Paul goes for 15000 pages

I want to be part of the fun and community again. So, let's try if I read 75 books à 200 pages next year.

Glad you are back with us again, Paul!

Ye gods and little fishes! I don't even like to think of how many pages I read this past year. Good luck, Paul!

I count pages too, but I still don't know what to do about my Kindle reading. How many pages do I assign to those books?

Gruezi Paul, und schoen dass du wieder hier bist!

Hi, Paul. I like fun so I think I'll stick around the 75-ers with you as well! :)

>3 richardderus: well, if I'd count all the thread entries I read that would give another tome, I guess - or is reading threads a waste of time and I should concentrate on books?

>4 Fourpawz2: I'd go to LT or a library catalog and see if they give the number of pages of the book. Or say 'It's a good book, so it must have around 300 pages.' or 'That was pretty boring so it only counts for 80 pages.'

>5 cushlareads: Salü Cushla, ich freue mich auf die neuen Herausforderungen - hoffentlich sehen wir uns mal während der Laufzeit dieses threads

>6 SqueakyChu: Let's have some fun

I am sitting here in the food store and waiting for the bread to be baked. Then I wait for all the customers to come and complain about the color or form or ... of the bread... 'sigh'. there are poor people who are really thankful for the things we provide here, and others .. ah, well, forget them

Have a nice day everybody

#7: there are poor people who are really thankful for the things we provide here, and others .. ah, well, forget them

The world's the same all over, Paul. I hope you have a nice day despite it.

Starred and looking forward to meet you again next year.

Thanks, Stasia. The work's over. I didn't sell all the bread, but most of the vegies and fruits, so that I don't to through too much away. Some salad and breads are going to a friends rabbits (? Kaninchen).

One guy I've asked about the contents of his bag, showed me his metadon - coming directly from the drug programme.

One lady was so happy to see some flowers we've got pretty cheap, that she made herself a present and bought the bouquet of roses for CHF 1.-.

Now, I should brush the whole place and 'ski' home (it's snowing again).

Be careful getting home, Paul!

A busy day, Paul! Have a relaxed evening of reading...books, not threads.

I don't know about those Kindle pages, Paul. Maybe the worse the book, the more credit I should give myself. Good book - 80 pages. Bad book - 3,000 pages. Pain and suffering, you know.

>13 Fourpawz2: That sounds like a reward for reading bad books - if you log behind your reading challenge get a very bad and boring book and you're on top again...
ah, well, both ways are lacking.

Measure the time reading a print out and apply that amount of pages to the time you read kindle? A lot or preparations and calculations - just forget kindle and read paper again ;)

Found you Paul. And starred. As far as counting the Kindle pages, why not just look on the work's LT page where they give the number of pages and use that number? Even if it's not exactly right it's got to be close.

#15: I use a similar strategy for audiobooks as you suggest for Kindle books, Bonnie. I figure that the number is going to be fairly close.

Hi Bonnie and Stasia, nice to meet you here at my place.
We started discussing kindle in >4 Fourpawz2: and >7 paulstalder:. It's just fun to think of how to count these pages. Why not count every click or scroll you do on kindle and extrapolate the pages?

#17: Why not count every click or scroll you do on kindle and extrapolate the pages?

I think it has to do with the ability to change the font sizes. I do not run into the problem of page numbers on the Nook because it provides them for me as opposed to the Kindle's percentage.

Page numbers were one of the reasons I went with the Nook, myself. Easier to reference things for school or just to record interesting quotes so you can find them again later.

I'll preface this by saying that I have no idea what I'm talking about - I haven't got an e-reader nor do I have any clue as to how they work. Having said that, is there some way configure a word count? Then you could estimate pages from average words general found on a 'real' page.

Welcome back!

Frohe Weihnachten Paul!!

Happy St. Stephen's Day! Or Boxing Day! Whichever you prefer, Paul, may it be a happy, happy occasion.

>21 drneutron: Welcome Jim. I am a librarian, so I am always pleased meeting people who know to use a library.

>22 cushlareads: Auch Dir gesegnete Weihnachten. Morgen Nachmittag (Dienstag) bin ich um 16.00 Uhr fertig mit der Arbeit. Oder sonst können wir uns mittwochs oder donnerstags in der Mittagspause treffen. How was the skiing?

>23 richardderus: Hi Richard. Is there any time you are actually not online? Yes, I didn't read LT during Christmas time. I had to empty the camera of my wife and load all the pictures on the copmputer and up into her facebook account (all her 2010 pictures).
We call it Stefanstag over here. But I remember boxing day from England. We have now, since several years, a similar institution: Zweimal Weihnachten (Twice Christmas), you put unwanted gifts into a box, bring it to the nearest post office (they transfer it free of chareg) and then the gifts get given over to needy people all over the world (ca. a third stays in Switzerland). I like boxing (even so I do not give nor profit).

Hi Paul,

I have the kids home for 2 weeks, so let's figure out a time to catch up once they're back at school. Skiing was great!!

Hi Cushla

Do you go schlitteln (slide, sledge?) with the kids. Our girls are out working and ou son is not into outdoor stuff during winter. But that was always a good experience on the Bruderholz or on St. Chrischona.

>24 paulstalder: What a fabulous idea!

Yes, I like the idea. Some people sell their unwanted gifts on ricardo or ebay, but it's nicer to give them to somebody else.

That's a really great idea about the unwanted presents. I'm looking at the kids' new stuff now.

We haven't gone sledding yet, but I might buy one from Coop this weekend. So far this week the kids are really happy staying home (after about 6 hours of exercise a day all last week I'm not surprised!)

Have you got a special first book of 2011 lined up?

> special first book of 2011

ah, far too many, I am afraid. The Korean novels I've got recommended, a Flemish novel, a few Christian books.
Do you know the Australian Upfield? I got a few paperbacks by him, Are they worthwhile reading?

So they the kids enjoyed skiing - good, they also got enough exercise. Did skiing come so natural as you thought you might get into it?

I could borrow you our sledge/slide? if you want to try one before buying. One has metal Kufen, one is a Davoser.

I gave myself a challenge: Reading the Korean novels I have here at the moment:

- The red queen by Margaret Drabble

- Vögel by Jung-Hee Oh

- Die Kinogänger von Chongjin by Barbara Demick

- Kleine Geschichte Koreas by Marion Eggert (well, not a novel)

- Lautlos fällt eine Blüte by Yun Choe

- Songs of the dragons flying to heaven a Korean epic translated by James Hoyt

Since the touchstones don't work I put in the covers.

Good luck with your personal challenge, Paul!

I lost your thread - I like your Korean challenge. Is that Barbara Demick book the German translation of Nothing to Envy?

Never heard of Upfield, but someone in the Australian LT group will have.

Thanks for offering the sled, but we were at friends' yesterday and they have a couple (and are really near here). And we haven't gone yet and at this rate probably won't get round to it unless there's another big snow! The kids really did take to the skiing, and yes we think when we get home we'll try to have some lessons to keep up with them. We have skifields, they are just more effort to get to - 4+ hours' drive instead of 2, and busier than where we went.

Wow! What a gallimaufry you've got set up to read!

I'm spending a good deal of time AFK these days because auntie's in the hospital and I can finally get out and do some things I haven't been able to do for a long time. I can't visit her because I have a fresh cut and she has a drug-resistant skin infection. I am both guilty and relieved in about equal proportion!

>32 alcottacre: Thanks, Stasia. Let's what comes out of it.

>33 cushlareads: Welcome to my new thread. Yes, Die Kinogänger von Chongjin is the German translation of Nothing to envy. But the touchstones failed me and so the link is missing. I didn't start reading it yet, so I am not sure why the put on that title (moviegoers of Chongjin).
Then, enjoy skiing here as long as you can and it looks as we are going to get another long winter with enough snow till spring. I enjoy skiing, too, but my last encounter was a - well, hurtful; the skis went straight on, I wanted to turn right and there was this heap of ice in the middle ... We often went to Wildhaus in the Toggenburg (but my parents lived closer to the East). Beatenberga above the lake of Thun is also a good place I know.

>34 richardderus: Hi Richard, nice to see something of you here. Go Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung (AFK) - yes, go for peace. Okay, I know the other use of AFK.
I had to check the g* word you used on me. Wow, I am really learning stuff here I never thought existed. There is one main theme: Korea, I agree the rest is a wide range of different literary products (from poetry to history book).

I started with The red queen - the first few pages I think were written by an angry woman: complaining about the neglect of women in history/herstory and '...that the act of marital sex gave no pleasure at all. Maybe it pleases some women of other social orders, or in other lands,,, I have observed, in the animal kingdon, that the female of the species seems to receive little delight from coitus.... The female endures the indignity, shakes itself, and moves off.' (p 40) I hope, that she doesn't rattle on like that

Looking a bit back to 2010:
My 'best' books:
non-fiction:
- This book is overdue! by Marilyn Johnson
- Was man Liebe nennt by C. S. Lewis
- Mohammed : eine Biographie by Hans Jansen
- The suicide of reason by Lee Harris
- Gottes Stimme hören by William Lerrick
- Ein Leben ist kostbarer als die ganze Welt by Jin-Hong Kim

fiction:
- Dark City : das Buch der Prophetie by Damaris Kofmehl
- Schwarz auf rot by Qiu Xialong
- Der verbotene Ort by Fred Vargas
- Eiger, Mord & Jungfrau : Kriminalroman by Paul Wittwer
- Hundstage by Alicia Giménez Bartlett
- Codex Regius by Arnaldur Indriðason
- Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
- Die Eleganz des Igels by Muriel Barbery
- Die Totenleserin by Ariana Franklin
- Black and blue by Iain Ranking

disappointing read:
- Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
- Nur noch einmal by Ulla Fröhling
- Aishah, the beloved of Mohammed by Nabia Abbott
- Last of the wilds by Trudi Canavan

the first few pages I think were written by an angry woman
Hmmm, I have a copy of Drabble's The Red Queen, I'll wait to see how it goes for you. I haven't read any of her books yet.

Hi Paul, are you getting overwhelmed by trying to keep up with the threads on the 75ers? I know I am.

I read Nothing to Envy in December and thought it was an incredible look at life in N. Korea. Very scarey. I really enjoyed reading it.

Yes, there were too many other things I was doing than keeping up with any threads so far.

I did read some books already this year, but I was adding CK stuff to some authors in LT. I like the nationality feature and so 'wasted' a lot time and energy in order to get there nationalities in.

1) Exit music by Ian Rankin. The Scottish Inspector Rebus goes into pension and this book describes his last week on duty, and so his last case. He is an unlikely detective, sometimes pretty ordinary. I liked the read, but occasionmally it gets very complex and too many characters are involved. What I also found interesting was his frequent references to music (bands and songs), often fitting to the action and/or Rebus' mood.


2) Der Schatz von Wörgl by zimmermannpeter::Peter Zimmermann A short graphic novel about the Schwundgeld (wasting money) they introduced "Certified Compensation Bills", a form of currency in 1932. These bills had to be used within a month of receiving otherwise it lost 10% of its face value. The banks couldn't take it out of circulation anymore and so the people working for the city council had these bills, bought food and stuff, payed their tax and the city had enough money again for paying all salaries. They brought the unemployment rate down to less than 10% in a time when the rate in the rest of Austria shot up to 50%. Well, the banks didn't like the experiment and stopped it and reintroduced unemployment. Very interesting reading.


3) Freiheit und Gerechtigkeit : Enzyklopädie des Liberalsozialismus by Günter Bartsch. I didn't read everything (well, to be honest, I don't like to read a whole encyclopedia in one go), I read the following: Freiwirtschaft, Wörgl, Silvio Gesell, John Stuart Mill, Leonhard Ragaz, Simone Weil, Martin Buber etc.

The library closes, so I should check that everybody leaves.

I wonder where you had been, Paul! I am glad to see that nothing is wrong and that you were just helping out LT 'behind-the-scenes' as it were.

Thanks for your concern. No, I wasn't away or had another lurgy. But one thing I did was starting to learn Korean again. I am still figuring out which course I should go to: an easier one where I can learn from the beginning and building up or an advanced one where I feel inadequately behind. We plan of going to Korea in April and it would be nice to say more than just 'Anyonghaseo' (hello) to my in-laws.

4) The red queen by Margaret Drabble. The story about Lady Hyegyong or crown princess Hong of 18th century Korea. She is the wife of the sad, mad crown prince Sado who could not follow his father on the throne. It is not so much a historical account but more a description of the modern looking back and describing her feelings/mood/thoughts from a modern perspective. The second part of the novel is about a British scientist going to a conference in Seoul and getting to the places the crown princess lived.

I liked the story, but not the style Drabble used in this novel. She starts writing as the crown princess herself, declaring later that the 'I' is the princess' ghost but also sending her ghost on errands. In the 2nd part the ghost changes to the royal we. The idea about the ghostly writing didn't work for me, it was diconcerting.

On the very beginning she complains about the word 'history' (her-story) but later she talks about the hermit kingdom of Korea, but fails to mention the 'false, whimsical and ... ugly etymology' again: are there only women hermits? or do women only get herpes or are there no female Hispanics?

The publisher (I assume) has another little misprint in the 2nd half: She writes ΔΟΓΥΟΣ ΒΑΣΒΑΣΑ and translates that into Dr. Barbara which should be ΔΟΚΤΩΡ ΒΑΡΒΑΡΑ.

A readable book as long as one doesn't let the ghosts interfere too much.

5) Lasst mich eure Stimme sein by Soon-Ok Lee. Lee Soon-Ok was working as a government offical in North Korea, she was a loyal member of the party and devoted to the Great Leader Kim Il-Sung. But one day she was imprisoned on a false charge and put in a working camp. What she experinces there is almost unbearable to read. Lives are cheap. After six years she comes free because of good behavior and faithfulness to the party. Later she escapes to the South and becomes a Christian. There is an American edition of the book: Eyes of the tailless animals. Insights into North Korean prison camps.

Hi There

I'm compiling a list of birthdays of our group members. If you haven't done so already, would you mind stopping by this thread and posting yours.

Thanks.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/105833

6) Cliffhanger by Tim Binding; a mystery about a looser who pushes the wrong woman off the cliff

7) Seoul by Rachael Moloney; a short guide to Seoul

8) The naming of the dead by Ian Rankin; a Scottish mystery, solved by Inspector Rebus


9) Metzgerssohn mit schriller Brille und andere Geschichten by Tom Lanoye; three partially humourous, partially weird stories from a Flemish author

#43: I wish that one was available at my local library.

Hi Paul, I haven't read this book yet, but "partially humourous, partially weird" is something I definitely recognize from the two books by Tom Lanoye I have read... and actually is an adequate description for many aspects of Belgium :-).

>47 Trifolia: I nearly gave up reading during the first part; the second story (Das Buch) ist quite intersting. The first line: Obwohl Achille van den Branden noch keine fünfzig Jahre alt war, hatte er alle Bücher der Welt gelesen. He developed a method to read a book within a few minutes - I would like that - but on the other hand: what use in reading when not spending time doing it?

I wonder, is it necessary to be Belgian to really grasp Lanoye's humour? In the two books I've read, he refers to Belgian situations, but I guess it wil not show for anyone who's not familiar with the country... Do you know any Swiss authors that would qualify for something similar, i.e. that only Swiss would really understand the book?

10) Wonne by Susan Minot; a couple has sex and make philosophical attempts to understand their relationship; well, I read it

11) So soll er sterben by Ian Rankin; another Rebus mystery. Especially interesting was the background for the crimes: the refugees and illegal immigrants to Scotland; good read

12) Heilung der Gefühle by David Seamands; a very helpful book about healing your emotions; dealing with depression and perfectionism

>49 Trifolia: Sorry, I forgot to answer your question: I read it and had to think about it: yeah, there may be such an author. But I would probably not realizing it - being Swiss: -minu might be one, and also some of the Swiss poetry slammers; but then, reading an author writing a story of his own country always has the danger (or luck) of being too close, being to much of an insider. When reading Jeremias Gotthelf it is definitely helpful to know something about living in the Emme Valley; and reading the mysteries by Hansjörg Schneider placed in Basel are more enjoyable when knowing a bit about Basel - but all these books would be understood by everybody, I guess

13) Vogel by Jung-Hee Oh; a typically sad story about siblings losing first their mother and then being abandoned by their father.

14) Der nützliche Freund by Ulrich Wickert: a mystery about a Parisian judge and police inspector uncovering illegal money transfers to German political parties; quite complicated setting

15) Kleine Vogelkunde Ostafrikas by Nicholas Drayson; a nice novel about bird spotting in Kenia

16) Im Dunkel der Zeit by Gert Heidenreich, a German mystery; an ageing police officer solves recent and old murders

17) Kleine Geschichte Koreas by Marion Eggert; a very good introduction into Korean history

Hi Paul!
I read Kleine Vogelkunde in English last year and really enjoyed it. Have you read Major Pettigrew's Last Stand yet? It's somehow similar - I think you'd like it.

Hi Cushla, I don't know the Major's tale, but I added it to my wish list.
I just found Der Ruf des Kiwis by Sarah Lark (a German writer and, apparently, tourist guide in New Zealand) lying around and took it home. I guess, I'll read it after my holidays. I am going to Korea during the whole of April. I will probably not read much apart from road signs and restaurant menus... There are some places I'd like to visit like Suwon (where Lady Hyeogung stayed), the Canaan Farmer's School, Jin-Island (where the Jindo-dog is coming from), and definitely King Sejong's museum (he invented the Korean alphabet - great achievement). But the accident in Japan is somewhat dampening my anticipation.

18) Pfyffe, ruesse, schränze by Peter Habicht; an introduction to the Basler Fasnacht

19) Erntedank by Volker Klüpfel; a German mystery; a corpse with a dead crow was found in a forest; Kommissar Kluftinger solves the dark mystery

20) Milchgeld by Volker Klüpfel; a local chemist gets strangled and Kluftinger solves the mystery, including wrong handling with cheese and milk; good description of the personalities living in the Allgäu

21) Lautlos fällt eine Blüte by Yun Ch'oe; four Korean stories about life in South Korea; how some struggle with the memories of war, the divided nation, the Kwangju massacre, within everyday life; not much action, but good descriptions of the persons and their way of coping with the difficulties of life in Korea

22) Olivia Joules and the overactive imagination by Helen Fielding; easy readable spy chick lit

23) Die Kinogänger von Chongjin = Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick; stories of people who fled the North Korean nightmare; impressive, what these people experienced in the North and then the shock of living in the South: Demick made a good job intervieweing these refugees and then bringing them into a good story

Hello, Paul. Just passing through after a few weeks absence.

I really need to get to Nothing to Envy one of these days. I wonder if my local library has a copy yet. Off to check. . .

Hi Stasia
Thanks for passing through. Yes, Demick is really worth trying to get it.

I fly to Korea tomorrow and will visit different places there. I don't know if I'll be able to access the internet in order to keep uptodate with LT. But I will be back in May.

Travel safe, Paul!

Have a great trip Paul - I think I've missed you by a day though.

I am in Korea now. Great country. Travel is very cheap but food is quite expensive. Coffee machine sit in most bus and train stations and you can get a reasonalbe tasting coffee for 300 Won (= 0.27 CHF).

I vistited the Folk Museum in Gwangju, they have some intesting Korean manuscripts (in Chinese and Korean) and some items about the inventiong of priting with single letters some 200 years before Gutenberg in Europe.

The Art Musuem of Gwangju has a nice little library dedicated to art books, basically featureing artists and Korean art history http://artmuse.gjcity.net/_artmuse/_english/main.jsp (no direct link to the library)

Wow, that's about 20 Swiss coffees for the price of 1! Glad you got there ok, will be hoping not to see Korea in the news for the next few weeks.

Glad you made it to Korea safely, Paul. Have a wonderful time!

I sit here in a Korean restaurant on Jejudo, injoying a spicy fishsoup. We were walking up a steep volcanic crater before and ate some fresh stuff from the ocean (it didn`t move anymore so I had no troubles eating it).

I saw an intersting road sign a few days ago, saying: `Shower traffic lane end`...

They have roadside car washes in Korea? Cool! The San Francisco Chronicle has a Travel Section on Sundays and they usually have a picture of an unintentionally funny sign. I think this one would count.

Yes, but I was too slow/show to take a picture... If someone wants to get there to take a picture, I can give the description of the way.

I received some English books about the USA from the Mudeung Library in Gwangju. I talked to an English teacher from Minnesota there and the librarian there was doing part of his army service in the library - cool, I would have liked that. He is working the American Library there and he hands out books about American economy, geography and history. But I have no time reading them.

Yesterday we went to the DMZ and then to a church service in the evening in Goyang - more than 1000 people tunrned up every evening during this week. Yesterday a Korean missionary to China and North Korea was preaching. So sad to hear his stories about Christians in North Korea.

Back to Switzerland, still overwhelmed with all the things I have seen and experienced.

24) Der Wachsblumenstrauss by Agatha Christie. A nice mystery

25) Gluscht u Gnusch u Gwunger by Fritz Widmer. A Swiss German story about a young woman and her friends in Bern

26) The footnote : a curious history by Anthony Grafton. A study of the way of studying history

Sounds like an amazing time in Korea - do tell us more about it when you've had a chance to digest your experiences.

On Jejudo we climbed the highest mountain in South Korea: Hallasan, 1950 m, it's a volcano coming right out of the sea. It snowed a few days before and so everything was covered with snow and ice. The brother-in-law suggested to buy some iron spikes to put under your shoes - I didn't believe that we were going to need these, because there was no snow when entering the park. But the descending path on the other side was so full of ice that I was convinced and put them on - very helpful.

A young man there has started a little online business there: He brings your cart to the other park entrance. We entered in the East and left the park in the North, and he organized that our car was there when we camew back from the mountain. He has some friends who help him and he organizes the the drivers and the cars - for a very reasonable price.

I hope you are taking lots of pictures that you can share with us, Paul!

Well, I put some pictures on picasa - how can I share those? (I do not want to make them public and librarything would not be too pleased to store 900 pix...) So, I'ld need your email address and send you an invitation or is there a way I put a link here which would work everybody wanting to see the pix?

I know there is a way, Paul, to link to Picasa, I just do not know how to do it!

Does that work?

Korea April 2011

Koreareise Mai 2011

I could look at your gallery by clicking on the verbiage to the right of the pictures, so it works just fine, Paul. Thanks for sharing them!

Interesting photos - thanks for making those viewable.

27) Tears of the giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith; very enjoyable read

and here the thrid album:

Korea April 2011

I continue to enjoy the pictures, Paul!

27) Die Târ meines Vaters by Yasmine Ghata; a French-Iranian novel about the power of an instrument on its player; readable but not outstanding

28) Yanghwajin Foreign Missionary Cemetery by 100th Anniversary Memorial Church (Seoul); a short history of (Protestant) missionaries in Korea and the cemetery they are now; but there not just missionaries, there are also some children's graves of orphans and American soldiers who stayed and died in Korea

29) The Christians of Korea by Samuel Hugh Moffett; a fascinating story of the Christian church in Korea

I am glad to see you are finding time to read in the midst of your travels!

>84 paulstalder: I'm a genealogist, and that cemetery book sounds fascinating!

Here is the wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanghwajin_Foreigners%27_Cemetery

I worked in the archives of the Pilgermission St. Chrischona - and they sent about 200 pastors to the US from different German speaking countries between 1870 and WWI. Anything in your genealogical charts from them?

No. I've never researched a Korean missionary, so I have nothing on anyone buried there.

30) Schriftsteller! : Erzählung by Jessica Durlacher; a novella about a Dutch writer; boring

31) Jonny halt den Mund by Heiri Aeberhard; a good story from Brazil based on true experiences of teenagers in the Amazon area; y youngster becomes a Christian, marries with 16 and helps to help bring down a drugdealer

32) Déjà dead by Kathleen J. Reichs; 'Bones' in Montréal, good reading

#91: I enjoy the Temperance Brennan for the most part, Paul. I am glad to see you liked Deja Dead.

They found cancer in my wife's body (mammocarzinom axillaer). She will be operated in an hour (Monday, 11.20).
I am clearing out part of my library (piles in the bedroom), so that's the new 'weg gegeben' section in my catalog. If anyone is interested in one of these, please let me know. They will be given away to friends, or flee markets or paper recycling.

I'm very sorry to hear about your wife's illness. Hope everything goes well with the surgery.

I just came back from seeing her in the hospital. The operation went well, the surgeon is satisfied with what he cut out, but the results will be out definietly next Thursday.

Paul, just visiting for the first time since you posted news of your wife's cancer and surgery.

I hope the results were ok the following Thursday, and that she is recovering ok from surgery

Paul I just saw this now and got a huge shock. I'm really glad the surgeon is pleased with what he got out, and hope the results were good too. Am thinking of you.

Paul, I am sorry to hear about your wife's surgery. I do not hope that the prospects are good. ((Hugs)) to both of you.

Thanks for all your support.
The surgeon was pretty 'happy' how the operation went, and taking out the stitches after the operation went well, too, but we didn't get any results from the Labor (laboratory?) yet, so this can mean everything. My wife's sister flew in from the USA to be with us and this weekend they are visiting a prayer conference in Amden (Lake of Walen, Churfirsten Mountains). She should rest and make some special exercises but well, at home she this and that and gets exhausted. I am workung full time so I am happy that my in-law came and slows my wife down...
The last week at home went quite well, actually. She had to take pain killers for the night and can't (shouldn't) carry things around but otherwise she is in a good mood.

It's good to hear your sister-in-law has come to be with your wife at home and make sure she rests - it must be hard for you when you have to keep on working through this. I hope you hear the results from the laboratory soon and that it is positive news when it comes.

Sounds like your wife is rebounding well from the surgery, Paul. I am glad you sister-in-law was able to make the trip to be there with her and to help out post-surgery.

The nurses in the hospital were pleased with my wife because she was recovering very good and needing no extra care. My sister-in-law is very helpful, she herself had recovered from severe intolerability of any chemicals (perfume, washing powder, soap, paint, cleaning stuff...). It's good I use only aftershaves and no perfume... Anyway, she is very good in health food and stuff like that. So she helps Suki with her nutrition

We got a good recipe from Korea: Put 45 whole garlics into a rice cooker and let it cook for 10 days. Then skin the garlics and eat them (they are totally black inside and taste a bit sweet). A garlic a day keeps the doctor away... But don't use the rice cooker for anything else afterwards.

Love that last line! LOL

Some news from the doctors, but still no proper results from the laboratories: The Investigation with isotopes shows clear breasts and much better situation under the armpits. But they discovered a shoadow on the liver which should now looked at closer. But Suki went to work today (50% - 4 hours). And the sister-in-law went home yesterday.

32) Sehnsucht des Herzens : Gottes Nähe wieder spüren by Ravi Zacharias; a very good treatment of the question of God, feelings, sufferings, and the like

33) The library at night by Alberto Manguel; essays about books, librasries, reading, and people handling books (reading, collecting, burning...); it was good reading but sometimes it felt a bit like a wiki tidbits collection of things related to books. But as one reviewer remarked: "Beware: this book will result in many new additions to your wishlist!"

Hi Paul,
I hope you hear news about Suki's liver and get the lab results soon. Sounds good on the rest though, and great that she is well enough to go back to work.

I've added The library at night to my wishlist, but have noted the wishlist warning!!

What Cushla said, Paul - except that I have already read The Library at Night and so can dodge that particualr book bullet.

Hi Stasia and Cushla

I didn't remember Robinson Crusoe salvaging several books when shipwrecked on that island - so I go back reading that again. And I boorowed a copy of Rabelais' Gargantua ...

Cushla, are you interested in Madoff - der Jahrhundertbetrüger by Amir Weitmann? I got it but I am not gonna read it.

Paul, good luck on Gargantua!

Not really interested in Madoff either, thanks. I've read an interview in the FT with him and it just made me really mad.

I put Madoff om bookmooch and he is now on his way to a new home...

Anybody interested in Alan Greenspan: Mein Leben für die Wirtschaft?

Not me!

A quick read in between:
34) Perry Mason und das Geständnis im Dunkel by Erle Stanley Gardner; a short lived American mystery

Hi Paul, I hope all is well with you. How is your wife doing? Any more news about the shadow on her liver?

I hope you are continuing to find some good, distracting reads in the meantime.

Hi Genny, Suki has received her first chemical infusion (liters of liquids pumped into her veins). On Tuesday they implanted a port under her skin in order to make it easier to inject the drugs (so the veins are spared). Then the injection took place in two parts, each lasted for three hours. She is home now and feels well, apart from being tired and exhausted. Tomorrow she'll go with her daughter to a wig manufacturer (I wouldn't be of much help, and I have to work).

I was at the hairdressers two days ago and I told the young guy (an apprentice) to shorten my hair. He asked:Short? I said, yes, and showed him with my fingers. But he didn't look and just started with the big machine cutting my hair off around my right ear! I interfered immediately, but almost too late. Another guy had to come to solve my head... but now I have a 9-mm-cut on both sides of my head and pretty normal hair on top and in the back of my head. Well, I didn't have to pay for the cut. The boss overheard our miscommunication and told the apprentice off. Ah well, it grows again.

I was reading small things and a lot of cancer information:
35) Chemotherapie und Bestrahlung für Dummies by Alan P. Lyss; a very good and easily understandable book on chemotherapy and radiation; it has good explanations about the Latin stuff these doctors use and some good hints concerning the effects of the drugs

36) Medikamentöse Tumortherapien by Susanne Lanz; a helpful little guide issued by the Swiss Cancer League

37) Leben mit Krebs, ohne Schmerz by Viviane Schwizer; also a guide by the Swiss Cancer League about minimizing the pain

38) Krebs trifft auch die Nächsten by Maya Andrey; how friends and family can help but also how they should watch themselves in order not to have a break down

39) Krebs – was leisten Sozialversicherungen? by Barbara Michel; a guide by the Swiss Cancer League helping to find the money you need for all that and other help from the social insurances

40) Ernährungsprobleme bei Krebs by Tommaso Cimeli; a guide about what you should or shouldn't eat and drink, and how to keep it...

I did read some other stuff like comics and short stories:
41) Erotische Geschichten by David Herbert Lawrence; the first story (Chrysanthemenduft) was about the wife and his mother washing the corpse of a suffocated coal miner; the second about some miners getting their strike money and use it for booze and then coming home to a nagging mother in law - well, these stories are not erotic; I don't know why this title came on the cover. But the stories give good and lively impressions of a miners village in England around 1900

42) Lady Alberta by Peyo; a comic, nice

43) Der Fetisch by Peyo

44) Und es begab sich ... : Inwendige Geschichten um das Kind von Bethlehem by Karl Heinrich Waggerl, an Austrian author. Stories about angels (Gabriel), animals (a bird, a flea), and (unknown) people (a shepherd's boy) at the birth of Jesus Christ; written with humor

45) Der letzte Bissen : Kriminalroman by Leo P. Ard; a German mystery; after all these horrible and unappetizing stories about meat, the European governments forbid all meat consumption; so now there is a special 'Meat Police' tracking down meat dealers; funny

I am glad to hear that Suki is home and feeling well, Paul.

Thanks for the update Paul, and I hope Suki continues to feel ok as she undergoes the chemotherapy. And I hope your hair grows back to normal soon - I always worry when apprentices get let loose on my hair (not often)!

Odd that title of the D H Lawrence stories.

Suki had to go to the hospital again, too much pain and the white blood cells were all but gone (below 10% of what she should have). She can come back home tomorrow.

46) Rundum müde : Ursachen erkennen, Lösungen finden by Susanne Lanz; another guide giving tips how to live with fatigue

47) Trace by Patricia Cornwell; a forensic mystery

48) Der Chinese auf dem Fahrrad by Ariel Magnus; an Argentine tale of Chinese in Buenos Aires

Sorry to hear about Suki being rehospitalized, Paul. I hope she is able to return home on schedule.

Suki came home yesterday and she is much better.

49) Das grosse Honigbuch : Entstehung, Gewinnung, Gesundheit und Vermarktung by Helmut Horn; a very interesting book about honey: harvesting, preparation, selling, regulations, recipes, medical applications (actually far too much information, I didn't read all the details about the polls in the honey and the formula for crystallization etc.)

#118 I'm glad to hear Suki is better again after the recent spell in hospital.

What got you reading about honey? That seems a very specific topic to read about - even if you didn't read all the details!

Paul, I have missed a whole lot of messages here - I'm sorry. I hope Suki is doing better at home and has some white blood cells back.

Hi Genny and Cushla
Suki is much better now - her white blood cells are back to normal. Yesterday she received the second part of the medication. She also got new hair (looks younger now). And tomorrow she goes to Amden (Lake of Walen) for a counseling seminary... I hope that is not too much for her.

We have a fountain with a naked woman behind it here in Riehen, Now, someone took pity on her and gave her a pullover... cute...

That's funny! Were they concerned about her modesty or about her catching a cold?!

122 It looks more like a hoax (Spass), no sociological background, just fun.

119 Honey: I love honey and often put it on my bread or in my tea. My children used to tease me often about that and even complain that I once (they say 'always') made a honey-butter-bread for my son and ate it myself instead of passing it on to him ... Anyway, when my sister-in-law from the USA came to visit us she complained about the consistency of our honey (liquid) and said that liquid honey is of a lower quality than candied honey. I wanted to know and found out that in the USA often honey is heated in order to avoid candying, so it always stays liquid. But if you hear it too much, the honey changes its 'inner being' - the taste is still okay but some of the important ingredients disappear. the rules for dealing with honey are much stricter in Germany and Switzerland.
We had an apiary in our teachers training college and one of the teachers was a beekeeper and I took part in a short instruction about bee keeping and honey making. Later I visited a beekeeper in Sweden (well, I visited a friend there and her friend's father was the beekeeper...)

I read two short books which I both find very interesting and worthwhile - but for different reasons:
50) Babettes Fest by Tania Blixen; two single sisters want to celecrate there fathers birthday in a far-away Norwegian fjord and their French housemaid stages a perfect French dinner; very good descriptions of the characters and their dealing with each other
51) Die Reise : a day with a perfect stranger by David Gregory; the first novel deals with a man who gets an invitation to have dinner with Jesus Christ himself (Die Einladung); this story now deals with the wife who is distrubed by her husbands sudden religious interests and is happy to escape him for a few days; on the planes she meets a man who helps her to see her own longing for a relationship with God (I miss the subtleties here since my English is not adequate for that and I am too lazy to look for a translation). Anyway, I don't like the part about Jesus coming around himself meeting people like that but what I find good is the way the author deals with the situation of the woman and his apologetic dialogs.

What I also tried to read is a Raeto-romanian (rumantsch) Tintin comic:
52) Il giomberet cun las forschs d'aur by Hergé; Rumantsch is the fourth language in Switzerland, spoken by a few thousand people and divided into several dialects; it is mixture of French, Italian, and German; to read chapitani Haddocks outbursts in another language is fun:Selvadis! Magliafieus! Aztecs! Iconoclasts! Lumbarduns! Schimgias! Pirats! Corsars! Mazzagiats! Pesgiaglina! Castracots! Tschitschasangs! Antropofags! ....

Glad to hear that Suki is doing better, Paul!

I love honey too - both the runny kind and the thick kind. I like to buy locally made honey if I can. They say it helps with hayfever to eat local honey made from the pollen of local plants - builds up your immunity to the pollen. It hasn't worked for me - perhaps I need to eat more honey!

I loved the film of Babette's Feast, but have never read the book - I'd like to read it one day.
And I love the Tintin books, and Captain Haddock's vocabulary is wonderful in any language, but in Rumantsch it looks especially fun!

Suki is back home, very exhausted. She is in bed already, asleep (17.00). But she had a very good time there.
Here a picture with the view from the house:



and the house:

Lovely place - must be very restful with those views!

Nice views!

Hi Paul, delurking to say hi and hope that you and your wife are OK?

Hi Joey
Yes, we have good news from the hospital: the PET/CT showed no new cancer cells and the older ones are 'not measurable' anymore. So the combined efforts of prayers and medication did a good job. Well, the treatment goes on and Suki is wearing a wig sometimes, but it seems that the worst medication (Taxotere) can be left aside and the treatment will go on with Herceptine only (which has almost no side effects) every three weeks. Maybe back to work part time next February.

53) Frl. Ursula : Roman by Heiner Link; chick lit for men (is there a word for men's lit?); a novel about how (German) men deal with themselves, golf, women, career, cars etc. good read, but not overwhelming.

54) Die Seilbahn am Giessbach by Roman Abt; a historical and technical report about the funicular near Giessbach at the lake of Thun. Fascinating old print (1880). Here some details:

Great news, Paul, which makes me very happy! I'm sure your caring for Suki helped a lot too.
I am ever so glad to see you back here. You read such interesting books and have an even more interesting opinion on them. And where can I find better advice on Swiss lit. ?
Die Seilbahn am Giessbach looks interesting. Is it still there? It looks as if the funicular went to a hotel or is this my romantic view on things?

The funicular is still there: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giessbachbahn (the English part is shorter).
By the way, I mixed up the lakes: the Giessbach flows into the lake of Brienz and not Thun, sorry.

There are some people who think that Sherlock Holmes was not 'killed' (The final problem) at the Reichenbachfalls but a the Griessbachfalls. Arthur Conan Doyle visited the Reichenbachfalls so I guess these are the correct ones. There is also a funicular at the Reichenbachfalls http://www.reichenbachfall.ch/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=44
and at the end of both funiculars are hotels, you are right. I think the Giessbachfall hotel is more romantic than the other (less known, less tourists).

Wow, that's amazing... as so often in Switzerland.

Btw the Raeto-romanian version of Tintin sounds great. Actually, Steven Spielberg was in Brussels today to present his brand new Tintin-movie in a movie-premiere. It will be released worldwide, starting October 26th (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0983193/).

133
Thanks for the link to the Tintin-movie. Have you been to Brussels?

I am reading Geschichtklitterung at the moment (nearly finished), which is based on Rabelais' Gargantua. The story of a giant in Europe , doing some stupid things. Fischart (1544/45–1591) was a German satirist and publicist. It's a weird story of how Gargantua grew up, studied, married and go involved in battles. And there I found a whole list of swearwords, names which remained me of Captain Haddock: Lumpenwescher, Fröschzän, Ackermäuß: vnnütze Betscheisser: Galgentropffen: Lausige Grindfessel: Plattläuß, Arßkratzer: Baurenfelgel: Hundbengel: Gelgenschwengel, Hafenscharrer: Hapelopin: schöne Arßbollen: Schliffel: Arßkappen: Plickschlaher: Plotzhäuser: bechfisel: grobe mistheintzen: Stulpenesel: Trollenknollen: Kolpenknospen: Tiltappen: Pluntzen: Gulime: Mußrappen: Tap ins Muß: Tötsch in Prei: Säutrüssel. (cf the full quote and other quotes on the work page)

55) Geschichtklitterung (Gargantua) vol 1 by Johann Fischart
56) Geschichtklitterung (Gargantua) vol 2 by Hildegard Schnabel (notes and biography)

130: Do you know how I can link the pictures to the work? The pictures are on my profile site but are not linked to the book. Is there a way to do that?

Although I don't understand half of the list of swearwords, they do sound like Captain Haddock might have used them. I'm pretty sure the authors had a good time making them up :-) I really must check out Gargantua, although I think Geschichtklitterung is way out of my league in the original language.
I haven't been to Brussels for the film. I doubt if I'd have been able to get a ticket, with Spielberg, royalty and half of the 37 governments of Belgium present.
I don't know if you can link pictures that are not the cover to a book. You might ask that in the" Basic HTML, or How To Do Cool Stuff In Your Thread": http://www.librarything.com/topic/104943
Btw, it's good to see you're posting here again!

Hi Paul, just catching up, and so pleased to hear the good news of Suki's progress.

That list of swear words in#134 is wonderfully evocative, even though I understand far less than half of them!

As for linking pictures to a work, I am not aware of any way of doing that, except for the book cover. For illustrated works, and for graphic novels and children's books in which the illustration is integral to the work, it would be really good if there was a way of attaching pictures - perhaps that is a new feature to suggest to the powers-that-be...

Hi Joey and Genny
Thanks for the comments about adding pix - I guess, it's a copyright issue. Publishers might not be pleaesed about pix being freely seen on LT.

57) Potz Tuusig by Eva Schätti

a comic for kids and parents about dealing with money. A girl goes into a supermarket and gets tempted to buy everything and pay with a plastic card. But then gets other glasses and sees the other side of consumerism and then withstands the temptation and is happy with the little gift her parents give her. At the end there are some pages text for the parents (and teenagers) on the value of money, the debt trap, and how to budget. Very useful

58) Der Besuch der alten Dame : Neufassung 1980 by Friedrich Dürrenmatt. A classic Swiss play in German. A run-down city awaits a rich lady and expects a lot of money. But she wants justice and wants a deal: Kill her former lover who let her alone ages ago and then she wants to give millions .... How do they all behave now? Good read

The Potz Tuusig- books sounds like it should be distributed to our politicians :-), but Der Besuch der alten Dame really intrigues me. I tried to locate the book in a local library and came across some other interesting titles by Dürrenmatt too, which I'll check out. As always, your reads are so diverse!

Yes, read some of Dürrenmatt - it's good German and good story telling. Start with these two:
Der Richter und sein Henker great mystery
Der Tunnel the train drives into a never-ending tunnel

I just saw this video by Nick Vujicic - amazing

iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/Jlry5QbAstI?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen

oh, i can't embed a video in here?

59) Zurück nach Oegstgeest by Jan Wolkers; an autobiographical collection of childhood stories with interspersed accounts of his visiting his hometown later. He grew up in a devout Christian home with many siblings (so he mostly talks about 'the' brother - basically meaning his older brother and only mentions the others in groups. His short comings with his father are often repeated and we learn of every sexual expericences he made and his tormenting animals. A relaxed story, easily read; gives some insights into his soul.
But it leaves a sad taste. He often quotes Bible verses, but his coming home is not like the coming home of the prodigal son. He tells about his misdoings/sins but he doesn't look for forgiveness. The story ends torn as his brother's jacket.

Tracked you down Paul. My word what a roller-coaster year so far. My best wishes to your wife and will pray that she continues to improve. Now understand the questions on my thread regarding Korean authors. Have many Korean friends and have travelled there quite a lot on business and pleasure. Did you get to Cheju island when you were over there this spring?

Paul to Paul: Yes, we were climbing Hallasan: freezing cold, windy, slippery, worthwhile. We spent 5 days on the island. Great experience. So, I gather you have been there, too?

Seven years ago Paul if I'm not mistaken. I was advising Lotte on their resort there. Didn't get to see as much of the place as I would have liked but did notice that, even in Winter, the climate was relatively mild.

So you didn't like Zurück nach Oegstgeest very much? I realize this may be a hard question to answer. I had mixed feelings about the book too. Somehow, IMO ratings don't always work, because they work with scales while most books are about "aspects" that cannot be weighed.

I liked reading it - one can 'see' the characters and the scenery - that is good. How he describes the time of WW II is good (er schreibt über den Krieg, aber nicht in anklagendem und auch nicht in verherrlichendem Ton). But the development of the main character made me think: why doesn't he change his false views about God and his father? Yes, these 'aspects' make it almost impossible to rate that book.

I see what you mean, Paul and I agree. I think it's typical for this kind of autobiographical book by this generation to revolt against parents and everything they stand for (incl. religion). It's a fairly often used theme in Dutch literature. I also didn't understand why he had so many issues with his father but that may have to do with the fact that I'm belong to the "next generation" that sees things differently and probably has more sympathy or at least understanding towards the parents.

I was in Beromünster yesterday and saw the oldest printed dated book of Switzerland: Mammotrectus by Johannes Marchesinus, printed 1470 by Helias Helye

From Drop Box ">

60) Belgisch Congo Belge filmed by Gérard De Boe, André Cauvin et Ernest Genval; A little book about films made in the Belgian Congo between 1926 and 1959. The book tells the biographies of the film makers and the contents of the films, written in Dutch, French, and, or English (I didn't read the Dutch, not all of the French). But of more interest are the two DVDs with 15 documentaries (each DVD with 138 minutes of film, most of them in black-and-white). There are films about fighting leprosy, the visit of King Baudouin I in the Congo, training medical personnel, a trip on railway, searching gold, farming, schools, etc. Really a good introduction to life and history of the Belgian colony. Thanks Monica for mentioning the Congo, that's way I got the book and watched all the films.

61) Die Buchdruckerei zu Beromünster im fünfzehnten Jahrhundert by J. L. Aebi (1870); a short history of the book printing in Beromünster (near Lucern), the printer Elias Heyle, and the oldest dated book printed in Switzerland (Mammotrectus). Interesting for all those who are interested in the history of printing.
http://www.librarything.com/work/book/79965332

Hi Paul, from Holland, to Congo to old print... ... and I thought I was the one with eclectic reading-tastes :-)
I'm glad you enjoyed the Congo-movies. And the Beromünster-book sounds fascinating. I'd never heard of Beromünster before, so thanks for the reference!

Hi Monica, yeah, I know, changing subjects comes easy... that is a problem sometimes, because I want to read everything which comes my way and I just can't. I had 150 Joer Eisebunn zu Lëtzebuerg - 1859-2009 http://www.librarything.nl/work/book/79966445 in my hands today, but put it back on the shelf just having leafed through it.

Beromünster is a little village, basically know for the late radio station 'Radio Beromünster', a Swiss Mittelwellen Sender. Now the radio station was bought by an artist who uses it as his galery and art performance house http://www.kklb.ch/cms/website.php?id=/kklb/aktuell.htm

62) Three famines by Thomas Keneally; an important book about the backgrounds of famines. Keneally takes three famines as case studies and shows, that not the bad harvest or other nature catastrophes are the main reason for the famines but the political decisions made by the governments. He quotes Amartya Kumar Sen, who wrote, "No famine has taken place in the history of the world in a functioning democracy". Well researched and well written.

Hi, Paul, catching up late but just wanted to say how glad I am that things are going well for Suki (and you).

Hi Janet, thanks for whooshing by. Suki has chemo every three weeks. Now the side effects of taxotere are stronger, so this drug is now reduced and probably next fully dropped. but herceptin will go on. Maybe back to work part time next February.

Tomorrow we will celebrate our daughter's birthday - we go and eat Obelix' food (wild boar). There is a place nearby in the Black Forest where they offer that (no forks, but bring along your own knife), and drink Met (honey wine). I am looking forward to that.

Ooh, "Obelix im Schwarzwald", that sounds like fun! Do post the adress after you tackled the boar.

Well, we didn't meet Obelix. The owner was sick in bed. But the cook was around and prepared us a splendid meal. Boar with gravy, potatoes, corn, mushrooms, apples, and mead. I couldn't enjoy the mead because I was the driver. Driving there took some time. The farm is somewhat off any big roads with no lights, going through the Black Forest.

The location:


Food:


Happy birthday:


http://www.hirtenbrunnen.de/

Wow, that looks like a chunky meal!

63) Bottled lightning : superbatteries, electric cars, and the new lithium economy by Seth Fletcher. An interesting history of the lithium battery; the story of the electric car EV1 and the fight of the politics against it; the battle for lithium and the start of the Chevrolet Volt. But there are two many details and persons giving an appearance in the book. The story is interesting but the telling of it - not so.

64) Der krumme Hund by Roald Dahl; some macabre stories; short, easy read, not more

Just finished our second advent decoration. In our neighbourhood we decorate our windows or entry doors in this time of the year.

What a lovely tradition. Are you changing the decoration on a weekly basis (which I presume since it's the second Sunday of advent)?
This reminded me of the diorama in Einsiedeln (http://www.diorama.ch/) which I thought was impressive. Too bad the website doesn't do it justice.

Well, I had one big picture a few years ago and then we didn't take part in the decoration part anymore. Now I don't know, I just did the first picture and felt like doing a second today. I doubt to do a third picture. Next weekend I'll be in Litauen. I'll be helping a small library to install a new library system and get the digitalizing of the library started.

Litauen... as in the Baltic? That sounds cool, literally and figuratively!

Oh, yes, I forgot to check the English: Lithuania = Lietuva. I^ll go to Šiauliai. 'Cool' is the right word: I am told to take lange Unterhosen (long johns?) with - it will be very cold and wet. But I won't have time for sightseeing. I'll be there from Thursday till Monday.

I am here in Ginkunai in the middle of Lithuania http://lkf.lt/

It is snowing a little bit and very cold. No sightseeing. Tonight we went out to a Armenian restaurant. I had lamb with rice and vegetables and a glass of sweet, red wine. It was good.

Does anybody know about 'librarything for libraries'? I sent an email yesterday but LT isn't working till Monday. Maybe LT for libraries would be a good idea for the school here.

No time for reading, only checking the library....

Just catching up, Paul. Interesting to hear about your Lithuanian trip - I followed the link and looked at the webpage for the library you were working at. I've never seen any Lithuanian writing before... Sorry, don't know anything about LT for libraries - I hope you managed to put them in touch to see if it might be useful for them.

#165 'Long johns' would indeed be the right translation for lange Unterhosen. I hope it wasn't too cold on your trip.

I love the Advent decorations!

I hope you and Suki and family have a good Christmas, and good progress back to full health in the New Year for Suki.

Hi Genny
Thanks for coming by. Lithuania was a good experience, even so I couldn't help us much as I wanted. LT for libraries is no good at the moment because it's 'only' a catalog enrichment for already existing library programs.

The only tourist place I saw was the 'Hill of Crosses'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_of_Crosses (a panorama: http://turizmas.info/visit/lithuania/jurgaiciai/hill-crosses/21/28poUil)
I can't describe it. As the head of the Bible School said: You have to see it. It's an amassment of crucifixes - every size, material, artistic design - from Kitsch to art to mass production.
An interesting tidbit: There was a statue of Mary in the middle of all that. But the artist realized that people were praying to Mary more than to God, so he went there again and destroyed his own piece of art and put two stone plates with the ten commandments written in Lithuanian in its place. Underneath he wrote in Lithuanian, English and Russian (? my memory - I forgot the camera) to pray to God alone and not to humans.

Today we had the heating engineer in the house: the temperature in the house was only 16° C at peak times - pretty cold. The heating is working again, but it will take another day to get normal warmth again.

Suki: She will receive the next treatment after Christmas and then, Herceptine only (she had Taxotere which is responsible for killing everything that grows rapidly like cancer cells, hair, nails, blood cells etc.; it's also responsible for pain and fatigue), that attacks the cancer cells directly but may damage the heart. But we are happy to celebrate Christ's first coming together. The two daughters promised to cook a splendid meal on Christmas day :-)

Paul - my namesake in the group! Happy christmas to you and your loved ones. I hope that 2012 is kind to you and Suki and that her treatment is a help, comfort and cure to her. Hope your daughter's cooking is as tasty as their intention is splendid.

Happy Christmas Paul! I hope the daughters do a good job with the meal. Do they often cook for you, or is this a special treat?

The Hill of Crosses looks quite overwhelming, even from the photos.

Merry Christmas, Paul, to you and your family!

Okay, I didn't reach 75 books , but I didn't count the pages of the books yet, so maybe I still reached my goal.

65) Der 26. Stock : Thriller by Enrique Cortés A Spanish thriller; a mysterious death and some people just gone missing from a skyscraper in Madrid. A great story but the writing is a bit 'bumpy'


66) Mutter : Bilder aus dem Leben von Dora Rappard-Gobat by Emmy Veiel-Rappard The biography of Dora Rappard, the daughter of Bishop Samuel Gobat (Jerusalem) and wife of Carl Heinrich Rappard, the director of the Pilgermission St. Chrischona, written by one of her daughters. A fascinating life, born on Malta, extensive travels to Jerusalem, Kairo, England, Germany, and Switzerland. Motherr not only for her children but also for the students on St. Chrischona (a hill near Basel, Switzerland). She was one of the first women to held women's meetings during preacher's conferences and the like. She also did a lot of the correspondence with former students from Chrischona who went out all over the world. (Chrischona trained pastors for all German speaking nations, also for Texas and the other German speaking synods in the USA). the books also contains some of her outlines of Bible studies and speeches. Since the daughter wrote the book, it's all the best for Dora. But still, that must have been a fascinating woman.

A happy new year to everybody and thanks for visiting my thread.

1) Exit music by Ian Rankin - 380
2) Der Schatz von Wörgl by Peter Zimmermann - 24
3) Freiheit und Gerechtigkeit : Enzyklopädie des Liberalsozialismus by Günter Bartsch - 254
4) The red queen by Margaret Drabble - 357
5) Lasst mich eure Stimme sein by Soon-Ok Lee - 187
6) Cliffhanger by Tim Binding - 350
7) Seoul by Rachael Moloney - 103
8) The naming of the dead by Ian Rankin - 420
9) Metzgerssohn mit schriller Brille und andere Geschichten by Tom Lanoye - 189
10) Wonne by Susan Minot - 123
11) So soll er sterben by Ian Rankin - 572
12) Heilung der Gefühle by David Seamands - 159
13) Vögel by Jung-Hee Oh - 157
14) Der nützliche Freund by Ulrich Wickert - 312
15) Kleine Vogelkunde Ostafrikas by Nicholas Drayson - 285
16) Im Dunkel der Zeit by Gert Heidenreich - 399
17) Kleine Geschichte Koreas by Marion Eggert - 193
18) Pfyffe, ruesse, schränze by Peter Habicht - 126
19) Erntedank by Volker Klüpfel - 375
20) Milchgeld by Volker Klüpfel - 309
21) Lautlos fällt eine Blüte by Yun Ch'oe - 166
22) Olivia Joules and the overactive imagination by Helen Fielding - 343
23) Die Kinogänger von Chongjin by Barbara Demick - 430
24) Der Wachsblumenstrauss by Agatha Christie - 194
25) Gluscht u Gnusch u Gwunger by Fritz Widmer - 196
26) The footnote : a curious history by Anthony Grafton - 241
27) Tears of the giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith - 213
28) Die Târ meines Vaters by Yasmine Ghata - 123
29) Yanghwajin Foreign Missionary Cemetery by 100th Anniversary Memorial Church (Seoul) - 12
30) The Christians of Korea by Samuel Hugh Moffett - 174
31) Schriftsteller! : Erzählung by Jessica Durlacher - 113
32) Jonny halt den Mund by Heiri Aeberhard - 320
33) Déjà dead by Kathleen J. Reichs - 508
34) Sehnsucht des Herzens : Gottes Nähe wieder spüren by Ravi Zacharias - 272
35) The library at night by Alberto Manguel - 373
36) Perry Mason und das Geständnis im Dunkel by Erle Stanley Gardner - 140
37) Chemotherapie und Bestrahlung für Dummies by Alan P. Lyss - 335
38) Medikamentöse Tumortherapien by Susanne Lanz - 67
39) Leben mit Krebs, ohne Schmerz by Viviane Schwizer - 42
40) Krebs trifft auch die Nächsten by Maya Andrey - 38
41) Krebs – was leisten Sozialversicherungen? by Barbara Michel - 39
42) Ernährungsprobleme bei Krebs by Tommaso Cimeli - 51
43) Erotische Geschichten by David Herbert Lawrence - 297
44) Lady Alberta by Peyo - 54
45) Der Fetisch by Peyo - 46
46) Und es begab sich ... by Karl Heinrich Waggerl - 55
47) Der letzte Bissen : Kriminalroman by Leo P. Ard - 285
48) Rundum müde : Ursachen erkennen, Lösungen finden by Susanne Lanz - 47
49) Trace by Patricia Cornwell - 489
50) Der Chinese auf dem Fahrrad by Ariel Magnus - 251
51) Das grosse Honigbuch by Helmut Horn - 275
52) Babettes Fest by Tania Blixen - 85
53) Die Reise : a day with a perfect stranger by David Gregory - 126
54) Il giomberet cun las forschs d'aur by Hergé - 62
55) Frl. Ursula : Roman by Heiner Link - 222
56) Die Seilbahn am Giessbach by Roman Abt - 73
57) Geschichtklitterung (Gargantua) vol 1 by Johann Fischart - 437
58) Geschichtklitterung (Gargantua) vol 2 by Hildegard Schnabel - 108
59) Potz Tuusig by Eva Schätti - 32
60) Der Besuch der alten Dame : Neufassung 1980 by Friedrich Dürrenmatt - 155
61) Zurück nach Oegstgeest by Jan Wolkers - 261
62) Belgisch Congo Belge filmed by Gérard De Boe - 109
63) Die Buchdruckerei zu Beromünster im fünfzehnten Jahrhundert by J. L. Aebi - 44
64) Three famines by Thomas Keneally - 323
65) Bottled lightning by Seth Fletcher - 260
66) Der krumme Hund by Roald Dahl - 119
67) Der 26. Stock : Thriller by Enrique Cortés - 606
68) Mutter : Bilder aus dem Leben von Dora Rappard-Gobat by Emmy Veiel-Rappard - 320

14805 pages - missed my goal.

It was an interesting year - the trip to Korea was definitely the highlight of 2011. The cancer of Suki was a blow, but brought other ideas and values to mind.

Glad to share your reading year Paul - that was pretty close to the goal even if you didn't quite reach it, and you have had other things to be thinking about of course.

I hope you are joining the challenge again in 2012?

Hi Paul, I wouldn't say you missed your goal. You did read 14.805 pages and in case of reading, I think the voyage is far more important than the arrival. And of course, you had more important things and especially people to think about.
Will you start a new thread in 2012?

Hi Genny and Monica

I just opened my 2012 thread.

Yes, if I would count every page I read in the hospital and doctor's waiting rooms waiting for Suki and my personal Bible study I reached the 15'000 pages easily. But I also know that I did read far less last year than the years before (no regrets, just a statement).

I missed reading a few Korean ones I planned last year, I think I gonna skip them.

I just opened my 2012 thread. Oh, good - I shall look out for you there. I tried to follow the link, but it just took me to the sign in page for the German LT, and then to the home page!