Torsebro - Still just outside Kristianstads.

 Still enjoying the slower pace of life.

Luckily only asked for two scoops! They do have large portions in Sweden.

Gunter Grass - the Rat

 Whatever the future may bring, we shall be able to produce it in advance.

Kristianstad -Sweden

 First full day in this beautiful little house. Twittering birds and big hares. It’s Sunday, so Kristianstad was shut, apart from their museum.

Kalmar and Öland in Sweden

 Three lovely days in the City of Kalmar and Island of Oland.

So few people and such open space. Quiet and beautiful and clean.

Mouch around town, and then art gallery. No protection for the exhibits. Runs on trust. So very different to UK. Then north of the island to the rocky beach and castle. Second day in Kalmar castle and down to the lighthouse at the south of Oland.

And ate herring for the first time. Not too bad.

Almhult in Sweden

 Three days in the middle of nowhere. A chance to unwind and swim in the lake.

Quite lovely and badly needed.

Almhuly is, as it happens, the first and home of IKEA. So off to the ikea museum 

H G Wells - The door in the Wall

 A short story of a politician who as a child went through a door in to an Eden-like garden. Then it tells of him missing later opportunities to return. Until a chance at the end. Did he go through or did he die… or both.

A beautiful read.

Aldous Huxley - Doors of Perception

 Load of old tosh. Huxley recalling his acid trips. Self indulgent and trying to be mystical and progressive.

Thankfully a quick read

Stefan Zweig - Journey into the Past

 Another Zweig novella. Poor young man and the love for his bosses wife. 9 years of separation and their reunion. Quite touching.

Colloque sentimental

Paul Verlaine

Dans le vieux parc solitaire et glacé,
Deux formes ont tout à l’heure passé.

Leurs yeux sont morts et leurs lèvres sont molles,
Et l’on entend à peine leurs paroles.

Dans le vieux parc solitaire et glacé,
Deux spectres ont évoqué le passé.

– Te souvient-il de notre extase ancienne ?
– Pourquoi voulez-vous donc qu’il m’en souvienne ?

– Ton coeur bat-il toujours à mon seul nom ?
Toujours vois-tu mon âme en rêve ? – Non.

– Ah ! les beaux jours de bonheur indicible
Où nous joignons nos bouches ! – C’est possible.

– Qu’il était bleu, le ciel, et grand, l’espoir !
– L’espoir a fui, vaincu, vers le ciel noir.

Tels ils marchaient dans les avoines folles,
Et la nuit seule entendit leurs paroles.

Paul Verlaine, Fêtes galantes

Mikhaïl Bulgakov - The Country Doctor’s Notebook

 Another novella, this of a freshly qualified doctor in the middle of the Russian hinterland. Making his way as best as he can; winging it really 

A good read

Jack London - Call of the Wild

 Came across this. Hadn’t much fancied it, but saw it was a novella, so took it out of the library.

Second person narration of a home loving dog, stolen and driven in the snowy wastes. Brutal story and quite upsetting. Need to tell Juno how lucky she is.

Definitely worth the read

Stefan Zweig - Chess

 I thought I’d pick up a couple of Zweig novellas as he’d passed me by up to now.

This is the first, about a boat trip on which a chess prodigy faces an unknown who has taught himself in prison to stay sane.

A good story and quick read

Henry James - The Europeans

 A short gentle romance of the upper middle classes.

Late 19th century east coast America.

Nice but twee

Arthur Koestler - Arrival and Departure

 One of three, including Darkness at Noon

Some beautiful passages reminding me of Nabokov.

Written in 1941-42, an allegory of the war. Just ordered the third book

John Wyndham - The Chrysalids

 Very early sci-fi, or post-apocalyptic future.

A quick read. Good story

Marcel Proust - In Search of Lost Time

 So, book one of seven. Took a while to grind through.

It was the final 30 pages that bought out a beautiful moment: bringing the whole thing to clarity.

Madame Swann was aged and past, a pointless mark of history and irrelevance