The Glassblower of Murano

Some time ago I got an sms from a friend - "I am enjoying my days on Jersey with The Glassblower of Murano. This is a book I know you will love."
As soon as she came home from vacation she brought me the book, and last week I started to read it. And was immediately transformed back to Venezia and Murano and the art of glassblowing.

You never know when a friendship is due to develop, and I had no idea the day Terje, Marta and I zigzagged through the calles of Venezia suddenly ending up outside a tiny little glassblower workshop, that the opening of the door to the studio was the start of a wonderful friendship. Follow the links and you will be able to visit Mauro, my Glassblower of Murano, who takes the vaporetto from Murano every morning to work in his studio in Venezia
Some of you might already know Mauro, as he started a blog some time ago and has been my Blog of the Week since then.
A couple of days ago I got an email from Mauro - "If you want, read my new post. Awaits you in Venezia" Of course I wanted, and learned that I have got a rival. Mauro is now not only waiting for the Norwegian blog lady to open his door, another grand lady has stolen a piece of his heart. You can read the story on Mauro's blog, and if you don't read Italian there is a translation possibility on the right hand bar.

Some of you have seen a couple of these photos before. They are taken in front of the mirror in "my Venezian flat", trying to capture the red glass heart Mauro has made. Compare my photos, which was taken a year ago, to the front cover of The Glassblower of Murano, which I got in my hands two weeks ago. Cool, isn't it :-)

Travels with Herodotus

Many years ago I saw The English Patient on the cinema. Alot of things caught my interest in the movie, among them a book mentioned: Histories by Herodotus. A few years later I found the book at a local bookstore and bought it, but since then I has been standing safe in my bookshelves. Untill this summer.

A few weeks ago, when I was browsing an airport bookstore I came over Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski. The book whistled my song and soon after I sat at the gate reading.

Kapuscinski's book is not an easy read, but still I have enjoyed his travels through several decades, through several continents, always with Herodotus in his rucksack. Travels with Herodotus has been in my bag through my travels so far this summer. I am packing again for another travel, and this time I consider taking with me Histories.

How to Travel with a Salmon

On of the things I love most about preparing a vacation is to plan which books to take. Right now we are spending a week up in nortern Norway, and before going I knew there would be more than enough time for reading. And since we are travelling by car, there were also more than enough room for bringing books.

I could go treasure hunting in my shelves, searching for unread books.

The first one I found, and which was also the first one I finished during this vacation, was Umberto Eco's How to Travel with a Salmon and other essays. I love Eco and have read most of his books, but this is my first try with his essays. And it will not be the last. His writing is so satirical and funny, pointing to things which I easily recognized and could laugh at, with him and at myself.

Starting with the essay which has given the book its name, How to travel with a Salmon, I was almost happy when we realised that we had misread a ferry time table and had to wait three extra hours for the ferry. The sun was shining, I was surrounded by pittoresque Norwegian nature and I had Umberto Eco as my best company.

A House in Fez

Travel books are always on top of my reading list, and one genre of travels books is books written by people who have followed the adventurous road to a house or a place in another country. For me it started with Frances Mayes and her Tuscany home, books I read over and over again, and from there I have been to quite alot of new countries and places.

The latest bud on the rosebush (for me) is Suzanna Clarke's A House in Fez. Quite interesting, though by no means it can be compared to Mayes and her writing. Here we meet Suzanna and her partner, and Australien couple who fall in love with Morocco and the old town Fez, and end up buying an old house which is in need of total renovation. Too much of the story is about problems with Moroccan bureacracy, all seen through a pair of modern, western eyes. We do get to know a little about the history and traditions of Fez, and that's what made me finish to the last page.

The book is now in my basket of books to give away. Anyone interested?

Another Persephone

Some time ago I discovered by chance the Persephone books and I ordered the two first one, i.e. no 2 and no3 (the first one seems to be out of print). I read no 2, Mariana by Monica Dickens right away and also planned to read no3, Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple. But my pile of book is high, I always buy new ones and I always want to reread old favorites, so somehow Persephone hid herself. Untill a couple of weeks ago that is. I was tidying my studio, and there, on a hidden shelf it suddenly smiled to me. And as soon as I started to book I put all others away. Not that Someone at a Distance is the best story I've read, far from, but Whipple's reading has its own charm which made me read the story right through, I had to know what happend to Ellen and Avery, their children and Louise, the French temptation.

First published in 1953 this is a story which could never been told today, never been lived today. Alot happens in 50 years, and we tend to forget our past, or rather the past of our parents and grandparents, but by remembering I believe we make our lives richer.

My next step now will be to order more Persephone books. They are good.

Mrs. Darcy's Dilemma

From time to time you get sequels on the market to old books, sequels written by new authors. I have often been tempted and bought sequels, only to be deeply disappointed. Somehow the new writer fail to find the true sense of the book, and I end up frustrated, feeling that the sequel is ruining my original joy of the book.

I few weeks ago I was tempted again though, to buy another sequel, by yet another "new" writer. This time the original book was Pride and Prejudice and the sequel, Mrs. Darcy's Dilemma, is written by Diana Birchall. Diana is a member of my Armchairtravelling group on yahoo, and through the years I have learned to know her as a reflective woman and writer with some very interesting views, and also a huge lover of Jane Austen. So when she told us about her new book over at the yahoo group I knew I wanted to give this book a try.

I finished Mrs. Darcy's Dilemma last night, with a broad smile on my face and with a deep sight of delight. Here, finally, I found a classic sequel which fully managed to follow in the original writers style. Written with a charming, beautiful flow of words. Written in an ordfashioned style, with turns and bends in the story which at times makes me terrible angry, but always when I give it a second thought I knew that our dear old Jane herself could have written this book.

We meet Mr. and Mrs. Darcy 15 years after, and a main topic of the book is their three children. All the old characters are still with us, and some new have come as well. And dear Mrs. Darcy is the same, charming, lovable woman and wife as she was 25 years ago.

Italian Journey

We are leaving to Italy tomorrow morning. I will be away for two weeks and are busy packing now. Packing clothes is easy, packing books is always a challenge. I have made piles for several days - guidebooks, travel books, novels, notebooks, moleskins, maps, books with background information for the book I am writing right now.......there are always so many books I want to bring with me. I put away a few, make new piles, then find new books I know I will be wanting while I am in Italy.

There is one book which is on top of my piles though, Italian Journey by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. I haev had this book for some time and knew that now it is time to take it with me to Italy. And from the map on one of the front pages I see that Goethe visited both Roma and Terracina during his journey. So I will be walking The Appian Way following his footsteps.