Neu gelesen: (als E-Book)

Jojo Moyes, Still Me

Okay, nur einen Tag, solange hielt das Buch vor, weil ich mich mal wieder - wie immer - nicht davon losreißen konnte. Das lag auch daran, dass dieser dritte Band in der Serie um Louise Clark mindestens genauso gut, wenn nicht fast besser ist als seine Vorgänger. Der Blick auf New York und speziell den wirklich exklusiven Teil rund um Fifth Avenue aus den Augen einer Provinzengländerin macht einfach nur Spaß während ihre Erlebnisse ohne Umwege direkt ans Herz rühren.

Once upon a time there was a small-town girl who lived in a small world. She was perfectly happy, or at least she told herself she was. Like many girls, she loved to try different looks, to be someone she wasn't. But, like too many girls, life had chipped away at her until, instead of finding what truly suited her, she camouflaged herself, hid the bits that made her different. For a while she let the world bruise her until she decided it was safer not to be herself at all.

(Jojo Moyes, Still Me, 2017)

Wiedergelesen:

Terry Pratchett, Wintersmith

Dieser Band in der Tiffany Aching Serie musste noch sein - aller guten Dinge sind schließlich drei. Und ich wünschte oft, dass Pratchett es bei den drein belassen hätte, aber seis drum. Mittlerweile ist das neue Buch von Jojo Moyes endlich auf dem Paperwhite aufgeschlagen und damit erübrigt sich die Frage welcher Discworldband als nächstes dran ist erstmal für ein paar Tage.

That's Third Thoughts for you. Wehn a huge rock is going to land on your head, they're the thoughts that think: Is that an ingneous rock, such as granite, or is it sandstone?

Terry Pratchett, Wintersmith, 2006)

Wiedergelesen:

Terry Pratchett, A Hat full of Sky

Wie das so geht, Band 1 der Tiffany Aching Saga zieht fast zwangsläufig Band 2 und 3 nach sich. Vor allem wegen der neuen Charakteren darin, hier vor allem die gute Miss Level mit ihren zwei Körpern, und mit dem Hiver eine ganz neue Art von Monster. Mit Band 4 muss ich mir noch überlegen - kann sein, dass mir da ein paar weitere Sam Vimes Bände lieber sind, wie Feet of Clay und/oder Thud.

Do you? Do you know what it feels like to be aware of every star, every blade of grass? Yes. You do. You call it 'opening your eyes again'. But you do it for a moment. We have done it for eternity. No sleep, no est, just endless... endless experience, endless awareness. Of everything. All the time. How we envy you, envy you! Lucky humans, who can close your minds to the endless cold deeps of space! You have this thing you call ... boredom? That is the rarest talent in the universe! We heard a song, it went "Twinkle twinkle little star..." What power! What wondrous power! You can take a billion trillion tons of flaming matter, a furnace of unimaginable strength, and turn it into a little song for children! You build little worlds, little stories, little shells around your minds and that keeps infinity at bay and allows you to wake up in the morning without screaming!

(Terry Pratchett, A Hat full of Sky, 2004)

Wiedergelesen: (nach längerer Zeit)

Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men

Durchaus möglich, dass dieser Band auch in den obersten Fünf meiner Lieblingsdiscworldbände rangiert. Auf jeden Fall gehört er zu denen, die immer wieder mal gelesen werden wollen, auch wenns nur einmal pro Dekade ist. Und die Nac Mac Feegle gehören sowieso seit ihrem ersten Erscheinen in der Discworld für mich zu deren originellsten, faszinierendsten und vermutlich witzigsten Bewohnern.

And I'm in Fairyland, where dreams can hurt. Somewhere all stories are real, all songs are true. I thought that was a strange thing for the Kelda to say ...
Tiffany's Second Thoughts said: Hang on, was that a First Thought?
And Tiffany thought: No, that was a Third Thought. I'm thinking about how I think about what I'm thinking. At least, I think so.
Her Second Thoughts said: Let's all calm down, please, because this is quite a small head.

(Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men, 2003)

Wiedergelesen: (nach längerer Zeit) (als E-Book)

Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!

Nach mittlerweile sechs Jahren wollte auch dieser Discworldband, der erste mit Sam Vimes, wiedergelesen werden, und weil er ein bisschen günstiger war als die anderen Bände lud ich ihn mir auf den Kindle. Bis auf die Footnotes, die bei der elektronischen Version immer hinten angehängt werden und das nachschlagen so fummelig machen, finde ich die Version auch angenehmer. Das war höchstwahrscheinlich auch nicht das letzte Mal, dass ich mir diese höchsteigene Mischung aus Fantasysatire und Noirkrimi zu Gemüte geführt habe. Wäre ja auch schade.

Books bend space and time. One reason the owners of those aforesaid little rambling, poky second-hand bookshops always seem slightly unearthly is that many of them really are, having strayed into this world after taking a wrong turning in their own bookshops in worlds where it is considered commendable business practice to wear carpet slippers all the time and open your shop only when you feel like it. You stray into L-space at your peril.
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'Down there,' he siad, 'are people who will follow any dragon, worship any god, ignore any iniquity. All out of a kind of humdrum, everyday badness. Not the really high, creative loathesomeness of the great sinners, but a sort of mass-produced darkness of the soul. Sin, you might say, without a trace of originality. They accept evil not because they say yes, but because they don't say no.'
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(Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!, 1990)

Wiedergelesen:

Terry Pratchett, The Nightwatch

Und nein, als E-Book war es mir noch ein kleines bißchen zu teuer, darum musste das Taschenbuch nochmal ran, für dieses altbewährte immer wieder lohnende Lesefutter, bei dem es auch beim zigsten Wiederlesen immer wieder wunderbare Sachen zu genießen gibt. Wie z.B. den unvergleichlichen Eid der Stadtwache.

'I comma square bracket recruit's name square bracket comma do solemnly swear by square bracket recruit's deity of choice square bracket to uphold the Laws and Ordinances of the city of Ankh-Morpork comma serve the public trust comma and defend the fsubjects of His ftroke Her bracket delete whichever is inappropriate bracket Majefty bracket name of reigning monarch bracket without fear comma favour comma or thought of perfonal fafety semi-colon to purfue evildoers and protect the innocent comma laying down my life if necefary in the caufe of said duty comma so help me bracket aforefaid deity bracket full stop God save the King stroke Queen bracket delete whichever is inappropriate bracket full stop.'

(Terry Pratchett, The Nightwatch, 2002)

Wiedergelesen: (zum xten Mal)

Terry Pratchett, The Truth

Auf die Gefahr hin mich zu wiederholen: egal wie oft ich den 25. Discworldband (auch noch der Milleniumsband) wiederlese, ich bekomme einfach nicht genug von der genialen Entstehungsgeschichte der Ankh Morpork Times (The Truth will make you Free/Fret/Fred/Fere). Und daran wird sich so schnell auch nichts ändern.

'Yes, Dr Dinwiddie. Er... the Century of the Fruitbat is nearly over, sir. Would you like the city to be dragged kicking and screaming out of the Century of the Fruitbat?'
'Indeed.'
William wrote this down. It was a puzzle why things were always dragged kicking and screaming. No one ever seemed to want to, for example, lead them gently by the hand.
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William stared down at the box of letters again. Of course, a quill pen potentially contained anything you wrote with it. He could understand that. But it did so in a clearly theoretical way, a safe way. Whereas these dull grey blocks looked threatening. He could understand why they worried people. Put us together in the right way, they seemed to say, and we can be anything you want. We could even be something you don't want. We can spell anything. We can certainly spell trouble.
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Despite the fire in his head he took out his notebook and wrote: hlstns bggr than golf blls? and made a mental note to check one against a golf ball, just in case. Part of him was beginning to understand that his readers might have a very relaxed attitude about the guilt of politicians but were red hot on things like the size of the weather.
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(Terry Pratchett, The Truth, 2000)