Empty nightstand
Posted by Lanea on Thursday, September 8th, 2005
What the heck should I read now? I re-read all of the Harry Potter books, I finished Lidie Newton, and I have just poetry and fiber-arts history on my plate at the moment. I need something, you know, lighter. Not stuff-I-don’t-bother-with light, but not Chaos theory heavy. Especially not now. I have a shelf full of stuff to read but am apparently incapable of making up my mind at the moment.
In the interim, I’m listening to lots of Scandinavian music again. Is Finland part of Scandinavia today? Anyway–Swedes and Finns all up in my ears with the tight harmonies. Check ’em out. Vartinna, Garmarna, Hedningarna. Why do I like them so much, you ask? I’ll show you why. . . Finnish songs are the awesome, and you can legally have this awesome Finnish song FOR FREE:
Oi Dai
Kuin oisin omilla mailla
oman pellon pientarilla,
oi dai oman pellon
oman pellon pientarilla.
Toisin lintu laulelisin,
toisin kukkusin käkönen,
oi dai toisin…
Omat kuuset kuuntelisi,
omat oppisi petäjät,
oi dai omat…
Nyt oon mailla vierahilla,
tuiki tuntemattomila,
oi dai tuiki…
Miss ei lennä meien linnut,
eikä vaaku mein varikset,
oi dai eikä…
Mihin jouvun mie polonen,
jouvu in joutsen-joukostani,
oi dai jouvuin…
Haihuin hanhiparvestani,
haihuin hanhiparvestani
oi dai haihuin…
Tok mie lintu laulelisin,
sekä kukkusin käkönen,
oi dai sekä…
Which apparently means:
I wish I was back home.
I, the cuckoo,
would sing in a different way.
The spruces would listen to me.
The pine trees would learn from me
Now I’m in a foreign land
and can no longer hear my crows.
I left from my flock of swans,
I vanished from my flock of geese.
Some Crazy someone suddenly feels the need to learn a whole bunch of Finnish.
Filed in Books | 6 responses so far
Christyon 08 Sep 2005 at 5:34 pm 1Didn’t see a spot to recommend books on your survey, but if you’re interested try British humorous/satirist Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Series. It is wonderful and many of the books satire everything from Shakespere to current events. They is not a heavy read but they are an addicting read. Love your blog btw.
minnieon 09 Sep 2005 at 12:02 am 2try diana gabaldon. if you like romance with a bit of a satyrical bite, and some time travel thrown in, it’s quite good. and the sex isn’t that namby pamby “he ripped her bodice in his excitement”. real stuff. and the hero is delish! and scottish. yummy! gee, do ya think i like these books? it’s also interesting from a historical standpoint (these start just before the ’45, and the one that’s coming out later this month is pre-revolutionary war)
Laneaon 09 Sep 2005 at 9:03 am 3Thanks for the suggestions. I haven’t read any books from either series.
Jaymeon 09 Sep 2005 at 9:37 am 4I second Diana Gabaldon and you can borrow them from me. And if you completely fall in love with the series you can meet her and get the newest book early at the LOC Bookfest with me. Let me know and I could bring it by for you.
Jayme
fillyjonkon 09 Sep 2005 at 4:17 pm 5Finnish is actually very different from the other Scandinavian (Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, and I think there’s one or two “extinct” ones) languages; Finnish is actually (IIRC) a different language family. Not so far afield as to be non-Indo-European (I could be wrong on that) but it sticks in my mind that it’s more closely allied to stuff like Estonian and Magyar than the Scandinavian languages. (That is a vague memory from my college linguistics class.
I find Scandinavian music interesting but I have to be in the right mood to listen to it. I can’t be at all depressed or it makes me spiral down further.
(I don’t just know biology 😉 )
As for books, the ones I’m pushing on people these days are:
Doomsday Book – Connie Willis (A time-travel novel about the Plague. Fascinating but also absolutely impossible to put down once you get a few pages in).
Krakatoa – Simon Winchester (A non-fiction about the volcanic eruption in 1883 but also about a whole lot more. One of those “everything is connected” type books).
Bird by Bird – Anne Lamott (The only “self help” book I didn’t wind up hurling across the room. It’s about writing – but not just about writing – and she has some great lines in there about freeing yourself to write a sh*tty first draft and turning off “Radio KFKD”)
Middlemarch – George Eliot. (Yes, it’s hugacious, and yes, it was written in the 1800s, and yes it is chock-a-block with subplots and diversions. But I love it almost more than any book I’ve ever read.)
Laneaon 13 Sep 2005 at 2:55 pm 6Finno-Ugric is it’s name, er, type, whatever. And it’s arguably one of the hardest languages in the world to learn. Peachy.