#35 Follow Friday with book bloggers: LILLELARA

2018-04-06 18:37

Hello Friday! Hello Follow Friday with book bloggers. Meet a blogger behind the LILLELARA blog. If you're curious what the blog title means, keep on reading!

Follow LILLELARA on BookLikes: http://lillelara.booklikes.com/

What are you reading right now? How do you like it?

I started Yoon Ha Lee´s Ninefox Gambit, a confusing military science fiction novel. Not sure what to think of it yet and not sure if I´m going to finish it. I just finished Kerry Greenwood´s Cocaine Blues and this one annoyed the heck out of me. And then I´m still listening to the audiobook of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. This book will never be my favorite Harry Potter, since Harry and Ron are not on speaking terms with each other for a considerable part of the novel. But the narration by Stephen Fry is brilliant as always and I like the darkness of the story. And the final chapters are so sad, gripping and amazing.

How did your book love begin?

I discovered my book love about 7 years ago at the age of 30, when I purchased my very first Kindle. Suddenly I started reading in earnest and instead of 5 books per year, I read 50 books per year. Whenever I had some time to spare, I spend it with a book (an e-book) in my hands. But don´t ask me what has happened back then to ignite the passion for reading in me. I simply don´t know.

Your blog name is “LILLELARA”. Can you tell us more about the phrase?

Lille and Lara were the names of two of my adorable cats. I have always been responsible for naming our cats and I´m giving them the most nonsensical names. There was Musch, one of Musch´s kittens I called Præstegård (the Danish word for a parsonage) and then I named Lille as well (lille means small in Danish). We got Lara from an animal shelter, I obviously didn´t get to name her. But in the spirit of giving cats stupid names, I always called her pimsiwimsi, or abbreviated pims. As you can see, there isn´t a deeper meaning behind my blogname.

We’ve spotted a book-to-movie tag on your blog. Is movie watching your second passion next to reading?

I haven´t done a lot of book-to-movie posts, but they are always a whole lot of fun to do. I love watching movies, even though I´m not watching as many movies (and series for that matter) as I used to. I recently watched the movie adaption of Jeff VanderMeer´s Annihilation. I really didn´t like the book, the movie however is mesmerizing and visually stunning. I highly recommend watching the movie instead of reading the book.

The book cover vs the movie poster

You live in Germany but you’re blog is in English. Do you read books in those two languages? If so can you tell our readers how the language affects the book experience?

I try to read books in the language they are originally written in, which in my case is doable for German, Danish and English books. Books tend to lose some of their magic when they are getting translated. Just thinking about Juli Zeh´s Unterleuten makes we wonder, how someone could possibly translate this book into another language without altering the meaning of certain sentences. It´s a joy to read books by skilled German authors, who have a grasp on the language and know how to construct a proper sentence. If an author doesn´t have this skill, German can be an incredibly stilted language and those books become a tedious reading experiences.

And this is exactly the reason, why I´m reading more books in English than in German. It´s incredibly hard to find well-written German books among the masses of poorly written ones and my reading taste doesn´t align with the general taste of my fellow countrymen. I was looking at a bestseller list today and almost half of the list were crime books, set in a specific German region (so called Regionalkrimis). And most of these books are incredibly bad and poorly written.

How much time do you spend reading daily?

It depends on my spare time, the book that I´m reading and my general mind set. I´m reading at least an hour a day, but it can be much more than that.

Your bookshelf is full of different book genres. What are you favorite genres? Why are they special?

My favorite genre got to be science-fiction. I love learning about different cultures and technologies and how we sometimes can learn something about our own culture by reading a book set in a futuristic world. I have read some incredibly good books in this genre and I have so many more to explore.

Besides science-fiction I´m reading almost anything. Classics, historical fiction, mysteries, psychological thrillers, literary fiction, non-fiction. I´m willing to give at least every genre a try. Even fantasy and romance, which are my least favorite genre.

Why reading is important to you?

Reading is incredibly relaxing and it is my way to reduce stress. I´m an introvert and I´m working in a job where I´m talking to people all day long. Being alone with a book after a long day at work is liberating and reading is something I´m doing for me and not for other people.

What are you three favorite book covers?

I love this specific Mary Stewart cover of Nine Coaches Waiting. Every time I look at it I want to sit in a cabriolet, driving through the mountains in France, heading towards an adventure of a lifetime.

The Penguin English Library editions are so pretty. They are all gorgeous, but my favorite is the edition of Far from the Madding Crowd.

And I really like the Patricia Highsmith covers by Virago, especially this one because of its simplicity:

How do you choose your next book to read?

I´m one big mood reader. I choose my next book on a complete whim.

Which books are you most excited recommending to your followers?

Chernobyl Prayer by Svetlana Alexievich. It´s infuriating, harrowing, devastating, saddening and bloody fantastic.

A book that changed your life?

My most dreaded question and I´m going to be a bore with this one. I can´t think of a book that has changed my life. I will name two books, however, that changed my reading life. Cloud Atlas and A Place of Greater Safety. These two books made me realize that there isn´t an English book out there that is too difficult to read.

A paper book or an e-book?

A couple of years ago I only read e-books, nowadays I prefer paper books. There is something satisfying in holding a physical book in your hands and to see the progress you are making.

Three titles for a sunny spring day?

Three books from different genres, all of them exciting and fun to read. Perfect for a sunny spring day:

Favorite quote?

“If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.”

Albert Einstein

If you could pair a book with a drink, what would you prepare to sip while reading?

Red wine. I really like red wine. If someone could invent a non-alcoholic beverage with the same taste as a good red wine, I would be in heaven. But since this drink doesn´t exist, I´m drinking ordinary water on a workday and treat myself to a glass of wine on the weekend.

Shelfie time! Please share your home library photos :)

My first shelf contains all of my Christie´s, my read non-fiction books and my Harry Potter books:

Picture Christie-Shelf