Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts

Friday, 6 February 2015

Reading Challenge 2015-January

I love reading books.Well you know that.
About a year ago I met Giannis in one of the crafty meetings of in my closet and he loves reading books too. Moreover he has got a great book related page called
So little sleeping and so much reading.
You can find it on facebook too. Also on instagram. And on etsy here.
Giannis started a reading challenge for 2015.
At first I thought I shouldn't take part as I read lots of books every year but I mainly read in summer the books I have in my bookcase shelves.So I didn't know if I could keep up with the challenge.
But Giannis' blogpost about the #readathon15 intrigued me so I decided to take part.
I joined in and I have to read at least 24 books in one year that fall into certain categories.
Some categories are simple like "A book you won or borrowed". Others are simply motivating like "A novel by an African writer".
What I really didn't expect was that in just the first month of January I would have finished 6 books!
We also have to take a picture of the books we read and post them on the page.
My photo of one of the books I read was chosen among 350 photos and you can find it in this article.
I am happy I found my motivation in reading every night before I go to bed.Thanks Giannis and So little sleeping and so much reading.
The books I read in January.
1. Maxim Gorky The informer
Category:A novel with a young person/child as the protagonist.
Gift by a relative this Christmas

2.Anthology of Modern Chinese Short Stories
Category: A book taking place somewhere you alawys wanted to travel.
 It was given to me free at the International Book Fair of Thessaloniki in 2010 when China was the honoured country.

3.George Orwell Animal Farm
Category:A favourite book you wanted to reread.
Gift by a relative this Christmas

4.Dimitris Tzivelekis-Nicholas Tzivelekis Greek Shadow Puppet Play "We spent the money together but I am paying back by myself"
Category:A book your pal really likes.
Bought by hubby.

5.Giota Tsertekidou  I will wait eternally for your moment
Category:A book you finished in a day.
It was given to hubby by the poet for taking part in her book presentation.

6.Anthology of Modern Chinese Poetry 
Category:A book of poetry
It was given to me free at the International Book Fair of Thessaloniki in 2010 when China was the honoured country.

Wednesday, 4 September 2013

Summer 2013-reading

During the morning swim and sunbathe I read books.
I also read a lot during breakfast, after lunch and before going to bed at night.
Therefore I finished 23 books.
O Zitianos (The beggar) by Andreas Karkavitsas(in Greek)
I am hoping that when the Greek Television reopens I will be able to watch the TV series based on this book as well.
Mikra Agglia (Little England) by Ioanna Karystiani (in Greek)
A great book which has been made into a movie which will be shown soon and my husband's Godson Andreas Konstantinou is starring in it.
The adventures of Baron Munchhausen by Gottfried A. Byrger (in Greek). It's fun to read a children's story again!
Pyrina Oneira (The Fire Dwellers) by Margaret Laurence(in Greek). That was interesting and it was great to read a Canadian novelist.

Odos Evridikis (Eurydice Road) by Sofka Zinovieff (in Greek). Good if you want to see how it is to live in Greece through a foreigner's eyes. But I would love to read a book written by an immigrant and not someone who got married to a rich Greek.

O theos ton mikron pragmaton (The God of Small Things) by Aroudhati Roy (in Greek).An excellent book!I was wondering if it has been made into a movie!
It was a summer of lots of crime novels. I really enjoyed this one...
Portobello by Ruth Rendell (in Greek)
I borrowed this one from a neighbour.A one day read of great quality and after thought.
To pempto pedi (The fifth child) by Doris Lessing (in Greek)
I wouldn't ever want to read the next one but a neighbour insisted on my borrowing it. So I read that one too and no I didn't like it.
Peninta apohroseis toy gri (50 shades of Grey) by E.L. James (in Greek). I know the author has written two more books but I don't want to read them. I find this type of books too light and superficial. I might want to watch the movie though!

Prin apo to iliovasilema (Before the sunset) by Manos Eleftheriou (in Greek). Although I respect the author-poet I didn't understand his book!What does the poet mean?
O giatros tis Saragosa (The Saragosa Doctor)Original title The last Jew by Noa Gordon (in Greek). I borrowed that one too!And I have to say it was my numebr one this summer!Absolutely great!
Horeyontas sti siopi (Dancing in silence) by Giorgos Polyrakis (in Greek)That I am told was made into a Greek series and it is on youtube so now I know what I will be watcing in Septemeber! One of those romantic novels that keep you in your book.
Tamerlanos o kardiokataktitis (Tamerlan the heart breaker) by Rene de Obaldia (in Greek) Once again what does the poet mean?
Oi hrysoi Karpoi (The golden fruit) by Nathalie Sarraute (in Greek) I didn't understand much of this one either. I guess poetry is not for me!
Barca by Sandro Modeo (in Greek) A book about my favourite football team.
In the frame by Dick Francis (in English)
High Stakes by Dick Francis (in English)
Smokescreen by Dick Francis (in English) All these three books I borrowed from the school English library and it was a good read too.
Two more mysteries by my favourite Ruth Rendell in one volume...
Put on by Cunning by Ruth Rendell (in English)
An unkindness of ravens by Ruth Rendell (in English)
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (in English) an excellent book indeed.

Dear John by Nicholas Sparks (in English).This was one of the three books my dear friend Dawn from the States had given me last year and I so loved reading it. Although the book is good the film I watched afterwards was very shallow.
The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks (in English). The book is very good and I plan to watch the movie soon. I have become a fan of Sparks really.I still have one more of his books to read. It was in my 20 books list for the summer reading but that and one more Greek book that I gave away as a gift are the ones I did not read from the list. But I read the three borrowed from the neighbours in the beach house so that was good too.
If I had to rate and recommend the best books I would say The Last Jew was the first, The God of Small Things was second, On Chesil Beach was the third and then I would add all of Ruth Rendell's and Nicholas Sparks and Dick Francis as very good reading.

Monday, 1 July 2013

Happy Summer!

I hope you will have a great summer!
Ours is bound to be really hot due to the continuous financial and political crisis, the unemployment and the many problems people are facing in Greece!
Still the blue sea, the open skies, the sun and nature are ours to seek, feel and dream with! For better days!
I won't be blogging much during summer!
I will hopefully swim a lot to get my strength and rhythm back...
... and I will definitely read books!

Here are the 20 books I managed to save all through winter from bazaars, exchanges and second hand bookstores.
I will take lots of pictures to fill lots of blogposts in Autumn!
I hope also to do some cross stitch as Barca didn't allow it in winter. I will add some more felted stones to my collection (whether they will be sold or not!)
Hopefully we will play a lot with Barca!(Here at her first swim!)
And meet friends and relatives!(If people are fortunate enough to have money to spend on travelling!)
Of course I will be spending hours sea glassing!And here I leave you with a picture of what I will probably be looking for all summer!I miss the U!Or something matching!
Have a great summer!

Monday, 3 September 2012

The end of July

Soon July came to an end and that meant countercounting to the end of summer.
So the end of July was filled with
beautiful sunsets...

 ...continuing with the rosebud wreath...
 ...finding sea glass....(this amazing piece was found by my friend's 8-year-old son whom I taught how to collect seaglass and unfortunately stayed with him!)
 ....finding some beautiful sea tiles...
 ...finding more beautiful sea glass...
 ...finding some special pieces like this yellow bead and the blue piece...
 ...finding more porcelain pieces...
 ...admiring more sunsets...

 ...continuing stitching...
 ...snorkeling....
 ...walking...


 ...daydreaming....
 ...finding even more sea glass...
 ...and pieces of brick....
 ...finishing the rosebud wreath (except for the backstitch)....
 ....finding a tiny squid(my son did) and letting it go of course...
 ...reading....
 ...buying from the Internet(Amazon and ebay) those two books for hubby on shadow puppet theatre....(Isn't it amazing that I found the first book which is out of print in the States?)


 ...spotting a tornado...(no, it was just a cloud)
 ...spotting lovely birds on the lawn....

 ...finally finishing the rosebud wreath....


 ...expecting a storm....

...that never came!