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The Sunday Salon is a virtual gathering of booklovers on the web, blogging about bookish things, visiting participating weblogs, and oh — reading books of course ;)
For 2015 I chose to set a goal on Goodreads. 2013-2014 had been slow book-wise, reading no more than 16 resp. 18 volumes. I was too embarrassed frustrated to even post the lists! ;) That’s why a target of 20 seemed a bit of a challenge for 2015, but doable.
<insert drumroll please…> YAY! I surpassed my goal by 9!!! Making a total of 29 (listed further on), whisping me back to the level of 2012. #happydance
For 2016 I won’t be aiming at a certain amount of books. Rather I’d be reinforcing the habit of reading more regularly. Once I’ve figured out the details I’ll share them.
BOTNS Book Bingo
What helped keep me motivated the past year was the Books on the Nightstand Summer Book Bingo. I generated a card and though I didn’t really pick my books according to the squares, it was fun checking where a read would fit and crossing it of. My friend Muizz was also playing, which made it even more fun. You should’ve heard me scream “BINGO!” once I got a full row completed! *grin*
Books read in 2015
Listed from most recently to early 2015:
- The Mutts Winter Diaries ~ Patrick McDonnell
- Terug naar Oegstgeest ~ Jan Wolkers
- The Fire Kimono (Sano Ichiro, #13) ~ Laura Joh Rowland
- De fietser van Tsjernobyl / El ciclista de Chernóbil ~ Javier Sebastián
- History of a Pleasure Seeker ~ Richard Mason
- Hug Time ~ Patrick McDonnell
- Gevallen God / A God in Ruins ~ Kate Atkinson
- Legend of a Suicide ~ David Vann
- Potifars vrouw ~ Sophie Zijlstra
- The Children Act ~ Ian McEwan
- The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up ~ Marie Kondō
- Globejotting: How to Write Extraordinary Travel Journals (and Still Have Time to Enjoy Your Trip!) ~ Dave Fox
- The Buried Giant ~ Kazuo Ishiguro
- De kat / 猫の客 / Neko no kyaku ~ Takashi Hiraide
- Wachten op woensdag (Frieda Klein #3) / Waiting for Wednesday ~ Nicci French
- Just One Evil Act (Inspector Lynley, #18) ~ Elizabeth George
- Het boek van wonderlijke nieuwe dingen / The Book of Strange New Things ~ Michel Faber
- Handleiding voor poetsvrouwen / A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories ~ Lucia Berlin
- Geen gewoon Indisch meisje ~ Marion Bloem
- Fox Evil ~ Minette Walters
- Believing the Lie (Inspector Lynley, #17) ~ Elizabeth George
- Housekeeping ~ Marilynne Robinson (audiobook)
- Ik kom terug ~ Adriaan van Dis
- Oorlog en terpentijn ~ Stefan Hertmans
- Timothy’s Book: Notes of an English Country Tortoise ~ Verlyn Klinkenborg
- The Rise & Fall of Great Powers ~ Tom Rachman
- Maandagskinderen / Synir Duftsins ~ Arnaldur Indriðason
- The Strange Library ~ Haruki Murakami
- How to Be Both ~ Ali Smith (audiobook)
Some new or recent, some classics, some bulky — others slim, many Anglo authors, less Dutch and a few other nationalities, hardcore literature and non-fiction next to easier stuff like mysteries/thrillers. Being easy on myself I read English language books more often in Dutch translation than usual.
Have you read any of these books?
The Year of the Daves (aka Favourite Reads of 2015)
Looking back, the novel that left most of an impression is Legend of a Suicide by David Vann. It had been waiting patiently on my shelf for years — and didn’t disappoint! I don’t feel I’ve read anything like this collection before: gruesome, dreary, but touching at the same time. A rough diamant.
The most fun I had with Globejotting, a manual for travel journal keeping. It has helped me a lot and I can’t wait to start over, doing all exercises.
Depending on time and inspiration I’ll write a follow-up about some other highlights of 2015. For now: curl up on the couch and have a cosy Sunday!
We’ve got a little more than an hour to go of the 24 Hour Read-a-Thon but I realised that I no longer feel like reading. So I’m going to quit! I’ve read for an embarrassing total of 3:15 hours (*hides in shame*) but that’s more than I’ve read in a long time and I got halfway The Book of Negroes -a chunkster- so I’ve met my goal. ;)
You can laugh.
You can point your fingers at me.
You may argue that I’m not a worthy readathonner.
BUT I’M HAPPY WITH WHAT I’VE DONE! And I know you’re all nice people and won’t think anything bad of me anyway! :D
A big THANK YOU to the organisers, mini challenge hosts, cheerleaders and all participants who made this spring 2013 read-a-thon possible. I hope to see you all around next fall!
Early End of the Event Meme
- Which hour was most daunting for you?
The first few hours when I had expected to read a lot in one stretch before I needed to go to a birthday party but didn’t . :( - Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
Well, the book I have been reading today is definitely one of those: The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill!
Another would be Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami or Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending for a shorter novella. - Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
Not really, everything runs so smoothly! Except maybe that I don’t like mini challenges that take up a lot of reading time but are too tempting to resist. I’ve had issues with those in previous years and now I tend to ignore the challenges as a whole so I won’t get distracted. - What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
I can’t think of anything that went better than other times! - How many books did you read?
(*whispers*) Not even one: just the first part of The Book of Negroes; books 1 and 2. - What were the names of the books you read?
Ha! I already mentioned that several times and I don’t think you want to hear me say it again! LOL - Which book did you enjoy most?
Well, THAT one. ;) - Which did you enjoy least?
– - If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
– - How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
Yes please! Looking at my results I shouldn’t challenge myself beyond reading though…
The Sunday Salon is a virtual gathering of booklovers on the web, blogging about bookish things of the past week, visiting each others weblogs, and oh — reading books of course ;)
If you’re on Instagram you’ve probably heard of the monthly #photoaday meme in which people daily post a picture inspired by a list of tags. I tried it once, but couldn’t keep up.
Yesterday I found out that The Estella Society -a reading playground built by book bloggers- is hosting something alike in March: a Bookish Photo a Day. I love the idea! So I jumped in right where we are, in week #2.
Curious about my contributions? View them on Statigram (hashtag #EstellaGram)!
Is anyone else playing along?
The Sunday Salon is a virtual gathering of booklovers on the web, blogging about bookish things of the past week, visiting each others weblogs, and oh — reading books of course ;)
The Sunday Salon is a virtual gathering of book lovers on the web, blogging about bookish things of the past week, visiting each others weblogs, and oh — reading books of course ;)
Last November -that’s almost a year ago indeed- Annemieke from Rozemarijn kookt asked on Twitter who would like to receive her copy of A Vegan Taste of Greece, by Linda Majzlik. Of course I was interested and she kindly sent me the book. Shame on me that I didn’t cook from it until a couple of weeks back!
Now why did I finally pick it up?
Well.. There’s a PPK Cookbook Challenge on the Post Punk Kitchen forum. A vegan cookbook is chosen each week, and if you don’t have that particular book you can choose another from your shelves. This event coincides with Uniflame’s Cookbook Challenge on She Likes Bento. The difference between the two?
- PPK: any (vegan) book will do if you don’t have the designated title but you’ll need make at least three recipes from it.
- She Likes Bento: there’s no set amount of recipes to try (just one will do) but you have to choose an unused or hardly touched cookery book.
Conclusion: I’m making it harder on myself by combining the two. What else is new? ;)
A Vegan Taste of Greece by Linda Majzlik
A Vegan Taste of Greece was the only vegan cookbook I own from which I hadn’t tried a single recipe — so there really was no other first choice possible.
After a short introduction on the origin of Greek food and its place in society, A Vegan Taste of Greece starts with an alphabetical list of a regular pantry, often including nutritional info. Nice! The rest of the book is divided into chapters focussing on different courses: mezedes, soups, main courses, vegetables, grain accompaniments, salads, sauces and dressings, breads, desserts and baking.
I’ve made 4 recipes from 3 different sections: a main course, grain accompaniment and two salads, one green and one legume (bean). Each recipe indicates the amount of servings; mostly four but since it’s just the two of us here at Graasland, I usually made half of it.
Main course: Briami
Greek Briami, Turkish rice with chickpeas, cumin spiced quick bread and avocado salad
Briami is a vegetable casserole containing potatoes, courgette, red pepper, mushrooms, onion, tomatoes and a selection of herbs & spices like fennel seeds, rosemary and thyme. Wine and lemon juice provide additional liquid. The dish is finished off with olives and vegan cheese, for which I used a combination of faux parmezan and ‘rawmezan’ (a mix of ground nuts & ‘nooch‘, aka nutritional yeast). Sounds good, doesn’t it?
Despite of all the flavourful ingredients I found the briami rather bland. :( It could have used more sauce and even then I’m not sure it would be really good. Maybe my expectations were too high? Mr Gnoe thought it was okay.
It’s an easy recipe to make but it does take some time preparing because of all the ingredients required. And then it has to go into the oven for about an hour. Oven dishes that can be prepared in advance are great when having guests for dinner, but I don’t think I would dare serve this. Don’t want to confirm a possible prejudice that vegan food is tasteless! ;)
Grain accompaniment: Minted bulgar with leeks
Seitan stroganoff with minted leek bulghur
The bulghur was… nice, but once more a bit dull. Admittedly I forgot to garnish with fresh mint. But I could hardly taste the dried peppermint that was also in it, and the leeks were so overcooked that they’d lost most of their flavour. I like leek, so it was another disappointment. I would consider making this again though: as an idea it’s more exciting than just wheat, it’s easy to make and a great way to add more vegetables to a meal. Next time I’d bake the veg separately until just done and combine everything at the end. It was a good combo with the seitan stroganoff though!
Green salad: fennel and avocado
Greek fennel salad with watercress & avocado
I’ve got this surprisingly good fennel-tomato salad recipe and avocado is one of my favourite fruits, so I was eager to try a Greek recipe combining them. The biggest differences between the two are that the fennel is cooked first in the new recipe and it doesn’t have basil & black olives but watercress (and avocado) instead.
You can probably guess by now… Another flavourless dish. I expect Mediterranean food to be tasty! Furthermore, all ingredients were soft (not to say mushy) and I rather like a crunchy salad. My ideas for improvement? Keep the fennel raw, add olives & basil and maybe a little ouzo or other anise-flavoured drink. Of course having alcohol with your meal decreases the body’s ability to absorb vitamins, but sometimes there’s something to say for taste too. ;) But to be honest, I think I’ll stick with my regular fennel salad recipe.
Bean salad: chickpea
Chickpea salad
The last recipe, chickpea salad, was a small hit — the best of the bunch anyway. Especially considering it’s rather basic: a mix of cooked garbanzos, cucumber, a variety of peppers, red onion, black olives and a dressing made of skinned and finely chopped tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, crushed garlic, fresh thyme and black pepper. I added a little salt as a flavour enhancer too. Yes, I will make this salad again when I have an open can of chickpeas!
The verdict
It will come as no surprise that I’m not really enthusiastic about A Vegan Taste of Greece. I’m considering discarding it, but first I’d like to try some recipes from other sections, like…
- A mezé ~ walnut-stuffed mushrooms? Yellow split-pea spread fava? Courgette critters? Or jumping into the deep end with gyros made from scratch, finally using that bag of seitan starter I purchased?
- Dessert ~ baked nectarines or orange glazed peach slices, almond & apricot pastries… They make my mouth water. :) But all require the purchase of a new ingredient: orange flower water.
- Baked goods ~ sesame cookies, almond cakes, semolina & lemon slices… No? ;)
- And the baked beetroot in the vegetable chapter sounds like good too.
So there’s more to explore before the curtain falls. I’d like to try one each from the categories above before my final judgement. Still, there’s a whole series of A Vegan Taste of… (France, India, East Africa, et cetera) by Linda Majzlik. Getting me to try another would require a copy to literally fall into my hands again.
I hardly dare finish with one more flaw of the book.. :\ I think it’s partly a regional problem and doesn’t apply to Americans. MANY of the recipes use vegan cheese or yoghurt. I haven’t been able to find a good cheese substitute and feel reluctant to buy and use the varieties available here. In the US there’s Dayia… Reviews are raving so I’d love to get my hands on that!
And soygurt… It lacks the sour freshness of its animal equivalent, which cannot be fully compensated by adding (extra) lemon. I just purchased a tub though, so I do plan on trying one of the recipes containing yofu too.
To be continued?
If you’ve got one of Majzlik’s books I’d love to hear you think!
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Join Beth Fish’s Weekend Cooking with a food-related post!
The Sunday Salon is a virtual gathering of book lovers on the web, blogging about bookish things of the past week, visiting each others weblogs, and oh — reading books of course ;)
Months ago, it must have been somewhere in spring, I suddenly had enough. I haven’t told you (really didn’t mean to keep it a secret! ;) but I quit all the challenges I’d subscribed to for 2012. Just like that, cold turkey, after having been an addict for years! ;)
Then came October… autumn. And Uniflame announced a two-month Cookbook Challenge inspiring people to cook from under-used cookbooks — who doesn’t have some of those hanging around? Of course I had to join. :) So Gnoe’s back in business!
Since it’s VeganMoFo this month, I’ll concentrate on vegan cookbooks. Starting of with A Vegan Taste of Greece by Linda Majzlik, that was passed on to me earlier this year — and until now I hadn’t tried a single recipe. I’ll probably share my experiences with the book next Sunday Salon.
Other vegan cookbooks on my shelf that qualify:
- Non-fish-a-licious and
- (maybe) Lisette in Luilekkerland, both by Lisette Kramer.
Vegetarian nominees:
- Yogi food (Jet Eikelboom & Seth Jansen),
- The Art of Tofu (Akasha Richmond),
- Living Among Meat Eaters (Carol J. Adams),
- Koken in McDonald’s kitchen (Andy McDonald).
One omni cookbook that I’ve had for two decades, haven’t cooked from and still fail at getting rid of: Aan tafel met Yvonne Keuls, a collection of family recipes from Yvonne Keuls, a Dutch writer with Indonesian roots.
Which cookbooks have you hardly used?
– – – – –
Join Beth Fish’s Weekend Cooking with a food-related post!
The Sunday Salon is a virtual gathering of booklovers on the web, blogging about bookish things of the past week, visiting each others weblogs, and oh — reading books of course ;)
I’ve called my yearly overview of books “The Pile of Books I Kicked Over..” once before, but this time the title fits even better. In 2011 I devoured a total of 38 books, which is nine more than I read in 2010!
Now how is that for a first post and Sunday Salon in 2012?
Of course I pledged to tackle eleven more books this year for the Books on the Nightstand +11 in ’11 Challenge, which would have brought my total up to the nice round number of 40. Well, there you have it: my first #FAIL. ;)
Looking over my list, it is not easy to pick an instant favourite. Although I liked most of the books I read, there aren’t many outstanding works worth mentioning. Although I gave three of them the max of 5 stars in Goodreads, concerning one I have a hard time remembering about what it was exactly…
Interlude: here I corrected myself thanks to the marvellous, but strict Dr Kermode who will not allow the word order of “what it was about.” A grammar lesson learnt in 2011. ;)
So, did I accept quantity over quality? No Ma’m, I did not. I could’ve easily picked two short novellas from my shelf when the end of 2011 was nigh. Like Murakami’s Sleep, for instance, T.S. Elliot’s Cats or Joost Zwagerman’s Duel. But just as I promised when I joined the BOTNS challenge, I did not bend my reading preferences according to book size.
Now quit digressing! Here are the books I read in 2011 in reversed chronological order. Other thoughts and statistics will follow later on.
Nina, the Grande Dame who came to live with us this year, checking out our bookshelves
Books read in 2011
- Kandy: een terugtocht (‘Kandy: a retreat‘), F. Springer
- Vernon God Little, DBC Pierre
- XY, Sandro Veronesi (Boekgrrls December read)
- De duif en De erfenis van Maître Mussard, Patrick Süskind
- Bandoeng-Bandung, F.Springer
- Van het westelijk front geen nieuws (Im Westen nichts Neues / All Quiet on the Western Front), E.M. Remarque (November Boekgrrls read)
- Season of the Rainbirds, Nadeem Aslam
- Tinkers, Paul Harding
- 1q84 (Boek een, twee & drie), Haruki Murakami (JLit Book Group November/December)
- Modelvliegen, Marcel Möring
- Thousand Cranes, Yasunari Kawabata (JLit Book Group August)
- The Help, Kathryn Stockett (Boekgrrls August read)
- Underground, Haruki Murakami
- Dagboek van een Geisha (Memoirs of a Geisha), Arthur Golden
- Witte oleander (White Oleander), Janet Fitch (bx copy)
- Before I Go to Sleep, S.J. Watson
- The Woman in the Dunes, Kobo Abe (JLit Book Group June)
- Zeitoun, Dave Eggers (Boekgrrls June read; nonfiction)
- Verraad, verleiding en verzoening: de rol van eten in speelfilms, Louise O. Fresco & Helen Westerik (nonfiction)
- Travels in the Scriptorium, Paul Auster
- The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim, Jonathan Coe (Boekgrrls May read)
- Bento Box in the Heartland: My Japanese Girlhood in Whitebread America (a Food Memoir), Linda Furiya (nonfiction)
- Crime School, Carol O’Connell
- All She Was Worth, Miyuki Miyabe (Bookcrossing book ring)
- Vegan Family Meals: Real Food for Everyone, Ann Gentry (cookbook; Netgalley e-book)
- 2666, Roberto Bolaño (readalong)
- La Dolce Vegan! Vegan Livin’ Made Easy, Sarah Kramer (cookbook)
- In the Miso Soup, Ryu Murakami (JLit Book Group February)
- Pinball, 1973, Haruki Murakami
- Ik haal je op, ik neem je mee (Ti prendo e ti porto via / I’ll Steal You Away), Niccolò Ammaniti (Boekgrrls February read)
- Geketende democratie: Japan achter de schermen (‘Democracy in chains: behind the scenes of Japan‘), Hans van der Lugt (nonfiction)
- Sneeuwland (Yukiguni / Snowland), Yasunari Kawabata
- Blacklands, Belinda Bauer (Boekgrrls Januari read)
- Poelie de Verschrikkelijke (‘Poelie the Terrible‘), Frans Pointl
- Hear the Wind Sing, Haruki Murakami
- Kalme chaos (Caos Calmo), Sandro Veronesi (Boekgrrls December 2010 read)
Quite the list eh? And I also reread the beautiful short story Het geluid van een stoomfluit midden in de nacht (Yonaka no kiteki ni tsuite / ‘A Steam Whistle in the Middle of the Night‘) by Haruki Murakami.
Thoughts
The book(s) I enjoyed the most this year was Haruki Murakami’s 1q84 trilogy. Readers from the Japanese and English speaking hemispheres may wonder why I keep using a lower case ‘q’ (kyu) when referring to the author’s latest work, since it’s originally written as 1Q84. Well, the Dutch translators decided to use a small ‘q’, resembling the number ‘9’ much better!
Volumes 1,2 and 3 together are over 1350 pages thick but I read all three of them in just two weeks. Enough proof of how much I liked it. :) It’s a typical late Murakami of which story you should know nothing beforehand.
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Reading 1q84 I regularly had to think back to a work of non-fiction I read earlier this year: Underground, about the Tokyo gas attack. It’s amazing how delicate Murakami treats the subject, showing more about himself as a person than I ever saw, heard or read in interviews or previous books.
A further special mention goes to another Japanese novel: The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe. A strange story calling up an eerie atmosphere; bordering on a grim fairy tale. The images easily reappear before my mind’s eye so I have no problems recalling what this classic is about. Oops, preposition at the end of my sentence again, apologies to Dr Kermode! ;)
So it’s all Japanese favourites this year. Figures. ;) One of my intentions for 2012 is to read a little more OUT of my comfort zone. Another post will out-lay the rest of my reading plans for this year. *whispers* I haven’t really figured them out yet myself!
Luckily I also very much liked some non-JLit books like Sandro Veronesi’s XY (thought-provoking), Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front (compelling), Belinda Bauer’s Blacklands (thrilling) and Dave Eggers’ Zeitoun (shocking).
The biggest bone to tackle this year was 2666 BY FAR. It’s supposed to be a contemporary classic and comes highly recommended by one of my favourite authors, Kazuo Ishiguro, but it could not charm me. I struggled all the way through to the end and I’m proud to say that I was at least able to finish it! 898 pages of small characters, in English. Gah.
2011 Book charts
As always I’d love to share some pie charts. About the gender of authors read, the ratio of fiction to non-fiction (to faction, which is null ;), where I got my copies from, peer-pressure (!) and the language area from which authors originate.
Gender of authors read
Hm, I’m not completely satisfied with the ratio of female authors to male among the books I read this year.. Needless to say it should be more of a fifty-fifty situation!
Fiction to non-fiction
The fiction / non-fiction chart doesn’t show much difference from previous years: I obviously prefer to read fiction — especially now that I’m having ‘concentration issues’. O_o
The Pile
I haven’t looked at the origin of my books before, but as I seem to have read a lot of books being passed on by other Boekgrrls, I thought I’d analyse that data this year. ;)
Peer-pressure
Oh how I love my peer-pressure. Buddyreads, group reads, readalongs & readathons, challenges, book rings… You name it — been there, seen it, done that. ;) Of course I should also have put in this graph the books I read without any relation to others… Next time, I promise.
Language areas
Now I did not read all of these books in their original language, it’s just a vague chart dividing my books into language areas. Most books that are written in English I read in their original language. The same goes for Dutch books. :) The rest I’ve read in translation to either Dutch or English. Maybe next year I’ll try my hand at some German..?
Note: of course Chilean and Pakistani are nationalities, not languages, but you get the idea.
So, did you surpass and/or surprise yourself with the books you’ve read?
Any favourites you’d like to share?
Did you read any of mine?
Now that December has arrived and I had a good and hard look at my reading challenges, it seems like the right moment to add another on the brink of the new year… Am I crazy? I assure you I’m not. ;)
Loving Books’ Get Read-y for 2012 Challenge is meant to help me get the books read I already wanted to finish!
Here’s my TBR pile for the rest of the year…
XY, by Sandro Veronesi. It’s the December read for my online book group, the Boekgrrls. I’m currently halfway this intriguing novel — giving me lots to think about!
Kandy, by the recently deceased F. Springer. A friend is visiting her place of birth, Sri Lanka, starting December 9th. Would love to read this book while she’s there!
I promised Elsje to buddy read Haruki Murakami’s The Elephant Vanishes before the end of the year. Have to make good on my promise! This collection of short stories will also count for the Haruki Murakami Reading Challenge and Japanese Literature Challenge #5.
Ian Buruma’s Dromen van China (The China Lover). The book I pledged to read for the Chinese Literature Challenge. Come on… I need to read just one book for this challenge. Host Chinoiseries cheered me on so I can’t let her down!
These three books are absolute MUSTS for me. Then there’s a few more I’d love to finish before the year is over. To begin with, these 3 are not enough for the 6 I need to accomplish my +11 in 2011 challenge, in which I try to read 11 more books than I did last year. Also, I’m currently 2 books short for the What’s in a name challenge #4. So, here’s what I’d further LIKE to read this month… (though I already know I will never manage to ;)
Kokoro, by Natsume Soseki. I had wanted to join in the Japanese Literature Book Group read of October & November, but missed out. As the book is on my shelf (and ‘just’ 254 pages long) I may be able to submit a late contribution?!
The Moonstone (Wilkie Collins) for the JEWEL/STONE categorie in the What’s in a name challenge.
DBC Pierre’s Vernon God Little for the SIZE categorie in the What’s in a name challenge, or Little Bee by Chris Cleeve which I borrowed from Elsje and should be returned to its lawful owner. But that would be a good one for next year’s CREEPY CRAWLIES as well.. ;)
Of course I may just cheat to get to my goal of 40 books in in the +11 challenge and pick up some shorties as the month comes to an end… 
Like the most recent Dutch publication of a Murakami novel: Slaap (Sleep). ;)
You can still sign-up for the Get Read-y for 2012 challenge!
The Sunday Salon is a virtual gathering of booklovers on the web, blogging about bookish things of the past week, visiting each others weblogs, and oh — reading books of course ;)
I love reading challenges. Not that I need any, but I like how they tend to shuffle my reading pile. Still, after feeling overwhelmed in 2010 I decided to be very careful with challenges in 2011. So I accepted only five! #goodgrrl :)
- Tanabata’s Haruki Murakami Reading Challenge
- Bellezza’s Japanese Literature Challenge #5
- Chinoiseries’ Chinese Literature Challenge
- Beth Fish’s What’s in a name #4
- Margot’s first Foodie’s Reading Challenge
What’s the status now that December is around the corner? Am I getting stressed like last year? Do I feel accomplished? Need to get my act together and READ?
Completed 2011 reading challenges
Before I go any further I humbly bow my head and confess that even though I’ve read all the books I commited to for the following three challenges, I reviewed hardly any. 2011 has not been a great year of blogging for me. But as we’re talking reading challenges, I’ll consider my missions accomplished!
HARUKI MURAKAMI READING CHALLENGE
For the Haruki Murakami Reading Challenge I chose level TORU (named after our dear friend from The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, the first Murakami novel I ever laid my hands on). That means reading 5 books by the master (here’s my admission post). So far I’ve read 6 (!) and I plan to read one more before the year has ended — ask Elsje if you don’t believe me. ;) If I live up to my promiss that collection of short stories will lift me to the level of Nakata (from Kafka on the Shore).
Books read:
Hear the Wind Sing
Pinball, 1973
Underground
1q84 Boek 1
1q84 Boek 2
1q84 Boek 3
And yes, the Dutch translation of 1Q84 was published in three seperate volumes, coming out in June 2010 and April 2011. Also, the title is deliberately written with a lower case ‘Q’ because it much resembles a ‘9’. I like that and have no idea why it should be different in the Japanese original and English version. Us Dutchies are pedantic. ;)
Last week Elsje and I went to a lecture about Haruki Murakami by translator Luc Van Haute in Leiden’s Sieboldhuis. He explained to us how the often stated opinion that Murakami’s novels are not typically Japanese is just plain wrong. It was fun — I have a huge reading list of Japanese authors to follow up ;) — and we also got to see the Hello Kitty exhibition and meet ennazussuzanne and Seraphine, who surprised us with the gift of an origami bookmark! Aw, that’ll come to good use when reading… JLit!
JAPANESE LITERATURE CHALLENGE #5
The fifth Japanese Literature Challenge only started in June and runs to February, but on October 1st I had already finished the 6 books I commited to. That day I turned over the last page of 1Q84 Book 3. As I still plan to read Sōseki’s Kokoro for the Japanese Literature Book Group (I’m late, I’m late, I’m late!), and Murakami’s The Elephant Vanishes together with Elsje, I’ll probably up my level by the end of January 2012.
Books read:
The Woman in the Dunes ~ Kobo Abe
Underground ~ Haruki Murakami
Thousand Cranes ~ Yasunari Kawabata
1q84 Boek 1 ~ Haruki Murakami
1q84 Boek 2 ~ Haruki Murakami
1q84 Boek 3 ~ Haruki Murakami
FOODIES READING CHALLENGE
In the Foodies reading Challenge I cowardly safely labeled myself a NIBBLER, going for 1 to 3 books (admission post). So far I’ve read 5, and –YAY– even reviewed two!
Books read:
World Food Café
La Dolce Vegan!
Bento Box in the Heartland
Verraad, verleiding en verzoening
Vegan Family Meals
I hope I can find the time and energy to write some more reviews!
Unfinished business
But I’m not there yet. With only five weeks to go I need to finish two more challenges… Will I be able to do it???
CHINESE LITERATURE CHALLENGE
I was half a year late in joining the Chinese Literature Challenge and I full-heartedly use that as an excuse for why I haven’t reached my goal of 1 book yet. ;) Here’s what I plan to read. Cheer me on and maybe I’ll be able to cross of this challenge before the year has passed!
WHAT’S IN A NAME CHALLENGE #4
The What’s in a name challenge is always one of my favourites. It’s a thrill to pick your next book just based on a random word in the title. Call me crazy. ;) Alas, this year I’m having trouble finishing: even though I read several more than one fitting titles for four of the six categories, two are still open!
Books read:
Categorie NUMBERS
Pinball, 1973 ~ Haruki Murakami
2666 ~ Roberto Bolaño
1q84 ~ Haruki Murakami
Categorie TRAVEL/MOVEMENT
Travels in the Scriptorium ~ Paul Auster
I’ll Steal You Away ~ Niccolò Ammaniti
Model Flying ~ Marcel Möring
Categorie EVIL
Poelie the Terrible ~ Frans Pointl
Crime School ~ Carol O’Connell
Categorie LIFE STAGE
Bento Box in the Heartland: My Japanese Girlhood in Whitebread America ~ Linda Furiya
Still hoping to get around to:
Categorie JEWEL/GEM
The Moonstone ~ Wilkie Collins
Categorie SIZE
Vernon God Little ~ DBC Pierre
BTW you can always follow my progress on the special Challenge page on Graasland!
What’s new for 2012?
2012 is more than a month away but I have already lined up some reading plans. Wanna know what they are?
Of course I can’t resist participating in the new What’s in a name challenge. I must say that I never buy or borrow books specifically for this challenge — picking titles that are already on Mt TBR, or have been on my wishlist for quite some time, is part of the fun. So what are the categories for 2012 and which books fit the bill?
- A book with a topographical feature (land formation) in the title
Choosing from: Last Night in Twisted River, Sunset Park, Lunar Park, The Street of a Thousand Blossoms - A book with something you’d see in the sky in the title
Choosing from: The Moonstone, Sunset Park, Lunar Park, A Ride in the Neon Sun, Noorderzon (sun), Dead Air, Star of the Sea - A book with a creepy crawly in the title
Choosing from: Little Bee, Een tafel vol vlinders (‘A table loaded with butterflies‘) - A book with a type of house in the title
Choosing from: The Graveyard Book, Black Box, Het huis op de plantage (‘House on the plantation‘) - A book with something you’d carry in your pocket, purse, or backpack in the title
Choosing from: Dreaming Water, Water for Elephants, Met bonzend hart : brieven aan Hella S. Haasse (‘With a throbbing heart: letters to Hella S. Haasse‘) [open to suggestions] - A book with a something you’d find on a calendar in the title
Choosing from: The Eigth Day, Silence in October, Nocturnes
Don’t you think I have a whole lot of books available just to pick from? :))
THE SAVAGE DETECTIVES GROUP READ
Let me state first that I haven’t commited to the following task yet. I’m only considering it! Caravana de Recuerdos hosts a Roberto Bolaño The Savage Detectives readalong in January. I have the book on my shelf — it was a recommendation by the great author Kazuo Ishiguro — and I guess now is as good as ever. Especially since I didn’t much appreciate Bolaño’s 2666, which I read together with Leeswammes & Co. earlier this year. I’d better say it’s now.. or never!
Are you making plans for 2012 yet?
Looking back on your accomplishments for 2011?
I’d love to know!
The Sunday Salon is a virtual gathering of booklovers on the web, blogging about bookish things of the past week, visiting each others weblogs, and oh — reading books of course ;)
The Sunday Salon is a virtual gathering of booklovers on the web, blogging about bookish things of the past week, visiting each others weblogs, and oh — reading books of course ;)
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This is my first Sunday Salon of 2011 and I’m going to talk about a cookbook. As you may have noticed, food has been on my mind a lot lately! ;) For my 10-day ExtraVeganza! project I relied heavily on the World Food Café: Global Vegetarian Cooking cookbook. It is a feast for the eye — and your tummy!
The book was put together by Chris & Carolyn Caldicott. It contains recipes they collected, or got inspired, on the many journeys they’ve made across the globe. They did so with the aim to open their own restaurant: the World Food Café in London.
Chris Caldicott is an awesome photographer and the cookbook is littered with beautiful full-colour photos — at least one on each double page. So even if you don’t like to cook, you could display this treasure on your coffee table. ;) But that is certainly not what it’s meant for.
It really is a great collection of recipes, many dairy-free! Rather unique for a vegetarian cookbook these days… Still, it is vegetarian and not all-vegan. Especially the section on The Americas ‘regularly’ contains dairy or eggs: 5 of the 23 (disregarding butter). Now that’s not too bad, is it? Unfortunately the only dessert of the book is among those — a mouthwatering chocolate cake. I wouldn’t know how to substitute the 6 eggs needed for that, but in many cases it’s possible to omit or replace the non-vegan ingredient.
As you may have understood from the previous paragraph, the book is divided in different global regions:
- The Middle East & Africa (p.10-57)
- India, Nepal & Sri Lanka (p.58-111)
- Southeast Asia & China (p.112-145)
- The Americas (p. 146-185)
Each continent starts with a two-page photograph, followed by an introduction. And most of the recipes also have short description of where they came from. The book concludes with a short glossary of ingredients and an index.
I’m sure I made 10 dishes from this book, of which 7 got a BIG thumbs up. The other 3 were either okay or so-so and I need to stipulate that in two of the cases I didn’t use the proper ingredients… I mostly cooked from the Indian section and am still dying to try the potato bondas (fritters) from North India that seem perfect for a bento. But so far my expeditions in search for the essential ingredient ‘asefetida‘ (a.k.a. hing) were in vain.
List of recipes tried
Middle East:
- Hummus (p.35)
India, Nepal & Sri Lanka:
- Kashmir Gobi (p.64)
- Calcutta Eggplant (p.72)
- Orissan Jagdish Saag Aloo (p.74)
- Deep-red Rajasthani Vegetables in Poppy-Seed Sauce (p.93)
- Gujarati Carrot Salad (p.96)
- Diu Corn Curry (p.98)
Southeast Asia & China:
- ‘Buddhist Meat’ and Shiitake Mushrooms (p.121)
- Thai Green Curry (p.132)
- Spicy Bean Curd and Bean Sprout Salad (p.133); recipe below
This book comes highly recommended! And I would like to express a huge THANK YOU to the globetrotter in-laws that gave it to me as a birthday present.
Here’s a recipe we’ve made several times. You’ll find a variation of it in tomorrow’s bento!
Spicy Bean Curd & Bean Sprout Salad from Thailand
Ingredients
Serves 4-6
- 1 cucumber; grated
- 1 red bell pepper; seeded, deribbed and cut into fine strips
- 8 ounces / 225 grams of bean sprouts (I grow them myself!)
- 1 tbs sunflower oil
- 10 ounces / 275 grams of tofu; cut into 1/2 inch (1 cm) slices and ready to fry
- 1 garlic clove; crushed
- 1-2 green Thai or serrano chilies; thinly sliced (red chili is fine)
- juice of 1 lime
- 2 tbs light soy sauce
- 2 ts packed brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (150 grams) skinned peanuts; toasted and crushed
- handful of fresh cilantro leaves; chopped
Preparation
- Combine grated cucumber, bell pepper and bean sprouts in a salad bowl.
- Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat and fry the tofu slices until brown and crunchy. Set aside en let cool.
- Using the same pan, sauté garlic and chilies for a few seconds, then add the lime juice, soy sauce and brown sugar. Stir until all ingredients are combined.
- Arrange tofu slices on top of the salad and sprinkle with crushed peanuts.
- Pour on the hot dressing and garnish with lots of cilantro.
ENJOY!
This review is my first post for the Foodie’s Reading Challenge!
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Join Beth Fish’s weekend cooking with a food-related post!
I thought I’d let you have a look at the pile of books I’ll be picking from this year. Well, part of it anyway — I didn’t feel like emptying the whole bookcase ;)
I’m not saying I will read all of these books in 2011; just, you know, showing you what treats are still in store for me. Some of them are tied to a certain event: later this year I’ll be reading along Murakami’s 1q84 with the Japanese Literature Book Group on In Spring It Is The Dawn (if I can wait that long), Ammaniti’s Ik haal je op, ik neem je mee (I’ll Steal You Away) is the Boekgrrls’ February group read and early that month @inspringthedawn, @Chinoiseries and I will be buddy-reading Pinball, 1973 during a low-key mini readathon on Twitter for which the date hasn’t be set yet. Please join us if you want to!
The Murakami’s are also part of the Haruki Murakami Reading Challenge that I’ve joined, and I scheduled several other books on Mt. TBR for one or more of my numerous reading challenges. Numerous? Decide for yourself!
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Just two more weeks to go of Bellezza’s Japanese Literature Challenge #4! Progress: 4/6 The Pillow Book, Sei Shonagon Silence, Shusaku Endo The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Yukio Mishima Hear the Wind Sing, Haruki Murakami Starting Kawabata’s Snow Country today and in my current reading pace I might just make it in time to end with 5 books! Unfortunately Pinball, 1973 has been delayed till my buddy-read early Feb. |
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Haruki Murakami Reading Challenge Progress: 1/5 Hear the Wind Sing, Haruki Murakami |
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Foodie’s Reading Challenge Progress: 0/2 |
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What’s in a Name Challenge #4 Progress: 1/6 ‘Poelie the Terrible‘, Frans Pointl (category ‘evil’) |
| Personal ‘Best Foreign Book’ Reading Challenge (ongoing) Progress: 11/12 I just need to read either The Chosen (Chaim Potok) or The Corrections (Jonathan Franzen). But I’ve taken so long trying to finish this challenge that I started in 2008 (!) I should really read both. |
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BOTNS +11 in ’11 Reading Challenge I decided to try and up my amount of books read in 2011 by joining the +11 challenge of the Books on the Nightstand podcast/weblog. Which means I need to read 40 books this year! While not giving in to quantity over quality — of course. Progress: 4/40 (see below) |
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I’m also participating in a rather complex challenge called ‘Task Completion‘ on Goodreads, but I’m not taking that one as seriously as the rest. |
The books I’ve read or finished in the first two weeks of 2011:
- Kalme chaos (Caos Calmo) by Sandro Veronesi (Boekgrrls’ December 2010 group read)
- Hear the Wind Sing by Haruki Murakami
- Poelie de Verschrikkelijke (‘Poelie the Terrible‘) by Frans Pointl
- Blacklands by Belinda Bauer (Boekgrrls’ January group read)
I plan to make a ‘Read in 2011′ page on Graasland during next weekend’s Bloggiesta, just like I’ll be updating my challenge page(s) and sidebar. My complete to-do list for the Bloggiesta will be posted early this week.
The Sunday Salon is a virtual gathering of booklovers on the web, where they blog about bookish things of the past week, visit each others weblogs, oh — and read ;)
Graasland 