Emily

The poet Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born on 10th December 1830, in Massachusetts. She used to live in total isolation from the world but she continued to read and send letters and poems to her friends. Upon her death, nearly 1,800 poems were discovered in 40 handbound volumes, which make her a very prolific writer. My favorite poem, and probably yours as well is HOPE.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

Click here for a beautiful reading of the poem on Paganini's music. 

My Reading Challenges - January 2013

2012 has been the year of great Reading Challenges and because I managed to read fantastic books and discover incredible authors, I will take part in a few (let's say eight or nine) such reading challenges.
For January 2013 I am planning to read Wolf Hall (Hilary Mantel) for the Orange in January Challenge and because I realized it has more than 650 pages, that will also be for Birgit's Tea and books Challenge; Kafka on the shore (Haruki Murakami) and A Quiet Life (Kenzaburo Oe) for Bellezza's Japanese Literature Challenge and Tony's January in Japan; Diego and Frida (Le Clezio) for Birgit's This isn't Fiction Challenge, for which I decided to upgrade my challenge to ten books instead of five. Anything else may and will be included on the list :)
Happy Reading in the New Year!

What Should I Read Next?

Let's imagine that we do not have those piles of books under the "I will read those next month or next summer" headings and we have just finished a book we enjoyed without knowing what to read next (I really doubt that could happen soon) but let's just pretend... How could we find something similar to what we have read, imagining that we would like to read a different author, and not the one whose book we finished... Clever people thought about this and this wonderful site was created, WHAT SHOULD I READ NEXT?, which can recommend you different books based on your reading(s). You can also create lists, share them or even buy those books from Amazon. Is there anything else missing? let me know :)

P.S. Unlike The Book Seer which cannot offer any recommendations and tells me that I should stop reading books (loool), What Should I Read Next? actually works :)

Soni - Six Word Sum Up

 Once every few months I come across a book written by a Romanian author which really, and I mean really amazes me. I wish this had been translated into English so maybe you could grasp the reason why I am so thrilled about Andrei Ruse's "Soni". The book was written in 2008 and in September 2012 the third edition appeared, with a few changes (for the better) in the story line, a better publishing house and even more publicity around it, moving from being a controversial book (due to its sex scenes and the use of drugs) to one meant to change your perspective on life.
"Soni" is a book about a 26 year old girl who finds out she has stomach cancer. Needless to say that she goes through all these stages of fear, rage and bad decisions in order to get to the "other side". Which other side? I won't spoil it for you so you'll have to read the book... but be prepared for everything good and bad in-between the covers.

"On our first day at school we should be told that we are going to die. Then, the alphabet."

Cancer Is Not the Final Frontier. 

Now back to "Dealer for a day" :)