Angela's Ashes

It's a sad day for literature lovers around the world...
Frank McCourt the author of Angela's Ashes has died :( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_McCourt
When I first read his autobiography in 2003 I didn't know what to do - to laugh because it was written in a funny manner or to cry because it's the story of a sad childhood...
When I had the opportunity to buy it in English, I never hesitated and since then I have read it many times over and every time it works it's magic on me...
Below it's a small sample of his humour.
RIP Frank McCourt...

Bookfest

I went today to the Bookfest at Romexpo...
I thought I died and gone to heaven, soooo many books and soo many special offers...
It was a pleasure to go for a stroll through the fair, to turn over the pages of some amazing art books. Unfortunately I didn't have enough money to buy what I wanted, but I still managed to buy few books ;)
Oh, yes... I also discovered that Carturesti has now an online-shop, so click away http://librarie.carturesti.ro/default.aspx

Childhood books

Considering the fact that today it's International Children's Day I started surfing the web to see how other people are celebrating it...
And to my amazement I discovered a sort of club called Cartile Copilariei http://www.scribd.com/groups/view/17553-cartile-copilariei where you can find almost all the children's books from my childhood in electronic format.
A nice bunch of people decided to share their books with other melancholics and scanned the books and posted them as pdf.
I discovered loads of books that enchanted my childhood, especially the stories by the Countess of Segur and it really made me celebrate this day :)
Have a look and tell me which of these books you read when you were a child...

The Orange Girl - Jostein Gaarder

I just finished reading another beautiful book by Jostein Gaarder.
My first book was his classic Sophie's World, the tale of a young girl, Sophie, who becomes embroiled in a discussion of philosophy with a faceless correspondent. It wasn't an easy read, but I got hooked on his writing.
And this week thanks to Cotidianul, I read The Orange Girl.
It is the sweet/bitter story of Georg, a fifteen years old boy, who comes upon a letter written to him by his dying father, to be read when he comes of age.
Their two voices make a fascinating dialogue as Georg comes to know the father he can barely remember, then is challenged by him to answer some profound questions.
The central mystery of The Orange Girl is the story of an elusive young woman for whom Georg’s father searches in Oslo and Seville and it has a beautiful twist for Georg to discover.
It is a touching story and I liked it so much, I read it in 2 hours flat, I couldn't put it down!

The Gulag Archipelago - Alexander Solzhenitsyn

I finally finished reading The Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn after almost a month and a half...
It is a difficult book to read, but it is also a very interesting book to read.
I think it should be compulsory to read the book, especially in Eastern Europe, so then nobody will regret the Soviet/Communist Era!
The book is a three-volume work on the Soviet prison camp system. It it based upon Solzhenitsyn's own experience as well as the testimony of 227 former prisoners and Solzhenitsyn's own research into the history of the penal system. It discusses the system's origins from the founding of the Communist regime, with Lenin himself having responsibility, detailing interrogation procedures, prisoner transports, prison camp culture, prisoner uprisings and revolts, and the practice of internal exile.
The appearance of the book in the West put the word GULAG into the Western political vocabulary.
A very interesting fact is that in the year it was published (1974 in France and USA), unbound and hand written copies of The Gulag Archipelago began being surreptitiously passed between Soviet citizens. These initial readers were normally given 24 hours to finish the work before passing it on to the next person, requiring the reader to spend an uninterrupted day and night to get through the work. Years later, this initial generation of Soviet readers could still recall who had given them their copy, to whom they had passed it on, and who they had trusted enough to discuss their thoughts about the book.

Kader Abdolah - The House of the Mosque

I finished today "The House of the Mosque" by Kader Abdolah from the Cotidianul Literature Collection.
It's a beautiful story that deals with the cope of the Iranian people with second half 20th century American influence over Iran. It is well written and it helps you understand some of the differences between christians and islamists.
It's almost a history book of sorts of the family living in the Mosque for centuries and it is an interesting reading if you want to know more about iranians and their way of life...

Midnight sun

I know I decided that this week will be a movie frenzie, but unfortunatelly after seeing yesterday Twilight I decided to start reading "Midnight Sun" - Edward's side of the story... http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/midnightsun.html
Although I always say I should read only one chapter a day so it will last longer, of course I wasn't able to keep my promise so I stayed till 3 o'clock in the morning reading it... so today I have a headache and I still haven't finished the book :(
But not all is lost... I still have tonight :)
I don't know what the logical explanation is, but I can only read Stephanie Meyer's books at night... when the vampires come out :D
For a mormon lady, she really knows how to keep you captivated. Luckily I still have 2 more books from the Twilight series to read, so I'll be entertained till next week... And then, what shall I do?
Shall I move to Hollywood and start preparing for writing and directing the sequel so it will be better than the first one? Or stay in Bucharest and complain about it?
I think we should vote :D
All votes for Hollywood will be accepted, the other ones will be deleted!