... in books

In my mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi from The Story Siren. IMM takes place every Sunday and is to tell other bloggers about the books we got this last week.

The different approaches to this weekly meme are always wonderful to watch. Many bloggers post a video (I love love love Kristi’s and Daisy’s videos), some post pictures and detailed description about their books. You can really participate in every possible way you can think of.

I thought about participating for a long time now but the main source for good English books – and I mostly read English books – here in Austria is Amazon. I recently became aware that book depo ships to Austria as well so maybe I will try this in the near future.

That is one of the main reasons why I don’t get so many new books per week and why I sometimes have bookless weeks - yes, plural. Maybe it is the best for my budget and my shelf space, which is so limited at the moment, but I envy all bloggers who get so many books per week and I am frantically scribbling notes while watching IMM vlogs and blog hopping each Sunday.

But finally this week I decided that I will participate in Kristi’s “In my mailbox” from now on. There might be weeks when I have nothing really to post so I am sure that my IMM posts won’t be regularly but whenever I got something new to share with you I will do so on Sunday.

This week I received three books from Amazon. They had a special offer – 3 books for 15 Euro! Who would I be if I would not have bought anything? 

I bought the following books:

• Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith and Jane Austen
• How to become a Staright-A Student by Cal Newport

I hear a lot good things about Armistead Maupin’s “Tales of the City” so I finally bought the first – really excited to read this one.

I read the blurb of “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” many times and I was never really sure if I want to read it. But in September I read Gail Carriger’s book “Soulless” and I was hooked. So I thought I might give Zombies I try and I always loved the original “Pride and Prejudice”. Will definitely tell you what I thought about it after I read it (might take a while though).

The last book, Cal Newport’s “How to become a Straight-A Student” is a typical buy for me. I love reading stuff about minimizing your study efforts, managing your study skills, time management, etc. I need to buy everything that could help me study less, spend less time working for university and managing my time in a better way. Strangely I read all of my study skills books and I am still not better with organizing my time and my studies. Maybe it is not enough to just read the books. Who knows?

That’s all from me this week! I am really looking forward to reading/watching all the other IMM posts and I will hopefully participate again soon!

... in color

Shortly after midnight on a Saturday night and I can’t sleep! Haunted by insomnia!

But the really pathetic thing is that I stayed at home tonight. 25 years old and at home on a Saturday night.

So, I can’t sleep right now and what better thing to do than blog about it …

I thought about different things to do right now while lying in the dark and I came up with these options:

• rearranging my bookshelf – could be a bit disturbing in the middle of the night. I would need a ladder and what would happen if I accidentally drop a book? So, not the best idea so far!
• watching a movie – good idea BUT no good movie on TV and no DVD that appealed to me.
• lying in the dark, wondering why I can’t sleep, why my sleep rhythm is totally out of control, listening to clocks ticking?
• clean? NO WAY!
• read a book? Good idea! Which book? I actually finished mine yesterday evening and I spent the whole Saturday at my grandma’s birthday party (bit boring but I couldn’t sit there and read) so I would need a new book to start and I cannot decide which one right now…I mean, people please, it’s after midnight!
• blogging! Good idea! Bore people with my insomnia and ramble on and on about it and about all the different options how to spend my time in a useful way.

As you can read I took the last option, rambled on and on about my inability to sleep and bored you all to death (?)! Okay, hopefully not!

So far so good but I still cannot sleep…maybe I should look for a book to read because I am running out of things to write…

Oh, by the way, if (and hopefully you do) you like my blog and are writing one yourself (either in English or German) and if you want to exchange links I would be happy about it. Just leave me a message in the comment section or write me an e-mail!

Now, I will look for a good book (any recommendations?) and will hopefully fall asleep eventually….so good night everyone and thanks for stopping by! 

Oh, by the way, does anyone know how to cure insomnia or do you have a special trick to fall asleep – a really boring book maybe (so like the encyclopedia on mealworms? no offense biology freaks)?

... in books

I am sure many of you read David Nicholls „One Day“ and since today I am one of you!

I bought this book in August while I was in London but I haven’t started reading it until about a month ago. Right now I have difficulties with sticking to a book and I tend to drift in and out of reading it. “One Day” took me nearly a month to finish which is untypical for me. Normally I read 400 pages in less than a week if university is not that stressful (which it isn’t right now).

What really bothers me is that I am just not sure what to think about the book. The way it is written really appealed to me. I loved to be part of Dexter and Emma’s story. The book covers around 20 years of their lives if they are together or not. You take part in their lives on July 15^th each year which was the day after they graduated from college. You really experience their personal growth and problems they faced during this year and emotion is really well transported via the writing. Just a wonderful way of participating in the protagonists lives. The story is great as well. Okay, maybe Dex is a bit of a looser sometimes. I often wished that he gets his act together and starts his life and the same would apply to Emma during the first years after graduation. But hey, who am I to judge!

The bit that left me feeling unsure about the book is definitely the ending! I mean, how? why? what was he thinking? I know, I know it is not this picture perfect ending but I read it on public transport today and it almost made me cry. It simply was not the ending I expected. I left me kind of sad and unsatisfied. 

In Austria the film will be in cinemas from Friday on and I am not sure if I want to see it. I love Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess looks just gorgeous. I hope I’ll find someone who wants to see the film and then I will definitely watch it because I am so interested how and if they manage to film 20 years in two people’s lives with the same actors.

By the way, here is the trailer:

Have you read “One Day” or seen the movie already? What do you think about the books? Have you experienced the same or are you super happy about the way the story turned out? How is the movie? Is it worth seeing?  

... in color

My life in color is dedicated to random stuff and information or just me rambling on about life! So everything that I think does not fit into on of the other categories will be posted under the label "... in color".

Life’s a bit crazy around here! This last week was full of things to do. I had the feeling that I spent most of my time on public transport. From Monday on we had high fog here in Vienna and it hasn’t cleared yet – I hate hate hate it! I am so freaking tired all the time. I love living in the city but on days like these I would love to move somewhere sunny and warm. I envy all people in Australia and my family in New Zealand right now – they have summer there!

Tuesday is my long day at university – I only have two courses but on is in the morning and one in the evening so I have a long break in between which I normally spend with a good friend at her flat but this week I met a friend who is currently in Portugal and visited us this last week, afterwards I went to my friend’s flat, left it again to go to work for an hour (I am an English tutor), went back to the flat again, bought coffee on the way, picked up my friend and we went on public transport again (the 5^th time for me that day) and drove to university again. When I came home I was exhausted!

On Wednesday we had a national holiday here in Austria. I know that sounds super but friends of mine move that day and we helped them. We were about 15 people and we were so quick - I really have amazing friends - but my best friend and I stayed longer to help them rebuild a closet and a huge desk. The flat is beautiful. I am really looking forward to their home warming party.

Yesterday I met some people from university to write a paper, then went to work for an hour and afterwards I met my best friend for coffee. This was the perfect ending for that day.

I normally read a lot on public transport but not this week. I am not fully into reading mood right now. Maybe I am not reading the right books.   

Do you know that feeling? 

There are just some books that aren’t right for your current mood.

Hopefully the weekend will be quieter and I will find my motivation to read again. Until then I will leave you with the following quote by Paul Sweeney:

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