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August 22, 2011

Enjoyable reads


Two of the books I've enjoyed the most during August.

Paul Auster - Oracle Night
So far this is the best book by Auster I've read.
What it's all about (from Goodreads):
Several months into his recovery from a near-fatal illness, thirty-four-year-old novelist Sidney Orr enters a stationery shop in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn and buys a blue notebook. It is September 18, 1982, and for the next nine days Orr will live under the spell of this blank book, trapped inside a world of eerie premonitions and puzzling events that threaten to destroy his marriage and undermine his faith in reality.
When you love books and stationery, this description gives the book a certain force of attraction, don't you think? So I had to read it. And luckily I did, I really enjoyed it. You should read it as well, you won't regret it.

Erlend Loe - Muleum

Loe is becoming a favourite author of mine. I love his way of writing. This book is a diary written by a 18-year-old girl, whose parents and brother died in a plane crash in Africa. She's kind of suicidal, but her suicide attempt is a total fiasco. However, she doesn't give up her death wish, she just realizes that when she can't figure out how to commit suicide herself, somebody else must to it for her. She feels closer to her dead family when she's up in the air, so she travels the world by plane, hoping that the plane will crash sooner or later. It doesn't really sound like an enjoyable book, but it is. It's fun and crazy, even though the topic is rather depressing.
(I'm not sure if it has been translated into English though. If not, you have a good reason to learn one of the Scandinavian languages ;) )

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