Rosa Reads

In which Rosa, a Yorkshire-born-and-Yorkshire-bred English Literature undergraduate at the University of St Andrews in Scotland with an unhealthy book obsession and a penchant for all things literary, reads...

And blogs about it.

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theme by Conkers

 
Right kids, I’m travelling for the rest of the summer, and I need some advice. I’m going via Hull to Rotterdam/Northern Germany/Denmark/Sweden/Norway, then working at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, then I have a few days in Cornwall. So, I’m going to need a good solid lot of reading material. When I’m in Denmark and Sweden I’ll be with my family, so I’m sharing some books by Swedish authors with my mother (I inherited the whole ‘theme your reading whilst you travel’ thing from her). And I’m certainly bringing Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse with me to Cornwall. But aside from that, I want your opinions! So, this is the selection - I can probably fit about five of them into my bags. Tell me which five! IQ84 (Books I and II) - Haruki Murakami Out of Africa - Karen Blixen (or Isak Dinesen) When God Was a Rabbit - Sarah Winman The Informers - Brett Easton Ellis The Finkler Question - Howard Jacobson Washington Square - Henry James The Player of Games - Iain M. Banks Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys There is No Dog - Meg Rosoff The Bees - Carol Ann Duffy (poetry) So, what would you have me read?

Right kids, I’m travelling for the rest of the summer, and I need some advice. I’m going via Hull to Rotterdam/Northern Germany/Denmark/Sweden/Norway, then working at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, then I have a few days in Cornwall.

So, I’m going to need a good solid lot of reading material. When I’m in Denmark and Sweden I’ll be with my family, so I’m sharing some books by Swedish authors with my mother (I inherited the whole ‘theme your reading whilst you travel’ thing from her). And I’m certainly bringing Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse with me to Cornwall. But aside from that, I want your opinions!

So, this is the selection - I can probably fit about five of them into my bags. Tell me which five!

  • IQ84 (Books I and II) - Haruki Murakami
  • Out of Africa - Karen Blixen (or Isak Dinesen)
  • When God Was a Rabbit - Sarah Winman
  • The Informers - Brett Easton Ellis
  • The Finkler Question - Howard Jacobson
  • Washington Square - Henry James
  • The Player of Games - Iain M. Banks
  • Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys
  • There is No Dog - Meg Rosoff
  • The Bees - Carol Ann Duffy (poetry)

So, what would you have me read?

Right readers,

I’m off a-travellin’. I have many books with me, including the Murakami that was so big I had to pack an extra bag just to be able to fit it in.

I promise to blog whenever there’s wi-fi, and I promise to read lots so that I can provide lots of lovely reviews and literary adventures for you guys.

Have wonderful summers, wherever they may be - and make sure you read something that isn’t Fifty Shades of Gray!

I went to Paris and did some stuff and saw some things. Here are the ones relevant to Rosa Reads.

I have a wonderful human being in my acquaintance known as Morgan (because that is his name). I met him here at St Andrews, but he’s currently on a year abroad at the Sorbonne in Paris. Which is, y’know, pretty bloody cool. Just before Christmas, I went to go visit him and have all sorts of literary adventures. Here, have some photos:

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The literary geek in me found it absolutely hilarious that inside the Panthéon Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas and Emile Zola are just having a constant slumber party. This is their shared tomb:

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And here is the obligatory picture of me outside Shakespeare and Co. We also went inside, where I spent far too long in the poetry section and then wrote the url for this blog on the back of a metro ticket and stuck it inside the little upstairs booth where you’re supposed to leave messages.

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I also did a bunch of non-literary things involving mulled wine, the Eiffel Tower, French onion soup, the metro, various old buildings, tramping around for hours on feet that felt like they were going to fall off, and beer. But all that is for a non-book blog. In compensation for the lack of these things, however, have a picture of me and the new best friend I found at the palace of Versailles:

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