@Jantar@mstdn.social
@Jantar@mstdn.social avatar

Jantar

@[email protected]

I read, I write, I bake - and though I was born in Holland, I now live (with a cat) in a tiny village in the Czech Republic. (Before I moved here, I worked almost eighteen years in the largest hotel for the homeless in Holland. Before that, I worked freelance, as a translator, copywriter and editor, but I also tended bar and worked as a pub cook - and I taught English whenever I lived abroad and needed the extra cash.) https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jan-Thie/author/B0841RPQBS?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

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JD_Cunningham, to bookstodon
@JD_Cunningham@sunny.garden avatar

"I like books that make you discover other books—a virtuous cycle that should never be broken." - from 'Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop' by Alba Donati (tr. Elena Pala)

@bookstodon

Jantar,
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@JD_Cunningham @bookstodon

True. I remember reading a Stephen King collection of short stories and in one of the introductions he mentioned that he loved the Canadian writer Robertson Davies.

I immediately bought a book by RD and was terribly disappointed it wasn't a horror novel. Well, I was sixteen or seventeen at the time.

A few years later, I tried again and absolutely loved the book, and I went on to buy all the RD books I could lay my greedy hands on.

Likewise, to bookstodon
@Likewise@beige.party avatar

I do not like audio books.
My focus leaves & before long, I realize I have no idea what’s going on. Also, I don’t find listening to a book near as enjoyable as reading it, something gets lost in the process.

All that to say, I’ve been listening to this one. Granted, it’s taken me 2 times of checking it out at the library. These are all true stories that cover many subjects & the endings all make you think, which I love. I highly recommend.

Even if you hate audio books 😉
@bookstodon

Jantar,
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@alicemcalicepants @Likewise @bookstodon

I love audiobooks but I do need to combine that with other activities. So I either listen to books walking to the village shop or doing certain garden chores, or I do it sitting on the couch or lying in bed while playing solitaire on my phone.

GelatDeTramussos, to bookstodon Catalan
@GelatDeTramussos@mastodont.cat avatar

Currently reading an inspector Harry Hole novel, by #jonesbo. It's the third I read in a row.
Speaking of this... Do you binge read books till you finish the entire series or you'd rather read other things in between?
#bookstodon @bookstodon

Jantar,
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@GelatDeTramussos @bookstodon
I often binge, yes, when I discover a (to me) new series.

Jantar,
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@GelatDeTramussos @bookstodon
It depends a bit. If it's no more than five or so books, then I will probably binge. Otherwise, I read other things in between - and I always have three or four books on the go simultaneously...

DocCarms, to bookstodon
@DocCarms@mstdn.social avatar

There was a poll that stated—Rowling’s opening line in the HP series is one of best in the world. Someone posted about how there are a bunch of other opening statements that are better.

Here’s one of my personal favorites, from Gabriel Garcia Marquez (English translated):
“It is inevitable. The scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.”

What are some of your favorite opening lines in literature? 😊
@bookstodon

Jantar,
@Jantar@mstdn.social avatar

@DocCarms @bookstodon

Just one example from children's literature:

'There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.'

From Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book.

Tinido, to bookstodon German
@Tinido@chaos.social avatar

Emily Wilson, who translated the Odyssey to apoplectic rages of the manosphere from Academia to Podcastia, has a beautiful portrait in the New Yorker.
@bookstodon
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/09/18/emily-wilson-profile

Jantar,
@Jantar@mstdn.social avatar

@Tinido @bookstodon

Ah, I missed the brouhaha.

What was their beef?

"Now they're taking the Simpsons away from us too!!!!!!!" ?

Jantar,
@Jantar@mstdn.social avatar

@Tinido @bookstodon

So far so predictable (and boring.)

Mind you, even if you'd wanted to do such a thing, turning the Odyssey woke would have resulted in a very short book.

(Also, queer? Do these jokers know anything about male sexual behaviour in those days?)

Jantar,
@Jantar@mstdn.social avatar

@passenger @Tinido @bookstodon

Heh.

Jantar,
@Jantar@mstdn.social avatar

@Enema_Cowboy @Tinido @bookstodon

Mind you, declaring Odysseus your trad male role model does explains (a Hell of a lot about) the very sorry state of the Great Western Civilisation.

(Also, anyone mentioning Great and Western in one breath need their tiny heads checked out - unless they're trainspotters.)

Jantar,
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@Enema_Cowboy @Tinido @bookstodon

That one is still about halfway through my to read pile.

rabbit_fighter, to bookstodon
@rabbit_fighter@mastodon.world avatar

@bookstodon I'm looking for book recommendations for an 11yo who reads at a much more advanced level. He likes sci-fi. He has read the Hitchhiker's Guide series and loved them. I think he would enjoy some more 'hard' sci-fi as well. He needs something challenging but without subject matter that is too mature. Thanks for any help!

Jantar,
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@rabbit_fighter @bookstodon

Perhaps Andy Weir's The Martian?

James White wrote a number of short stories around 'Sector General', a hospital station in space. They are almost detective stories, since doctors need to treat individual members of all kinds of alien species, so they often have to find out what is wrong and how to treat this without killing the patient.
I read a few of his books in my early teens and really liked them.

Jantar,
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@Thoreau @rabbit_fighter @bookstodon

Yes, that appealed to me too when I was in my mid teens.
I don't know how well these stories aged - they are old and it is decades ago since I last read them - but looking into it it might be worth a shot.

Jantar,
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@Thoreau @rabbit_fighter @bookstodon

I expected the stories themselves to have lasted well enough but sometimes the tone of the older stuff starts to grate a bit, or feel off.
I'm happy that wasn't true with these: I really liked them!

Jantar, to random
@Jantar@mstdn.social avatar

More baking for friends who are on a diet. Ingredients:

200gr
2 eggs
30gr
pinch of salt
1 tsp baking soda
some
a bit of honey, mixed with sea salt flakes, chilli pepper flakes and a few drops of water.

Mix the first five ingredients, divide in as many blobs as fit on an oven tray, flatten the pieces and push with their tops into the seeds.
Bake for 10 minutes at 175°C/347°F.
Brush the honey mixture over the .

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