Searching....

I`m searching for time to read books. I`m searching for more interesting books. I`m searching for right way of living a life.... Too many interesting things I want to do and only 24 h per day is what has always disturbed me. How to find more time?

7:00 wake up

8:00 start my job

17:00 go home and walk my dog

18:00 what to eat for dinner?

19:00 either I`m eating or have already eaten and sit at computer, listen to music, do some housework or read

21:00 go to bed and read or watch TV

23:00 sleep

Computer is definitely what steals my time too much, I think.

And what about my loved ones. They wait for some loving touch and conversation too.

In such thoughtful mood I was watching TV and reading magazine at the same time one evening and dog came to me for evening caress (if dogs would have massage saloon, he would be most frequent client there :D). At first I wanted to ignore him, because I was busy with TV and reading, but then a thought came to my mind. We are so much into small, unimportant things, that don`t have time for things (like love, friendship, being together) that really matter until it`s too late. When Your loved one has passed away you wish you had spent more time with him/her, said "I love you" more often and so on. So I put my reading aside and gave my dog nice massage :) And I`m not sorry for that time I lost for reading.

How many of these books have You read?

100 books You should read goes around the blogosphere :) Apparently if you read this meme, you are automatically tagged! So, I guess that means if you are reading MY list, then you are tagged as well! (I was "tagged" by reading this over at Literary Cache blog who got it at Stephanie's Blog!)

Look at the list of books below: * Bold the ones you’ve read * Italicize the ones you want to read * Leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in. If you are reading this (and haven't participated yet), tag, you’re it!

1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) - TBR 2007
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel) - read half of it, didn`t like
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams) - TBR 2007
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte) - love it
28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell) - TBR 2007
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. The Bible - have read Old Testament
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas) - read some 5 or 6 times, love it
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

16 read till now.
Tell me if you suggest me reading a book from this list I haven`t Italicized (simply don`t know some of them).

Comfort of Strangers by Ian Mcewan

It`s Ian Mcewan`s second novel, written in 1981. Read this book in February as additional book to my TBR list. In one word - disgusting. It`s the first feeling after I closed this book. BUT! It doesn`t mean that I didn`t like Comfort of Strangers. There is something tempting in it. Maybe it`s slow and gentle atmosphere of Venice, maybe it`s that scary feeling (it`s too good to be true...) in the air almost till the end of the book, when Robert and his wife shows their real faces.

What I couldn`t understand in Mcewan`s novel, was those two families: two Americans, Colin and Mary, tired of themselves, searching for something and two Italians, Robert and Caroline, sadistic and sick persons. I coudn`t understand and still can`t, why Americans went to visit Robert and his wife for second time, if they knew, that there is something wrong with them. I woudn`t go. Robert and his wife I simply despise, but I can understand how they grew to become brutal, sadistic and masochistic.

Anyway, I told here only the surface of the novel. One needs to dig deeper to understand it clearly. For example, Colin and Mary are too close to each other as well as they become childish and it makes them more open to strangers who would interupt their intimacy, Colin is quite feminine and it makes him more suitable for a "victim" role.

5 points to Mcewan for showing dark side of normal everyday life. Not sure if I`ll read another novel of him. I`m afraid, I can imagine how his other novels end......

Quote of the Day

"Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?" /Henry Ward Beecher/

Fatu-Hiva: Back to Nature - Thor Heyerdahl

Finished reading my 2nd TBR book already last week and managed to read one additional book in the same evening "Comfort of Strangers" by Ian Mcewan, but about that in next post.

Fatu-Hiva: Back to Nature is great Norwegian traveler and scientist`s Thor Heyerdahl first book. After the wedding, he and his wife Liva travel to Fatu-Hiva, small island from Madagascara island group in Oceania. They hope to find the paradise here. Theoretically it`s possible: almost no civilization, only local indians, lots of fruits, fish and meat, warm climate. In reality paradise is spoiled by people themselves. Europeans have brought ilnesses and vision about consumption. Local people just want to exploit Thor and his wife in terms of money and presents.

From talks with other Europeans in Tahiti and life on Fatu-Hiva there is one conclusion - paradise is where you aren`t :).

Quite short, nice written novel, also not as professional as Ra and other books. Got the feelling like I was travelling with Thor and Liva.

Bookstore - paradise or hell?

I went into a bookstore yesterday in search for a present. I love and hate bookstores at the same time. Love because of books. Hate because there are so many new books I want to read, but I can`t afford to by them all... So - paradise or hell?

Into my 2nd TBR book

After some days off and some days reading magazines I have begun reading my 2nd TBR book - Fatu-Hiva: back to Nature. It is entertaining and educating book at the same time. I enjoy it very much, too bad that I don`t have much time in the evenings, so it goes only 20-30 pages per evening.