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:
- 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 ;) - 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! - 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. - 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. - How many have you read?
Counting would take too much time — although it seems fun! - 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. - 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. - Did it have a ‘happy ending’?
No, no and no ;) - 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. - 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
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)
7 reacties
Comments feed for this article
zondag 10 oktober 2010 bij 10:33
Iris
Ah, you decided to get some sleep as well! I took a one hour nap which was I think a bit too short. Reading very slowly now.. But hey, you managed to get up, I know you didn’t expect to :)
zondag 10 oktober 2010 bij 10:39
leeswammes
Great to see you made it out of bed again. But… where are the answers to the questions? Am I still half asleep? :-)
zondag 10 oktober 2010 bij 11:05
gnoegnoe
Sorry about that. I just wanted to save my post (almost lost a bit) so it had to be done this way ;)
zondag 10 oktober 2010 bij 11:05
Laurie
Salsa buddy! Enjoy! Good luck getting to the end!
zondag 10 oktober 2010 bij 11:18
Tweets that mention Coffee & Croissants in France (Progress Update Hour 20) « Graasland -- Topsy.com
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Gnoe, Gnoe. Gnoe said: Gnoe says Coffee & Croissants in France (Progress Update Hour 20) http://bit.ly/bh3jgG […]
zondag 10 oktober 2010 bij 13:38
24 Hour Read-a-thon Countdown: Progress Update Hour 24 « Graasland
[…] in the last hour of the readathon (already? ;) and I’ve finished 2 graphic novels since my hour 20 status update: Adèle and the Beast (Isabelle en het beest) & Monsters All! (Allemaal monsters!) from the […]
zondag 10 oktober 2010 bij 13:56
tanabata
Congrats on catching up with The Pillow Book. You’re awesome for persevering! Butterfly in the Wind sounds wonderful, I’m going to have to look for it.