Lunar18's 11 in 11

Convinced by a few LT friends i start this challenge. It will clearly be impossible for me to read 121 books, that is only for bookgirls like my LT friend Sanddancer, but i'll try my best to read as much as possible.
The categories will be inspired by the books i read.
Wish me all luck ;-)

Category 1. : Home, sweet home. (authors of Flanders)
1. Sprakeloos by Tom Lanoye
2. Hoe het licht wandelt by Jozef Deleu
3. Dieperik by Leo Pleysier
4. Gestameld Liedboek by Erwin Mortier
5. Datumloze dagen by Jeroen Brouwers, Brouwers is in fact from the Netherlands but lives in Flanders
6. Post voor Mevrouw Bromley by Stefan Brijs

Category 2. : Europa ! Europa !
1. Kaalslag by Bohumil Hrabal - Czech Republic
2. Boek der rusteloosheid by Fernando Pessoa - Portugal
3. The road home by Rose Tremain - England
4. First love by Samuel Beckett - Ireland
5. De brug met drie bogen by Ismail Kadare - Albania
6. Netherland by Joseph O'Neill - Ireland
7. Je gaat te vaak naar Heidelberg by Heinrich Böll - Germany
8. De tuinen van herinnering by Michel Quint - France

Category 3. : Under the Tuscan sun (Italy, not only Tuscany)
1. Io e te by Niccolo Ammaniti
2. Emmaüs by Alessandro Baricco
3. Valentino by Natalia Ginzburg
4. XY by Sandro Veronesi
5. Novecento by Alessandro Baricco

Category 4. : Sapere aude (as my friend Immanuel K. said, so probably non-fiction)
1. Boek der rusteloosheid by Fernando Pessoa - thinking is almost the only thing the main character does (Pessoa himself by his heteronym Bernardo Soares)
2. Elisabeth Costello by J.M. Coetzee - reflections on authorship
3. Mr. Foe and Mrs. Barton by J.M. Coetzee - again reflections on writing and who we really are if someone brings us up in a story
4. Je gaat te vaak naar Heidelberg by Heinrich Böll - reflections on totalitarian systems (nazi, sowjet) and the position of the individual towards these systems.
5. Gestameld Liedboek by Erwin Mortier - reflections on parents and childs, confronted with disease and suffering.

Category 5. : Fatties (inspired by the original category by LT friend Jebronse) - books i couldn't read in previous challenges because otherwise i would have read less books, now it is impossible to get somewhere near the 11 x 11 number so i don't care anymore ;-)
To stay in the identical numbers (999, 1010, 11 in 11) i'll accept everything from 444 pages, we don't want to encourage obesitas do we ?

1. The road home by Rose Tremain - just 444 pages, convenient ;-)
2. Vrijheid by Jonathan Franzen - 589 pages (in Dutch hardcover edition)
3. Post voor Mevrouw Bromley by Stefan Brijs - 512 pages (hardcover edition)

Category 6. : Young authors (like younger then 35, to be ambitious)
1.
2.
3.

Category 7. : (Dead) Poets Society
1. Hoe het licht wandelt by Jozef Deleu
2.
3.

Category 8. : The world as we know it (reflections on humanity)
1. Elisabeth Costello by J.M. Coetzee containing reflections on how African authors see their role and the perception of it by non-African authors
2. Emmaüs by Alessandro Baricco
3. Dans der verdoemden by Antonio Lobo Antunes on the behaviour of rich people when the pater familias is dying.
4. XY by Sandro Veronesi, on the difference between understanding and believing
5. Sprakeloos by Tom Lanoye on the decline of a human being after a stroke
6. Summertime by J.M. Coetzee plenty of reflections on himself as a writer, a lover, a son, a family member
7. Was je maar hier by Graham Swift, on solitude and what loss of familymembers, suicide and war does with you.
8. Datumloze dagen by Jeroen Brouwers on parenthood and euthanasia

Category 9. : Places i travelled to appearing in books
1. Boek der rusteloosheid by Fernando Pessoa - Portugal, Lisbon city center
2. Goud by Dan Rhodes - Wales, Pembrokeshire coast path
3. Netherland by Joseph O'Neill - London, the Eye, the river walks
4. De tuinen van herinnering by Michel Quint - Normandy, France.
5. Post voor Mevrouw Bromley by Stefan Brijs - London, Boulogne sur Mer, France and Poperinge (Flanders)

Category 10. : Real fine drinks while you're reading
1. Goud by Dan Rhodes : "Old style bitter" and "Cwrw Santa" by Tomos Watkins
2. Netherland by Joseph O'Neill : Gruner Veltliner wine
3. Dieperik by Leo Pleysier : Westmalle trappist ale

Category 11. : Under 121 pages (to keep running my theme from previous challenges)
1. Io e te by Niccolo Ammaniti - actually 126 in the book, but text on sure less then 121 pages since the first page of text is numbered 11 ...
2. Valentino by Natalia Ginzburg - only 53 pages
3. Novecento by Alessandro Baricco - 95 pages, it all seem to be italians writing these short gems.
4. First love by Samuel Beckett - 94 pages
5. Hoe het licht wandelt by Jozef Deleu - 69 pages
6. Je gaat te vaak naar Heidelberg by Heinrich Böll - 94 pages
7. Dieperik by Leo Pleysier - 111 pages
8. De tuinen van herinnering by Michel Quint - 76 pages

Welcome to the challenge and good luck!

and here we go : number 1 : Kaalslag by Bohumil Hrabal, strange narration style : the narrator is the author's wife, minimising all the time the authorship of her husband and to the contrary putting forward his binge drinking and eating style. Never read before a book in which the authors lets a third party tell a story about the author himself.

I noticed I can be quite inspiring ;-) Good luck!

Happy New Year. And thank you for the Nicole Krass article - I haven't had the opportunity to read it yet as I've been away, but will read it soon.

Glad to see you are doing the category challenge again this year. You are ahead of me so far with one book read as I'm still on my first of the year, although I should finish it on the way home.

Looking forward to seeing what you read in 2011.

to lkernagh, Jebronse and Sanddancer,
glad to see you all here, i'll do my best, for the moment i'm reading Het boek der rusteloosheid by Fernando Pessoa, some fifty pages read and already convinced that this will be a very important book to me, the stuff he tells about dreaming and ordinary daily life are so close to what i am thinking also ... amazing.

To Sanddancer, that's a good one, on being ahead of you in the challenge, i'll enjoy it for the short time it will last :-)

number 2 : Boek der rusteloosheid by Fernando Pessoa, disturbing, dark, bleak but also by times witty, sharp-sighted and intriguing. More then once i told myself, yes this is what i think as well but don't misunderstand me, i'm an optimist.
To be honest, i will still have to read some fragments, as it is not a real story, it can be perfectly used as "read in between" or "read when you only have 10 minutes". I rather like a book like that from time to time.

3: Io e te by Niccolo Ammaniti, a short novel on two youngsters, one "not fitting" in this life and pretending to fit however, the other one already way out and addicted to the wrong stuff. Some very nice allegories and again, as very often with Ammaniti, humour woven through the most desperate social situations. A small masterpiece.

I still haven't read anything by Niccolo Ammaniti, but I really must give him a try this year.

I liked the one of his that I've read so far, I'm Not Scared, and have another, As God Commands aka The Crossroads, on my tbr shelves. Hopefully, I'll get to the second one this year.

to AHS-Wolfy : As God Commands is for me one of the more intriguing novels i've read, the mix and balance between hilarious stuff and social drama is unique.
to Sanddancer : yes, you should ;-) and I'm not scared is a very good start

4 : Elisabeth Costello by J.M. Coetzee, a strange collection of stories on the female alter ego of Coetzee, depicted as Australian writer wrestling with some of the great thematics in authorship. Nice themes like reality and how it is described in literature as an opposite against pure philosophy.

5 : Emmaüs by Alessandro Baricco, a truly brilliant short novel on love, friendship, social status, religion and in this context the coming of age of four youngsters all madly bewitched by one girl. All in a subdued story, very well written. Baricco at his best.

And finally number 6, after a lot of professional worries and readings, finally a nice book again : The road home by Rose Tremain. By its moments a truly heartbreaking story of an East European immigrant in London trying to rebuild his life and winning back a future. Funny, sad and everything in between but with a rather weak end to the story.

7 : Goud by Dan Rhodes, a truly lovely book ! A fine, easy read, depicting a few non events in a small Welsh village. The coast and the coastpath in Pembrokeshire play a big part and that is particularly fine for me because with my family i already spent twice my holidays there.
The end leaves me a bit dazed, am i interpreting it well and is Grindl leaving Miyuki ? Sad.
The beers mentionned in the book invite me to start a drinks category again ... not the Brains but the Old Style Bitter and the Cwrw Santa.

number 8 : Dans der verdoemden by Antonio Lobo Antunes, a raw story about a rich family in decline, afraid of the Portugese revolution, afraid of one another and hunting for the last money left.
A difficult read, a lot of subordinate clauses that are sometimes real beauties but sometimes just making you lose the story. Endless sentences depicting the rage of thoughts of the narrating characters that are never named and changing from chapter to chapter.
Intriguing by its theme but not directly convincing to read again something of Antunes ... i'll need some other books before.

9 : Valentino by Natalia Ginzburg : a short novel on a brother and sister, narrated by the sister, depicting their social situation and the rise and fall of the brother his social status. Homosexuality was clearly not yet in the open at the time of writing. Nice small book but too distant in setting to really get a grip on me.

10 : XY by Sandro Veronesi, intriguing story about a dramatic event in the Italian Dolomites and the different perceptions a priest and a psychoanalyst have on this event. Starts like a thriller but soon evolves to a double deep analysis of what our mind does with us under all, and especially unusual, circumstances. I like Veronesi, this is one of his better works but i still prefer Kalme Chaos that really blew me of my feet.

11 : Mr. Foe and Mrs. Barton by J.M. Coetzee, the sixth novel i read from Mr. Coetzee and, sadly so, not his best. An allegory on the famous Robinson Crusoe story and reflections on writing, being a writer, what is a story and so on. A bit too much an exercise and a bit too less a novel, and certainly not a captivating story like in his better novels.

12 : Novecento by Alessandro Baricco, another of his fine, tiny novels like Zijde. This time in fact a theatre text but very readable as a novel and a real gem. Baricco is for me one of the absolute masters of "talking in images" : what he describes can without any trouble be imagined by the reader. Beautiful.
I had to search for a long time to find this on the second hand market and i must say : it has been worth the wait.

Easy on the Italians, Lunar. I wouldn't like you to get a sunstroke or something ;-)

Hello Jeb, easy on Italians ? Look who's talking ! ;-)
And apart from the books : now my daughter even has an Italian boyfriend so ...
Still some other Italians to read ... and in serious doubt on buying some more, i see you have also been busy lately. Any particular recommendations ?

Tried Umberto Eco's De begraafplaats van Praag yet? You should.
Or maybe ask your son-in-law ;-)

Jeb, no i did not. I don't know if i like Eco, a bit too much a teacher and too little a storyteller for my taste.
By the way, seen the XY by Sandro Veronesi comments in Knack magazine ?
And my potential future son in law doesn't read ... anything :-(
My daughter is an addicted reader, so we'll see.

I read the book, not the Knack comments. I think I saw a quote somewhere, but I'm not sure.

And the boyfriend is probably excellent in more important stuff than reading ;-)

number 13 : Sprakeloos by Tom Lanoye, a memory recall of the author towards his parents, especially his mother, who lost her speech due to a brain stroke and is from then on slowly fading towards her death. Only when his father also dies, Lanoye feels able to tell this story. Lanoye is very famous in Flanders but this was my first work that i read from him. somehow i was never attracted to his work before. My brother's wife recommended me the book, much obliged. I really liked it, due to the family story in an era which brings a lot of similar memories to me.

14 : First love by Samuel Beckett, in this edition (Dutch, Atlas - twentieth century) a collection of 4 short stories. Beckett stays an icon in absurd theater but here in these short stories he's just weird, a bit too much and yet also sometimes hilarious like in this fragment of the story "The tranquillizer" : "a good night full of nightmares and a tin of sardines would repair my sensitivity".
First love is the last of the four short stories in this edition and it is the best one.
I'll never forget his fascination for excrements though.

and 15 : Hoe het licht wandelt by Jozef Deleu, a great anthology of a great poet and cultural philosopher, Jozef Deleu. Busy with language and nationality without being a nationalist. He lives in Belgium on the what we call "language border" between the Dutch and the French speaking communities and has an open mind towards both. In this poems it's very clear that he masters the language as no one else. Fantastic rhythm and not one word too much.

16 : De brug met drie bogen by Ismail Kadare, a very well written book on a bridge as image between past and current times, symbol for change and revolution. As usual Kadare is again a master in depicting the small edges of people, their petty-bourgeois attitude and their gossip stories set to a background of the building of a bridge over a river, changing forever the lives of the locals.

17 : Netherland by Joseph O'Neill, a strange book, a strange story jumping back and forwards in time. A real hype, at least here in Belgium some 2 years ago, so waited a little while to read it and .... like so many hypes a bit disappointing for me. If you are a cricket fan and / or if you lived in New York for a while then ... i can understand that this book is appealing but if you're not and if you haven't then it is only a kind of a weird story about a couple being together, or not, or back together ... in one word : strange.

Hello there. I was intrigued by Netherland when it came out but then read some not so good reviews by other people so was put off. I keep seeing it in the library and charity shops now, but still haven't got around to reading it and your review hasn't made me want to rush out for it.

The Beckett stories sound interesting...

Hello Sanddancer, long time no postings by you in this challenge, reading other stuff i imagine. Beckett is for me far more interesting then Netherland. It's not bad, certainly not, but not one of my favorites. Reading Coetzee again at this time, much better.

I haven't updated my challenge in a long time, but the last month I have hardly read any books - been too gripped by the newspapers.

after repainting and redecorating the entire house and a lot of professional reading, finally number 18 : Summertime by J.M. Coetzee. Part 3 of some autobiographical writings by Coetzee, strange for me since i haven't read the other two parts. As always with Coetzee very stilish writing, not gripping by its theme this time but still a fine read.
This challenge is of course going nowhere for me with only 18 books in 7 months but hey ... participating is more important then ...

number 19 : De samenzwering by Imre Kertész, a short novel on dictators, secret police forces and their habits of torture, evidence fraud and the sad end of all this. Written in the typical Kertész style, dragging the reader in the story.

number 20 : i still register my books but the challenge will be waisted : i will get nowhere with my lists but who cares, participating etc...
Vrijheid by Jonathan Franzen : a good book, an ingenious construction, depicting the complexitiy of the ethical choices modern generations are confronted with but .... it could have been told in, let's say, some 100 to 150 pages less, in my very humble opinion. It doesn't give me a lot of courage to read other 600 pages turfs ...
And although i liked the book very much, the end is really awful for me, such a tormented story of life for Walter and then this ending ... Is this something for Americans, is a happy end somewhat mandatory or what ?

21 : Je gaat te vaak naar Heidelberg by Heinrich Böll : a collection of short stories with no direct link between them. Some themes are clear however : anti-war, anti-military, the loner against the system and the stupidities of the systems based on ideologies taken too far by the men behind the systems.
Böll, however clearly on the left of the ideologic spectrum is a master in the ironic viewpoint and for example in the story "confession of a plane hijacker" he shows the stupidity of systems through a remark on shoe polish. A real beaty.
Overall, i think Böll wrote these short stories, because he loves this method to exercise (or show ?) the beauty of writing. Bellettrie is the correct french word.

22 : Was je maar hier by Graham Swift. A fantastic novel and one of the better books i read this year. Despair, solitude, loneliness and the thin layers of happiness that lie over it are seldom so well described as here by Swift. His best book for me.
The biggest chain of bookstores in Flanders, Belgium : Standaard Boekhandel decided not to sell this book, why? Shame on you !

23 : Dieperik by Leo Pleysier. A short novel on a family history using vocabulary from bach then and really never gripping for me as claimed by the critics. Sure, Pleysier can write, but his earlier work is much more appealing for me.
Fits in 3 categories, so my challenge is looking a (little) bit better :-)

24 : Gestameld Liedboek by Erwin Mortier : a novel on the Alzheimer disease suffered by the author's mother and the authors feelings around this. Emotional and touching by moments, not a story but fragments and memories, beautifully translated into words and sentences.

number 25 : De tuinen van herinnering by Michel Quint, a short novel on a boys father, hero in the war, and reliving it in a strange way. Could be a very strong story, but the way it is told makes it a bit stupid for me. French litterature seems to be problematic with me, on the exception of some enigmatic authors like Duras.

26 : Datumloze dagen by Jeroen Brouwers, an uptempo novel, my first that i read by this author and a hit : in timeswitching parts (no chapters) the authors goes from his current situation, walking in the woods behind his house, to an imaginary past life from becoming a father against his will to be mourning on the bedside of his dying son. A lot of autobiografic elements in it for sure but not always clear who is Brouwers and who not. Intriguing read for sure and tantalising to read more of Brouwers.

27: Post voor mevrouw Bromley by Stefan Brijs : a very nice novel on the friendship between two boys, splitted up by the first World War, when one of them joins the army. Very beautiful descriptions on how the war gets to everyone and how to handle all their emotions. Empathy, love, manipulation, meaningless violence, compassion, ... are only a few of the themes handled in this book. Less gripping then his previous one De Engelenmaker but still very good.