 

"Journey of Self: Six Months in the Japanese Countryside" by Nate Golon .
In April, I read the Granta "Japan" collection - and just some days after finishing it, I came across this travel memoir about Japan. Written by Nate Golon, who left Hollywood disheartened after some years of first success, and tried a very different life for six month. The book is a bit slow in some places, but the parts with the larger reflections on life are wonderful.
Here's the book description: "Nate Golon sells everything he owns and takes a job teaching English in a small country town, Arida, in Wakayama Prefecture in southern Japan. ... An introspective and transformative fish out of water tale, about the importance of taking the road less traveled, and being open to new experiences."

"Sail With Me: Two People, Two Boats, One Adventure" by Rebecca Burg
This book took me to places I never been, with a way to travel I that I don't know much about: taking one's own boat to sail from A to B. Or rather: from Florida to Bahama, and to other exotic places. What is missing a bit for me are the journey / travel / life reflections, it's a bit too much on the fun side for me. But the list of places visited is remarkable, they include: Florida's nearest exotic ports: Bimini, Grand Bahama, the Abacos, Elutheria, Marquesas, and Florida Keys island chain.

 There's also a website photos from the journeys, and with more about the book: Rebeccaburg.com
And here's the description: "A fun, sometimes funny, adventure for boaters and non-boaters alike. Get swept into a journey through exotic, tropical islands. Hide from hurricanes, an outlaw ghost, and craze."

Ocean Books - Back in Time
In addition to those books, I read two German books that both are set at the ocean. The first book leads to France, to the Atlantic coast there - a place with settlements that date back thousands of years ago. Reading it made me think of the book I read in Mallorca last year: "Talayot". Here's the reading note from that book:

"Mallorca has a rich history that reaches back to Neolithic times - to the time of the Talayot culture, with tribes living in early settlements. Nothing is left of them but the stone buildings, and some artifacts. But none of their stories survived. There's no book, no carved wall, no wall painting. Nothing. In her book "Talayot", the German author Maike Hempel tries to bring back that time, weaving the real places into a story that is told in flashbacks, and merges the now and the past."

Turns out, very similar settlements can be found in France. So reading the book both took me to the ocean, and back in time, to last year's real-life-ocean moments: island reads. 

Dünenmond / Dune moon The other book is an easy read, a love story with some twists, leading to the Baltic Sea - the "Ostsee" how it is called in German: "Eastsea", which belonged to former East Germany and the neighbouring states. In not-real-logic, the coast of West Germany is called "Nordsee" (Northsea). I havn't been to the Baltic Sea so far, but the Norhtern Sea is actually the very first place where I stood at the ocean. That moment, it later turned into "august at 11", published in eclectica. So here's the ocean, from memory:


august at 11

in summer, we always headed to the mountains—
to Austria, Switzerland—following alpine paths
earning the amethyst needle, the chamois badge
for multiple stays in the same place

then, one august, we drove to the northern sea
the wind was freezing while we sauntered the sand dunes
yet people ran through the waves in bikinis and shorts
you get used to it, everyone said, it's not that cold

in the evening, we walked to the harbour
to see the metal sailboats, to watch the fishermen
leave on night cruises, catching shrimp and crabs
to sell, to boil alive for tomorrow's supper

the water was almost transparent
there were starfish, everywhere
an army of them, lingering silently
at the edge of the ocean

i kneeled and watched them, urged them
 to make a move, to acknowledge my presence
—come, my mother said, they will still
 be here tomorrow

but of course, the next day they
were gone, to never return
leaving but a premonition
of all the things waiting
to be missed


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Global Reading Challenge 2015 + Currently Reading:

For 2015, I try to read books / authors from different countries, the idea is to visit all continents. Here's more about that plan: 7 Continents, 7 Billion People, 7 Books.

In a previous book post, I put together some reading statistics and book memories of 2014 - so if you are into geeky reading statistics, try this link: A year in reading in geek statistics +  book memories

For more reading notes, click here: life as a journey with books. A reading list by regions is online at: World Reads by country