The Non - Fiction Giveaway Blog Hop

(aka My First Giveaway on the Blog Ever :))
I do love reading non-fiction books and I was happy when Birgit started the non - fiction reading challenge, but when Rikki decided to host a giveaway hop on the subject, how could I have said no? :)
So, here I am, letting you know that you may join our giveaway until the 20th of April if you are a lover of non-fiction books... and please drop by to see what books we have in store for you.
To sign up for the giveaway please visit Rikki's blog. 

What Work of Literature Would You Recommend to Someone Who Doesn't like Literature?

This question is part of the Literary Blog Hop, and it is definitely not an easy one.

If someone doesn't enjoy reading literature, how could you fix this "issue"? A work of literature cannot truly and entirely be revealed unless one finds pleasure in solving its mysteries page by page.
And yet, if there were a book that could turn a non-lover into a passionate lover of literature, that book should be THE BOOK. Is there such a thing? Well, (un)fortunately, not really. Surely, we can recommend our favorite books and that might work, but the true spirit of literature lies in every single book worth reading.
How could anyone not recommend one of Shakespeare's plays (and how difficult it would be to just choose one) or a poem by Wordsworth? They are not among my favorite writers, but can we skip them? Wasn't their writing and our reading that brought us closer to what we now call our favorite writers? How can we say that we like Ionesco if we haven't read any other play? Could we recommend Jeanette Winterson and completely forget about Virginia Woolf? Is that even possible?
To sum up, any work conveying literary value is worth reading in order to savour literature, but one is never enough to fully discover what lies beneath this word: LITERATURE.

To analyze or not to analyze?

I decided to take part in the Literary Blog Hop, mainly because I find the questions to be answered every month quite clever and sometimes even challenging. This blog hop is hosted by The Blue Bookcase and this month's question is: to what extent do you analyze literature? Are you more analytical in your reading if you know you're going to review the book? Is analysis useful in helping you understand and appreciate literature, or does it detract from your readerly experience?



The days of thoroughly analyzing literature are long gone. Back in college, when I had to analyze everything I was reading I really enjoyed writing long papers on different literary works, especially when I would discover great books and fascinating writers that became my favorite ones(Winterson, McEwan, Tim Parks). Now, in my adult life, I am too pressed for time to think about certain literary aspects in depth, so I just read for pleasure or stop reading the book if it doesn't appeal to me. Lacking time to write "serious" reviews has made me go for a less demanding task, The Six Word Sum Up. Yet, the literary brain finds itself thinking while reading whether certain words are or might be the key ones in this sum up! :)
As for better understanding literature when analyzing it, I do agree that one could grasp a different or a deeper meaning when reading pen in hand and notebook aside, but sometimes the more you analyze, the more tired of that work you may become.

4 Is Not a Crowd

A few days ago I read an interesting post here and it made me seriously ask myself the same question: What writers should I invite to my (fancy) dinner?. The tricky thing is that they have to be from different centuries, so after I struggled with a list of 10 or so writers, I decided to have a "ladies' night" with three of the most inspiring women writers. EVER.

Jeanette Winterson (21st century, born in 1959)


~ first encounter with her work: 2001
~ adopted by Pentecostal parents, she used to hide in order to be able to read books.
~ she wrote her first and probably her most talked-about novel "Oranges are not the only fruit" at 23, which she published in 1985.
~ owns an eco-shop in London, called "Verdes".
~ has just started using twitter and is about to have her first autobiography published - "Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?".
~ her best book, in my opinion: "The Passion".
Everything she writes feels enchanting and yet, utterly true and about myself :)

Anais Nin (20th century, 1903 - 1977)


~ first encounter with her work: 2002
~ probably most famous for her tumultuous affair with Henry Miller.
~ of French-Cuban origin, she also used to live by herself, although she was married, on a boat on the Seine.
~ studied psychoanalysis and briefly practiced as a lay therapist in New York; she was a patient of Carl Jung for a time as well.
~ was an obscure literary figure until 1966, when her diary in ten volumes was published.
~ her best creation (IMHO): the love letters addressed to Miller in "A Literary Passion".
Her journal is incredibly sultry and passionate.

George Sand (19th century, 1804 - 1876)


~ first encounter with her work: 1997
~ her real name was Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant
~ her reputation turned scandalous when she started smoking cigars, wearing men's clothing in public and all this after she had left her husband.
~ visited Venice in 1834 with her lover Alfred de Musset and stayed at Hotel Danieli, then known as "Albergo Reale".
~ fought for women's role in political life and took part in the events of June 1848 in Paris.
~ my favorite work: "Histoire de ma vie".
As Musset, her lover, said, she was "the most womanly woman."