Must read books

I’ve decided to add a new feature to this blog. You will find it on the right side of the page, just under my profile. 

This will be a collection, or should I say a list, of my 'must read' books. On this list I will be putting books that I’ve had read, and are - in my opinion - the books that anyone, no, EVERYone should have read. You will meet all sorts of genres. Fantasy, crime, horror, biography, history, classic novels, short stories, fairytales, books on gardening, etc …

But I have to warn you, to not be surprised, if there will only be one or maybe two books per year. To get on this list, these books will have to be really special to me.

Here are some, that I have come across so far:

Al Araf – Vladimir Bartol

A Song of Ice and Fire (complete collection of the series) – George R. R. Martin

Jonatan Livingston Seagull – Richard Bach

Kafka on the Shore (Umibe no Kafuka) – Haruki Hurakami

Knjiga o bambusu (not yet in English) – Vladislav Bajac

The Celestine Prophecy – James Redfield

The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) – Antonie de Saint-Exupéry

The men Who Planted Trees (L’homme qui plantait des arbers) – Jean Giono

The first is the title in English and next (between the parentheses) the original title - before the translation was done, of course. If there isn’t a translation to English, there is just the original title written. After the titles comes the author. For now they stand in alphabetical order, but later on the new books will be added on the top of the list.

So, if you get to come across any of these books, you should try (finding and) reading them!

I promise, you won’t regret it!

Oh, yeah, the idea for this 'book features' came from my neighbors blog, from Diana.

So, read you next time!

Uroš

From autumn to winter with Haruki Murakami

Those days I'd been on a journey with a Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. Well, not literally, but with two of his books that I read.

But let us start at the beginning. If you have read my blog of GRRM, you probably already know that I have two favourite writers. The first one is GRRM and the second is Murakami. Actually, they are not a first and a second for me - they are equal. Yes, they do write differently, but I find myself in both.

I really found myself or my style of writing in this book of his.

'The Elephant Vanishes' (original title: Zō no shōmetsu) was his first book in my 'from autumn to winter' journey. I got this book as a present. Well, more as a self-treating gift. I got these gift cards, that were to be used at some book shop, from my school mates at the end of the year and, because I was about to buy a book and didn’t have the money at the time (being a student is hard, you are constantly “poor”), I'd get myself this one (thanks mates!).

It is a collection of short stories, which were originally written from 1983 to 1990, therefore they are from his early days as writer. And gosh, some of the stories (style of writing) are so similar to mine (sometimes I write a little, if I get inspired). Most of the stories in this book are a sort of a set up for Murakamis later novels.

My personal favourites are: The Sleep (about a woman that does not sleep), The Silence (a story of a boy, who was victimised by a school mate for an ego revenge), The Window (a guy who works at a small firm as a letter writer, meets a woman who makes a minced-meat steak for him), … 

I could list almost all  of the stories from this book, but then this blog would be way too long. But all of them have something in common. They all talk about things we an see daily and live in the real world, such as loss; pain; loneliness, and then Murakami wrappes them up in mysticism and surrealism (in some cases). But still, stories are much likely  the every-days peoples lives.

While I was still reading the vanishing elephant, one day I stopped at an antique book shop, not looking for anything, just harmlessly passing by. And there I found the book, that I had been looking for a long while. 'A Wild Sheep Chase' (original title: Hitsuji o meguru bōken). 

I was a bit disappointed by the Slovene translation and by the design of  the Slovene edition. The story is great though. Actually it's a thriller, where the main character is literally looking for a sheep, which shouldn’t exist. Again, in this book (it’s divided on two parts), we can find Murakamis parallel worlds. It was a book to feed on. I'd read it in a week; reading it while I was working (I work in a phone centre - a student work -, so I have some time to read while calling out). And the book was so unpredictable, that I didn't know what will happen, straight to the end.

These two books were my companions since the end of autumn to the beginning of winter. And I sure enjoyed it.
One of his books though, was with me a few years ago during a summer. Oh, gosh, when I remember the reading and the story of the book, I can still smell those summer breezes and the sound of the tree leaves, played with by the wind, behind boarding school …
Many times I wanted to read it again, but I really have to wait for the right summer. Well, this is my favourite book.

Kafka on the Shore (original title: Umibe no Kafuka)

How did I get this book? 

Once I had a magazine in front of me (like at the time, when I discovered 'The Game of Thrones') and I found a short passage into the book. Probably it was the talking cat from there. I bought it and started reading it.

This book is really something! Talking cats, imaginary friends or living conscience, raining fish, Oedipus syndrome, stones that open doors … it can give you so much. It’s quite a heavy book to read. Well, shortly it is about a boy that runs away from home, away from his father, and he is companied by a boy named Crow.

Oh, it’s hard to put in words, the description of such a great book, so I will just write you a passage from the book and hope that it will get you to read it.

Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjust. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn’t something that blew in from far away, something has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Somethinginside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn’t get in, and walk through it, step by step. There’s no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine, white sand swirling up into the sky like pulverized bones. That’s the kind of sandstorm you need to imagine.

…

And you really will have to make it through that violent, metaphysical, symbolic storm. No matter how metaphysical or symbolic it might be, make no mistake about it: it will cut through flash like thousand razor blades. People will bleed there, and you will bleed too. Hot, red blood. You’ll catch that blood in your hand, your own blood and the blood of others.

 And once the storm is over you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be shore, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.

And here is the same passage to listen (prologue and first chapter of the book, just to taste):

So, read you next time!

Uroš

The man who planted trees

Today I would like to write about a book, that was recommended to me by someone. It’s about a story that had high influence on me, and, we could say, on my meaning of life. This is a blog about a story written by Jean Giono – The man who planted trees (original title: L'Homme qui plantait des arbres).

It’s been probably round year and half, if not two years, since I bought this book. As I said before, it was recommended to me by my friend, with words: “This book will be probably right for you,” when I begged her to write me a list of books that I should read. And it really was.

It took me a while to find it. There weren’t any books left in bookstores in the dozen places I checked, so I had to buy it over the internet. I don’t really like to buy books that way, because it’s too unpersonal if you haven’t had that book (or one of it's sibling-books) in hands before, but sometimes there is no other way.

The Slovene copy of the book is printed on special paper, and equipped with wood engravings by Peter Abram. 

When the book arrived, I was surprised by how thick it was. But luckily, I have learned already, that the quantity of the written is not always quality. And then I smelled it. I just love the smell of books, of their paper, and sometimes I even think that I can smell the letters in them. So when I smelled it, I was surprised again, it smelled so differently from the other books. Maybe because of the paper they used for the book.

The story is partly autobiographical, and it talks about a shepherd, who had unselfishly planted thousands of trees in the ruthless landscape in the French Alps.

I won’t talk about the meaning of the story, because I believe, that every story gives different wisdoms to different people (if you don’t have the time to read it, you can watch it below). For me, this story was inspiring, and it has woke up the calls in me, which I hadn’t heard in a long time. The calls, which made me become a gardener, but during the school time, and this whole world going so fast, I had forgotten about them.

So, I started planting my own trees. I started with Ginkgo biloba. I had collected seeds in autumn, in the city where my school was. I planted them in spring, on the day of the earth, 27. April 2010, and soon they sprouted.  I have them on  the balcony, where they are exposed to the sun and the wind, so that plants can be more resistant. I decided that I will give them to the people, I care about a lot, and are special for me. I have already given a few to some of them, and as they say, their ginkgos are growing nicely. This year I also planed gingko seeds. And because this is an international year of forests, I will plant them on the land we own, to form a little forest. 

Last year's, and this year's plant of Ginkgo biloba

I have already prepared seeds of a Dove tree – Davidia involucrate, of Monkey puzzle tree – Araucaria araucana, and I will probably some other tree seeds.

So, now if you would like, well actually I highly recommend you to watch this short movie 'The men who planted trees' by Jean Giono, and I hope it will touch you too, but still try to read the book.

Part 1/4:

 Part  2/4: 

Part 3/4: 

Part 4/4: 

So, read you next time!

Uroš

George R.R. Martin and A Song of Ice and Fire

If you have thought about me, about where I have been for the whole of the August,  you were probably thinking something like: ‘there he went, he stopped again.’ Well actually, it isn’t like that. I was at my girlfriends, and unfortunately they don’t have the internet yet. And even if they would have it, I probably wouldn’t have had any time to write. That’s because I had some student work to do. I had to earn some money for car registration. I was working for practically whole day, every day. And there was this other thing I was doing, which took my precious time. Of course, I gladly spent it doing that. I was reading.

By the title of this blog, you have probably already guessed, what I will write about. If not, let me tell you. I won’t be mistaken, if I say that you have all heard about the famous HBO series, 'The Game Of Thrones'. We are about to talk of that, just not of the TV series, but instead the book series, written by one (I only have two) of my favorite writers, Gorge R.R. Martin.

It all started in 2007, when some free book magazine jumped in my hands. While I was just flying through its pages, I automatically stopped, when I saw a picture of a front cover of the first of Martins books, translated in Slovenian language by Boštjan Gorenc. When I saw the title of that book I just knew (I hadn’t have known GRRM or any of his books from before) that is it / IT. So, I read the passage from the book, published in that magazine, and I fell in love. I ordered the book over the internet, that very day. It came to me in just a few days.

Book I: A Game of Thrones

I was reading the first book for almost three months. But not because it wouldn’t be interesting, it was because it was so grand, and full of everything. I needed time, to just get to it, and maybe also because of Martins ways of writing. What I mean by that: Martin writes these books in his own way. It would be, like, when you are reading it, it’s day light, you have your favorite characters in the book, and you somehow see, how this should be going. But, yeah, this you can expect in normal books. Martin, in his books at least, in these series, makes things a little bit different. He kills your favorite characters, or does something horrible to them, and events in the book, which you would probably finish differently, usually as is finished in normal books, he twists them totally around, so that you, as a reader, really have no idea of, what had just hit you. Suddenly, it becomes totally dark, or better to say, night time. Everything is turned around, and you have to build the castles of imagination in your head again, and here is daylight again. This just happens again, and again, and again. So, by this shocking effect of Martins writing, I had to stop reading for a while, and then, when I started again, I was just swallowing it whole.

When I finished the first book, the hardest thing was waiting, and waiting for the next one. 'A Clash Of Kings' came out next year, in 2008, 10 years after the original was first published. And I must say, I was a little bit disappointed. This book wasn’t translated by Boštjan Gorenc. This guy, who translated the second book, hadn’t had such a good vocabulary, which in these kinds of books, is a 'must be'! But yes, all the other books are translated in Slovenian language by Boštjan, and I really have to say, that I don’t know if anyone else at all, is as capable to transte Martins books, as he is, for the way he does it.

Book II: A Clash Of Kings

Book III: A Storm of Swords

With the second, and the third, and now the fourth, I didn't have much 'problem' reading them, because I got adjusted to it (ali just got straight to it). So I was just reading, reading, and reading some more, and doing almost nothing else, until I finished the book.

  

Right now, I’m reading the fourth book, 'A Feast For Crows'. I have just a few chapters left now, but I’m trying to delay. I don’t want the story to end, because I’ll have to wait for the next book, 'A Dance With Dragons', for too long. 

Book IV: A Feast for Crows

Anyway, for now my favorite two books from this series, are the first and the fourth. Why? Well they do say, that the first one, you never forget. And the fourth; although in this book, none of my favorite characters are there; because Cersei Lannister finally got what she deserved and because it’s signed by 'the' Gorge R.R. Martin himself. And it's also signed by Boštjan, with a dedication even. 

THE autograph of GRRM

A dedication and autograph of Boštjan Gorenc

Just three weeks, before I had to go to Scotland, for three months of practical internship, in Logan Botanical Garden, I had saw on a Facebook post, from Boštjan Gorenc, that GRRM is coming to Slovenia, on the 22nd of July. I cursed all gods, titans, and mythological creatures, from every culture that was known to me. 'Why, oh why, do I have to go to Scotland, just when he comes?!'

So, I called up my best friend, Polona, whom I had also infected with these books, and I said to her: 'Polona, if you want to give me anything for my birthday, take my books to be signed.' And she did. She was standing there, in the line for round 5 hours, just to get an autograph for me. Polona, I’m really grateful for that, thank you so much!

Polona next to the GRRM

GRRM on signing in front and Boštjan Gorenc in the back 

The book was waiting for me on my bed, when I came home. I just sat down on bed, opened the book, and stared at the autograph, for 5 minutes or so.

Now, if you want to know how it was, on Martins visiting and signing the autographs, you can read Polonas blog. And I am also adding 'Not a blog', a blog, which isn't one, by GRRM, it will be right under the links on the right, 'Other bloggers'. And of course, I shouldn’t forget on Boštjan Gorenc's blog.   

So, read you later.

Uroš