Books: Bookforum in CPH 2014

Hi guys! To all of you who don't know, every year there is a book convention being hosted at the Bella Center Sky in Copenhagen, Denmark, called Bookforum. My friend and I have a tradition to go, and this is the 3rd year in a row that we've gone. We went yesterday, on the 8th of November.

I thought I show you a couple of pictures and the show you which books I bought as well!

I hope that from the pictures, you can kind of get an idea of what the feeling and convention/fair is like. It's really cool, there are stands from big and small publishers everywhere, stages where people are being interviewed, giving talks and discussing literature. There's a stage where baker's and chefs cook some food from their books, there is a poetry stage and fun stuff for the kids to do. All in all it's great! My friend and I went to hear Chris Carter talk about murder, a dude talk about how bacteria isn't all that bad as it's made out to be, we heard a Lucas Bianchedi talk about medicine in Medieval times and we heard Niviaq Korneliussen read from her new book Homo Sapienne, and more.

Now at the convention, there are some pretty sweet book deals, and I took advantage and carried a backpack full of 12 books home with me. My friend got some cookbooks and other stuff, and I got the following: (as to not make this post to long, I won't give descriptions, merely list and then you can look it up if you're interested)

 George D. Shuman thriller/crimes, original titles: "18 Seconds", "Last Breath" and "Lost Girls".

 Books I simply CAN'T wait to get into by the marvellous Haruki Murakami, jap and eng titles: "Suputoniku no koibito" AKA "Sputnik Sweetheart", "Umibe no Kafuka" AKA "Kafka on the Shore", "Hitsuji o meguru boken" AKA "A Wild Sheep Chase" and "Dansu, dansu, dansu" AKA "Dance Dance Dance".

 Kim Thúy original French title: "Ru". Anthology by different Danish authors, original Danish title: "Fortællinger om kærlighed".

Martin Walser original German title: "Ein liebender Mann". Konrad Lorenz original German title: "Das sogenannte Böse", in English "On Aggression". Lastly, Janet Skeslien Charles original English title: "Moonlight in Odessa".

A little note, in terms of the books and their titles. All of the ones I bought are in Danish, I've tried to give the original title in it's language and then the English title, if it wasn't originally English to begin with and if I could find an English title for it on Goodreads.com. I hope it was helpful!

 - Elk

Movie: You've got mail!

What’s it about

Shopgirl/Kathleen played my Meg Ryan and NY152/Joe played by Tom Hanks chats online and become eachother’s confidantes. They reveal nothing about their identetiy to eachother. Kathleen owns a little bookstore on and Joe is co-owner of the massive superbookstore chain Fox Books. Fox Books are opening a bookstore across from Kathleen’s Shop Around The Corner. In real life Kathleen and Joe dislikes eachother, Joe’s store is the reason that Kathleen has to close down the shop her beloved mother founded. In the mean time they still chat online, unknowingly that the one they trust online, really is the enemy. They decide to meet and Joe finds out that Shopgirl really is Kathleen, but he doesn’t tell her at first, instead he pretends that he’s just Joe Fox so that he and Kathleen can get closer to eachother.

Did I like it?

I liked it alot. It a funny romantic movie, much like Sleeples in Seattle which features the same two actors Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. It’s nice and cute, but not that thrilling because they’re bound to end up together. It’s an all the way feel good movie, good for rainy days and hot chocolate.

Pictures from the movie starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks.

- Elk

Movie: The best, and the worst!

Hiaaa! So a couple of days me and my friend saw "Imagine you and me" and "Finding Neverland", if you've seen both of these movies I do hope you know what I mean when I say, the best and the worst!

The worst:

Wow.. Besides "Kill the supermodels" or whatever it's called, this is probably the worst movie I've ever seen. The concept is really good but the movie.. It's flat, boring, dull just uuugh. I really really don't recommend it, actually I warn you about it :s

The best:

Oh my God yes! I thought it was just a sucker-romantic movie, but this is awesome! It's so beautiful, the actors are playing really good and it's just great, through and through. If you wanna score, watch this movie with the object of your desire and exploit the sad, romantic and beautiful ending of this move - IT IS GREAT!

- Elk

Books: The curious incident of the dog in the night time by Mark Haddon review

Intro
Christopher suffers from aspergers syndrom which is a lighter from of autism. He doesn't like the colours yellow and brown, he can't eat his food if it touches anything else on the plate and he loves dogs. One night he finds the neighbors dog Wellingtong dead and decides that he wants to figure out who killed him. His dad, on the other hand is not too happy about this idea but that doesn't stop Christopher. He ends up unsolving more mysteries than he thought there was.

The Plot

Christopher finds the dog Wellington dead, and he wants to write a book. Specifically a crime book. He likes crimes because there are certain leads to follow and other leads not to follow. In his book he wants to write about the investigation on Wellington's murder. Christopher's father is NOT into this idea and gives him many orders on NOT to try and solve the murder. Christopher's mind is like a recorder, he remembers every single little 100% detail, like a recorder that sees everything and he figures out ways to keep investigating without disobeying his fathers orders. Everything he figures out, he writes in his book. But one day his father finds his book and hides it away. Christopher is very keen on getting his book back since it says all the clues that he's found and starts looking. Even though he is not supposed to enter his fathers room he does it anyway and finds his book, together with alot of un-opened letters addressed to him. It turns out that the letters is from his mother who is not dead at all, even though his father told him that she was. Instead of getting angry, Christopher get's sad. He also figures out who killed Wellington and he decides to runaway from home and go live with his mother. But it's not an easy thing for Christopher to travel alone to London, not knowing here anything is located and all he's got to lead him being an address.

My opinion

The list of books that has been able to make me cry is actually very short, before I read this book it had only one title on it, but when I finished it had to titles on it. If it was because I had a headache while reading, I don't know but I know I cried. This book is amazing, it's 100& truth, 100% metaphor-free and 100% aspegers. The amazing thing about this book is that even though it's written without any sense of humor, or a big pompous language with fine words that rolls on the tongue it is written completely amazing, and even though the plot of this book might not seem so wild the book is still exciting and on top of that you get a much better view of how a brain that suffers from autism works. When I closed this book I thought "oh my God, is that really how it feels?" I myself has a friend with aspegers syndrom though he's condition is not as bad as described in the book, but if what it says in the book even comes NEAR to how a brain with autism really works, it would make the book the autistic bible for uncomprehending! I don't know how the writer managed to write a book that seems like a dull and boring book and blow light into it like Disney's Tinkerbell and her sparkly dust.

The writerMark Haddon grew up in England where the book also takes place. He's great knowledge of how the autistic brain functions come from his work with autistic children. "The curious incident of the dog in the night-time" has won prizes too. Mark Haddon has written other books as well mainly for younger people.

Outro

It's hard to tell which exact things that makes this book as good as I really think it is! It's strong, it's honest, it's understanding and it's exciting. If you see this book on display at your nearest library take my word on it and bring it with you home. I'm sure that of you want to learn a little or just read a different and exciting book you will not regret!

I hope you guys liked the review, stay tuned for more + I did not edit this translation, I'm too lazy (^^,) xo Elk

Books: Freelance book-reviewer

Hiaa guys. I'm a member of a danish book club/group forum thing and on this website I've been reviewing books. Now this website is hosted by Odense library in Denmark and the website is very successful, get also get alot of books send over that the authors want reviewed. Sooooo, I was asked to review some of these books which is really cool because it's what I've dreamt about!

So it's unpaid but I really don't care because I've been reviewing books already just for fun. The exciting thing about this "gig" is that some of the books haven't been published yet and you get to keep the books. I don't know what I'll do with the books afterwards, I hardly have room for them :s anyway, this first book I'm going to read and review like that has just been released, TODAY and I checked the web I couldn't find any other reviews of it. (So far) I doubt that my review will be THE first, but it's most likely that it'll be ONE of the first.

Since the books that are being send in is non-published or almost just published they are way expensive to buy, and I'll get them for free ;D
How cool is that? I'm really excited and this book I'll be reviewing next sounds REALLY good!

Btw I reviewed the book "The curious incident of the dog in the night-time" but I did it in danish, BUT I will translate it to english and post it her on my blooooooog. So, look out for that.

xo Elk

Books: Dyrekredsen by Kim Fupz Aakeson review (Danish)

Hiaaa. Just finished off reading "Dyrekredsen" (in danish). Psssssh, junk. *Hmpfh*
Here's the review, in danish. Sorryyyy. xo

Intro
Kim Fupz Aakesons roman "Dyrekredsen" er en bog uden genre, kedelig handling og fladt sprog.

Handling
"Dyrekredsen" tager udgang fra de 12 stjernetegn. Det er tolv fortællinger om 12 forskellige hovedpersoner med 12 forskellige stjernetegn. Hvert stjernetegn har fået tilegnet sig en kort beskrivelse af deres stjernetegn, og derefter lille novelle om en periode i sit liv der afspejler deres stjernetegn.

FortolkningDet er formodentlig første og sidste gang at jeg læser noget af Kim Fupz Aakeson. Jeg kan ikke engang bruge undskyldningen at "det er et af hans tidlige værker", for så tidligt er det ikke. "Dyrekredsen" er udgivet i 1996, og jeg har regnet mig frem til at være hans 21ende bog (børnebøger talt med). Forfatteren formår at få hvad ellers lyder som et spændende tema om stjernetegn til at blive utrolig kedsommeligt, og indholdsløst. Handlingerne i fortællingerne er kedelige, sproget er passivt, negativt og flat, moralen i historierne er svære at finde og beskrivelserne af stjernetegnene i fortællingerne er ikke pakket særlig godt ind. Har jeg overhovedet noget godt at sige? Ja da. Bogen er sat fint op, det danske navn på stjernetegnet som titel på novellen, derunder det engelske navn på stjernetegnet, derunder fra hvilken dato start til hvilken dato stop og sidst men ikke mindst en kort beskrivelse af stjernetegnets kvaliteter. Desuden er bogen kun 129 sider lang.

Forfatteren
Kim Fupz Aakeson har bevæget sig meget rundt inden for den kunstneriske genre. Han har skrevet flere filmmanuskripter, heriblandt "Okay", "Den Eneste Ene" mfl. Han har udgivet tegneserialbums, børnebøger og romaner. Han har vundet flere priser både i Danmark og i udlandet.

Outro
Jeg ved ikke om det er mig eller ham den er gal med. Hvis du har læst denne bog så læg endelig din mening, men for mit vedkommende var at læse "Dyrekredsen" kun spild af tid. Nå jo, og så undskyldningen for at skrive min første dårlige anmeldelse.