last chance saloon

I hereby proudly admit to having finished a brick of a book in a couple of weeks. So so many years since that happened. Too many years. The reading  mojo might indeed be back.

The book in question was neither Pessl nor Rowling, because those two do not get me in a good mood for a decent night's sleep. But read through they'll be, one of these days.

No the book I finished was one of the gazillions I pick up in thrift stores regularly, to read or to leave for Bookcrossing. Seemed like a light read, haven't read a book by Marian Keyes in ages. Outgrown that kind of chiclit perhaps. Plus I remember weight obsession always played a rather substantial part of her stories and that's something I find hugely irritating. And a vast amount of alcohol being consumed, equally annoying. But hey, why not give it a go, maybe it wasn't so bad?

Admittedly I was about to put it away after some chapters due to that weight obsession showing its ugly head, and all the drinking, taking the fun out of the reading. But somewhere along the way I was drawn into the story just the same.

And the more I read, the more I saw features from myself in the two main characters, Katherine and Tara. Mild features, yet features I'm not very proud of. Features that would do well being improved on. So I couldn't stop reading. And smiling and even laughing on the odd page. 

It was an enjoyable read, even if it had been even better with less weight issues and alcohol naturally, a little dose of Keyes now and then will be alright. I think I already have a bunch of thrift books of hers to get my easy read fix.

And first brick novel in ages, for me, hey that says something! Welcome mojo ~

little miss bookcrossing helper

i was pretty good at leaving bookcrossing books here and there during all of 2012, in helsinki, gdansk and budapest too.

but for this last month, when i've been rubbish at it, all out of registered/labelled books. not too keen on that bit. though i do have a big bag of second hand books that need just that, when that's done (asap) i'm sure 2013 will be a nice bookcrossing year too.

how can it not be, with such a little miss bookcrossing helper with a paw?

edit - noticed that there wasn't a single comment to my first bookcrossing post two years ago, thus i still would love to know your views on it, like i did then;

are you a member of bookcrossing?
for how long? 
do you enjoy it? 
do you just leave books or do you pick some up too, to read?
have you found a travelling bookcrossing book? 
was it a good read? 

and there was sunday

Admittedly I have not spent all weekend in this position, with this view, alas. But the hour or so I did was quite lovely. And cafés that offer position and views like this, then things like the cakes they have are far better looking than they taste doesn't matter all that much (surprisingly so).

And overall it has been quite a decent kind of weekend; great Saturday lunch, book thrifting - I really need to do some more Bookcrossing again -, charity shopping (not only of a fab yabba-dabba-doo skirt), decent soy latte, writing, photo editing and uploading to Flickr - soon there will be posts about Gdansk, Sopot and all that - writing, cat cuddles, new nailpolish, sleeping and planning the upcoming week.

I hope you've had a refreshing August weekend too ~

and we are home again

Back in Sweden, back home. It feels awesome to sleep in one's own bed, have the cups of tea just the way I like them, cuddle with furries and just be me, here and now. But it was a brilliant trip, actually one of the best holidays yet I've been on. It may have been the company of bobbaloos, it may have been other factors. But them bobs have been so much fun (mostly, not counting the incident with them raiding the hotelroom bar and a few times of too much caffeine) and overall very pleasant fellow travellers.

All and all, so much experienced, so much seen, new and old, so many photos taken, great food - including one, if not THE, best meal I've had so far and it was vegan and partly raw food. Of course more of that to come in a pretty post of its own - great coffee, lovely shopping, including too many a few fine shoes, lots of Bookcrossing, being inspired, being uplifted, being tired and exhausted by all the walking, driving and too little sleep, having overall very good weather (never too hot and never raining). Lots of lovely loveliness, since I have been able to be quite good at staying in the mindfullness of here and now. Mostly.

In the end it was just too laborious to try and connect with the computer during the time away, so the Internet connection was strictly iPhoneic hence no blogging. I've regularly uploaded iPhone snaps to Flickr, but now commence the downloading, uploading, editing of the 'real deal'. Which will take its sweet time...

There are hundreds of stories to tell, thousands of photos to show, but for now, a few beach snaps which, surprisingly amidst all the citiness of this trip, symbolize treasured golden moments during the very same trip.

PS The bobbaloos have also made a new little green Danish friend, he's called Hoptimist Baby Bumble Little Lime. A very happy, bouncy li'l fella. I'm hoping too that he'll have a positive influence on not only the bobs (as if they need that, bah!) but on my imminent future, come end of vacation time in a couple of weeks. DS

refurn

The week before Christmas last year we visited a Christmas fair/Refurn open warehouse at Stjärnhov in December 2010.

The idea behind ReFurn (which is a clever little name) is reduce-reuse-recycle. They have a store in a Stockholm suburb (so far haven't visited there) as well as this huge warehouse a couple of hours drive south of Stockholm, an old barn situated at the manor named Stjärnhov (stjärna = star, hov = court or hoof). ReFurn has apparently been around since 1994, but I only heard about it last year or so. They've also won environmental prices for their work.

The barn (which very much still looked and smelled like one, it was all very authentic and quite charming, despite the bitter cold) was absolutely brimming with fantastic stuff. And not so fantastic too of course. But why buy new furniture when there's a goldmine of recycled things that look awesome as they are and things that would look great with a coat of paint or some other nifty upcycling?

love this sofa,
cats would destroy it without
a moments of fur-hesitation

once upon an analog time...

There was a shoe per diem moment. There was the shopping of a red lampshade, books for bookcrossing and there was an armchair, a fabulous armchair that will have its own post tomorrow-ish. Yes it was all very enlightening and lovely. Definitely also a place to (re)visit or donate one's old furniture and stuff too.

ReFurn
Ulvsundavägen 151, Bromma (Stockholm)
Stjärnhovs Säteri, Gnesta
how to get there

bookcrossing

Today I shared my first two books as part of the Bookcrossing project. Exciting that was. Yes, for quite some time now I've been meaning to share some favourite (or just plain worth reading) books through the Bookcrossing.com site. I pick up second hand pocket editions when I find them at charity shops and such. My aim has been to properly register and label them via Bookcrossing.com, but I've never gotten around to actually do that. Until now.

Hopefully some people who like to read will find the books, understand the idea of it all (books all labelled, with simple instructions on the cover too) and enjoy reading the books over Christmas. I very much like the notion of giving a literary Christmas experience to a stranger.

I did have plans to share a couple of books every day this week, but unfortunately I realized some remained in handbag when I got home. And it's no fun leaving them all on trains or buses.

At the moment Sweden has 6819 Bookcrossing members. Numbers which don't sound a lot compared to Australia's 33736, Canada's 42497, France's 13949, Germany's 47831, Italy's 21446, Netherland's 15685, Spain's 33684, England 78886 and of course USA's 314587. Of course those numbers of members probably reflect respective country's population numbers too.

Sweden does have about twice as many Bookcrossing members as Japan, Austria, Norway, Greece, Mexico and Ireland. And approximately the same amount as Brazil, Finland and Portugal. For some reason I find this membership-number-list quite interesting to browse. When you look at the different provinces of Sweden, two of them stand out, for unknown reasons, with over 1000 members each. Stockholm has only 378. Myself I have so far never found a Bookcrossing book anywhere here or elsewhere.

My current bookshelf at Bookcrossing can be found here. I'm now impatiently awaiting someone to register they've actually found one of my (so far five) shared books...

Are you a member of Bookcrossing? Do you enjoy it? Have you found a travelling Bookcrossing book? Was it a good read? Questions, questions, I'm curious to hear some answers...