Reading in Reykjavík

-This reads like fiction - prose more beautiful than one has come to expect from non-fiction and many of the chapters are structured like fiction stories. There is little continuity between most of the chapters, although some of the narratives or stories spread over more than one chapter. This is therefore more a collection of short narratives than a cohesive entirety. You could pick it up and read the chapters at random and still get a good sense of what is going on. -Here is an author who is not trying to find himself, recover from a broken heart, set a record, visit 30 countries in 3 weeks or build a perfectly enviable home in a perfectly enviable location, which is a rarity within travel literature, but of course Kapuściński was in Africa to work, and not to travel for spiritual, mental or entertainment purposes (he was the Polish Press Agency's Africa correspondent for nearly 30 years). -I have no way of knowing how well Kapuściński knew Africa - I have never been there...

Full title: You Are Awful (But I Like You): Travels Through Unloved Britain. I was in Manchester (the one in England) earlier in the month and thoroughly enjoyed wandering around the Christmas markets, visiting the John Rylands Library , doing a spot of Christmas shopping and eating good food. I only managed to visit one bookshop, and when I can't visit more than one, I try to make it count and therefore I chose Waterstones. The Waterstones I visited in Manchester isn't nearly as large as the big one London, but it was big enough to make me happy. I don't really need more books and when I buy them new I try to choose ones I know or expect will become keepers. I've already been disappointed by one of my purchases ( The Soul of an Octopus ) and I can only hope the remaining books I bought will not be as disappointing. The book under review here is actually one of the books I considered buying, but didn't. I then came across it second hand at a fraction of the p...

Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant who travelled to to court of Kublai Khan in the 13th century and wrote a famous account of his visit, that was long considered to be more or less either made up or based on other travellers' accounts, but his account was in later years proven to be factual and probably mostly based on first hand experience. The book itself as an object is lovely. It is bound in fabric that looks like bright red silk, is printed on heavy, luxurious paper, has a bound-in bookmark, and is richly decorated with photographs, reproductions of paintings and other art, and background graphics that enrich the text. The designers have taken the decision to let the main text stand for itself instead of cluttering the pages by competing text, so the extensive notes on the text are provided as endnotes rather than footnotes, and the captions and credits for the photos and artwork are to be found at the back of the book as well. It is a sumptuous book, what we Icelanders c...

The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rügen describes the adventures of the Elizabeth of the title, on a holiday on the German island of Rügen, which is situated in the north-east corner of Germany and was already a popular holiday destination at the time of her visit. The author visited Rügen near the turn of the 19th century - the publication date is 1904, but in the opening chapter she writes as if this holiday had been taken some years earlier. At first it was to be a walking holiday, but she could not get any of her friends to accompany her, and so ended up taking a small horse carriage and driver, and a maid to serve as a chaperone, as her husband would not let her go alone. They circumambulated the island, following the shore as much as possible. This makes it a road trip story, a genre I love, both in fiction and non-fiction. I decided to read it because I have booked a fare on the Norröna ferry the European mainland and will be taking my car on a journey around Germany ne...