September + October Reading

Lots of uni work mixed with freelance work lately, so it seems I'm back to being a lazy blogger. But here's what I read recently, at least.

September

Grüne Smoothies (GU)
A book on green smoothies, the background on why they're supposed to be so good for you, and lots of recipes - which contain far too many out-of-the-way ingredients for me. So when I make some, I just mix what I come up with myself. So far, lots of successes and only one real failure. :)

The Anti 9-5 Guide, Michelle Goodman
Just as fun and helpful as the second one. I love these. Soon, soon, I'll properly work through them


October

Wishcraft, Barbara Sher
Somewhat dated, which annoyed me a little - I guess for a 30th anniversary one *could* have reworked the text, so that it doesn't give time goals in 1981 as something desirable, and typist as a very likely job you might have as a woman. Otherwise, some helpful tools and a nice, motivating read.

Bonjour Tristesse, Francoise Sagan
I've been meaning to read this forever. Short, sweet, sad.
 
Nero Corleone, Elke Heidenreich
Same here, except that it's a little shorter, a little less sad, and has pretty illustrations.

Focus on Facts #5 Unsolved Mysteries, Neville Randall & Gary Keane
I don't really know what to say. Theories from the 70s about all sorts of mysterious phenomena (UFOs, Nessie, bird migration...) presented in the form of very dark and nearly illegible comic strips.

Hubert spannt aus und andere Geschichten aus der Business Class, Martin Suter
I loved these the first time around and I loved them just as much now. Very short (because initially published as a newspaper column), very true, and quite witty.

Your shopping list from outer space and other articles, Rewritten by L.A.Hill
Again, a book from the 70s. Four newspaper articles rewritten for English students. Very, very dated, which added to the fun. All the things possible concerning communication thanks to space travel! Laughable now, with the internet, but back then...
Anyway, not very exciting, but I did have *some* fun while reading it.
 
Die Schrift II, Grazer Autorenkollektiv (GRAUKO)
Surprisingly good. I know two of the writers, one was a student at my department, one was a teacher. At first I didn't expect much from these texts, I don't even know why (small-country smallmindedness, how can something by local authors be any good? haha), but I really really liked most of them.
 
The Witches, Roald Dahl
Very, very different to what I expected. Very different also to the other Dahl books I read so far. Very sombre, pragmatic, a little like a memoir, and no traditional happy end either. Odd. I always imagined something completely different for this book. I wonder what the film is like. Will have to watch that soon.

J.W. v. Goethe, Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (Fassung A+B) 
And now, my exam reading list. I never read this in school, I never read it as a teenager, now I read it with annotations and background info and I'm so glad I did, and did it this way. It may have been overkill to read both versions, since the difference isn't *that* huge, but there is one, and I'm glad I did.

Goethe, Die Wahlverwandschaften 
Very, very drawn out and boring. Sorry. Gardening, worried, melancholy people, allusions to alchemy, more melancholy, sadsadsad. If Goethe was sad as a young man, this didn't really make me feel as if he'd gotten over it.

Still Goethe, Faust I 
At least we read this one at school. Thanks, lousy literary education, but at least this one! However, I must have forgotten a lot of it, or the annotations explained things I previously just didn't understand, who knows...anyway, it was entirely different to...13 years ago. Who would have thought. :P Anyway, this really made me regret the lack of annotated books on my shelves. I felt like I wasted all my time at university. Really, I did. There I go looking down in people who just watch the movies instead of reading the books (which IS Shameful, capital S), but I hardly ever read an annotated novel, and I must have missed SO much.

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So, well done October, huh? Maybe I can keep this up until the end of the year - there's still several books on that reading list I pulled together that I haven't touched yet.