it's the same with books and clothes.

You have a closet full of clothes, but you feel like you have nothing to wear. I bet you know that feeling.
The same thing happens to me with books. I have tons of unread/unfinished books lying around, but I never know what to read, because non of these books seems to be the right one.
This morning my Amazon package arrived with books I ordered last week. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger and Let it Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle. I was looking forward to all of these books and I'm happy to have them in my hands now. But when I opened the package and thought about which one to read first I couldn't decide. The Great Gatsby...no...too difficult to read for now. Franny and Zooey...Salinger?...hm...too 'Salinger' for now. Let it Snow...YA literature...not sure...do I even want to read an English book next?
See, I ended up with not wanting to read any of these books. Now. I definitely want to read them sometime soon, but not now.
So I thought about all the unread/unfinished books I have and decided to put a stack together with all these books, so I can see them and make my way through it. I looked at my bookshelf and started to pick out all the unread books and piled them up. Now, that's the result:

My reaction was something like "Oh. My. Gosh." 31 books! Not including some books of "A Series of Unfortunate Events", some Narnia books and about 5 unread books I have in Vienna.
13 English books, one library book, one book that belongs to my aunt, two books that you could put into the category Education, the rest are German books.
But I don't know where to start. :(
It would be nice to finish at least half of them this summer.

Does this happen to you too? That you have so many unread books? How do you deal with having tons of unread books but the feeling as if you have nothing to read?

we should fix the salad.

mom: i should fix the salad. 

me: why should you fix the salad?

[...]

me: [...] i mean, why do you have to fix the salad? who broke it? i didn't touch it. did you break the salad, mom? if you did, YOU'D BETTER FIX IT!

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

1. this was a joke of the "me" in the book. but it stuck in my head.

2. i should try to fix the salad i broke.

3. which is, of course, not salad.

4. we all should try to fix the salad we broke.

5. i read this book in one day. 310 pages. i couldn't stop reading.

6. you should read this book. it's hilarious.

7. attention:

a) it contains a lot of cussing. i didn't mind.

b) if you're not okay with homosexuality you probably shouldn't read it...

c) ...or probably you should read it because of that.

d) never mind. i don't mind if you do not agree with homosexuality.

e) as long as you don't hurt/insult/etc. people who are gay.

Thanks. 

 I do what I do, you do what you do and let's agree to disagree when we don't agree. :) 

                                                        -Hope

And I'm not only talking about homosexuality. This "rule" is true for [almost] everything.

Thoughts on Books: Cussing. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

Pre-note: I don’t want to justify cussing with this post.

I want to talk about books a bit more. I recently read some really good books with good topics to think about. I'm not going to write a book review. What I want is to tell you my opinion on certain topics and you're all welcome to leave your opinion. I'd love reading what you think.

Today I want to talk about cussing in books. I'm using The Book Thief as an example. For those of you who haven't read it, here is a short summary I found on the internet:

 

Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau. (source: randomhouse.com)

I never had much of a problem with cussing in books and movies. It depends a lot how it is used and how often and also how the cuss. I usually don’t get angry or upset about too much cussing, most of the time I think it’s ridiculous or I get bored (like the one time when I watched a thriller and they said the f-word like twice every minute…I mean Come on!).

The Book Thief is and excellent book, but you should know that it contains a lot of cussing (and if I say that it contains a lot of cussing, it means A LOT). But let me tell you: It’s not that bad.

There are about 4 different words they use in this book to cuss. Three oft hem are only used about 1-4 times each. Ther fourth word is used like all the time. I don’t feel bad to write this one down here. I don’t cuss at my blog (at least I’ve never realized it…you can tell me, if I’m wrong), but this time I’ll use this word and I’m going to explain you, why I don’t feel bad about it. The word they use all the time is Saumensch.

I read the book in German and when I read this word the first time I found it weird. I’ve never heard someone saying it. After they used it over and over again I decided that it is just an odd translation from English and tried to find out which word Markus Zusak used. I asked Shaynie (who stopped reading the book because of the cussing) and she told me that Markus Zusak originally used the word Saumensch and not an English word.

After some research on the internet I decided that this word is just old fashioned. It sounds ridiculous to me. I found it awkward all the way through the book, I just couldn’t get used to it. That’s one reason why the cussing in this book wasn’t that bad for me. I would like to find out if they really used this word during the time of WWII.

The other thing is that it is not really used as an insult. Not Saumensch. The other cuss words in the books are used as insults and I was shocked twice how someone can say something like that.

The main cuss word is more a word to tease someone. Like you sometimes give people a nickname that is a tiny bit mean just to tease the person for fun without hurting anyone's feelings (I think you know what I’m talking about). Nobody gets hurt in the book by being called a Saumensch.

So reason number two: It’s not an (actual) insult.

I thought a lot about this book and I’ve never thought so much about cussing in books (or cussing at all). I completely understand if someone says that he/she still don’t want to read the book because of the cussing. It’s okay. I just think that you should consider putting cussing into different categories. Even though everyone should avoid it as much as possible, it’s still part of every language and different social groups. I can’t judge about cussing during WWII, because I wasn’t there.

So, my questions for you:

What do you think about cussing in books/movies?

Do you make a difference between different kinds of cussing?

And have you read The Book Thief?

Note #01: Saumensch is German and means Pig-Person in English.

Note #02: This book is narrated by the Death. That’s awesome.

Note #03: I totally recommend this book to everyone who can stand cussing. It’s really good.

Note #04: More about the book coming soon. I'm going to talk about realistic characters.

New Old Hobby

As a person who writes a lot and has filled almost 20 journals I'm a tiny bit addicted to notebooks. Notebooks always makes me happy.
And I always loved books and ever since I can remember I wanted to know how to make my own notebooks. Bookbinding is such a fascinating thing to me and I would love to learn it one day.
When I was 14/15 years old I loved to make notebooks. I tried my best, glued paper together to pages and they really turned out pretty good (for someone who has no idea about bookbinding). I gave some of them away as presents for friends, but I still have some of them.
A few weeks ago I had this feeling, that I have to start again. I made some notebooks. They are completely different, not like actual bookbinding, but I love them.
And as some of you know, I love to work with books. So again, I ripped out some pages of this awesome book I found at the library's flea market and created those little books.

 At the moment I have three of them, but I want to make more.

A red touch at the back ;)

What do you think?

Queer language from 1911

Every language changes over the decades. There are new words and old words gets different meanings and others get old-fashioned. That's how languages works and that's great.
I really like how peopled talked 100 years ago or even earlier, but honestly, I'm glad that I don't have to talk like that!
I'm sure you know which words are old-fashioned in English and you know which words are now used in different ways and mean something different.
I'm familiar with "old" language as well...but only in German...

I'm reading "The Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett at the moment. First published in 1911.
I haven't finished it yet, but I want to tell you two things that happened while reading the first pages of the book.

1. In the middle of the first page you can read this sentence: "...her mother had been a great beauty who cared only to go to parties and amuse herself with gay people."
Guess which word made me stunned. Yes, it's the word "gay".
I only knew this word as a word for homosexual people, so I was quite surprised to read this word in a book published in 1911. And I thought "why does a woman want to hang out with gay people"?
I had no dictionary with me, so I decided that the author had some strange ideas and I continued reading.
I checked the word "gay" later and found out, that it is not only a word for homosexual people, but also for cheerful people who love fun.
Well...I think that's what the author wanted to say... ;)

My question: Do you still use the word "gay" for cheerful people? I've never heard it before...

2. The word queer.
I knew what the word queer means. It means something like strange or weird. But again it is also a word often associated with homosexuals. And that's why I know the word. Every time I read the word "queer" I automatically think the word "homosexual" the same time. It's a bit annoying, but what shall I do? Most of the time (and that isn't very often) I hear or read the word queer it HAS to do something with homosexuals.
In "The Secret Garden" the word queer appears in nearly every paragraph (the author was amazingly creative... *cough*). It's the most used word in the book. She used it for everything. Women in queer grand costumes, a queer morning, a queer place etc.
I don't want to see this word anymore!!! ;)

I wanted to share this with you, because I would like to know how often and in what way these two words are nowadays used and I wanted to show you the difficulties you come across when you read and use a foreign languages.

Have a wonderful, lovely weekend! :)

He tried to sign my book...and failed!

There are maybe a few people who read my super long post on friday. I mentioned there that my favourite Youtuber is in town at the moment.
Well, today was the day of the reading/signing event and it was the best thing ever! (and totally better than going to university (which I should have been doing instead)).
He also signed my copy of his book. Or let's say he tried.
He needed three pens to finally get it signed, because all the pens didn't work. So he signed it twice and wrote "Fail" under his first try. :D
And he apologized, "Sorry for ruining your book"
He's amazing...

Day 16 - me.

  A picture of myself and a random thought.

"Reading is going toward something that is about to be, and no one yet knows what it will be."

~ Italo Calvino

About being a tourist or not and things you find in books

I spent a day in Vienna on Monday. I went there to enroll to university, which is rather unspectacular than exciting. I thought it would be something special, but it wasn't.
Vienna is my favourite Austrian city. Austria doesn't have that many cities. Small country, small cities, that's how it goes.
Usually I enjoy spending a whole day in Vienna, but this time it wasn't so much fun, because it was raining. Everything was wet and cold...
First I went a bit shopping and only bought some books. I can't go the bookstore without buying books. I try, but it is impossible!
After some time it stopped raining and I decided to run around Vienna for 4 hours and visit all the tourist attractions. I know some people who live or go to university in Vienna and most of them told me, that they try not to go to the tourist places. I don't know why. Even though I already know all these places I love to go there and take photos of the beautiful architecture or just look at the behavior of the tourist (which sometimes is amazingly funny ;) ).
After hours of walking my feet hurts terrible.
Here are my four hours in pictures:

at the bookstore. Sorry, this one is a bit blurry. Is it forbidden to take pictures inside a bookstore?

Leaving some notes. Have you ever left notes in books? Tell me...
I love to do it! I usually do it with library books, but this time I decided to do it at the bookstore.
And I love to find things in library books! Have you ever found something interesting in a (library) book? A beautiful book mark or something bizarre?
Tell me!
I have a small collection of thing I found in library books.

Museum of Natural History

I didn't go inside. I have to do it next time...

The foyer of the Austrian National Library. I went only to the foyer. I have to go inside someday.


I love cupolas. I can't remember what kind of building it was.

expensive shopping street

Pinocchio :)

Have a lovely day and tell me about things you found in books.

Project: Bookshelf

Just a picture of what I did today. I tried to re-organise my bookshelf.

Some of my books...I didn't know that I have that many.

And yes, there's lying around a copy of Stephenie Meyer's Breaking Dawn...
But there are also good books in this picture. Trust me! ;)
I'll show you the result tomorrow.

The Hunger Games?

This is a story about me and "The Hunger Games"

I don't know how often I heard about "The Hunger Games" . The words "The Hunger Games" follows me everywhere. I read about it on many blogs, different pages on the internet and even vloggers at Youtube mentioned it.

It was like: Why is everybody talking about it? Should I read it? Yes, I want to read it.

I searched it at Amazon and decided that I don't want to buy it (I don't have the money for new books at the moment), but I wanted to search it at my library. So I had to figure out the German title of the book. Our library don't have many English books. I couldn't find the German title. To be honest, I didn't search for a long time and gave up quickly.

I couldn't understand why such a "famous" book wasn't available in German.

And I forgot "The Hunger Games" for a while. And that's when I went to Germany last month.

In Germany my friend Kathrin told me about an amanzingly good book I definetely should read. The name of the book "Die Tribute von Panem" . I had no idea what it was and I wasn't that interested in it, because I don't like such books a lot (she told me what it is about and I still had no clue what she was talking about), but I decided to keep this title in my mind. I forgot the name of the author.

Back home I found "this Panem book" (how I call it) at our local book store. Again, I felt like this book is following me.

And then it was at the library as well.

Again I had no idea what "this Panem book" really was.

And today something happened. I felt like someone's turning on the light in my brain.

I came across the Hunger Games (again) on the internet. Again I was like "Why is it following me everywhere!!!!

Then I read the name of the Author. Suzanne Collins...Suzanne Collins...wait a minute, Suzanne Collins? What? Isn't Suzanne Collins the one who wrote this Panem books?

Back to Amazon. I typed in Suzanne Collins and clicked at "English books". Results: The Hunger Games, The Hunger Games, The Hunger Games....

I clicked at "German books". Reults: Die Tribute von Panem, Die Tribute von Panem, Die Tribute von Panem...

I think everyone who's reading this is clever enough to tell me, that "The Hunger Games" and "Die Tribute von Panem" is the same thing, but I was still stupid enough to not believe it.

But I was clever enough to click at "Die Tribute von Panem" to read the description and to read the original title: "The Hunger Games".

And then I realised it: The Hunger Games and Die Tribute von Panem is the same book.

How stupid am I?

I'm sure it was 4 or even 5 months ago when I first heard of The Hunger Games. I needed more than 4 months to get it! Oh dear...

But I can tell you why. There are two reasons:

1. There are no similarities in the title. "The Hunger Games" and "Die Tribute von Panem"?

2. Look at the English cover and at the German cover:

Again, no similarities. Usually there are similarities in the English and the German cover but this time they look completely different.

(One reason why I should have known it is the same: Same author... ;) )

Wow, I still can't believe that I was that stupid :P

Have a lovely day!

Narnia in the mail

There is a list of goals in my left sidebar. One point is reading all Narnia books.
And that's what I got today:


1270 pages!
Let's go Narnia! :D

Only Pictures in May - Days 28 and 29 - Last week/Next week

My week in pictures:

Monday

Books are beautiful and sometimes it's not only the story.


But sometimes it's only the book and not the story...


Do you know "The neverending story"? It's the most beautiful book I know. I love it!



Tuesday

Crafting time!


crafting = cutting books
I'm so sorry! ;)


Wednesday

Sewing time!


I sewed my next giveaway! It starts (hopefully) on June 1st!
You all have to enter! ;)

Thursday

Editing time!

And I lost all my nerves while doing it :P



I tried to do something extreme. I love to play around with GIMP. I'm on the way to find out all the things one can do with GIMP.


Friday

My friend I. took the picture

I spent my day with one of my best friends and we had a great time together. And we went to the playground ;) I LOVE swinging!


Saturday

After 3 hours "power shopping"

Tired.
Time for:
blogging
reading blogs
and
watching movies


My plans for next week:
Tomorrow: reading and some school stuff
Monday: school, preparing the giveaway
Tuesday: (Hopefully) starting the giveaway :)! And I'll get the results of the written exams on Tuesday!!!!
Wednesday: Nothing except school and school and school
Thursday: No school! Yeah! Relaxing and studying...
Friday: I'll spend my day with a friend in Vienna. I'm so looking forward to it.
Saturday: um...

Only Pictures in May - Day 17 - Flea Market

Yeah! My first exam is over. Today was the day of the English exam. The listening part was quite difficult, but the writing part was easy. I can already say that I passed it. I'm so happy, but it was one of the easy exams, the bad ones are the last ones...

And I went to the library, because they have a flea market at the moment. They are selling old books and I grabbed some of them. I bought 8 books for only 3.50€ (about 4.3 dollars).

My pile of books

To have a better view: click the pic!

Well, these are my eight new books. Yes, I know, there are nine books in the picture. The blue one in the left corner isn't from the flea market. I bought it at a book store today.
Mabe you know some of them, even if most of them are in German.
For example the book in the middle of the first row is "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame". But I think it's a short version of the original book, because it has only 160 pages, but the original one has about 500. Well, there is no hint at the book, that it is a short version.
Than there is Heidi in the first row. You know Heidi? I hope so. :)
The second book of the second row is about knitting.
And the third book, the one with no title on it, is a book by Ernest Hemingway.
That's it. I'm sure I won't read any of these books before summer, but I love to buy books at fleamarket and books don't have an expiration date, so I can start reading them whenever I want. ;)

Have a nice week!

It is...

What's that?

Is it something to decorate your room?


A thing that looks really good at your wall?


A thing you can decorate with a paper flower?


Of which you can take cool photos?


Or is it something to hide behind?


Or just a strange hat?


Or is it...

Is it a small umbrella?


One, you shouldn't use when it's raining?


Or is it something completely different?

Who knows?

Stay creative...

Do you know that?

Do you know that?
A pile of books you want to read, but no time to read them?
I have such a pile in my room and it's high. But now I have time enough to read all these books! I love summerholidays!

From the top:

• an Agatha Christie thriller (finished yesterday)
  
• Per Anhalter durch die Galaxis (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) - Douglas Adams
• Harry Potter I - VII
• Die Entdeckung der Langsamkeit (The Discovery of Slowness) - Sten Nadolny
• Heavenly Man - Paul Hattaway
• Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
• Talk of the Town - Ardal O'Hanlon
  
• Bildung - alles was man wissen muss (is not available in English!) - Dietrich Schwanitz
• Faust - Part II - Goethe
• Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
• Der kleine Prinz - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
• Le petit prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
• The little prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
  
• Dragon Rider - Cornelia Funke
• Mein Name sei Gantenbein (Gantenbein) - Max Frisch
• Hectors Reise (Hector and the search for happiness) - Francois Lelord
• The Ersatz Elevator - Lemony Snicket
• The Vile Village - Lemony Snicket
• Die Brautprinzessin (The Princess Bride) - William Goldman
• 1984 - George Orwell