I usually get at least one book for Christmas, and this year I got four, so it was a good book Christmas.
My brother got me the Terry Pratchett Diary and The Turnip Princess. I am reading the latter and enjoying it very much. The man who collected these tales, Franz Xavier von Schönwerth, was a contemporary of the Grimm brothers, but unlike them, he seems to have only given the tales he collected a minimal editing. They are therefore raw and feel much more "real" than the tales the Grimms published, which were refined and polished before publication. They therefore remind me very much of the Icelandic "ævintýri" (märchen) collected by my favourite folk-tale collectors, Ólafur Davíðsson and Jón Árnason.
Der schönster Ort der Welt is a book of essays by German-speaking booksellers. The title translates as "The most beautiful place in the world". It was a Christmas resent from myself to myself. It remains to be seen how do at reading it, since the only German I have been reading for the last several years is legal language, which is worlds away from the literary language.
The final book, Kryddjurtarækt, is about growing herbs and I got it from my aunt, who always gives me thoughtful and useful gifts. I have several kitchen gadgets she has given me that I didn't know I needed but have proven very handy.
My brother got me the Terry Pratchett Diary and The Turnip Princess. I am reading the latter and enjoying it very much. The man who collected these tales, Franz Xavier von Schönwerth, was a contemporary of the Grimm brothers, but unlike them, he seems to have only given the tales he collected a minimal editing. They are therefore raw and feel much more "real" than the tales the Grimms published, which were refined and polished before publication. They therefore remind me very much of the Icelandic "ævintýri" (märchen) collected by my favourite folk-tale collectors, Ólafur Davíðsson and Jón Árnason.
Der schönster Ort der Welt is a book of essays by German-speaking booksellers. The title translates as "The most beautiful place in the world". It was a Christmas resent from myself to myself. It remains to be seen how do at reading it, since the only German I have been reading for the last several years is legal language, which is worlds away from the literary language.
The final book, Kryddjurtarækt, is about growing herbs and I got it from my aunt, who always gives me thoughtful and useful gifts. I have several kitchen gadgets she has given me that I didn't know I needed but have proven very handy.
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