Sorry I've been so bad at updating, but won't really blog now either. Read Rosemary's baby by Ira Levin a couple of weeks ago. Since then, I've read some books in Swedish. You can check them out here: http://librisvedese.blogspot.se/

Like a tropical storm,
I, too, may one day become "better organized."
Tropical storm, Lydia Davis

SHE TURNED TO LITERATURE

Read Bright young things by Scarlett Thomas last week. It wasn't especially good, but had to get into reading mode again. Currently reading The women's room by Marilyn French. Finally! It's so good. Will put up quotes soon, when I'm not so busy and stressed out all the time.

Other book-related event: Going to see Lydia Davis at Kultuhuset here in Stockholm tomorrow. Am excited.

Before I went to Eastern Europe, I read Testimony by Anita Shreve. Really wasn't good. Wasn't bad either, just completely blah. Read Before I go to sleep by S.J. Watson and Back roads by Tawni O'Dell while away. The last one was wonderful.

Budapest, August

Read The golden notebook by Doris Lessing. Was truly great. Reading something that really isn't now right now. Going to Eastern Europe on Monday. Will drink cheap wine and eat cheap food and sleep at cheap hostels.

FREEDOM

There are days so bad that only their worsening, only a descent into an outright orgy of badness, can redeem them. 
- Freedom, Jonathan Franzen

So, just finished reading Freedom. Here's what I think: while it's pretty good, quite well-written, sometimes really interesting, it is by no means "a masterpiece", "the novel of the year" and I don't think it "swept everything before it in intricately observed, humane, unprejudiced armfuls." I do agree with Franzen's wry humour being "delightful" and the dialogue is at times brilliant, but I think the main reason people have so fallen over each other in praising this book to the skies is that it is so easy to read and, because it somehow got billed as great literature and you actually have to follow the thought processes of more than one person, the readers feel proud that they have picked up quite a long book by someone who isn't Lauren Weisberger, not realising that the book itself doesn't have to be great just because it is intensely readable.

Finished reading Jane Eyre yesterday,
probably one of the best books I have ever read.