Of revisits, rediscovery and finding new in the old

It's been a pretty nice July this year! Mostly dry and warm, except for the last week that is. And seeing how most of Norway (including most of my colleagues) has gone on holiday, things have generally been nice and quiet :).

One of the things we managed to do a fair bit of was go cycling! Mostly revisiting the usual routes, but also on occasion discovering some new ones. We've also booked the cycling holiday for next month, so it was good to build up towards that. Nothing as crazy as last year's week-long trip though :D. Relatively chilled out though the trip is, there is some threat of rain, so here's hoping the weather holds out.

After months and months of not being very social, there have also been a few barbeques, making good use of the nice weather to be able to congregate outdoors. There are all the obvious differences from pre-covid times of course, the general tendency to keep physical distance, making sure the group isn't too large, and also keeping the overall number of people interacted with limited. None of which seems to be too difficult for me...

On the book front, this has been another amazing month!! I realized why my general memory of American Gods is one of dark brooding. Of the three parts (Shadows, My Ainsel and The Moment of the Storm) it is the first that is the most quirky and relatively light hearted. Once Shadow arrives at Lakeside, things start getting altogether more serious and by the time he leaves, things are really coming to a head. So it's no wonder really that the quirky funny bits are something of a distant memory by the time on washes up on the shores at the end :). What an amazing read though! And as I find usual with Gaiman, many things appear in a new and different light with each re-read.

Stardust was just as entertaining as I'd remembered, even if many of the plot twists I discovered anew :). Comparing the book with the film, I always find the ending so much more satisfying in the book. To be honest, with most (if not all) of the differences between the book and the film, I favour how the book goes. There is much more of a sense of depth to the book and a feeling that they tried to turn the film into some sort of children's affair, oversimplifying some bits and adding unnecessary drama in others.

Having thus far re-read Gaiman novels I had previously read multiple times, I came across my copy of Anansi Boys and realized I'd only ever ready it once, almost nine years ago. I couldn't quite figure out why I'd given it a miss during my '15-'16 Gaiman re-reads, so thought I'd go with that next. If anything, I remembered even less of the story than in the other books. The experience was highly entertaining! It felt quite different from either American Gods or Neverwhere, which were the stories it felt closest to in some ways.

Having read practically all the other Gaiman novels in one go, it felt bad not to finish it with The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Somehow I feel a little apprehensive of this book. Maybe that's still the after effects of my first read. There was however, a greater level of equanimity with which I finished this latest re-read. There were fewer nightmares. And an entire section of storyline that apparently I'd imagined into the book, or transposed over from something else I'd read, that never actually happens! Overall, I feel I've come to terms with the shape of this story more that I had before... whatever that might mean :).

So finally, just to end on a proper high, I decided to re-read The Graveyard Book. And I loved it :). It's just so beautifully crafted! Every character, the coincidences that aren't, meetings and partings... It left me feeling light and hopeful :). A casual reader might take this to mean that the book is some sort of happy light pop-fantasy, and I would remind them, this is Gaiman we are speaking of :).

Then, after seven books and two and half thousand odd pages, I figured this was enough of a rush of Gaiman to my head. For now :).

As I may have mentioned, it's been raining. A lot. And I think somehow my headlong plunge into books is coming to an end for now. (The two may or may not be related. Probably not.) It's not like I'm going to stop reading or anything, but I guess that feeling of spending every possible moment buried in books has abated somewhat :). It's been fun though, while it's lasted!

PS: Highfire ended up being quite the hit at the book club this month :).

From Shadowthrone to Shadow Moon via kitchens and Door

It feels like June has kinda passed me by somewhat. I couldn't really tell you if more of it has been sunny than not. I couldn't tell you what sense I have of what's been happening in the world. Work has been busy. And when I've had some space, I've been buried in books. One after another.

So, not a bad month then, really :). To be fair, there's also been other stuff, like a trip to Håøya, the biggest island in the Oslofjord. With some friends! That was a first in over a year, practically. And we've been walking around the neighbourhood every now and then, especially when the sun's been out :). Ooh! And how could one forget the awesome milkshakes!!

But in my head, it feels like it's all been about the books :D. So, The Path to Ascendancy first I suppose. By the end of Deadhouse Landing I was beginning to miss the light-heartedness of Dancer's Lament a bit, ironic maybe, given the respective names. By the end of Kellanved's Reach I felt the tone had morphed ever so gradually into more of the timbre of the other Malazan series. 

Which is not a bad thing. I still enjoyed reading both books immensely! Discovering once again how some truths can bend depending on the point of view, and things are never quite what they seem :). I definitely respect not tying up all the loose ends a lot more nowadays...

Having finished with that series, I then figured it was best to get going with the book club book of the month, Kitchen Confidential. I'm not really sure what I was expecting. I'd voted for it as the one I didn't mind the least, which isn't the case every time, but feels like is an occurrence more often than not lately. (Not always to a bad end, of course. Not judging a book by its cover and all that.) I'd definitely heard of Anthony Bourdain, but unlike Paul Hollywood, Gordon Ramsey or Jamie Oliver, I don't think I've ever seen anything with Bourdain in it.

Feels like I've missed out in a way :). And in other ways I'm left feeling very relieved. It's that sort of a book. He definitely was a real character, and it totally comes through in the pages. It's a narrative style I found rather enjoyable for the most part. I suppose yes, the underbelly of restauranting is less pristine that one might like, but that's not that much of a surprise really, is it? Did remind me a little of working on ships... the shared lingo, the hyper macho behaviour (although I feel that dwindled a bit over the decade I worked in seismic), the apart from the world (aka weird) way of life in general that makes it hard to settle into the "normal".

Reading up on his life (and death) in the more than two decades since the book came out though, I felt a lot of the optimism drain out from the reading experience. Because at the end of the book, he'd made it! He'd gone through hell and come out the other end, more or less in one piece. But I guess that's the thing with real life. The story isn't really over till it's over. So yeah, interesting book, especially when read in the context of his life after.

Then I thought, well, I've got time, I've managed to get the club to accept Highfire for next month (it was my turn) which I've read more or less recently, so I can run wild some more, so to speak :D. And guess what I hadn't read in a while? A proper Gaiman novel. So I started with Neverwhere (well, I actually read How the Marquis Got His Coat Back first).

What an awesome, awesome story! It had been five years or so since my last read, so I'd conveniently forgotten a lot of the details but remembered the broad arcs and it was soooo much fun re-discovering the nuances of the world of London Below! I think I read Gaiman with a bit more awareness of the author's voice now. 

Hmm. That was vague. Not actually sure if trying to explain what I mean will make things any better, but why not :). So, I feel like there have been times where I've read Gaiman, especially in the longer form, and been so completely and utterly immersed in the story and the world that I wasn't paying any attention to the author behind it all. But this time around, either because I'm more familiar with the stories, or because I've read more of his non-fiction (I feel like I'm repeating myself here, from some older blogpost), I had enough headspace to think, this guy wrote this. Some part of me wondering what he was thinking, feeling, seeing...

Anyhow, reading Neverwhere was just as awesome an experience as I ever remember it being in the past :). And for once at the end I wasn't left going, "Was that it?!" :)

PS. I keep forgetting that How the Marquis Got His Coat Back happens after most of Neverwhere, and so should be read after, not before. *sigh* Maybe I'll remember next time.

So what does one follow that up with then? But of course, American Gods! What else?! :D.

I'm probably about a third of the way through at this point, and the storm is definitely gathering some momentum. Having read the book twice in quick succession in 2012, this is actually the first time since! (In fact, I've had a paperback for the last three or four years I think, but hadn't picked it up.) I had definitely forgotten that this was a signed copy (!!!!!) so that was a great start! Since then, I've really been enjoying how much fun and quirky stuff there is hidden in between all the iron grey storm clouds and what not :).

I think I have, over the years, mainly remembered the more sombre and gut/heart-wrenching aspects of this story. But there is definitely so much more to it! Or maybe the level of serious stuff encountered through my Book of the Fallen journey means a lot of other stuff feels lighter in comparison? Who knows. 

(As an aside though, I cannot help feeling as though my year reading Steven Erikson on trains to and from work was something of a watershed in my reading life. There seems to be a clear before and after. A bit like when I first read Gaiman, by which I mean stuff like Neverwhere and American Gods, and again when I read Sandman for the first time. And longer ago, Tolkien and Asimov. The world of words parts, to reveal something more, something altogether transcendent...)

I'm definitely looking forward to the rest, becoming reacquainted with the contours of this extraordinary tale. And then who knows, maybe read Stardust again. Or maybe something altogether different :).

(Another aside, reading Gaiman alone in long form is definitely different from reading Gaiman with Pratchett :). Very much so.)

So there we have it, the weeks have been passing. A steady progression of different plants flowering in turn, filling the world in a succession of different colours. And through it all I've been enjoying exploring other worlds. Maybe it'll be time soon to do some more physical exploring.

Some rain, some sun and revisiting Malaz!

In the years that I've been in Norway, May traditionally has been the month when post winter life properly reveals itself. It's almost as if all of nature waits till the 17th of May (the Norwegian national day) and then explodes in all its bountiful glory, as if adding to the festiveness! (Alternatively, feeling that it would be most disrespectful to jump the gun, so to speak.)

I know this is not actually true, as since late March or April all those I know with pollen allergies start suffering, but since I'm (thankfully, so far) immune to this issue, for me the outburst of green on anything growing and the increasingly riotous accumulation of colourful flowers on every hedge, grassy bank, wooded area, indeed even bursting up through paved parts of most neighbourhoods, that's what really signifies that spring has arrived and summer is but a few short weeks away :).

This time around, most of that did happen, but with an unusual and rather unwanted accompaniment of much rain :|. So much so that we hardly went out for most of the month, except for the occasional short wander around the neighbourhood in between showers and blustery downpours of hail. (Including a walk up the street to greet the crown prince and his family on their national day trip around :D.) In the last week or so though, the temperatures have finally headed upwards to heady heights of mid-twenties and the skies are generally clear.

In the meantime, I've been reading :). Even more so than usual as May is also a month of public holidays in Norway. Now, in any sort of normal year, that would mean planning long weekends away, cycling trips, roadtrips... Instead I managed to finish off the second Bauchelain and Korbal Broach book, rapidly finished up the book club book (more on that later) and then launched into further explorations of the Malazan world. This time, in the form of the Path to Ascendancy trilogy. One down, almost halfway through the second one already!!

I have to say, so far, I am enjoying this series much more than ICE's Malazan Empire series. I guess looking at the reviews of Dancer's Lament on Goodreads, I'm not the only one :). In fact I more or less agree with several of the reasons reviewers post as to why they enjoyed this more than the previous ICE books. If I were to summarize my personal feelings, I suppose part of it is very much that this time I'm approaching the world anew, so to speak, not having immersed myself in it for the previous year or so in the Book of the Fallen. 

Another part would be that Esselmont seems quite happy to be writing his own series here, not trying (or so it felt like anyway while I was reading the last series) to match the feel of Erikson's writing. The third thing that helps is that these books seem very easy to read: quick progression of plot, light banter mixed in with the intrigue. As a bonus, seeing how I did read both the Book of the Fallen and the Malazan Empire before starting on this series, the number of Easter eggs and subtle (and not so subtle) references to characters and events in those series is most enjoyable :). Either way, I'm definitely happy to find out more about the early life of a lot of the more mythologised characters in the two main series!

A quick word on the second collected tales though, that was almost a bit too weird for me! Shocking I know, but whether it was because of all the other stuff going on while I was reading it (pandemic situation around my parents amongst other things), or something else, I didn't really enjoy those three novellas nearly as much as the first three. Good writing though!

Finally, The Spy and the Traitor. So, as I may have mentioned several times on this blog, I'm not really the non-fiction type. But the rotating suggestion policy in the book club means you get to try things out which you might not otherwise. This was one of those occasions when I greatly enjoyed the experience! Based on events during the Cold War, it has all the characteristics of a particularly gripping thriller. With the added positive of references to real-world occurrences in Norway even! I would go so far as to say that this was a much better political thriller than that other book we read for last month! Truth is indeed often stranger than fiction :).

Now that the weather seems to be on the up, cycling is back on the menu! We'll have to see if we manage to hit the heights of last year, but in a way, comparison is not really necessary. In some sense the sunny days make me feel like I want to be on school summer holidays. Enjoy the sun and read lots of books. Maybe for a change I should exercise the generally accepted policy here in Norway of taking three weeks off in the summer! Hmmm.

Fear and hope and the uplifting brightness of crocuses

I guess for me this time last month the biggest difference was that I wasn't living under the sort of cloud most people with family in India are living under right now... A few short weeks and a world that seemed to be slowly but surely finding its feet suddenly seems a darker more uncertain place.

But I guess the thing is, if you believe in God, you've gotto believe in God. So far, thankfully, my family have been safe. Long may it continue and I can only pray for peace for so many who have been left bereft. The night does turn to day however, and so one continues to look forward in hope.

Closer to home, (I find the way my use of that phrase has changed over the years telling. But I suppose such is life, a constant progression of small changes that add up.) things seem to be looking up significantly. We continue to make use of the lengthening days. Days where the sunshine has started to feel positively warm! Hints of the coming summer.

This time I decided to give the moss a good fight before all the growing has started in earnest. The many mornings with the rake seem to have a made a difference, but the final outcome seems currently uncertain...

We have continued to go out on the bikes. Although there was the almost customary spring dump of snow that arrested the green from its blossoming march across the landscape everywhere one looks. Not for too long though. The crocuses we the first to fill in some colour in the world, but now more and more flowers, wild and otherwise, are starting to appear.

To be fair the snow and the following freeze, (barely dipping to zero overnight, but I was getting used to the warm so this dip in temperature feels rather colder than it actually is) and the howling winds that seem bent on stealing any warmth the sun might provide, have put a bit of a pause on the cycling excursions. But hopefully that might change sooner rather than later.

On the books front I couldn't really resist dipping my toes back into the Malazan world :). As a sort of compromise between full scale immersion and nothing at all, I decided to get the collected Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach novellas. I finished the first last week and making reasonably rapid progress through the second. Weird and wonderful is probably a reasonable description?!

For one thing, it's strange to be done with stories set in the Malazan world so quickly. But at the same time, there is much that is hinted at. Given that these stories are roughly concurrent with events I read about over two years ago now, I'm probably missing a lot. At the same time, it doesn't feel like that's the point.

There's a sense of so much driftwood, floating, accumulating, and then being washed apart again more or less at random. Yet, in doing so, leaving a sense of a cohesive story arc. Yup, still loving Erikson basically :).

But before that, also read this month's book club book, co-authored by none other than Bill Clinton! Although I have a distinct feeling that he probably just wrote the first and last 5 pages and left the rest to Patterson. I guess I'd give The President is Missing a solid mediocre rating. On the one hand it was a pretty fast read. Good pace to the action. On the other hand, the President never actually goes missing... so you know.. whatever :).

The more things change, the more they stay the same

It seems this year one thing is going almost exactly like last year. (No, not the generally locked-down state of life :). ) I mean the weather in March. The beginning saw a fresh dump of snow, then sunshine, which by the latter part of the month pretty much put paid to aforementioned snow, and by the end, crocuses were appearing in our garden encouraged by the sun and relative warmth!

But let's rewind a bit. After a rather wet and gloomy end of February, the promised cold weather did arrive! But even though there was no fresh snow forthcoming, we ventured out on some old rather frozen tracks with mixed results. I do believe my general ability on cross-country skis has improved markedly since even a couple of years ago, as proved by the number of falls (very few :D).

The weather was starting to get nice in general though, helped no end by the lengthening days. A trip around Drammensfjord confirmed that the deepest winter was past. This was confirmed by the rapid rate at which the ice was breaking up and disappearing from the edge of the fjord. I was frankly shocked at the surface area that disappeared just in the half hour or so between the outward and return parts of our walk past a particularly sunny stretch.

Then came the pre-spring dump of snow! The most in a single day this whole season, it felt like! And we made the most of it with a few longish cross-country trips over the next ten days or so! The snow wasn't the best necessarily, but the weather more than made up for it. We'd also been picking less frequented tracks, much as we had throughout the winter, so it almost felt like we had the whole world to ourselves :).

As far as a farewell to skiing goes, that was right up there :). And a farewell it most certainly was as the temperature slowly but surely ramped up in the week after. In fact, by the beginning of Easter week, we were seeing double digits! It seemed like an early start to cycling wouldn't be the worst idea :).

The thing that has rather overshadowed the whole month in a way is the Covid situation I suppose. I was rather getting into the swing of things again. Being able to travel in to work once a week doesn't sound like much, but seemed to be making a significant difference to work and life in general. But then things turned rather rapidly south and Norway has ended up with more stringent restrictions than at any earlier point in this pandemic.

I imagine this had something to do with my decision to take the whole of Easter week off. It's not like there's a lot of opportunities to use vacation days, so I figured why not just another staycation :). After all the Christmas break was pretty awesome, under the circumstances. So yes, the early part of this week has been spent making yummy Easter food, eating said food, and cycling around Asker :).

I suppose the books must be mentioned :). It took me a fair while to get through Fire and Blood. The only Song of Ice and Fire stuff I'd read recently was the collection of Dunc and Egg novellas, and even that was a while back. In some ways that was quite nice I suppose, getting a bit of a fresh start. It was in general fun to get a bird's eye view of Westeros I suppose, although I have to say, why no map?!

Since then, there's been a couple of even more interesting books. The first was a book club read - The Rift. I have a suspicion that the person who suggested it is unlikely to be enjoying it as much as I did :D. A cross between science fiction, family drama and whimsical philosophical musings, it was like nothing I'd read before!! I thoroughly enjoyed the layers to the story, the different perspectives (special mention of the "factual" notes and descriptions of Fiby), and the lack of any certainty in the conclusion.

Now, generally, I'm thoroughly put off by some the above. In this case though, I found it quite mesmerizing in a way. Maybe some of that is to do with the times we are living in where certainty in general is hard to come by. Which in turn for me has re-emphasised the value of living in the now, clichéd as that sounds. A part of me wants to go find the other books Allan has written. Another part warns me about my experience with Mark Haddon. For the moment I just want to enjoy the experience of having read this book at this time :).

The other book in question was much simpler, light-hearted, and generally just funny :D. I'd noticed Highfire while looking to make up the numbers when ordering some books online, as one does, to get the free shipping. Eoin Colfer is an author I did quite enjoy, but hadn't ready anything by since the Artemis Fowl series. So an adult fantasy novel sounded like an idea worth trying out.

(Aside: Despite the convenience of online book-shopping, I have been really missing the feeling of going to a book shop and just browsing the shelves. Often with absolutely no intent or specific target in mind. Just letting my eyes glide over titles till something catches my attention. I suppose some of this enjoyment goes back to my days of hours spent in transit at airports where more often than not the most interesting things were book shops. But some of it goes back even further, to childhood days spent running around the book fair, trying to take it all in! So many books, so little time :). /Aside)

The book turned out to be hilarious :). Except maybe (spoiler alert) the mogwai decimation bit. That was ick. But the rest of it was a non-stop high octane, roller-coaster of action and teenage wise cracks :D. I suppose not everyone's thing, but I'm itching to suggest this the next time it's my turn to suggest books for the book club :D.