I have read more than a half already and I am getting bored.too slow -paced...

I think, you get other vibe /feelng for a book, when you read it where it plays in /written. I have the same thing when I've read Nygårdshaug:Some of his books were placed in the Røros rgion, where I lived for 5years...😄

I thought I was the only one who didn’t re-read books! Glad I’m not alone!! 😉

Cool thanks, your Murakami choice seems somehow appropriate for festival reading, it is pretty fantastical. I wanna read Just Kids.

Hah, at the very start, I just KNEW you would mention Roskilde, by Linn Strømsborg. Such a great book! You are should read OK, en til, by her. Anansi Boys is a spinoff. 😉 I have for some odd reason only read it once, shortly after it came out.

Enjoy the festival Øystein. It looks like quite a line up. Some great bands, Janes Addiction, The Breeders and Gaslight Anthem amongst them, a few of my faves. Much better than Glastonbury these days. Cheers!🍻

I thought Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury would be hard... I was wrong... it was damn near impenetrable. It's still an astonishing novel once I realized what Faulkner was doing and why, but I can't help but feel sorry for people in 1929 picking that novel up for the first time and trying to read it as if it was a normal novel. Still, I feel like it's one of those novels I could read a dozen times and not fully understand everything, but I'm OK with that because the experience of reading it is like the literary equivalent of listening to music; it generates meaning and emotion even if on an almost abstract level.

Take _War and Peace._ Always take along a family tree diagram of the families so you don't get lost.

Oooh I have the Maja Lunde one in Swedish on my bookshelf. I really want to read it, but I'm pretty sure it's still too advanced for my level. How annoying 😆 I'll probably have to read it in English first, but I might give it a go on audiobook and see how much I understand, just saw it was on Storytel 💛

I live in a small town in Australia called Yerrinbool. I live in a tiny home with the love of my life, a greyhound ex-racer named Billy-Blue. I'm writing an autobiographical verse-novel called 'Hounded' which is in part turning into a love letter to him - quirky. I am addicted to Sibelius. One of my life dreams is to attend a performance of 'Finlandia' in Helsinki. I adore the English utopian communist poet (William Morris), who wrote several books of translations of 'The Eddas', & of his horseback adventures through Iceland. Ah, the book feast.

I really look forward to following more of your adventure with books. Along with magical realism, I also read a lot of classics, fantasy & poetry (especially contemporary). Books galore!

I have to admit, I adore magical realism, it's so clever, nuanced & quirky. In Australia, one of our great classics is 'Cloudstreet' by Tim Winton, & this is a novel that has some features of magic realism. I am in love with 'Cloudstreet' so, have been drawn to magical realism as a genre most of my reading life: Neil Gaiman, Haruki Murakami, Isabel Allende, Laura Esquirel & Salman Rushdie are among my favourites. You're right, it's so good that we are all different, & escape artists at the same time.

Congratulations on the 2000 subscribers! 🎉

Congratulations on 2k subscribers! Well done, my friend! I'm glad I've been around for your journey!

2K subs!! 🎉 super proud of you, man! Way to grow your channel while you grow as a reader. That is what's up! I love ya and I still read a lot of it but I really don't like the romance. I don't like romance and books in general although I can tolerate it if it's not the whole plot but why a romance can be difficult to take or maybe it's just because I spent 20 years at a high school where I was surrounded by all the time and it made me roll my eyes just about out of my head on a daily basis. If I had a penny for every kid that I yelled at for making out in the hallway I could have retired when I was 40 ha ha ... BARF!

I don't think I would necessarily consider a writing style a trope that you can identify and put your finger on and talk about. Ditto for setting. I absolutely LOVE Twin Peaks and when it was on in the very early 90s it was all I talked about to anyone who would listen. I also had the soundtrack on cassette and pretty much wore the tape out. Much to the dismay of most of the people who were stuck in the car with me hahaha

I knew when I started watching your channel that is would grow quickly! 🎉Congratulations!! I also don’t pick books solely by tropes - however I don’t like the “miscommunication” troupe! A 2 minute conversation with another character would resolve it all! 😕

Woohoo, congratulations on hitting 2k subscribers!!! 🥳 Where are the celebratory balloons? (every excuse to get balloons!) Oh yeah, also felt that more characters should have died in Acomaf -- otherwise, it just feels like the stakes were not that high, and the tension collapses on itself like a failed soufflé. That was a very interesting discussion. I would not have considered a lot of the literary fiction category as tropes, or at least hadn't until this point. This made me realize that I pretty much only hear people talking about tropes regarding romance (enemies to lovers, surprise pregnancy, fake dating, etc) and, to a lesser extent, fantasy (the chosen one, young human girl with very old fae male...). It doesn't mean people don't speak about it regarding other genres but I haven't been exposed to those discussions as much if at all. I can easily imagine tropes in thrillers for example. Maybe I associate it more with genre fiction? At least, tropes feel very tied to the plot for me, so I agree with you that I wouldn't consider the writing a trope. I don't know what my favorite trope is, but in the process of talking about books on KZbin, I'm getting a better understanding of my own taste and recently realized that I love to read about people who are very good at their craft. Not the "effortless genius" type like for example Will Hunting, but characters who worked hard and achieved excellence through sweat and tears (even if that process isn't the topic of the book). I love how your videos make me think hard about new topics, or at least make me consider things in a new way!

Congrats of surpassing 2000 subs! It's an interesting topic and I'm not sure where tropes begin and subgenre ends. I think tropes are useful to identify what might appeal, but they can be done well or poorly, so I rarely buy a book based on them. That said, knowing that something has friendship or found family usually grabs my interest. I don't mind reading anything, so tropes are often a lesser consideration than the plot and characters. To me, literary fiction is something that focuses on themes and prose rather than tropes, but I can see some recurring ideas in what you mentioned. I read a lot of fantasy and find tropes more useful here. I dislike the chosen one but love Harry Potter. I really like it when an author subverts tropes or does something different with them, which is why I love The First Law. From some of the books you like, you might enjoy triumph of right over wrong, or helping others over selfishness. I'm sure you're right about tropes saying something psychological about about the people that enjoy them.

I also think that only reading 5 stars might get boring. How will you know that they are good if you never read anything bad? Or, maybe you will enjoy the good books better because you have also read bad ones? Anyway, I thought your discussion was super interesting.

I both bump up and down by Goodreads ratings now and then, given some time.

Looking forward to this one being published in the US. I tend to find Murakami's method (or style) to be most successful in his short stories, but maybe that's because I'm such a huge fan of the short story as a format. I read all of his stories before taking on his novels. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on his latest.

First time viewer to your channel. I'll be watching more. My top two books of this year so far are James by Percival Everett and Clear by Carys Davies. Also enjoyed Brat by Gabriel Smith. Mieko Kawakami is a favorite author of mine. I highly recommend Breasts and Eggs. Looking forward to more of your videos!

Thank you for this review. I just finished this book today. I am a big Murakami fan and I really loved this book but my favorite one continue to be 1Q84. I read this book in Spanish and I am waiting the English version since there are some phrases, specially the dialogs, that I will like to review them in the English version.

I change my ratings at the end of the year after the books have been in my brain for a while. Or not. As the case may be. If you like dark and messed up, have you read The Good Son by You-Jeong Jeon?

This was to be my year of reading classics. Perhaps they wouldn't be five star reads for me, but they were going to be someone's five star reads, the confirmed greats. Chaos ensued and my TBR ballooned. Then I noticed I wasn't reading much at all, so I dove into Pratchett, thinking that would hold my attention more. Nope. I've done some reading, but it's been random and infrequent. Turns out I'm much better at watching KZbin or scrolling the news. I've also decided I'm a mood reader with many many moods. A book or topic I love today may not interest me again for weeks. I need more discipline in my life.

Carrying on with authors you've loved sounds like a great way to up your number of 5 star books. I didn't rewatch your past wrap-ups (sorry!), but I sorted your goodreads by star rating and think a couple of sequels you might really enjoy are Us Against You by Fredrik Backman (Beartown #2) and The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman (Thursday Murder Club #3). Us Against You focuses on the rivalry with Hed and other conflicts while continuing the fallout of book 1. I really liked it but not as much as Beartown. The third book ends things really well. You can't lose with Fredrik Backman. The Bullet That Missed is the funniest (IMO) Thursday Murder Club story and has several good twists near the end. The fourth book is also good but more downbeat for spoiler-y reasons. I believe he's taking a break from the old folks, but has a new book out in September. I'm much the same as you and give very few 5 stars, mostly for the same reasons. I tend to reserve that rating for books that create an emotional impact or make me think. That said, I've had a lot of 4 star books, which is great. I suppose it's all part of the experience - the lower rated books make you value the higher rated even more. My 5 star books are The Count of Monte Cristo, Replay by Ken Grimwood, Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes and The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. I sometimes go back and change ratings because I still haven’t settled on a system that really works for me. I hope you find more 5 star books soon.

I wish I saw like Infinite Jest or something on here, I guess to comfort me in the future, I don't know what I was expecting to be honest. Personally, I don't really find Murakami intimidating, it's just 1Q84 is so, SO long.

The white tiger by Arvind adiga

I am a mood reader and so I often change my reading plans. I have changed a rating on Goodreads with time and broader perspective.

Can't believe how big your shelves have gotten. I think it's awesome that you still try to read new things. So many readers put themselves in a box and don't read anything but what they've determined their preferred genres are but it's almost impossible to grow as a reader when you do that, plus you miss a lot of good stuff. You also miss some odd or crappy stuff, but reading stuff you don't like can also be important to your growth as a reader. You also made a great point about how sometimes it's hard to put your finger on why a book sticks with you. Sometimes a book will do that to me even when I don't like the book that much. Reading more books by an author you like is a good way to discover more good books. It's rare for an author to write one great book and a bunch of stinkers. Often only one of their books is popular, but that doesn't mean their other ones suck.

The greatest thing about your videos is your humble honesty. Since you live in Norway, I assume English is a second language for you. But, I have to say, you express yourself better and more clearly than people on KZbin whose first (and only) language is English. Reading what you like in a spontaneous manner is a sure fire way to succeed. So many BookTubers read those books that will impress their viewers. That sounds like an empty exercise in reading if you ask me. Keep true to your own wishes and I'm sure you will succeed!!

Hi I’ve just finished reading Trespassers by Louise Kennedy it’s set in Northern Ireland in the 1970’s I loved it I highly recommend it five stars for sure

I think you may enjoy “The Watchers” by AM Shine. They are currently making it into a movie as well. You may think you figured what is going on, but it takes some creative and crazy turns!

🐇I wish Twin Diaries was published in English so I could read it!

Reading other books from authors you've enjoyed in the past sounds like a good approach to finding new favorites, I should try that too. I don't rank/give stars to books so I can't answer how many 5* reads I've had so far (or yes, I can - zero 😅). But I don't think I've found a book that is a new absolute favorite or a book I couldn't put down, which is what I'm usually hoping to experience with a book... I feel like I've become incredibly picky, which is a pain, honestly. Sometimes I wonder if that might be one symptom of my burnout, or if it's just me the problem in general 😅 anyway, I hope you find lots of great 5* books during the second half of the year!

Incredibile i will buy it next November in Italia Version and I pray🙏🏻 for that release

Love me some murakami. Currently reading all of his books. I’m over halfway done with The Wind-up bird chronicle. Definitely one of his best.

Litteraturtoget fra/med Kronprinsessa er i gang uggen, skal til Røros med blant annet en fransk forfatter, kanskje kan dette være din inspirasjonskilde, lykke til😀

how to train your dragon [1-12] : read by david tennant rivers of london [ben aaronovitch] [1-9] : read by kobna holdbrook-smith

bullet train : kōtarō isaka

pan's labyrinth : del toro & funke Kiki's Delivery Service : eiko kadono

If you are interested in sci-fi, I csn recommend Red Rising by Pierce Brown. It is a series and each book is long, but it is fantastic and definitely not Nordic 😊

I'm 170 pages in and I am not enjoying it. So, I've been looking up book reviews to convince myself that I should put it down. Imagine my delight when I saw the title of this video. Sweet relief.

I recommend Small Country by Gaël Faye (set in Rwanda and Burundi), Mother of Strangers by Suad Amiry (set in Jaffa), The Iliac Crest by Cristina Rivera Garza (set in Mexico), The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar (set in Iran). For non-fiction To Catch a Dictator: The Pursuit and Trial of Hissène Habré by Reed Brody or The Last Colony: A Tale of Exile, Justice and Britain's Colonial Legacy by Philippe Sands

I wrote a lengthy comment here, but then it just wanished... Weird. I had a couple of recommendations for you, of plot driven Asian books. Iron Widow, by Xiran Jay Zaho. It's a fantasy/science fiction book, and a «reimagining of the rise of China’s first and only female Emperor Wu Zetian set in the nation of Huaxia, a futuristic reinterpretation of Medieval China.» Lots of plot! The other one is one I read several years ago, The Ghost Bride, by Yangsze Choo. It's set in colonial Malaysia, and heavily inspired by Chinese and Malaysian folklore.

I'm currently reading Hotel Silence because of your recommendation and absolutely loving it. I've got about 60 pages to go and will read them tomorrow. I recommended to you a few weeks ago "A Little Luck" by Claudia Pineiro. Actually Hotel Silence is kind of similar, and I really think you would love A Little Luck.

I get what you mean about wanting something different from your everyday experience and yearning for a sense of the exotic. As a Brit, Nordics such as Fredrik Backman and Jo Nesbø fit the bill, offering stories in an unfamiliar setting that hold my attention and make me feel something, so I guess it's just a matter of geography. That said, reading something historical in any setting can make a pleasant change. As for Asia, Confessions by Kanae Minato, Convenienece Store Woman and Before the Coffee Gets Cold are books by Japanese authors that might interest you, though my personal experience was mixed compared with generally positive views. Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop is a heart-warming Korean story, and The Three Body Problem is a Chinese sci-fi with mind-blowing concepts but weak (IMO) characterisation. I found Afghanistan-set A Thousand Splendid Suns well written but incredibly bleak, but you may get something out of it. If you're open to Aussie-set stories, Jane Harper writes character-driven crime books set in the outback or sweltering desert of Australia. The Dry might be the best place to start. I hope somebody suggests something that grabs your interest.

Ok, let me throw these out there... Plot driven, not Norwegian, and you will be asking yourself What is going on here...Oh, and unreliable narrators (my fave): If On a Winter's Night a Traveler, Italy Calvino; and The Box Man, Kobo Abe. 😊

You have phases like everybody else , you come back to Norwegian books when the time is right or the mood hit you😀 Don't be so analytical, ask yourself:which topic do you want to read next. For me, one book leed to another , one author to the next. Don't worry, (be happy)😀