44 Scotland Street

One of my favourite writers is Alexander McCall Smith. It is not about anything in specific. It's just that his books (the way they're written, characters, stories etc) makes me happy. Therefore, it is with great pleasure that I'm writing this post about 44 Scotland Street, a new series of adventures set in Edinburgh.

The first characters we meet are Bruce and Pat. She's looking for a new place and he's got a room to rent. From the very first pages we get to know a lot of both. For example, from the way he complains about the previous flatmate, who left everything in the room and in a very messy way. Not fair, I should say, but very intriguing considering the way Bruce goes on and on about her.
And Pat? Well, she's trying to find herself, her place in the world (in all possible ways) and changing house seems to be the first step.

Something I really liked about the book was the author's ability to make me get into things in a very natural way. For example, the feelings, memories, thoughts characters have to deal with in connection with smells. Lizzie Todd, for example. She goes 'home' to visit her parents and on her way in, just before she opens the door she smells something which is familiar but doesn't give her any positive feeling: lavender. In fact, from a very young age she learned not to love it. I think this image is quite strong. It was for me because when I read the few sentences that describe it, I tried to imagine what Lizzie felt like. Everyone should be happy, relaxed, safe at "home" but Lizzie can't.

Pat finally finds a job in a art gallery. Her boss is someone called Matthew who seems very busy reading the newspaper and who's always having a break - quite interesting way of keeping a business, don't you think? - I think she's my favourite character in the book because she's very naive and quite funny, especially when she realises she really like Bruce and somehow she gets to compare him to a statue from Michaelangelo (the David, which is the tall one, naked, very sporty). Don't ask me why but I had imagined Bruce so very different from David and all I can say about this is... love's blind.

We will miss you, Amy

Just a quick entry to announce the death of British singer and songwriter Amy Winehouse. She was a great artist. Unfortunately, as many of her predecessors, she was addicted to drug and alcohol. She was only 27 years old, the same age of Kurt Cobain and Jim Morrison when they died.

Rest in peace Amy, we will miss you.

Brit Library and Google

The British Library has agreed on putting something like 40 million pages on the internet in a digital format. Books include titles from 1700-1870, in several languages. The first published are feminist pamphlets about Queen Marie-Antoinette. For example, Les droits de la femme. A la reine, [The Rights of Women. To the Queen] by Olympe de Gouges which I downloaded and read. I'd suggest you to do the same]

The files are free to download. In fact, the text no longer is under copyright laws.

I am not very keen on reading from a computer - I'd rather touch and smell the book - but I think this is a fab project we should all support because it's not about reading 'old stuff'. It is about understanding that culture, books which made history, is for us all and should be available to everyone.

A new start

Hello everyone,

welcome back to my blog. It used to be up (and running although not very often) a few years ago but then grandpa fell ill and I simply no longer had time for anything other than taking care of him. I so much wanted him to recover that I completely forgot about myself. Would I do it again? Yes! Because after a year he's now 'okay' and today it's his 92nd birthday (celebrate!;-)

Last year he was in intensive care and there was no real celebration but we're here now and it feels like we've been blessed.

However, I still have problems sleeping and relaxing (I somehow become a very anxious person which is not in my nature, not to this level). Therefore, a friend of mine bought me a book by Marianne Williamson: A course in weight loss. She says it helped her a lot accepting some of the losses in her life and giving up smoking (which we were all so worried about) because the book is not (only) about letting kilos go (apparently using the verb "to lose" is a mistake). It is also, and more importantly, about letting go of all the problems life throws at you. In fact, every single time something bad happens you tend to add weight to extra protect yourself. Is it really so? I am not sure this book can help (me) relax, but I feel like I need to get my life back on track and I feel this might be a good way to start. Therefore, I decided to get back to my blog and see what happens.

The idea is to write about lessons in the book (21. But my friend said it took her a long time to really understand the whole thing so she read it all in one go and then step by step, a couple of pages a week, which is what she suggested me to do), books I read and news about the book world I so much love. I hope you will join me on this emotional journey;-)

The first news I am going to mention is J.K. Rowling's new website. It's about Harry Potter.

I haven't seen the website yet but I did watch the last movie in the series. I think they did a brilliant job.