Reading in Reykjavík

I recently discovered that it is possible to subscribe to literature on the Web. It is by no means a new thing – after all, some of the most popular classic novelists, such as Dumas and Dickens, wrote some their books in instalments that were eagerly awaited by readers. I decided to try it, and have subscribed to a book I started reading a couple of months ago but have kept pushing aside for other books. Now I can simply read it during my coffee breaks and lunch break at work, instead of at home where I am surrounded by scores of other books that keep diverting my attention from it. The book is The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. For the next 286 weekdays I will receive it in instalments in my inbox, from DailyLit . It will be interesting to see if I manage to stick with it, or whether at some point I will go back to the book. I think this is an excellent way for people who think they are to busy to read books to relax for a few minutes every day over a good book. DailyLit mostly ...

Translator: Stephen Sartarelli Series detective: Inspector Salvo Montalbano Type of investigator: Police Setting & time: Vigàta, Sicily (and neighbourhood), Italy; late 20th century This time, I read two books by the author. Note that the given year of publication is for the original Italian publication. Title: The Shape of Water Original Italian title: La forma dell'acqua No. in series: 1 Year of publication: 1994 Type of mystery: Death under mysterious circumstances (possibly murder), police procedural Story: A famous and respected Sicilian political leader is found dead from a heart attack. There is no doubt of the cause of death, but as the circumstances of the finding of the body and the place where it was found are rather suspicious, Inspector Montalbano decides to get to the bottom of it, despite pressure from the authorities to close the case. Was it an accidental death during a sexual encounter with a prostitute, or was the heart attack manufactured, making i...

Went to the library yesterday and wandered over to the corner where they sell books they have no more use for and found two cookbooks I had long wanted, plus a volume with both of Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently books. A quick check showed there were no pages missing, so I went to the desk and bought them. Last night I sat down after dinner to leaf through the cookbooks and discovered mould in one of them. Little spots of bluish-black mould the size of fingerprints were growing outwards from some of the seams in the book. Mould in regular books is a nasty, ugly thing, but mould in a cookbook could be dangerous if it got into the food being prepared. Ouch! And arrrrgh! I really, really want to keep that book, but I don’t want to have it near my other books, knowing that if I ever have a dampness problem or a water or steam accident in my house, it could contaminate them. I don’t suppose applying a fungicide will do the paper any good, but at least I can minimise the risk of contaminating any...

Just poking my head in to report on my reading :-) May: In May I finished a book on average every 2,4 days: 13 books that total 3562 pages. I started reading some of these books months ago and had been reading them on and off since. I have always liked having a wide variety of books to read and I mix together books that can be read over a long time with books that are best read, if not quickly, than at least over a period of just a few days. I started reading The Literary Gourmet three years ago and would pick it up every now and then and read a chapter and then put it on the shelf again. I thought it had great promise when I first got it, but I was disappointed with it. The book is a collection of food and eating passages from famous literary works, with recipes researched by the author/editor and adapted and tested by chefs. I think a book like this is probably most interesting when you have read the majority of the books mentioned in it, and I have not, which is probably why I foun...