Bookshelves - Konyvespolcok

My old baby-bookshelf, overflowing with books:


The new tall bookshelf - assembled at half past nine in the evening, so no back piece as it needed nailing on and didn't wanted to start off badly with the neigbourhs - and for comparison, the old one behind it:

And the new one with backing on and with all the books on it - since then i packed the bottom shelf full with magazines and rearranged it a bit, and still have room on it.

Where did july go?! - Hova tűnt a július?!

I did overtime yesterday and read The Little Prince in english for the first time. I finished it on the train which was full with people going home after a day at the beach... I still remember full paragraphs in hungarian, said by the voice-actors from an audio performance of the book. I wished i knew french though, some nuances can be so lost in translation.

After i got home, i realized it's august already - i'm afraid i missed out on this summer. Not the first time. Though on friday we went for a drink with a couple of collegues and sat in the back garden, wich is definetly something very summer-y as other times its just too cold and windy to sit outside after work. It was a bit crazy evening... ended up at some flat with eight or ten girls in it and only one (very ugly) guy, aside from us. Not the best proportions for a houseparty i think. We came home shortly with cousin K and climbed onto everything along the way, like building materials, rails, fences, fountains... damn snowboard movies have a bad influence on me :D and K likes it when i'm a bit "loosened up by beer". Thanks.

Input

"Törékeny dolgok" avagy Neil Gaiman "egypercesek". Azért kellett megvennem, mert van benne egy darab novella Shadow-val (az Amerikai istenek-ből), de amúgy is megvettem volna előbb-utóbb, mert Gaiman. Uff.

Fragile Things, aka Neil Gaiman One minute Stories (after the Örkény One Minute Stories). I had to buy it 'coz it has a novell with Shadow (from American Gods), but i would've bought it anyways as it is a Gaiman book. 'nuff said.

"Csillagok és bolygók rövid kalauza". Nem jöhettem ki egy könyvvel ha már egyszer a vízkövekben jártam (Waterstones a könyvesbolt-hálózat neve. Mint a Libri meg az Alexandra.) Szép színes, kevés szöveggel, mert kellett egy ilyen kis könyv csillagászat témában is, hogy ne a netet kelljen bújnom emiatt is. Túlságosan függök a wikipédián.

A Concise Guide to the Stars and Planets. I couldn't just leave Watersones with only one book. Nice colourful with lots of pictures and not much text, i needed a little book in astronomy too so i don't have to search the net every time i have a question on this topic. I use wikipedia way too often.

Plusz vettem ki három indiánokról szóló könyvet a könyvtárból, hogy legyen mit olvasni párhuzamosan az 'Amerikai istenek, második nekirugaszkodás' alkalmából. Fura egyébként, elsőre sokkal lassabnak tűnt az egész sztori, bár azt hiszem azért mert egy csomó dolog fölött átsiklottam mivel nem tudtam, mire utal / nem tudtam hogy utal-e egyáltalán valamire / előreutalás volt, amit most, ismerve a további cselekményt, már értek.
Aztán még ott van hogy egyszerűen nem csíptem Laura-t, tiszteltem azért amit Shadow-ért tett a saját halála után (ehh, ez jó kis paradox) de egyszerűen nem értettem mi a csudát keresett mellette amíg élt. Most már jobban értem.
Sam pedig ugyanolyan vagány mint mindig :)

Plus i get three books about indians from the library, for reading paralell with Amercian Gods reading #2. It's a bit strange now, as for the first reeding i found it a bit too slow. Maybe that was because i slipped over things i did not understand what the reference means / i did not know it is a reference at all / it was a hint for later events, and now knowing the plot i understand it.
Also i just couldnt bring myself to like Laura - i respected her for what her deeds after her death (yuck) but just didn't get what had she do with Shadow before. Now i understand her better. Sam's still cool as ever :)

...

Zene:

Republic: Tüzet viszek album, különösen a Varázsolj a szívemmel és a Játsz egy kicsit a tűzzel. Felváltva.



Music:

Republic: "I'm carrying fire" - especially the songs hm how to translate... "Make magic using my heart" and "Play a little with the fire".

I don't know about any official or unofficial translations about the band into english... It's a hungarian folk-rock band, something like the irish The Corrs just more rock-ish. Not as much as Korpiklaani though :) They are (or at least were at a few years back) quite popular, had more big chart hits, the biggest probably "Fly away little bird" - it's a cute silly little song, everyone sung that :)

bip bip

Nothing going on - no snow, no nothing happenin'. Wich is quite good, just not really bloggable, or interesting. I spend my days at the workplace in a kind of stupor, brain capacity on about 30%, perfect condition for this type of job and even stupid enough for some loughs.
So when i get home, i dont really bother to push the capacity much higher for that few hours before going to sleep. Just a bit of reading, bit of knitting, watching the same movies over and over again. And then hopefully sleeping without dreaming, as i tend (always tended to) have only bad dreams, and those in turn make a bad morning.
Sort of nice being so hare-brained, at least i'm calm. Relatively. First time in my life, or at least a very long time... but feels like first. Mmm. Only setback is that i can't make any mentally demanding output, like writing, learning, or improving things. Oh well, this blissful ignorance won't last ong, i know myself, so within a very short time i will go back to my usual brooding self i'm afraid.

...
I took a Shakespeare's Tragedies compilation from the library two weaks ago and this proved to be a very good thing. Finished Othello and R+J so far, the latter one i read in high school as the only compulsory S. drama. Right now i'm still reading King Lear - the tragedy/Folio version - at lunchbreaks. That guy's plain stupid, how the heck did he become king?!
The start of the story was interesting to read, we have a folktale very similar to the situation described. In the hungarian folktale version, the youngest daughter's answer is not "nothing" but "like salt in the soup", and goes into exile alone, and finds a husband later. The other two daughters do not conspire against the king, and the protagonist is the rejected daughter, not the king.
I do not know the drama's end yet, but in the folktale, the girl invites her family for her wedding and they go of course as they want to reconcile. She cooks every meal for the king herself, without salt - so to show just how much the absence of it means.

Always loved this story :)

...
Also, and the thing which brought me to write finally, i just finished the second sleeve on the lush-and-lacy cardigan. Checked very frequently with the other sleeve, so they will be identical, and just before casting off, realized somthing was wrong. But not with this one: the first sleeve. I skipped one row on the lace pattern, on the second pattern repeat (there are only three, luckily). Yuck. Tomorrow will be ripping off and knitting again.

The funny thing in this: i find this pattern first at Faith's blog, and she made a quite similar mistake on it - she made a row twice instead of skipping, and on one of the fronts, but still - pattern's jinxed or what :) Sort of amusing. I guess the pattern is simple enough for not requiering full concentration but just tricky enough to play some tricks on the absent-minded.
Nevermind. ^_^

(Brain's too burned out to think in hungarian. 'coz that's easier and once i go back and start to write/think in hungarian it's a big pain to get the english back wich i must do for the workplace. Takes a whole day, actually, all the while i'm answering "igen" (e-ghen, "yes") for the affirmative and even talk hungarian to the slovakian collegue. Who actually knows a few words, coming from a neighbouring country with a 500 thousand strong of hungarian minority (out of the 5.3 million overall). Ehhehe. )

Tekergető - Swifting

This arrived on friday. No, on thursday. I mean these, an umbrella swift and a yarn winder (why, o why pink and orange?!!!)
The winder makes 50g balls, as i immediatly realized as the first skein i wound up was 100g and totally fall apart at around 65-70 gramms.

I had a bag of rowan summer tweed laying around since spring - a 10 pack bag of 50g skeins, plus two more. I made up one for a ball and made a swatch, but did not liked either of them. Skeins too small - too much fiddling - yarn scratchy and strange. It's 70% silk 30% cotton, full with little colourful specks. Both the front of my hoodie and my trousers are covered with yarn morsels after knitting up about half a ball. But i like it much more now, it doesn't seem so hard and scratchy at all.

I bought these for a Central Park Hoodie on a sale (halfprice), but when i get to the point to cast on, just couldn't imagine a CPH in that colour. At least not for myself. It is pale blue with pastel flecks, so it would be good for someone very pale, or someone very dark, but not this brownie of me. So after two days of pondering what to do with the rediscovered stash - it's still rare for me to have a jumper worth of yarn which is not acrylic, due to budget restrains - i settled on the Lush and Lacy Cardi. It's small and light enough for being able to imagine even myself with this colour. So far, good, stich count ok., swatch was ok., i'm awaiting the first disaster...


Other: finished Othello on wednesday - omg, i cant remember any other drama i read (though i did not read too much...) where everyone announced that "and now, i die". Uff.
Started Romeo and Juliet on thursday. Wow. I never realized before how short time passes between the first glances at each other and Juliet's proposal. I like that girl. I never liked Romeo, he's a whimp and plain stupid, but never payed enough attention to Juliet.
After reading Shakespeare for one hour every lunchtime, it's a bit strange to go back and hear the erratic blabbing we immigrants do with english language. :D

Olvasás - Reading

Elég gyorsan olvasok már angolul, szinte észre se veszem hogy lassab vagyok mint magyarul, csak amikor vissza kell mennem és újra elolvasni egy mondatot a nyelvtan miatt.

I'm on a level now in reading english language texts that i can't feel that i'd be slower then while reading hungarian texts except when i have to go back and reread something because of the grammar.

Aminek az a következménye, hogy amikor magyar könyv kerül a kezembe, akkor egyszerűen túl gyorsan olvasok, és átrepülök a betűk fölött, anélkül hogy fölfognám, mit is látok. Koncentrálnom kell, hogy ne csak beazonosítsam a betűket és össszerakjam a szavakat, hanem meg is értsem az értelmüket. Mintha felolvasnék magamban, így viszont kong egy kicsit, nem szeretem a felolvasást, arról tudom, hogy most olvasok, és nem tudok belemerülni a cselekménybe.

The consequence is that when i read a text in hungarian i'm way too fast. I read the letters too quickly without comprehending the meaning. I have to concetrate to not just getting the letters and putting the words together but also getting the meaning. Practically i have to read out for myself in silence, but it makes things a bit hollow, i don't like reading out, it makes me too consius about reading a book and can't immerse in the plot.

Az élet újabb nagy problémája.

Another big problem in life.

:)

Szülinapi ajándék - Birthday present

Megérkezett a szülinapi könyvem!!!! Kicsit előbb is, mint számítottam :)

My birhtday book has arrived!!! And even a bit earlier then i expected it :)

Reggel puffanásra ébredtem, és rögtön gondoltam, hogy ez könnyen lehet, hogy a posta volt. Ki is mentem az előtérbe, és ott iv ovlt a csomag, de az nem ez a könyv volt, hanem a mitológiás, amiről már azt hittem elveszett, egy hete meg kellett volna érkeznie (majd hagyok nekik nem-kellemes feedback-et, irgumburgum).
Aztán már így délután L átugrott a szomszédba pizzáér, és bekopogott egy másik csomaggal - amit a postás a kinti lábtörlő alatt hagyott, mivel túl nagy volt a ládához. Tartsa meg jó szokását, vissza is vihette volna, és akkor hétfőt tudtam volna csak fölvenni, vagy be is csöngethetett volna szombat hajnal fél nyolckor :)

I woke this morning for a sound of something hitting the ground and instantly thought that it must have been a package. And it was, the mythology book (Masks of God) i thought was lost as it should have arrived a week ago. I will leave some not-too-nice feedback for the seller :P
Then later the day cousin L went out for pizza and took the second package with him, which was left under the outside doormat as it was too big. The postman was very nice - he could have taken the parcel back and in this case i could have it only on monday; or he could have ringed the doorbell at half past seven in the dawn. :)

Tiltott könyvek - Banned books

I fund this at Julie: list of banned/challanged books. Books which are too explicit or too good for the ignorant everyman, i suppose.

I was surprised to see the The Catcher in the Rye right away; i read it some years ago 'coz it was so famous at the uni (i did not understand it, but that's my problem).
Then i rolled down. To kill a Mockingbird, Color Purple - ok, these are just movies for me, but darn famous movies! Next, Ulysess, Lord of the Flies - what the heck?!!
When i saw 1984 i started laughing. Mice and man, Brave new world... and so on. I'm sparing the rest of the list for the afternoon, for a good laugh.
As far a i see it, it's full with those books my literature teachers and other literary sources like books etc always cited as masterpieces, milestones, very fine books - the top of literature.

I wonder if i would find the Bible in it.

Or Winnie the Pooh.

Könyvmoly - Bookworm

Well i guess Jane Austen and vintage radio comedy does not go well together, just like heavy metal and knitting, but whatever. No one is so unlucky to have to put up whit me, so i can be as queer as i wish :)

So, four full watch later, short - sleepwise - with 2 hours, i'm on page 232 now (still p&p, now paper and ink format) , and of course i know myself enough so i bought two more books as well for next week. Now that i'm almost at the end, and also having been read Persuasion in english, and Sense and Sensibilty both in english and hungarian, i think i really like Jane Austen and she would be my favourite writer ever - - if she would be covering history and/or fantasy as well and wouldn't concentrete on girly topics, though for this i complain only when i'm not reading; when i'm reading, i'm perfectly contented with the books :) I'm insatiable i know, an old fault of mine. My other would-be fav is Neil Gaiman who has fantasy but i miss the female thinking and delicacy - obviosly as he is a male... And i love 'Mrs Murray' too, but more her books then her writing (if this makes sense).
Now, i'm not a high-strung literature critic, i'm just looking for a soulmate writer :D I used to write myself for my own entertainment but since i live in england and consequently use english in a big part of the day, my writing skills are all but gone. A few days ago i did not use a word in a text message to my cousin - in hungarian - because i wasn't sure of the spelling. This had never happened me before. Ever. Not even in primary school, i was always very good in spelling (as i always read a lot once i learned it...) It was painful. My english is getting better, but i feel the price, and in a very unexpected way, as everyone is always talking about homesickness and stuff, but i never heard anybody mention the loss of the mother tongue. Ok not loss, but the decreased quality. So to make up for this, i'm on a constant lookout for someone who writes like i would if i could :)

I'm an oddball, anyways so shouldn't be surprised :)

Input

Listening: Kerrang Radio, HP4 (the one with the goblet, Rita Skeeter and Cedric Diggory)

Reading: Joseph Campbell: The Masks of God: Primitive mythology - brilliant, i mean... 3 chapters on, not a single word about actual mythologies, only explaining the background, and although i do not understand it fully (wouldn't even in hungarian, i reckon) it is absolutly interesting and and... wow. I'm so glad i signed in the library again, this is my third pack of books and a second one - the first was the one about britain's religions - with seriously good facts, and the "widening of horizon" i missed in the last few years. Of course it can turn awful later (only three chapters down), but it was worth already. I love it when i read a book and instantly know that i learned something or some already known pieces fell into their places.


Watching: i'm afraid i will watch the HP movies again. Have Bridget Jones now too, but it's too... erm, close to home? Single girl drinking... oops :D I'm not that bad though as Bridget. I drink much less :D :D


Thinking: being bilingual(ish) can be tireing. Sometimes the words only come in just one language, and it's a real pain to translate them. The lines i type out effortlessy in one of them just doesn't sound good, clatter, break on the other... I'm already losing the nuances of hungarian, composite words start to sound strange, some expressions i cant find a true match for - and on the other hand, my english grammar is faulty, my vocabulary still not wide enough, and the pronounciation- well, thats simply troll. Yesterday i told one of my british collegues that i once worked at McDonalds - and he heard "mental ward" instead. Okey, they are not that far from each, but still...

And once i knew german too :) Danke schön :)

HP, először - HP, vol 01

És most nem a nyomtatóra/számítógépekre gondolok.

Talán a most kijött film miatt, bár eddig nem nagyon kavart fel egyik sem - ezt még nem láttam, csak épp ez most tényleg jónak ígérkezik (szubjektív véleményem szerint).

Viszont mostanában rengeteget jár az agyam az egész könyvsorozaton. Újranéztem a filmeket egy ideje - az új miatt. Aztán beleolvasgattam itt-ott némelyik kötetbe, átfutottam az utolsó, a legutolsó, fejezeteket, mivel még mindig olyan alacsony szinten van az angolom, hogy észrevehetően fejlődök évente. Aztán elkezdtem hallgatni a hangoskönyveket is.
Napközben be-beugranak mondatok, karakterek, helyzetek. Amikor 2000 tél elején végül rászántam magam, hogy elolvassam az első könyvet, azért tettem, mert tudtam, hogy bármennyire is nem akarok az árral és a divattal úszni, nem fogom tudni egy szekrény mélyén ülve kivárni mire elcsitul, mire megjelenik az összes könyv és film, és nyugodtan, külső őrületek nálkül leülhetek a könyvvel. Azt is tudtam, hogy hosszú út lesz, és az volt, és most értem, érek el odáig, hogy túl vagyok rajta, és rendbe tudom szedni ezt az egészet. Hogy milyen sokat jelent, és hogy tudom, nem csak nekem, sokaknak. Hogy olyanoknak is, akik amúgy nem olvastak volna, nem ezt olvastak volna, nem is akartak tudni róla de olyan sokáig tartott hogy belekeveredtek és magával ragadta őket.

Hogy most értettem meg miért írta az utolsó ajánlójában az író hogy "... neked, ha kitartasz a végsőkig Harry-vel" - hát persze, hogy kitartok, az utolsó kötetet olvasom, a végén vagyunk, nem? És nem értettem akkor sem, miután elolvastam, sem akkor mikor tavaly újraolvastam, csak most.

Kicsit mint a Végtelen történet, amikor Barnabás rájön, hogy ez az egész róla szól, hogy benne van.


Köszi, Jo :)

...

And i'm not meaning the printers/computers.

I must admit, this whole series only subsided for me now. Lateley i'm starting to comprehend how much it meant, means to me, and what it means, too. It took a long time. It was a long journey, and i knew it will be long when it started, in the early winter in 2000.

But only recently, when i watched the movies again, read parts of of different volumes again, and read the very last chapters again, made a part of the dedication at the beginning of the last book real sense: "and for you, dear reader, if you stay with Harry until the end" (not correct quote). I thought, yeah, of course, i'm reading the last one, i will read it until the end, so what?

I did not understand it after finishing the book, not even after reading it again a year later. Only now did it made sense.
A bit like in the Neverending Story, when the reader boy (Sebastien? it's Barnabas in hungarian) realizes that it's him in the book, it's about him.

Thanks, Jo :)

Behatások - Inputs

Ha már alkotásokról nem tudok írni, mert az ugye lassabban megy...

...

Well i can't write about crations them being much longer to do than just reading/listening/watching...

Watched: Harry Potter and the chamber of Secrets. My least favourite amongs the hp books, and probably among the movies too. Lockhart is a great character, but annoying nevertheless, as is the whole story with all the backlashes of fame and a nasty reptile going around. ok, since the sixth book i look it a bit differently too, but still. Anyways, done, watched, let's proceed to the next one :)

Listening: Guns'n'Roses: Use Your Illusion II. Oh my. Almost forgot how cool this band is, 'specially this album. Ususally i listen to more harder music ( not rock, but metal) but lately they have a depressing effect on me, so Guns' is the right for me now. Still has great gitar stuff, is rock, and is postive.
On an interesting note, a few years back, i met up a coiple of kids at a Tolkien meeting who were 5-7 years my junior. And when i heard a guns' song in the radio, and said, hey, listen! they didn't even know this band existed! Crazy. But two years later, i run into a few of them, in a middle of an In Flames concert. So i guess they aren't lost completly :)

(Will be) reading: Jane Austen: Persuasion. Bought it on saturday for 20 p, and even started to write a post from that (day) but then we went out to cinema so its unfinished. I cant decide if its alright to post something out of order/dated back... anyways, i'm looking forward for the book, coz unlike Sense ans Sensibility, i did not read or see it in any form before, i dont know anything about the book aside of who wrote it.

Nyaralás - Holiday

Két napig szabin vagyok, jeee :) Plusz a hétvége. Sajna rendrakással kell(ene) telnie...

Tegnap kiolvastam az Értelem és Érzelem -et, angolul. Hát mit ne mondjak, bonyolult volt ezzel a sok régies szerkezetű (kör)mondattal, és sokszor azt sem tudtam, épp kiről beszélnek... Azért még mindig tetszik. Eddig nem tűnt fel, hogy mennyire szarkasztikus Jane Austen, talán mert ez volt a normális, úgy értem hogy a való életben is, és inkább a többi írónál éreztem azt, hogy valami hiányzik, nem nála a jelenlétét.

A lassan már harisnyáim lassan kész lesznek - föl akarom használni hozzá az összes fonalat, szerintem simán föl fog érni térdig. Csak most a sok nulla agymunkát igénylő sima után, 2x2-es bordát kötök, és figyelnem kell rá! Már úgy elszoktam ettől...

... Two days of holiday, yeah :) plus the weekend. Sadly I ought to spend them by cleaning...

Yesterday I finished (or i finished yesterday? whatever) 'Sense and Sensibility'. Weel, it was a really hard read for me: lots of old-fashioned and difficult sentences, and sometimes i did not even know, who is the subject of the conversation. I still like this book though.
I didn't realize before how sarcastic Jane Austen is - i guess i rather felt that other miss something.

-

I'm slowly finishing the stockings too - i want to use up all the yarn, so they will reach knee-height, i guess. Its just the ribbing now, wich holds me back - after mindless st st round after round, now i have to pay attention to the 2x2 rib - so strange!

Napsütés - Sunshine

Végre valahára elért ide is a nap :) Kellett már nagyon. Voltunk kinn jó 3 órát, a szokásos séta a kávézóig, könyvesbolt, beugrás boltba, menjünkhaza. Sikeresen elmulasztotta a görcseimet, pedig még a forró vizes palackot is kölcsön kellett kérnem reggel.

Ezt vettem:
Már nagyon szégyeltem magam, hogy nincs egy valamirevaló atlaszom. Igaz, ez töriatlasz (gyűjtemény), nem földrajzi, de már majdnem.















Ilyen volt az ég (a sikátorból nézve...) :

Ezt láttuk:

Még nem szoktam hozzá az új telefonhoz-kamerához, így nem találtam meg a zoom-ot. Közelebb meg nem mertem menni, mert tartottam tőle, hogy elijesztem a lepkét.

És ilyen most a kötős kosaram:

Eddig 9 kocka akarom mondani négyzet van kész a leelndő ágytakarómhoz. A tervezett 72-ből. Próbálok optimista lenni, hogy eljutok odáig, és nem állok le hatvannál. A jobb fölső sarokban a kis recepteskönyvet is ma vettem. Kellett valami nehéz olvasmány is a képregény-atlasz mellé ;) A fekete kötésecske meg csuklómelegítő lesz a munkahelyre, ha végre sikerül eltalálnom a méretet...

És mellé az Amelie zenéjét hallgatom Beethoven-nel felváltva, a fügönny meg behúzva, annyira tűz a nap. Ilyenkor szeretem Angliát :)