Reading report for October 2008

I got through 10 books in October. 3 were rereads and 3 I had been reading for several months. I also discovered that Jennifer Crusie is becoming one of my favourite comfort read authors, and I am now trying to get hold of those of her books I don’t already have.

Here are the books:
Scott Adams: The Dilbert Future (humour, philosophy, comics)
Isabel Allende (text), Robert Shekter (illustrations) & Panchita llona (recipes): Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses (food, erotica)
Caroline Graham: The Killings at Badger's Drift (police procedural, murder mystery)
Donna Leon: The Death Of Faith (police procedural, murder mystery)
Sigurður Ægisson (text) & Jón Baldur Hlíðberg (illustrations): Íslenskar Kynjaskepnur (Meeting with Monsters) (bestiary)
Jeffrey Steingarten: It Must've Been Something I Ate (food, article collection)
Marion Trutter, ed.: Culinaria: Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan (culinary geography)

And the rereads:
Jennifer Crusie: Faking It (romance)
Terry Pratchett: The Wee Free Men (fantasy)
Terry Pratchett: A Hat Full of Sky (fantasy)
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Meeting with Monsters deserves a special mention. It is an illustrated bestiary of Icelandic folk tale monsters, some of which people still believe in. The author of the text is a folklorist and the artist is Iceland's best known illustrator of natural history books. The book is published in Icelandic and English, and I think I have also seen a German version. If you visit Iceland, it will make an unusual souvenir or gift for those who are more interested in folklore or cryptozoology than in landscape photography and woollen sweaters.

Comments

Icelandic folk-tale: The Devil Takes a Wife

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Reading in Reykjavík

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