Noooo, I haven’t travelled to France while napping (dream on grrl!).

I went to sleep at 5am and set my alarm clock for 8:30, but wasn’t able to get my lazy bum out of bed to make breakfast until half an hour ago. And now I’m having coffee & croissants while I’m picking up the Adèle graphic novels. As I mentioned before in my ‘pile post‘, Mr Gnoe and I photographed several locations from the comic books in real life when we were in Paris a month back, to make a Google Map out of. But first I’m going check out how everybody else is doing!

Non-fiction & Memoir/True Stories Mini-challenges

The hour 19 & 20 mini-challenges came just at the right time. Just before I went to bed I finished catching up on The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon. It’s some kind of journal written by a court lady of Heian Japan, around 990. She wrote down her thoughts, observations and tells about the habits of her time and class. To answer the questions on Rainy Day Reviews’ Memoir/True Stories challenge:

  1. Have you ever read a memoir/true story (Or book ‘based on true events’?)
    I do so every once in a while. Like last night ;)
  2. If so, what was the title/author?
    The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon, or In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, or the Marlene Dietrich biograhy by her daughte Maria Riva or Butterfly in the Wind by Rei Kimura… can go on forever!
  3. What what it about?
    I’ve told you about The Pillow Book above and the Dietrich bio is obvious as well ;) In Cold Blood is the re-telling of a horrible murder and its court case. It’s actually faction: fiction based on facts. Butterfly in the Wind is the Okichi Saito, concubine of Townsend Harris, the first American Consul to Japan in 1856.
  4. Did you like it? Would you recommend it?
    I’m struggling a little with The Pillow Book (I prefer a plot), I erm… liked In Cold Blood and would recommend it as a classic, but I don’t think you need to read it before you die ;) The life of Marlene Dietrich bored me to death. I really tried for 880 pages (!) and finally gave up. Butterfly in the Wind… was just plain horrible. But I read it all.
  5. How many have you read?
    Counting would take too much time — although it seems fun!
  6. Why or what made you want to read it?
    Different reasons: it might be a classic, I’ve come across the book by chance, it peaked my interest.
  7. What was the saddest/scariest one you read?
    The Diary of Anne Frank? (Hey, I’m Dutch — of course I’ve read it! Several times ;) Slaughterhouse-Five? Maus? From the ones I mentioned above Butterfly in the Wind would be saddest, In Cold Blood scariest.
  8. Did it have a ‘happy ending’?
    No, no and no ;)
  9. When choosing a memoir/true story, do you look for a certain kind? ( i.e. historical diary, inspirational like The Freedom Writer’s Diary, Christian, non Christian)
    No, I don’t pick memoirs/true stories because of the genre but because of the topic.
  10. Bonus question(s-it’s in parts:) for my giveaway: Have you read 3 or more memoirs/true stories? Title/Author, would you recommend them? If you were to win the giveaway prize, would you want the book, (Sizzling 16 by Janet Evanovich) and would you prefer the coffee or tea? or both?
    Can I refer you back to my answer to the second & fourth questions? :) And I’d prefer tea, if you ship to Europe ;)

Status report

24 Hour Read-a-thonTime period: 4.50 – 10:00

Currently reading: Adèle and the Beast (Adèle et le bête) & Monsters All! (Tous des monstres!) from the series Les Avontures Extraordinaires d’Adèle Blanc-Sec by Tardi

Total of time read: 7 hrs 15 mins
Total amount of pages read: 154 pages

Books finished: 2 books (The Following Story by Cees Nooteboom & finally caught up with Sei Shonagon’s The Pillow Book read-along)
Mini-challenges participated in: 10 (since last update: Wordle, Non-fiction, Memoirs)