The Good Book

So, it's been a while since I last updated my blog, the reason being - I have been without the internets. My oh-so reliable landlord decided not to pay the internet provider, so I was duly cut off. But, worry not dear readers as we're now back up and running with supersnel (supposedly) internet. 

The lack of a connection to the outside world has, however, meant that I could catch up with some reading. Or, to be more precise, to finish off the three books that I've had on the go for a while now...

The first book was 'Twitterature', a selection of the world's classics condensed into a series of tweets. I have to say, the number of classics I hadn't read was rather disturbing, as such a lot of the tweets I didn't really get. When it came to books I had read, it was really rather entertaining! A few examples: (1984) "I found a little journal and a tiny place in my room where Big Brother ISN'T watching. Now I can record my dissident thoughts/jerk it", (Die Verwandlung) "I seem to have transformed into a large bug. Has this ever happened to any of you? No solution on Web MD".

The second was 'Niets' by Janne Teller. The book was originally in Danish 'Intet', but I decided against reading the original, as Danish is quite literally praten met je mond vol tanden! The story is about a group of children, who under pressure from one of their friends who declares there to be nothing worth living for, embark on an adventure of sorts to show him that life has meaning. They settle upon the idea of collecting items that mean a lot to them, with the item bearer allowed to demand something from the next person. The objects requested quickly spiral out of control, with some really quite disturbing consequences. This was really quite a brutal book, considering it dealt with 11/12-year-olds and I was really quite shocked in parts.

The third and final book I got through on this little readingfest was 'Cities for People' by Jan Gehl, danish architecture and designer. This book documented how cities around the world should strive to become more people-friendly through their planning and development plans, ultimately resulting in more sustainable cities where people actually want to live. For anyone interested in design, I would heartily recommend this book (there are lots and lots of pictures too!)