A Reading Exercise

Earlier today I sent off an email to a friend, and rereading the copy afterwards I noticed that I had managed to overlook several typing mistakes. Something that always bugs me - when the mistakes are mine, not so much when other people make them!  But today it reminded me of something I read the other day... In Swedish, but I was sure there must be an English version of it somewhere on the web, and I was right - it was not too difficult to find. Here it is. If you haven't already seen it, I think you're in for a surprise:

Can you read this paragraph?

I cnduo't bvleiee taht I culod aulaclty uesdtannrd waht I was rdnaieg. Unisg the icndeblire pweor of the hmuan mnid, aocdcrnig to rseecrah at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mttaer in waht oderr the lterets in a wrod are, the olny irpoamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whoutit a pboerlm. Tihs is bucseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey ltteer by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Aaznmig, huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghhuot slelinpg was ipmorantt! See if yuor fdreins can raed tihs too.

If you had any problems understanding, follow this link to Learn English,

BTT: War Stories

http://btt2.wordpress.com/2010/11/11/war-stories/

Deb @ 1:36 am: It is November 11th, known here in the U.S. as Veteran’s Day, formerly Armistice Day to remember the end of WWI but expanded to honor all veterans who have fought for their country, so … Do you read war stories? Fictional ones? Histories? 

I live in a country (Sweden) that has not been at war since 1814, so we of course do not have this special holiday. My first thought was actually to skip this question, but then I started thinking... ;)

I was born in 1955, i.e. ten years after then end of WWII. But even though Sweden was not directly "involved" in the war, there were still a lot of references to it in my early childhood; especially when visiting the grandparents.

At my paternal grandparents' house, for example, they still kept an old wallet filled with food ration coupons from the The War. I used to play with that. Grandma was also in the habit of saving things like used pieces of  wrapping paper and string... Out of habit from The War, when things were hard to come by. I suspect that's also where my own father's habit of collecting everything, and throwing away nothing, came from. He was born in 1931, so grew up in the shadow of The War. Even if Sweden was not "in" the war, it was all around our country, and everyone and everything was affected by it. That much I think I always understood.

Among dad's few childhood books were some about Biggles - First World War pilot. I read those several times over when staying in that house. At my other grandparents' house there were books aimed at Young Girls; books which had belonged to my mother and my aunt. Those were often about young women who went off to work at some farm, or possibly as nurses, while the men went off to war... Yes. I dare say the War (one War or another!) was there in the background in a lot of books I grew up with; and in later reading too. Just think about it. Many a great love story has been set against the backgrond of a war. Gone With the Wind... The Sound of Music... In addition to Swedish, English and American literature I've also read quite a few French and Russian classics. Besides being in WW I and II those countries also had their own Revolutions. A few years ago, I read Tolstoy's War and Peace.

I mentioned The Diary of Anne Frank in connection with some other BTT question quite recently. One of my early favourites; many times read. Her diary is about being in hiding, while the war goes on outside. We know she later died in concentration camp. I've also read quite a few survivor's stories from the Jewish ghettos and concentration camps. And then of course there are countless fictional stories involving spies, and prison camp escapes, and rescue operations etc. I think the kinds of war stories I've been most interested in are "ordinary people" struggling to survive, though, rather than actual stories from "the front" and involving military strategy etc.

Then there is the Bible. It's full of accounts of war. And then there is the world of Fantasy... War against Evil, in endless varieties: The Lord of the Rings... The Chronicles of Narnia... Harry Potter...

So yes, I do read war stories. Fictional and historical. Not as particulary interested in warfare as such; but because war is part of human history and reality.

BTT: Good Or Bad

http://btt2.wordpress.com/2010/11/04/good-or-bad/

Suggested by Barbara:

I’ve seen many bloggers say that what draws them to certain books or authors is good writing, and what causes them to stop reading a certain book or author is bad writing. What constitutes good writing and bad writing to you?

First of all, let me say that among books I've laid aside have also been renowned classics and award-winning contemporary novels. Sometimes I might recognize stylistic skill, but the content of the book may still not be to my liking. The opposite is also true: If I find the story or characters or facts or ideas interesting enough, I might overlook certain deficiencies in language and narrative style.

That said, I would say that good writing includes the ability to capture the reader's interest from the start and keep it up until the end. Really good writing also leaves behind a sense that I might want to read the book again some day, even though I know how it ends. Or write down quotes from it, or recommend it to others, or discuss it.

Bad writing, consequently, would be the kind that never manages to get me engaged in the story or the characters at all. Bad writing also often includes things like needless repetition, too much predictability, sidetracks that take you too far away from the main story, introduction of things that are never properly explained, or last-minute "out of the blue" solutions at the end.   

BTT: Day And Night

http://btt2.wordpress.com/2010/09/16/day-and-night/

Today’s question is suggested by Mae.

“I couldn’t sleep a wink, so I just read and read, day and night … it was there I began to divide books into day books and night books,” she went on. “Really, there are books meant for daytime reading and books that can be read only at night.”
- ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera, p. 103.

Q: Do you divide your books into day and night reads? How do you decide?

Interesting question! My answer has to be "sometimes, but not always". And I guess it depends partly on the book, partly on me - what kind of stress level or mood I'm in.

There are definitely books that I would classify as daytime reading, and which I can't read (or listen to) at night. That would include books with complicated plots, lots of facts, heavy language structure, or too much violence or negative thoughts. At night I prefer a book which is entertaining, but does not require too much of me, intellectually or emotionally.

I'm less sure if there are "books that can be read only at night". A book that I can read at night, I think I can also read in the daytime.

I often find children's books good bedtime reading if I have difficulties relaxing ;)

(Illustration from Winnie The Pooh. Piglet dreaming of Heffalumps.)

In Troubled Water

http://btt2.wordpress.com/2010/09/09/disaster/

Q: You’ve just dropped your favorite, out-of-print book into a bathtub, ruining it completely … What do you do now?

A: I really can't see that happening, since I

1/ don't have a bath tub
2/ never read in the bath tub even back in the days when I had one

I actually never understood how anyone can read in the bathtub.
It's WET in there! So if one of my favourite books ever ends up in a bath tub, it will be someone else's fault - and tub! And my pleasure (?) to yell at them. And their problem to find a replacement!

Going in search of an illustration of this activity that I never indulged in, however, I came upon some advice. There is a WikiHow article on it. Just as I suspected, it seems rather complicated, and comes with a warning: "Start with a magazine or cheap paperback that you don't mind getting wet. Never read a library book or other valuable book in the tub, just in case you drop it in."

Whatever did we do before the Internet was there to give advice?

BTT: Book Reviews

http://btt2.wordpress.com/2010/06/24/reviewed/

Do you read book reviews?
Do you let them change your mind about reading/not reading a particular book?

I often read reviews in my local newspaper, and occasionally in other newspapers and magazines. I also read book reviews on certain blogs that I follow. Sometimes a review may draw my attention to a book I would otherwise not even have heard about. At other times a review may make me think that no, that does not sound like my kind of book. It also happens occasionally that I come across reviews that differ in their opinion, and that might make me curious to form my own impression.

If for some reason I have already made up my mind to read a certain book, one negative review is not very likely to change my mind about it. But an interesting review of a book that I have hitherto not felt inclined to read, might well make me curious enough to give it (another) go.

Unless I feel really sure about a book, I usually try to borrow it from the library rather than buying it.

BTT: Old Books or New?

http://btt2.wordpress.com/2010/06/17/now-or-then/

Do you prefer reading current books? Or older ones? Or outright old ones? (As in, yes, there’s a difference between a book from 10 years ago and, say, Charles Dickens or Plato.)

I like to read a mix of current and older books. Even a few 'outright old ones' now and then; although reading only those would get a bit too heavy, I think ;) But I do enjoy reading and re-reading some of the classic novels from the late 18th, 19th and early 20th century. British and Swedish authors especially, but also some of the Russians and the French (in translation). I never read Plato, but I did read (for example) Confessions by St Augustine of Hippo (354-430). I don't think I've read every novel by Dickens, but some of them I've read twice. But then I've been reading for a long time by now... ;)

Currently reading/listening to:


Unseen Academicals (2009) by Terry Pratchett  - No 37 (!) in the Discworld series.

Barn av sin stad ('Children of their City') (1962) by Per Anders Fogelström  - second in a series of historical novels about Stockholm; this one covering the period from 1880-1900.

Curious Myths of the Middle Ages by Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924) (a chapter now and then).

BTT: Long And Short Of It

 
 http://btt2.wordpress.com/2010/06/03/long-and-short-of-it/

Which do you prefer? Short stories? Or full-length novels?

Usually I prefer full-length novels - or even series of novels - with time to get to know the characters. I can enjoy short stories too; but I often find it hard to plough through a collection of a lot of various short stories in a short time, unless there is something to tie them together - like the same characters, or a common theme. When I have little time to read though, short stories might sometimes be just the thing.

Looking at my own book shelves, I have a lot of novels, but few collections of short stories. In English, I have one paperback collection of 50 Great Short Stories by various English and American writers, which I bought once in a second hand bookshop. I also have a book of "Eerie Tales" which I bought in Britain back in the 70s. I think I might have bought it when we were up at Loch Ness in Scotland, but I'm not quite sure. There is also a Penguin Classics collection of stories by Edgar Allan Poe, a Wordsworth Classics collection of Father Brown stories by G.K. Chesterton, and The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes. I also have several versions of King Arthur tales; and at least four more recently bought books with Celtic Myths and Legends, like the Mabinogion. I have not read all of these through, just looked things up and read some of the stories.

Bedtime Reading

http://btt2.wordpress.com/2010/05/27/bedside/

What books do you have next to your bed right now?
How about other places in the house? What are you reading?

Next to my bed right now I have Espresso Tales by Alexander McCall Smith. It is the second novel in the 44 Scotland Street series, which were first published as serial novels in the Scottish national newspaper The Scotsman. (Previously, I have read his books about the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency - set in Botswana - and also some from his Scottish Sunday Philosophy Club series.) The 44 Scotland Street series is about the inhabitants of that address in Edinburgh (the street exists in reality, but not No 44). Originally written as a serial novel, I find it a good book for a bit of bedtime reading... The chapters are not too long and each one is sort of a story within the story. It's basically light-hearted and amusing, and not likely to cause nightmares! I have to say the character that fascinates me most is young Bertie, a little boy on an intellectual level far beyond his years - and with a very pushy mother, trying to make the most of that - while Bertie himself, most of the time, is really just longing to be allowed to be a normal kid. I can't say I find the neither him nor his mother very "believable" but I'm still amused. His name brings to mind Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster; and I would say McCall Smith's story has quite a bit of the same kind of spirit as Wodehouse's, even if set in another time and environment.

I also always have an audio book going and right now I'm re-listening to Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett; which is the 14th of his Discworld books, and part of the Witches-series. In it, he plays around with references to Shakespeare (A Midsummer Night's Dream), Stonehenge, Crop Circles and Elves, amongst other things...

BTT: What's a Useful Book?

http://btt2.wordpress.com/2010/05/20/useful/

What’s the most useful book you’ve ever read? And, why?

Most useful? Hmm...  I've been reading for about 50 years by now, and different kinds of books have been useful in very different ways...

*The first that comes to mind is the Bible. I must say I have used that a lot over the years. There is no other book I have in so many translations; and it has been helpful from many points of view: in understanding myself, other people, God (hopefully), religious beliefs, history, culture, and references in other books by other authors... On the other hand: Other books and people have also influenced my interpretation of the Bible! The most important "other author" that way for me is probably C.S. Lewis - his fiction as well as theology.

*There are a number of Swedish authors whose influence have been important or "useful" to me when it comes to understanding the history of my own country. One series of (four) books that may be worth mentioning in international context is The Emigrants by Vilhelm Moberg (written in the 1950s), about a Swedish family's migration to Minnesota in the mid 19th century. These were among the first "adult" novels that I read in my early teens.

*A series of books that proved "useful" to me in the 21st century is the Harry Potter books. First, listening to them as audio books helped me through some bad times when I had to spend a lot of time just lying on my back. Later, discussing them with other people on an internet forum also inspired me to read and reread and discuss a number of old classics, and to get into the habit of googling and reading up on all kinds of odds and ends referred to. You could say these books kept me entertained and inspired at a time when I really needed that kind of distraction and brain exercise. It also played its part in later getting me to move on to blogging. (If anyone is interested - some of my reflections on the HP books I have tried to collect in a separate blog, Through My Spectrespecs.)


Other kinds of books I've found useful, even if I can't claim to have read every page in them:

*Dictionaries (lots of them).

*My old school atlas from 1964, even though political borders and names have changed quite a bit since then. I do have updated ones - and now of course there is also the internet. But the old one still represents how the world was first presented to me. Sometimes I return to check something.

*The first cookbook I got (probably from my mother?) when once upon a time I moved away from home. I have later ones, but for some things I still return to the old one.

*Lately I've made quite frequent use of my Flora to identify wild flowers and trees. This came with increased interest in photography, and blogging!  

BTT: Halfway Through

http://btt2.wordpress.com/2010/05/06/half/

So … you’re halfway through a book and you’re hating it. It’s boring. It’s trite. It’s badly written.
But … you’ve invested all this time to reading the first half. What do you do? Read the second half?
Just to finish out the story? Find out what happens? Or, cut your losses and dump the second half?

Sometimes I finish, sometimes I dump.
It depends a bit on "why" I'm reading it.

If it is a book I have heard other people discuss, and I'm reading it to be able to join the discussion, I probably try to finish it, and analyze what it is I don't like about it. But if it is a book I happened to pick up more randomly, I probably just dump it. I might also just page through the rest of it really quickly and have a peek at the end!

If it is a well-known classic, I might try and find a summary or review to help me understand what it is I'm "supposed" to see in it. I have a few books on my shelves that I only got halfway through. It happens that I lay one aside for a while for something else. Sometimes the time and circumstances in which you read something matters, too. It happens that I try an abandoned book again at another time, and like it better than I did the first time.

BTT: Earth Day

http://btt2.wordpress.com/2010/04/22/earth-day/

It’s Earth Day … what are you reading? 

Are your reading habits changing for the sake of the environment? 

What are you doing for the sake of the planet today?

I'm listening to an audio book right now: an old Miss Silver mystery by Patricia Wentworth (from 1951).

Even if various electronic devices are contributing to changing my reading habits I don't really think I could claim that the main reason for this is "for the sake of the environment".   

I've been listening frequently to audio books for ten years or more, but that is mainly because I'm having problems with neck and eyes. I also read ordinary books. I borrow both kinds from the library, but also buy some. Sometimes I borrow a book at the library first, and buy my own copy later. When I buy books (or audio books), it's usually because I think that I'll be wanting to read/listen more than once, or look things up later, or that it will take me more time to finish it than the library allows me to keep it. I also buy books in English because they are often only available from the library in Swedish translation. I  sometimes download classics from Project Gutenberg etc but usually just to check or look up things; I find it too tiresome to read whole books on the computer. I have not yet tried the new electronic devices like Kindle . I'm sure it's an excellent invention, and might get even better - but I still find it hard to believe that they will 100% replace books printed on paper.

Little things I am doing "for the sake of the planet" (as well as for myself):

*I have a sign on my mail box saying I don't want any advertising mail.

*Recycling garbage: batteries, newspapers, glass, metal, plastic, food, burnable stuff etc.

*Using energy saving lights and rechargable batteries where that is suitable.

*Trying to remember not to keep too many devices on unnecessary stand-by.

Add to that that I don't have a car, usually use public transport, and very rarely travel at all... But again, it would be a false statement to claim that the main reason for that is my concern for the environment!

Booking Through Thursday: Learning

 http://btt2.wordpress.com/2010/04/01/learning/

*Do you remember learning to read?
*What’s your earliest reading memory?

Searching my memory, I can't actually recall a "distinct moment when the concept of reading clicked". I think I learned sort of gradually... My mum made these notes in my first photo album:

2¼ Listens to stories. Knows the colours. Uses pronouns correctly.
3½ Knows the letters. Reads, spells and writes simple words
(if she is in the mood for it, of course!)
6½ Reads pretty well. Short words fluently.
7 Reads simple text fluently. Reads whole children's books on her own.

I do remember that when I started school (at 7), I could already read (and so found the reading lessons rather boring). But I can't recall which was the very first book I read on my own.

One early book of my own that I still have, I can date, though.
At 7½, I won a book through writing to a radio programme. It has the date written in it - 16 January 1963, together with a "Sveriges Radio" stamp. The book is Pippi Långstrump (Pippi Longstocking) by Astrid Lindgren. (Link goes to the English Wikipedia article.)

So, to my readers now, besides the questions about learning, I also pass on the question: Did you ever read Pippi Longstocking?

PS. If you would like to participate in BTT from your own blog, go to the link at the top.

BTT (Booking Through Thursday): Break

Recently I came across this website: Booking Through Thursday, which has a weekly meme about books and reading. Thought I might join occasionally.


Do you take breaks while reading a book? Or read it straight through? (And, by breaks, I don’t mean sleeping, eating and going to work; I mean putting it aside for a time while you read something else.)

My answer: It happens! For one thing, I usually have more than one kind of book going at the same time. Not sure how that counts? Right now: One philosophical audio book on CD about "Ways to Wisdom" (by Stefan Einhorn, Swedish author, in Swedish). One English novel that I just started on (Alexander McCall Smith: 44 Scotland Street - in English). Another audio book going on in my MP3 player (Terry Pratchett: The Truth, in English). On my coffee table a book about "Classical Symbols" (in Swedish), that I'm not reading straight through but got caught up in when I took it out to look something up. In my bookcases I just noted the other day some novels that for one reason or another I "took a break" from years ago (about half way through) and am not feeling quite sure about now if I'd be able to pick up where I left off, or if I'd have to go back to the beginning. Among those: Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens (in English), The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky (in Swedish) and The Princes of Ireland by Edward Rutherford (in English).

Thunderstorm

Today I was lucky. In spite of first checking in on my email and some blog posts this morning, I managed to also get to the grocery store in town and back before it started raining. We then had thunder circling around for hours; and really, really heavy rain - if I had been out in it, I would have got soaked to the skin in less than two minutes, no matter how many umbrellas.

No wonder I was feeling "under the weather" even earlier... I seem to be extremely sensitive to changes in the weather/ atmospheric pressure (??) these days, but am still having a hard time getting used to that! (Makes me feel old...) I keep wondering what I've been "doing" some days to make me feel so extra achy and miserable - and then the answer comes to me in a flash (quite literally)...

Safe and dry indoors, with the rain pouring down outside, I let myself be nailed to my bed for the worst of it this afternoon, distracting myself with a good book - the kind you just want to keep on reading but at the same time don't want to finish too fast: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. I'm half way through, just hoping I won't change my mind about it at the end! The only thing I regret is getting the Swedish translation instead of the English original, because that makes it hard to quote from here...

Anyway. One of the characters in the book is a woman suffering from pain. She calls the pain her "wolf" and says the wolf attacks her especially in the hour before she is allowed to take her next dose of pain killers. I can relate to that, even though neither my pains nor my pills are of the "deadly" kind... But I believe the image will stick with me!

I'm feeling the wolf's claws in my shoulder right now so better end this post quickly.

Got some good news yesterday, though - I'm getting another 6 months period of training in the rehab pool (warm water), twice a week, starting soon. Doesn't drown the wolf, but helps keep it tamed...

Cloudy picture:

Not from today but taken by me a couple of years ago.