Nice Work
David Lodge
384 p.

Penguin Books 1989.
(first published 1988 by Secker & Warburg.)

Back cover blurb:

 When Vix Wilcox (MD of Pringle’s engineering works) meets English lecturer Dr Robyn Penrose, sparks fly as their lifestyles and ideologies collide head on. What, after all, are they supposed to learn from each other? But in time both parties make some surprising discoveries about each other’s worlds - and about themselves.

The copy I read had neither a back cover blurb, nor the cover up there. However, seeing as I couldn’t find that cover anywhere, I had to do what well I could. Also, I have always wanted to have read one of Lodge’s books, just because all of them seem to have such uniform and lovely covers. You can imagine how disappointed when I found, digging this out of one of our bookshelves, that the cover had to real persons on it. The back cover was merely full of reviews, and I have never liked reviews tagged onto books. However, this did little to the way I found this book.

Nice Work is both terrific and slightly boring. We follow the English lecturer and the factory manager, so extremely different. But, they aren’t that different. I assumed, when starting this book, that Wilcox was going to be completely devoid of figurative language, but that isn’t the case. He frequently uses metaphors and such - maybe not extremely elegant such, but metaphors none-the-less. Somehow I felt as though this great difference was a bit muted by that simple fact. There were also a few other things that annoyed me slightly. Most prominent were the discussions Robyn held with her on-off-boyfriend. They discussed literary things with too big words and too much highbrowness. This shouldn’t actually be a problem, but I must be allergic from it, because I really did not like it. Actually, this is a bit strange, seeing as I am considering studying English Literature come University, and ought to be all for the literary jargon. However, I’m one of these people who doesn’t want to see symbols and metaphors in everything. Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar, as Freud said. I honestly do not believe that every novel has an underlying meaning. Some things can just be coincidences. Of course, I don’t say this during class! But enough is enough.

Despite these small things that disturbed my reading, I really liked it. I enjoyed the fact that they didn’t get each other in the end and that they were happy anyway, and that the changes were subtle and believable. I read it as part of research for a big essay I’ve to write, but I don’t think I’ll be using it as any kind of reference. Not because it was bad, but because it doesn’t really fit in with what I am investigating. In a way, I wish it would have. Lodge’s language is quite beautiful.

[there was a quiz here, but I deleted it. BECAUSE I DID. It said I was 80% book nerd.]
That is quite the dashing portrait of me (not). I, I barely look like that at all. The glasses are almost correct. But not really. I am quite the book nerd, whoo.Now, a meme I was tagged for ages ago.1. Write your own six word memoir
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like
3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere
4 .Tag five more blogs with links.

My memoir is as follows:

More books! More tea! More life!

I am also not tagging anyone because, um, I don’t know who reads this. Plus, I am lame. (: Oh yes, I was tagged by Love.

Den klassiska romanens Ryssland
Lennart Kjellberg
187 p.

Almqvist & Wiksell, 1964.

Back cover blurb:

Denna bok riktar sig till de läsare av den klassiska ryska litteraturen vilka stundom känner sig desorienterade i dess förbryllande värld av civila generaler, adelsmarskalkar, kollegieregistratorsänkor, köpmän av första gillet och herrar som omväxlande kallas Aleksandr Petrovič och Saša.

Den söker förklara sådana företeelser som de ryska författarna förutsätter som bekanta: Petersburgs och Moskvas topografi, ståndsindelning, förvaltning och rättskipning, kyrkliga förhållanden, namn- och tilltalsskick, myntväsen, mått- och viktsystem, tideräkning m. m., allt med utgångspunkt från klassiska romaner, noveller och skådespel.

Boken är rikt illustrerad med teckningar av arkitekt Per-Olof Olsson efter gamla gravyer och litografier.

There isn’t really that much to say about this book. It is a book about what Russia looked like during the nineteenth century, when most of the great Russian novels are set. It is a very practical book, but never very hilarious. In fact, the only thing I can remember off by heart now is that the smallest streets in Petersburg were FIFTEEN METRES WIDE. And that’s the smallest ones! Just think about the larger ones! It’s crazy.

I don’t feel like this is a book benefits you in a moment, but I believe that all the passive knowledge I (hopefully) got now is going to be useful in the future, when I finally find the time to read all those great Russian novels. On and on!

New Moon
Stephenie Meyer
594 p.

Atom, 2007
(first published 2006 by Little, Brown and Company.)

Back cover blurb:

For Bella Swan, there is one thing more important than life itself: Edward Cullen. But being in love with a vampire is even more dangerous than Bella could ever have imagined. Edward has already rescued Bella from the clutches of one evil vampire, but now, as their daring relationship threatens all that is near and dear to them, they realize their troubles may be just beginning…

Okay, I am going to admit it: what the fuck is up with everyone being head over heels for Edward bloody Cullen? Apart from being an insensitive jerk, he is stupid as well as heartless. Every time he was in the page I got a slight urge to rip out the pages. That should say a bit about my feelings for him. I almost committed book-massacre, and that is more or less forbidden to say in my house. But I withhold: I hate Edward. As an effect all I felt for Bella was that she was being stupid and self-destroying by letting someone so stupid so easily destroy her life. Now, the concept of being messed up after a break-up is completely understandable - after all, it is something I well recognise - but it is twisted and exaggerated, beyond any kind of belief. Or any kind of belief I possess, anyway.

Too add to this dislike, it isn’t even a particularly well-written novel. If I hadn’t been so extremely annoyed with the majority of the characters, I would have finished it in two days, tops. That’s with school work included. It is seemingly written without much thought about the beauty of the language. What metaphors and similies there are are pushed too far or too blunt. And the plot itself? Seriously, give me a break. A girl breaks up with her vampire-boyfriend, angsts about it forever and gets a best friend who turns out to be a werewolf. It then turns out that the vampire-boyfriend tries to kill himself from grief, and that the girl is the only one who can save him. SERIOUSLY. This is not Nobel prize material. It isn’t even acceptable plot. Had I written something like that people would look at me as though I was retarded and declare it the sovereign state of Stupidity.

I think I can name three things I actually liked in this book. Firstly, the part where Bella is too depressed to do anything. That was a little nifty, I must admit. Secondly, the vampire Aro was really funny. He was so over-the-top and ridiculous, reminding me rather of the vampires of The Saga of Darren Shan. (overall, though, I got Anne Rice-vibes from the coven overall. I have admittedly never read anything by her, but the point is that it is a little lame.) Thirdly, JACOB. To begin with, I was more than slightly in love with Jacob, because he was a dear. He seemed to genuinely care. However, then he turns into a bleedin’ werewolf and undergoes a very dodgy psychological shift, which, well, I don’t buy. But I guess you would understand that already? Still, occasionally he glimpes back again, which is very nice.

Admittedly, I might be a little too harsh - it’s half eleven in night. But I must admit that I… I more or less enjoyed it, but it wasn’t good. And I don’t know if I will read the later books. It’s not unlikely I will, because I’m a bit of a masochist, but honestly? If I didn’t, I wouldn’t suffer. And if I do, it won’t be in the next few months. I have got enough of Bella Swan as it is.