WHEREAS, SHE, SCARLETT—

Books read (in order):
Doris Lessing - The sweetest dream
Margaret Drabble - A day in the life of a smiling woman: complete short stories
Margaret Mitchell - Gone with the wind
Sophie Hannah - Kind of cruel

I finished reading Gone with the wind a couple of days ago and I seriously didn't think that there could be life after it. I'm still not sure that there is. It was so, so good. I've never seen the movie, so I had no idea how it would end. Let's just say I cried (my very romantic, very secret side came out). And oh, Scarlett! I adore her, and all her "unwomanly" ways.

I LOVE SCARLETT O'HARA.

THE NECESSITY OF BEING HELPLESS, CLINGING DOE-EYED CREATURES

"Ellen's life was not easy, nor was it happy, but she did not expect life to be easy, and, if it was not happy, that was woman's lot. It was a man's world, and she accepted it as such. The man owned the property, and the woman managed it. The man took the credit for the management, and the woman praised his cleverness. The man roared like a bull when a splinter was in his finger, and the woman muffled the moans of childbirth, lest she disturb him."

""I wish to Heaven I was married," she said resentfully as she attacked the yams with loathing. "I'm tired of everlastingly being unnatural and never doing anyting I want to do. I'm tired of acting like I don't eat more than a bird, and walking when I want to run and saying I feel faint after a waltz, when I could dance for two days and never get tired. I'm tired of saying "How wonderful you are!" to fool men who haven't got one-half the sense I've got, and I'm tired of pretending I don't know anything, so men can tell me things and feel important while they're doing it...""
- Gone with the wind, Margaret Mitchell

Currently reading The sweetest dream by Doris Lessing. Ending this very short blog post with a random webcam picture, as per usual:

Seriously, this has got be the best reaction ever to winning the Nobel Prize in Literature:

THREE DRABBLE-RELATED THINGS

1.Margaret Drabble reads Katherine Mansfield's The doll's house here.

2. I have finally ordered A day in the life of a smiling woman: complete short stories from Adlibris.

3. A picture of the brilliant woman:

IT WAS A TIME NOT OF WHAT WAS THERE, BUT OF WHAT WASN'T

God, it's been ages since I updated this book blog. Let's do it in bullet points:

1. I went to Berlin a couple of weeks ago and bought some books at Kulturkaufhaus Dussmann. They have a really great English section, but they are a little bit too expensive for my taste. Ignored that this time.

2. Books read:
Sophie Hannah - Lasting damage
Gillian Flynn - Dark places
Siri Hustvedt - The sorrows of an American
Siri Hustvedt - The enchantment of Lily Dahl

3. I've really struggled with what to read lately, which is probably why I haven't updated this blog in so long (and that is probably why I have been reading things like Lasting damage.) I've started so many books, but just haven't been able to finish them. I firmly believe that you can't (or shouldn't) just pick up a book, any book, and read it. The time has to be right, but no book has felt right these past few weeks. Makes me feel really lost.

4. Soon the course I am taking at university is over. The only part I really liked was the English literature module. We had to do an essay on something we had read in the course literature and I chose to write about Susan Glaspell's Trifles. The essay was supposed to be quite short so I thought: why not share it? It's not great and there are some mistakes I can't be bothered to fix, but it isn't awful either. Anyway, since I can't work out how to upload it here, you can find it on one of my old blogs instead. It is in English. Click!