Reading Wednesday
Jun. 19th, 2019 07:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yuuagoAaand time for a reading post. :)
Currently reading the following:
☆ Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman. A woman divorces her husband, moves out to a small run-down town, and tries to find herself. I like this author's work quite a bit, but so far I'm not enjoying this book quite as much as the others I've read... because the protagonist reminds me of someone I know personally. But I'm sure I'll eventually get over that.
☆ The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain translated by Red Pine. Facing translation of Han Shan's work. I obviously can't tell if the translations are good, but I'm enjoying them so far. It's good poetry. And I appreciate all of the contextual information provided in the introduction - there isn't much we know about Han Shan, but there are some things that we can make an educated guess at, and it was interesting to read.
☆ The Peredvizhniki: Pioneers of Russian Painting by David Jackson and Per Hedström. This book was published to accompany a special exhibition of work by the Peredvizhniki group, at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, on loan from Russian museums. This was in 2011. I was lucky enough to be in Stockholm at the time, and was actually able to attend this exhibit on the opening day - it was overwhelming, but also amazing!
Happy memories of a wonderful experience aside, the work of these painters is excellent, and it's so nice to be able to look through all of the paintings that I saw in person with the added commentary and biographical details that the book provides. But some of these paintings are enormous, the size of a wall, and while the book is amazing, you don't get the full mind-blowing effect of something like Savitsky's To War unless you are actually in front of it. (Though my personal favourite is probably Rivals by Kasatkin, which is a much more usual size and reproduces just fine on page. ;p )
I wasn't able to buy this book when I was in Stockholm because it was very heavy and I was worried about baggage weight, but... it's still available from the Nationalmuseum, and I'm considering adding it to my collection. This one that I'm currently reading is on interlibrary loan via the University of Alberta - I was absolutely shocked that it was available in the Alberta library system at all. Going to have to think about it. ;)
Currently reading the following:
☆ Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman. A woman divorces her husband, moves out to a small run-down town, and tries to find herself. I like this author's work quite a bit, but so far I'm not enjoying this book quite as much as the others I've read... because the protagonist reminds me of someone I know personally. But I'm sure I'll eventually get over that.
☆ The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain translated by Red Pine. Facing translation of Han Shan's work. I obviously can't tell if the translations are good, but I'm enjoying them so far. It's good poetry. And I appreciate all of the contextual information provided in the introduction - there isn't much we know about Han Shan, but there are some things that we can make an educated guess at, and it was interesting to read.
☆ The Peredvizhniki: Pioneers of Russian Painting by David Jackson and Per Hedström. This book was published to accompany a special exhibition of work by the Peredvizhniki group, at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, on loan from Russian museums. This was in 2011. I was lucky enough to be in Stockholm at the time, and was actually able to attend this exhibit on the opening day - it was overwhelming, but also amazing!
Happy memories of a wonderful experience aside, the work of these painters is excellent, and it's so nice to be able to look through all of the paintings that I saw in person with the added commentary and biographical details that the book provides. But some of these paintings are enormous, the size of a wall, and while the book is amazing, you don't get the full mind-blowing effect of something like Savitsky's To War unless you are actually in front of it. (Though my personal favourite is probably Rivals by Kasatkin, which is a much more usual size and reproduces just fine on page. ;p )
I wasn't able to buy this book when I was in Stockholm because it was very heavy and I was worried about baggage weight, but... it's still available from the Nationalmuseum, and I'm considering adding it to my collection. This one that I'm currently reading is on interlibrary loan via the University of Alberta - I was absolutely shocked that it was available in the Alberta library system at all. Going to have to think about it. ;)
Yuu. Fic writer & book lover. M/Canada.