Becoming Crone deserves 5 stars for getting me out of reading slump alone, because this year has not been my reading year at all, but this story managed to keep my interest.
Starting with a refreshing concept where the main protagonist is a 60 year-old grandma who suddenly comes into her power as a witch - or, a Crone and continuing with assembling a cast of mismatched, quirky characters (and a cat), it follows Claire through discovery and acceptance of her new reality without a boring moment, from funny to scary and heart-wrenching ones.
I very much appreciated the real, tangible stakes and consequences, from the magic's impact on the real world to inflicted injuries that do not magically disappear.
And with the way it ended and my trust in the author, I one-clicked the sequel pre-order without a second thought.
The Bout of Books readathon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It’s a weeklong readathon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 4th and runs through Sunday, January 10th in YOUR time zone. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are daily challenges, Twitter chats, and exclusive Instagram challenges, but they’re all completely optional. For Bout of Books 30 information and updates, visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team
I'm participating on Twitter (@strangenewwords), but I decided to have a summary-of-everything post on this blog after all.
Monday, 4/1/2021
Reading: The Idea of You by Robinne Lee (finished) and A Winter Symphony by Tiffany Reisz Pages/words: 39 + 81 = 120 Challenges/other:
Tuesday, 5/1/2021
Reading: The Star of Lancaster (Plantagenet Saga #11) by Jean Plaidy, Poly by Lesli Richardson Pages/words: 12 + 68 = 80 Challenges/other: /
Wednesday, 6/1/2021 Reading: Poly by Lesli Richardson Pages/words: 99 Challenges/other:
Thursday, 7/1/2021
Reading: The Star of Lancaster (Plantagenet Saga #11) by Jean Plaidy Pages/words: 64 Challenges/other: /
Friday, 8/1/2021
Reading: The Star of Lancaster (Plantagenet Saga #11) by Jean Plaidy (finished), Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Life by Gary John Bishop
Pages/words: 33 + 31 = 64 Challenges/other: /
Saturday, 9/1/2021
Reading: / Pages/words: 0 Challenges/other: I participated in the twitter chat!
Sunday, 10/1/2021
Reading: Angel's Blood (Guild Hunter #1) by Nalini Singh, Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Life by Gary John Bishop Pages/words: 31 + 24 = 55 Challenges/other: /
Wrap-up:
What I read:
I finished four books! That is, the following:
The Star of Lancaster (Plantagenet Saga #11) by Jean Plaidy,
Poly by Lesli Richardson,
The Idea of You by Robinne Lee,
A Winter Symphony by Tiffany Reisz,
and I made a dent in:
Angel's Blood (Guild Hunter #1) by Nalini Singh and
Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Life by Gary John Bishop
Pages/words: 482 Challenges/other: Current Reads on Day 1, and I also participated in always great Saturday Twitterchat.
All in all, another successful Bout-of Books! These are such a great way to make a head-start into the reading year.
The Idea of You drew me in with the premise of a reverse age gap trope with having an older heroine and a younger hero.
I basically devoured it in one day – I started with a few chapters on Saturday and couldn't stop reading on Sunday and I was going to give it 5 stars up until about 50 pages before the end when I started suspecting that it wouldn't have a happy ending.
Which it didn't. And it is such a shame, because otherwise it is such an excellently written story, full of emotion, and the author really makes these two characters work.
I love the age gap trope, but even in older-man-younger-woman version it is a hit-and-miss to find a story that really works out emotionally and shows the compatibility between the characters, much less in the reverse case of older-woman-younger-man, which there are also fewer books about.
But Robinne Lee, despite the age difference, establishes the connection between her protagonists and makes us see the things they have in common that make them fall in love with each other. And then she ruins it.
What grates is that throughout the book the author pontificates on the invisibility of women above a certain age, with them and their work being underappreciated and undervalued, and emphasises the benefits of knowing oneself that aging brings.
And all of that is great and necessary to be pointed out more often in our day and time, be it in everyday life or fiction, because it is the truth: women of certain age do not stop living and mattering.
However, as nice and fine as the author putting all these notions in the story is, it is completely negated by the unhappy ending, which slams the point straight back into the stereotype: that an older woman can only find happiness within conforming to the role of a mother, putting her child and other people first, with perhaps a bit of a career on the side, but she most certainly cannot find happiness in an unconventional relationship, or, god forbid, define herself and her happiness on her own terms.
And that is highly ironic, considering that earlier in the book the author explicitly points out the hypocrisy of people not batting an eye at all the 40-and-older-something men dating and marrying 20-somethings, but condemning a woman for it. Yet, Robinne Lee does the same to her own character in the end.
So, I am mad at this book. It could have been everything, but with that ending it is a huge disappointment.
All in the name of being realistic, I suppose. But, guess what? A 20-year-old boy band star falling in love with a twice-as-old, even if (or even more so if) sophisticated, art-gallery owner, is in itself unrealistic. It is all fantasy. That is why we have fiction. F*ck realistic.
And now I need to find – which is so hard to do – another one with a similar premise but an actual happy ending to make myself feel better. See, that is how my TBR grows. BTW, recommendations welcome. ;)
I read 48 books in 2020 and I set the same goal for me in 2021, but as in the last few years, I'm taking it very flexibly with potential adjustments as the year progresses.
Nevertheless, I am very much in the reading mood right now, so much so I want to read ALL the books at once.
Usually, when that happens, I can't decide which one to read, so I procrastinate and then choose a completely different one from those I initially crave and forget about them.
Hence, I though why not make a list? And why not make a list in a blog post on my book blog? Isn't it why it's here, even if little used in recent years? (Which would also take care of said little use.)
Therefore, this is not a January TBR, because that kind of pressure is usually counter-productive for me I'm posting a list of books I want to read, like, right now, but with no obligation or deadline of actually doing it, more like a checklist for myself. As if in a journal. Except that it's public. (For those 5 people that may still stalk this blog?)
I have The Star of Lancaster (Plantagenet Saga #11) by Jean Plaidy to finish.
Then there is the unholy trinity of smutty holiday novellas:
My Dad's Best Friend (A Touch of Taboo #3) by Katee Robert
A Winter Symphony by Tiffany Reisz
When She Was Naughty by Tessa Dare
I want to do some rereads:
Shadow of Night (All Souls Trilogy #2) by Deborah Harkness, which I planned to do before S2 of the TV show and then got distracted and the show is returning within the week, but I think I should be able to manage 1/8 a week to keep in step
I've been wanting to do an IAD series reread for a while now and what better time than a new year to start with A Hunger Like No Other (IAD #1) by Kresley Cole, although The Warlord Wants Forever is technically/chronologically the first, but I'll read that afterwards because it worked great in this order the first time around.
Angel's Blood (Guild Hunter #1) by Nalini Singh because after years of my incessant nagging my bestie is finally starting it (and I hope it lives up to my hyping it up) and I could use a refresher (not that it's any hardship ;))
I have two nonfiction/self-help books I want to slowly go through and hopefully find something useful for my depressed & anxious brain:
Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Life by Gary John Bishop
Learn To Live: The Book That Can Change Your Life by Mats and Susan Billmark
And I also stumbled upon The Idea of You by Robinne Lee on New Year's Eve (because what else would I be doing then than adding new books to my TBR?) and it sounds so intriguing I want to start it right away.
I'll be crossing out the ones I finish (as you can see, I've already already done one since I started writing this post yesterday) and I might do more of this kind of posts when the need arises.
Letters from Father Christmas is a collection of letters Tolkien wrote to his children as Father Christmas aka Santa Claus in replies to their letters to Santa.
I decided to reread it this advent about a letter or 8 pages a day and, although I missed some days due to real life calamities, I did slowly make my way through it by and by just in the perfect time to finish it on Christmas day.
The letters are such a delight to read, showing Tolkien's craftsmanship not only through the stories he comes up about Father Christmas and his friends and the exciting fortunate and less fortunate events in the North Pole, but also in the intricate handwriting he invents for each of the characters he emulates and even lovely drawings he includes with the letters.
From 1920 to 1943, the letters grow in number along with his growing family and diminish as the children grow up, all along hinting here at there at Tolkien's interests in his literary work as well as at the concerns of the real world, but most of all they give a testimony of his love for his children, thus making me admire him even more as a person rather than just an author.
Letters from Father Christmas are a wonderful read for December and if you haven't read it yet, there is always next year.
This year, however, as the only non-native English speaking country participant, I want to provide some 'exoticism' 😉 and share with you what we call folk church songs, that is, songs for church/Christian holidays (in this case, Christmas) that are widely known and sung among people.
We have a long, centuries-old tradition of folk church songs, many originating from unknown authors and spreading among the people, others being written for choir but becoming widely popular among everyone, and some imported and translated from other languages and being loved so much they are now considered our own.
I will start with one of the latter, perhaps the most popular and most frequently translated Christmas song of all times across the world, Sveta noč, or, as you may have already guessed, Silent Night.
Poslušajte, vsi ljudje (Listen, all people) is a personal favourite because it mentions St. Joseph; it talks about how Mary and Joseph travelled to Bethlehem where after looking for a place to stay they finally found it outside the town in a barn where Jesus was born.
Another few of my favourites are Glej, zvezdice božje (Look, heavenly stars), Rajske strune (Heavenly Chords), and Kaj se vam zdi, pastirci vi (What do you think, o, shepherds ye').
As I said, these are all very popular and sung by everyone en masse at church, but of course the above examples are choir and bands recordings, because unsynchronised people's singing would have been unintelligible. Then again, all of these are probably unintelligible to you, but I hope you at least enjoyed the catchy melodies. The music of the last one is played on European zither, which has an especially apt sound for Christmas songs.
I will end with another version of Silent Night in honour of my uncle, because I learned halfway through writing this post (on Friday, and TBH continuing writing it in the breaks between crying kept me sane) that he had died. Lojze Slak, also deceased, is one of our most renowned musicians and my parents' favourite, he was from one of the neighbouring villages to that of my father and uncle's home village and my father – and, I think, also my uncle – knew him personally, so this is for him. At least they are all together now, I believe.
I apologise for ending on a morose note. I wish you all happy holidays, even if you don't get to spend them with your loved ones due to Covid-19, I hope you are able to spend them at least with the knowledge that they are alive and well and that all of you stay that way!
The
Earth keeps making its way around the Sun even in
2020 and the time has come again for Virtual Advent Tour, organised
by Sprite Writes.
Today is the name day of
St. Lucy of Syracuse (283 – 304 AD). She is associated with light and brightness as
her
namecomes
from lux,
the Latin
word
for light.
According
to a legend, one of her suitors fell
in love with her beautiful eyes, so she gouged them out and send them
to him, but an angel came to her and restored them; therefore, she is
a patron saint of the blind and a protector of sight.
Due to various legends telling of St. Lucy losing her eyes either by torture or her own hand, she is often depicted with a pair of eyes on a platter. (Image source.)
Before
the Gregorian calendar reform, December
13th
was considered
the shortest day of the year, symbolising
the return of light
into long winter nights and thus rebirth and new life, similarly to
the winter solstice.
We
have a folk custom, especially in the countryside, of
planting Christmas wheat on this day – it
is believed that if it sprouts by
Christmas, it will ensure a good harvest the following year.
Christmas wheat in a small pot is a nice decorative element in a nativity scene or on its own. (Image source.)
Do
you have any special traditions or celebrations on this day? If so, I
would love to hear about them.
Midnight Sun is a retelling of Twilight from Edward’s
POV – and a retelling of only Twilight, which with roughly
700 pages makes up for a rather long book.
I found Edward’s POV
highly interesting and up to halfway mark I was going to
give it stars. However, around the time of their first date, Edward’s
inner reflections become repetitive and between 50-70% the story is
rather tedious.
Fortunately,
after around 70% the pace picks up and the story brings up fresh
elements from the time when Edward and Bella are separated.
And
so, after about four months, I was able to finally finish it! And now
I’m back to wishing what I wished in the beginning: to see Edward’s
POV of the rest of the series, especially the beginning of New
Moon,
when he is yet again away from Bella. Although I can also guess how
his agonising could once again turn boring.
On
the other hand, I also want Stephenie Meyer to continue The
Host. In
any case, whatever she decides to write next, I will definitely give
it a shot, because Midnight
Sun
did reaffirm my impression that her books are, while not literary
masterpieces, not half as bad as certain online/book community
circles believe them to be.
I finally had to read Lord
of the Flies for tutoring
purposes, because it is a required reading for our national high
school English finals, and at first it wasn’t as bad as I had
expected from all the bad things I had heard about it. I thought that
the boys’ behaviour wasn’t really any different
from how contemporary kids would behave in a similar situation.
About
two thirds in, however, I had to start agreeing: it was really that
bad.
And
in the end, I am not so sure the behaviour was just a result of the
boys’ spoiled rich British origin. Perhaps any other group of
people (children) in the same uncontrollable, helpless, and scary
situation would eventually react similarly.
I
will not even touch the issue of gender and the lack of girls in the
book – I do wonder whether things
would be worse or better if the group included girls – since
Golding himself was unwilling to explore that and was only able to
ask questions regarding that possibility himself.
My
edition included study materials with useful chapter summaries and
discussion/reflection questions and additional information on the
issues connected with the novel, which were its saving grace.
It
also
included Golding’s essay on fables and his intentions regarding
what he wanted to show about the human nature and how it is governed
by nationalism and prejudice, especially in connection with Nazism
and fascism, which are certainly important issues to consider (and
beware of perpetuating) yet
again nowadays.
Golding
does manage to show the worst of human nature when unfettered by
societal constraints and
bolstered by fear (of the unknown, other) and I definitely agree with
his
notion that we are all capable of the same atrocities if we fail to
check ourselves and each other to keep from succumbing to fear,
prejudice, and other-ing specific groups people.
However,
I believe that without accompanying materials
and guidance the
readerswho
are unaware
of the story's connection to British exceptionalism and
colonialism cannot
really discern these themes and their messages, especially not ESL
studentswho
are struggling with understanding the language itself.
Even
without language understanding issues, I could
only see
the aforementioned connotations while reading through the additional
materials. Hence,
I
believe that among literally millions of books out there, our
national board for HS English finals could have certainly found a
better book to teach about such important topics as the dangers of
nationalism and prejudice in present times.
The Lost Blackbird is a story about two sisters shipped from a
London orphanage to Australia,
where they are promised a better life awaits them.
Separated
upon arrival, despite having been promised that they would be able to
stay together, they are both thrown in their own set of hardships.
The
older sister has to endure harrowing
circumstances of child labour on
a
faraway
farm. The
younger is adopted into a loving, well-off family, but
her
life comes with its own kind of trauma.
The
story is told alternately from both girls’ perspectives, proving
once more Liza Perrat’s masterful ability to convey children’s
voices from a very young age into adulthood, enabling the
reader to not only see but feel them grow up as well as witness the
world and people around them in vivid, palpable detail.
Hence,
The Lost Blackbird was
a fast and utterly absorbing read that taught me something new, as I
had no knowledge of child migration from the UK to the other parts of
the former British empire (or perhaps I had forgotten about it.)
On the whole, this story sucked me up into its
world and still didn’t quite let me go, and certainly left me with
a good feeling.
The Bout of Books readathon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It’s a weeklong readathon that begins Monday, through Sunday, YOUR time zone. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are daily challenges, Twitter chats, and exclusive Instagram challenges, but they’re all completely optional. For Bout of Books 29 information and updates, visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team
I will be participating on Twitter (@strangenewwords), but I thought it would also be handy to have a summary-of-everything post on this blog (so it gets used at least a little once in a while.)
Monday, 17/8/2020
Reading: The Lost Blackbird by Liza Perrat, The Old Guard fanfiction Pages/words: 24 pages of The Lost Blackbird, ~14K fanfic Instagram challenges/other: Currently reading
Tuesday, 18/8/2020
Reading: The Lost Blackbird by Liza Perrat, The Old Guard fanfiction Pages/words: 123 pages of The Lost Blackbird, ~13K of fanfic Instagram challenges/other:
Wednesday, 19/8/2020
Reading: The Lost Blackbird by Liza Perrat Pages/words: 83 pages of The Lost Blackbird, ~1.5K of Revolution fanfic (reread) Instagram challenges/other:
Thursday, 20/8/2020
Reading: The Poems of William Blake Pages/words: 9 pages of The Poems of William Blake Instagram challenges/other: /
Friday, 21/8/2020
Reading: The Poems of William Blake Pages/words: 6 pages of The Poems of William Blake Instagram challenges/other: Wrote reviews for both The Lost Blackbirdand Poems of William Blake (GR-only).
Auto-buy Authors, to name just a few: Kresley Cole, Kit Rocha, Nalini Singh, Liza Perrat, Tiffany Reisz. #boutofbooks#bob29igphoto
Reading: The Old Guard & AoS fanfiction Pages/words: ~15K of fanfic Instagram challenges/other: I had a blast participating in the Twitter chat!
Sunday, 23/8/2020
Reading: AoS fanfiction Pages/words: ~4.5K of fanfic Instagram challenges/other: /
Wrap-up:
What I read: Finished The Lost Blackbird and Poems of William Blake Pages/words: 245 pages +48K words Instagramchallenges/other: I participated in 5 challenges, but on Twitter and also on Saturday's twitter chat.
This was another great Bout-of-Books, I had a blast and certainly read more than I would have otherwise!
I have had A Seditious Affair on my to-read list for far too
long, because I wasn’t in the mood for the level of angst and the
type of characters I expected to encounter in it – and then my
expectations turned out to be completely wrong.
Set
against the tumultuous end of 1820s London,
A Seditious Affair
turned out to be an utterly absorbing with
just
the right pace and the level of suspense that
kept me reading and reading, so
I could
barely
put down and finished it
in only a couple of days.
The
main characters grew on me quickly and I was rooting for them
throughout the story as they were such a fascinating pair of
contrasts that complement each other. Most importantly, however, they
were actually my age (why on Earth I expected them to be much
younger, I don’t know, but this age worked extremely well), and I
loved that!
On
top of everything, the writing was not just good, but beautiful –
and I may have to go (re)read some darn romantics now (even though
immersing too much the concepts of romanticism are not good for my
mental well-being, precisely
because I find them so very relatable.)
All
in all, A
Seditious Affair was
a captivating and wonderfully spun story with tangible sentiment and
vivid setting that engaged all senses and really brought the time,
place, and people to life. It was my first, but not last book by this
author. And really, why was I waiting so long? But better late than
never.
Horror is far out of my comfort zone, but I felt like reading something different, specifically in this genre and Ararat had been on my to-read list long enough, so I did it and I am glad I did.
Maybe I've desensitised myself a little by occasional forays into the genre, because it has somehow turned out not to be as creepy as I had expected, but it was still creepy.
The creepiest parts are the first third of the book before the characters start realising what they unleashed (while the readers have more knowledge, or at least suspicions, than they) and, of course, the ending.
In between and throughout the book there was, however, plenty of gore which I tried not to imagine too vividly.
The story overall didn't offer anything new regarding concepts, but it was nevertheless compelling and well-written, and it definitely delivered enough material for a nightmare or two.
All in all, I now feel weirdly accomplished for having read it. ;)
The main culprit for the fact that this has only taken me almost four months to finish is that it employs a certain type of suspense that I find increasingly frustrating, namely, when the readers know something the characters don't and it takes them ages to get there.
I don't consider it a spoiler, because it is evident right from the beginning of the story if not from the title itself, but I'm putting it under the SPOILER tag anyway: Obviously (or not), Alex, the main protagonist, doesn't believe in angels, heaven, etc. and when she starts seeing wings, she fears she is going insane, especially due to her family history. END OF SPOILER
However, the very same thing is also one of the strongest points of Sins of the Angels, because such an attitude is rather more realistic than most books of the genre adopt, which is a quick and more or less easy acceptance.
Anyway, that piece of knowledge the readers have but that Alex keeps trying to remain in denial about for nearly 70% of the story was frustrating as hell for me; I could only bear to read a few chapters at a time.
And after that point, when Alex catches up with the facts, I finished the rest in one go, because Sins of the Angels is ultimately a compelling, well-written story that adds the previously explored concepts their own unique twists.
Therefore, I am, now that we got over with that discrepancy between the characters' and the readers' knowledge, definitely interested to see where the rest of the series takes us.
The Bout of Books readathon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It’s a weeklong readathon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 6th and runs through Sunday, January 12th in YOUR time zone. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are daily challenges, Twitter chats, and exclusive Instagram challenges, but they’re all completely optional. For Bout of Books 27 information and updates, visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team
Consider this my sign-up and updates post.
I have no goals other than to read, because I haven't read anything (not even fanfic!) this year, yet (Can you believe it? Then again, I did read A LOT last year.), and what better way to finally kick it off than with Bout-of-Books? None, I say. And I'm doing updates on my blog this year to bring it out of neglect.
Monday, 6/1/2020
Reading: Sins of the Angels (Grigori Legacy #1) by Linda Poitevin
Pages/words: cca 66 pages or 20%
Challenges/other: /
Tuesday, 7/1/2020
Reading: The Dandelion Girl by Robert F. Young
Pages/words: 11 pages
Challenges/other: My 2020 reading goals, you ask? To read as much or as little as I want and whatever I want. That's it. (Tweet.)
Wednesday, 8/1/2020
Reading: Sins of the Angels (Grigori Legacy #1) by Linda Poitevin
Pages/words: cca 9 pages (3%)
Challenges/other: /
Thursday, 9/1/2020
Reading: Sins of the Angels (Grigori Legacy #1) by Linda Poitevin
Pages/words: 33 (10%)
Challenges/other: /
Friday, 10/1/2020
Reading: Slave to Sensation (Psy-Changeling #1) by Nalini Singh
Pages/words: 18
Challenges/other: Why, yes, I can't committ to a book, so I started a new one. I also threw some book recs out on twitter for today's One with a Book in It challenge.
Saturday, 11/1/2020
Reading: Slave to Sensation (Psy-Changeling #1) by Nalini Singh, and a lovely little fanfic (unrelated)
Pages/words: 57, 1+ K of fanfic
Challenges/other: I had a blast participating in the twitter chat!
Sunday, 12/1/2020
Reading: Slave to Sensation (Psy-Changeling #1) and The Cannibal Princess (Psy-Changeling #1.1) by Nalini Singh
Pages/words: 284
Challenges/other: I guess I did stretch my non-existent goals!
Wrap-up:
What I read: I finished Slave to Sensation (Psy-Changeling #1) and The Cannibal Princess (Psy-Changeling #1.1) by Nalini Singh, The Dandelion Girl by Robert F. Young, and I also read about a third of Sins of the Angels (Grigori Legacy #1) by Linda Poitevin
Pages/words: 417 pages + 1+K of fanfic
Challenges/other: I did two challenges and joined in Saturday's twitter chat.
All in all, that's a lot more than I'd expected going in and this has been a great readathon-ing week!
I've set a new record and read 115 books this year!
That offers a lot of options to fill out my-year-in-books-I-read end-of-year wrap up meme, created by Christine at The happily ever after, but it was still hard to find sensible answers.
I have always liked trains. And then, by a coincidence, I moved to live right along the railway. And I love it, especially in December when we get to see the so-called Santa's train.
For the past few years in December our national railways offer special rides in different directions across the country on a composition of a historic steam engine and old carriages, decorated with Christmas lights, with Santa and his elves aboard.
It is a great attraction, especially for families with children, but also for everyone else, even if you just watch it huff and puff by.
The steam engine was built during WW II for the German army's transportation needs (hmm, yeah) and was a part of reparations to our country. It is extremely gratifying that a tool made for our destruction was used to rebuild after the war and is now still used to bring joy. Choo-choo!
There is something magical about winter evenings when you are warm and comfy while it is freezing and windy outside. With the fire going and a hot beverage, it is nice to just be in comfortable silence and perhaps enjoy a good piece of poetry.
One such piece is a poem that hit me straight in the heart when I first heard it many years ago, a romantically melancholic, just like a Slavic soul likes best, and I had that instant 'a-ha' feeling of relating to it, for back then I did literally live in an old house in the middle of the marshes and cold, wild wind knocking on our shabby windows was a familiar visitor during many a winter evening while sitting by the wood stove with my grandmother.
I know it by heart in Slovene translation and it takes me straight back to my childhood whenever I remember it. Incidentally, its title is Winter Evening and it remains one of my favourite pieces of poetry. I am pasting it below with some imagery that reminds me of the 'olden' days. ;)
Winter Evening by A. S. Pushkin
O'er the earth a storm is prowling,Bringing whirling, blinding snow. Like a beast I hear it howling, Like an infant wailing low. Now the thatch it rustles, playing On our roof; now at our pane Raps like someone homeward straying And behighted in the plain. Old our hut is, dark and dreary, By a candle dimly lit... Why so sad, my dear, and weary At the window do you sit? Is't because the storm is moaning That so very still you keep? Does your spindle's mournful droning Put you quietly to sleep?
Come, O comrade solitery Of this cheerless youth of mine, Take a cup, and let us bury All our many woes in wine! Of a maid out by a river Sing a little song to me Or a tomtit, one that never Leaves its home beyond the sea. O'er the earth a storm is prowling, Bringing whirling, blinding snow. Like a beast I hear it howling, Like an infant wailing low. Come, O comrade solitery Of this cheerless youth of mine, Take a cup, and let us bury All our many woes in wine! (Translated by I. Zheleznova.)
Do you have a favourite piece of poetry that reminds you of winter and/or childhood?
