Book 4: Utas és holdvilág by Szerb Antal

"Anxious to please his bourgeois father, Mihály has joined the family firm in Budapest. Pursued by nostalgia for his bohemian youth, he seeks escape in marriage to Erzsi, not realising that she has chosen him as a means to her own rebellion. On their honeymoon in Italy, Mihály 'loses' his bride at a provincial station and embarks on a chaotic and bizarre journey that leads him finally to Rome. There all the death-haunted and erotic elements of his past converge, and he, like Erzsi, has finally to make a choice."

I am too lazy to write my own synopsis, so this time I decided to steal borrow one from amazon.

 I finished this book about two months ago, so my experiences are not as fresh, but I am still comfortable to state that I did not like Utas és holdvilág. It was my first reading by Szerb Antal; I had no previous knowledge of him or of the book, all I knew was that it's a famous and internationally recognized novel, and it made it into the Top 100 books in A Nagy Könyv competition in 2005.

I did not get this book. I know it's about rebelling against the situation you got trapped in, standing up one day, leaving it all behind, going on a journey, facing the past, your issues and biggest fears, figuring things out and finding yourself by the end. I probably read this book at a wrong time, when I am in a different period of my life, or I rushed through it too fast, because it just did not get to me. I most certainly would not say that it was bad (since who am I to say that such a highly praised author as Szerb Antal wrote a bad book?), but neither would I say that I liked it. It awoke no emotions in me, I neither liked nor disliked the characters, I did not cheer for them, I simply did not care how their path would turn out, they left me cold. As a matter of fact, the entire book left me cold. I do know what the message was supposed to be, how I was supposed to feel, but I just did not get it and did not feel that way. There was no lesson to me that I could draw from this story. I neither feel that I have become more because I read Utas és holdvilág, nor am I taking anything from the book. 

Did you read it? What did you take away from it? How come it is so popular and highly praised? 

I should probably go back to it in a few years and give it another try, I might get it then, at that period of my life. 

Or should I try other books by Szerb Antal?

Budapest By Night

On Thursday evening I did pack up my gear, and set off to wander around in the Budapest night  and shoot for a couple of hours. My feet took me to Erzsébet híd, where a few months ago on a bright and crispy autumn morning I took a few really pretty photos. I knew that it was a good spot to try out the tripod, and to take long exposure shots from the bridge. Boy, am I glad to have bought a tripod! It works wonderfully (and so does my camera, it was such a great purchase. Probably the best thing I have ever bought.) and I can take supersharp photos with it! ...and, it isn't heavy at all, I had no problem walking around with it, and setting it up literally takes about 5 seconds. But enough with all this babbling, let the pictures speak for themselves. These are the better ones (you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them):

Obviously, these shots have nothing to do with originality, as I am pretty sure that the exact same photos from the exact same spots have been taken by millions of tourists and a few professional photographers as well. But originality was not the point this time: I wanted to see the difference a tripod makes, and also, wanted to find out whether my camera was capable of taking really sharp, and nice bright night photos. Indeed, it is, so hurray! So now I have these pretty pictures, I guess some of them could make a nice postcard. 

An utterly cliche-ish and ever so unoriginal but quite pretty postcard.

By the way, I descovered that I have a thing for bridges... Just give me a bridge crossing a river (they tend to cross rivers, believe me!), and I will take a hundred photos of it. And I also have a thing for trams, especially the old yellow ones - like tram 47-49 (Combinos have nothing on them!), whenever I see one I have this sudden urge to get my camera and take photos. So when there's a yellow tram crossing a bridge, or when there's a tram in the foreground and a bridge and the river in the background,  I go super-photo-crazy and start shooting ASAP. And when all this happens at night? It pretty much squares my going photo crazy.

Today we are also having quite a clear day, so if I can get some work done during the day, I will go out in the evening, probably up to the Castle or to Lánchíd, and take some more unoriginal but very pretty pictures. 

Thank god I got bridges to shot.

Budapest is just the city for me.

 (The photos have also been published on Bright Lights, Big City.)

"I hate writing. I love having written"

Quote of the day, most definitely. Except, these days I don't hate writing. But I still find it hard, really hard work, and at times always I feel like I am sweating blood when writing an academic paper. I wish there wasn't such a crazy hullabalo and so many random thoughts zigzaging at all times in my head. You have no idea what a slow academic paper-writer person I am, I must be in the top 10 top 3 of the slowest of all time, without a doubt. Crazy hullabalo does not let me search through, organize my thoughts, and find the right words very quickly. 

Oh, by the way, hallabaloo is my favorite English word.

Oh, by the way #2: the qoute in title is by Dorothy Parker, this crazy/genius woman, who is the wittiest, most sarcastic person ever, and whom I greatly admire!

Oh, by the way #3: Woohoo! to me for finishing my bloody long actually quite short academic paper.

Uncorrected Proof Copy

Look, what I've got! This one I found in the mail today: it's a book I ordered from abebooks, My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares. 

Right after I first glimpsed at it, it occurred to me that this volume was somewhat unusual and peculiar, not the usual retail paperbacks they sell in any given bookstore. So I took a closer look at it and quickly found the little note on the back: "Uncorrected proof copy - not for sale quotation". Hm, it sounded weird, something I had never seen before, so, naturally, I googled it, and got the answer from yahoo. Uncorrected proof copy means that such volumes are not sold in bookstores, but they are sort of promotional copies sent out (for free) by the publisher to newspapers, magazines, bookstores, or whoever else they think can promote the book, and spread the world that it is coming out before their actual publishing. 

As the note suggests, the proof copy is yet to be corrected and edited, this is why they also state that it is not for quotation: certain passages may be cut out during editing and not included in the final, published version. It is also kind of unfinished: there may be typos and grammar mistakes, the cover art looks slightly strange and somewhat unprofessional, you would most certainly not find a book with such a cover in  a bookstore;  the spine of the book lacks the title or the name of the author, on the very first page (right as you open the book) there's the abstract of the novel - so interest can be awaken right after opening the volume - there's a page for dedication, however it's not specified yet, and in the end the aknowledgements are also still missing.

...and that was the lesson on books for the day. (There's always something new you can learn, isn't there?) 

Interesting, isn't it? 

Although on yahoo answers it's suggested that such an uncorrected proof copy is worthless, it is not anything like a first edition of a rare or highly popular book. Nevertheless, I am very glad I got (sort of accidentally) hold of such a copy: to me it is a rarity and I find it special, especially since this is a book by Ann Brashares. Not to mention that this way I got to learn that such copies exist.

I will definitely have an eye out for typos and grammar goofs, as a matter of fact, will be happy to find a few here and there.

My New Toys

Look, what I've got! It's my brand new vintage super-dooper Zenit-E SLR camera. 

Back in the summer, upon one of my wanderings on the internet I learned about a pretty, blue camera, called Diana. I hadn't heard about it before, but kind of fell in love with it on the spot, because it's cute, looks pretty, sheek, and it takes one of its kind, kind of weird but cool photos. I was thinking about buying one once I could afford it, but after giving it some more thought I realized that it probably was not worth its prize, and I would have to pay a whole lot of money for  the brand, the stylisheness, the trendiness, and the cute looks, but I would end up with a less than mediocre, plastic camera that I would get bored of in a couple of months, because there's hardly any potential in it. I also realized that these good old Soviet Zenit cameras are being sold by the dozen for a really cheap prize, so I might as well find a good deal, get one, insead of throwing out all that money on a Diana. Last week I finally found my really good deal, and bought this pretty Zenit E machine for a bargain of couple of thousand forints. I haven't bought a roll of film yet though, but I can hardly wait to do so, to have a couple of hours of free time on  my hands and crispy spring weather with clear blue sky behind my back, and actually start shooting with a real camera camera camera. It's high time I finally started mastering the real art of photography. I am pretty sure I am going to screw up a couple of rolls first, because analogue cameras work completely differently than digital ones, plus it will also take me some time to figure out how to have the proper settings, but I just know that it's the real deal! Photographes are meant to be printed, held in hands, stuck into actual, real photo albums (or framed and hung on walls).

By the way, some time ago I also dug out my good old automatic camera I got for my birthday when I was about 12 years old. I had not used it for at least 5-6 years, but I wanted to go back to basics, take proper, real photos, shoot on film, and realize again how it feels not to have the advantages of the digital camera, get photos develoved and hold actual photographs in my hands, printed on paper. So I bought a roll of black and white film, started wandering around in the city and took some photos. Boy, it's not easy! There's still a lot of shots left on the roll, I should finish it off sooner or later, cause I can hardly wait to see them developed.

And my other new toy is this tripod. I few months ago I started playing with long exposure photography; however I quickly realized that in order to do this properly, and to take really good night photos of the superpretty Budapest I must have a tripod. So I finally bought one. Now I only have to gather my ever so growing gear, tand ake off into the night. Should do so in the next few days. Fingers crossed that we'll have clear nights.

Recently Read Books

painting by Catherine Chauloux, picture via booklover

 

 

The last time I wrote a kind of book review was about six weeks ago when I finished Leányregény by Polcz Alain which was the third volume of the year. Although the days are getting more and more hectic, in the last month and a half I did manage to read a few books:

• Utas és holdvilág by Szerb Antal
• Vonalkód by Tóth Krisztina
• A test angyala by Parti Nagy Lajos/ Sárbogárdi Jolán
• Esti Kornél by Kosztolányi Dezső
• Párizs fű alatt by Lángh Júlia
• Egy budai úrilány by Lángh Júlia
• Kis kiruccanás by Anna Gavalda
• Csak azt szerertném ha valaki várna rám valahol by Anna Gavalda
• Bitter Fame by Anne Stevenson
• Túl a Maszathegyen by Varró Dániel
• The Death and Life of Sylvia Plath by Ronald Hayman

currently reading:

• The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan
• Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert
• The Cambridge Introduction to Sylvia Plath by Jo Gill

I have kind of fallen into the habit of reading multiple books at a time, as each book serves different purpose: one of them is an easy read and it's just for fun - this time it's Committed, sequel of Eat, Pray Love; however, it's an utter disappointment -, The Feminine Mystique is for a research paper for Scholarly writing (plus, I am also interested in the subject) and the one on SP is, obviously, for thesis. I should finish all three during the next few days. 

Anyway, sooner or later I will (have to) write about each and every volume I have finished, since that's the point of the 52 book challenge. Just give me time, just give me time...

Today it the last day of the 11th week of the year, I have read 14 book so far, plus the 3 I'm currently consuming, so I guess I am doing quite well.

Someone please please please take away my creditcard...

...cause I cannot stop online shopping and I am spending all my not-so hard-earned money on books I want and (kinda) need but have absolutely no time to read now or will have in the next 3-4 months for that matter, so they are only going to be lying around on my bookshelves getting covered with dust until at least the middle of  summer when I will be finally done with the last semester-thesis writing-state exams-defending my thesis-MA entrance exam-trying to survive and not to screw up anything and get some sleep and social life in the meantime-craziness. But at least, I have all these great books around me within hand's reach, and whenever I feel like ditching all the compulsory reading, researching, and essay writing, I can simply take one of these great books off the shelf and for a couple of hours indulge myself in those amazing worlds that hide between the lines and beneath the letters. 

Oh, by the way, when it comes to online world-wide bookshopping, you must check out abebooks! It's a great site, I think it's definitely better, easier to use, and somewhat more costumer-friendly than amazon (Not that amazon is that difficult...) (I was going to write that it is also cheaper than amazon, because you pay less for the postage, but as I just checked the shipping rates of amazon, I realized that they are pretty much the same.) I found this website back in last December (thanks to the sometimes pretty useful facebook as someone suggested it in their comment), right before I started looking for the reference books I need for my theses. And since then, god only knows how many hours have I spent browsing books (almost as much fun as going to a bookstore, except for the lack of special bookstore atmosphere, but it's more comfy and less time consuming), looking for books I have always wanted to read but could never find in the local stores, finding them for a mere $1 (yep, one American dollar), then looking for the cheapest postage (sellers have different shipping rates), then trying to convince myself of not buying it cause I don't have time to read it, but then purchasing it anyway, for there's no better way to spend your money than buying books or travelling, is there?

Anyway, my point is, that abebooks is a great market place where you can find brand new and second hand books as well, and they have pretty much every English book you can ever look for. Paperbacks, both classics and bestsellers (but a lot of hardcovers too) are as cheap as $1, which is pretty much almost free, right? Most of the booksellers are located in the US and in UK, the postage from the US usually costs at least $9, from UK it's cheaper, you can find books that will be shipped for $5-6. There are also thousands of books that have a free worldwide shipping, however, these volumes usually cost at least $4-5. That is still a pretty good deal though, right? Most of the books in the second-hand English book shops in Budapest cost at least 1000-1200HUF (unless you are really lucky and they have a clear-out sale), and you cannot find a lot of volumes that you would like.

So in the last few weeks my online bookshopping went a little out of hand, but I was like: what the heck? I work a lot these weeks, the days are hectic, and I don't have time for any other entertainment, I might as well go crazy on books. This is what I ended up buying: 

• The Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath
• The Silent Woman by Janet Malcolm (refence book on SP)
• Wintering: A Novel of SP by Kate Moses
• Ariel Ascending: Writings about SP by Paul Alexander
• The Gilmore Girls Companion by Berman, A. S. and Herrmann, Edward
• Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger
• A Heartbreaking Work of a Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
• My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares
• Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, Simone Beck

The first four is for the thesis, and the rest... is for fun, because I need them, I want them, I must have them on my shelf. The Gilmore Girls Companion has just come out a few months ago, it's a vast collection (500 pages!) of backstages stories, memories, photos from the cast of Gilmore Girls. It's quite everything a Gilmore Girls lover (such as me) can want, because it's pretty much the bible of our holy tv show religion. I can hardly wait for it to be delivered, I'm going to be jumping out my skin once I'll have my hands on the Companion.

Friday Night Lights is one of my favorite tv shows (it comes right after Gilmore Girls) , it's probably the best sport drama that has ever been on television. It's a must see, even if you are not a fan of American football, or sports in general for that matter, because its unique small town Texas atmosphere and the down-to-earth but brilliant characters will pull you in, and you won't be able to stop watching episode after episode. (I must the stop praising FNL right here, for I must dedicate an entire post to the show!) Anyway, the film and the tv show both are based on this book (based on true story), and I had been trying to put my hands on a copy for years.

The Heartbreaking Work of a Staggering Genius is also a book I have been trying to get for years, but I guess it's out of print, because the bookstores haven't got new copies. It's DE's memoir, it has brilliant language, coming of age/quater life panic story, huge bestseller and critical success, must read.

Anne Brashares is one of my favorite authors, or at least the author of my most favorite book series, so I feel it's my personal obligation to buy each and every novel of hers, and buy them right after publishing. (Must write an entire post about AB as well!)This is her freshest novel, they say it's somewhat familiar to The Time Traveler's Wife. Now, I am yet to read that book (too), I only saw that film which was kind of rubbish, but the novel was a world-wide bestseller and everyone says that it is wonderful.

I had been dreaming about The Mastering the Art of French Cooking ever since I first saw Julie and Julia, learnt about and kind of fell in love with Julia Child. One (main reason) of my starting baking was JC, so no wonder I am incredibly greatful for seeing the movie and learning about this great woman. When I started baking over a year ago, I promised myself to buy both volumes of TMtAoFC, but not until I moved out of the dorm and had my own kitchen to cook and bake in. Nevertheless, I have been checking the books of Julia Child in online bookshops every once in a while, and was glad to notice that a Penguin paperback edition came out of her cook book, and it is sold for about 3000HUF in Budapest too. I was thinking about buying that, but it's a rather thick book, and since it is a cook book, you are likely to use it almost on a daily basis, and not just read through it once then keep it on the shelf for the rest of your life, so it's better to have a hardcover edition and not a paperback. However, hardcovers are rather expencive, they start at about 7000 HUF, but I was lucky, and yesterday I found a copy for $15, so I decided to buy it. This is my first cook book ever. I probably should have started with the traditional Hungarian cookbook by Horváth Ilona; you know, this is the one that each and every Hungarian housewife/mother has at home - Yep, yours too, just ask your Mom! Mine used to have one as well, until her careless daughter left her precious copy in England. I probably should master the art of Hungarian cooking first, but what the heck, I want JC (and the consumer society...) to be proud of me.

By the way, there is new book out by Julia Child, it's her correspondence with Avis DeVoto. If I had not spent about $130 on books in  the past two weeks, I would buy it right now, because I adored JC's memoir, My Life in France, but I am going to pace myself somehow and wait until my birthday. One's birthday is always a great excuse to order a bunch of books. 

Oh, how I wish it was summer already, and I could read silly little great fiction while lying in the grass and feeling the sun on my skin.

Correction: Actually, I kind of enjoy doing research on SP, and figuring out the details and points of my thesis.

(If you managed to read through this bloody long post, you most certainly deserve a reward! Go, get yourself a bar of chocolate!)

And here's Gilmore Girls video to accompany the theme of this post.

The Best Brownies (EVER)

It's high time I finally wrote about these incredibly easy-made but oh-so-yummy brownies of mine Allrecipes.com. I baked them again yesterday, they turned out marvelous - as usual, I must add -, so is there a better time to write about The Best Brownies? I have made them at least a dozen times, and shared the recipe with half a dozen people, and I must say, everybody who has at least a bite of them goes like: "Hmmmmm, hmmmmm, whoa, what is this, this sooo delicious! ....Can I have another one, please?.... Hmmm, this is sooo good!" Then girls go on like: "Please put it away, otherwise I'll eat the entire tray of brownies... But can I have the recipe please?" While guys go on like: "Can I have just one last piece, please? ... and a last last one, okay?" They are so yummy, that I haven't been able to take a pretty photo of them: for some mysterious reason I always end up making them in the evening when there's no natural light, only ugly neons provide light, and I cannot take a decent picture (I would have to use the flash, and I loath using the flash)... then by the following day, the brownies utterly mysteriously disappear...

So this is how the recipe goes (copied from Allrecipes.com):

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or 2 packs of vanilla sugar)

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour an 8 inch square pan.
2. In a large saucepan, melt 1/2 cup butter. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in 1/3 cup cocoa, 1/2 cup flour, salt, and baking powder. Spread batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Do not overcook. 

As you can see, it's probably the easiest thing you can ever bake. However, I do have a few sidenotes on the recipe:

• It's quite a small portion, and it does not fill properly the usual sized pan (eg: 9x13 inches, the so-called négytojásos piskóta tepsi), so I double each ingredient, with two exceptions: instead of 2/3 mug of cocoa powder, I use a whole cup of cocoa, and 2 cups of sugar is way too much and too sweet, so about 1 1/2 or 1 3/4 cup will be most certainly enough. 
• I do not melt the butter in a saucepan, but I simply microwave it (on very low temperature), and mix the ingredients in a big bowl
• If you double the ingredients, you have to bake the dough for a longer time, for about 35-40 minutes. However, it's important not to overbake it, becuase the real American brownies are almost unbaked in the middle. Obviously it does have to be somewhat solid in the middle as well, but don't let is go dry. It's so much better when it's crunchy on the outside and fudgy in the middle.
• The recipe also writes chocolate frosting; however, I have never made them because I think the brownies would be too sweet, too fulsome. It is sweet and chocolaty, and perfect enough without the frosting, believe me.
• You will end up with a richer, crunchier taste if you put half a cup or a cup of chopped walnuts/peanuts or chocolate chips into the dough.

...and that's it, folks. I don't think it can get any easier, or the deliousness/ difficulty ratio can get any better.

You can find the original recipe here.

At Last

So here I am, after an entire month of hiatus finally writing again. There are so many things I could write about, but I am so exhausted, I can't pull myself together enough to write a decent book or movie review. Since my very last semester as a BA student started a few weeks ago, my days are pretty hectic as I have classes at the university from Monday till Friday, I teach a couple of lessons every day at the language school in the evening or late afternoon, and what is left of the afternoons I spend in the library doing research, mainly reading and taking notes for my thesis. I usually leave for school at 8.45AM, then get home a bit after 7.30 PM, dead tired. The days are long, I try to get by with no more than seven hours of sleeping a day, if I sleep more than 8 hours I am qualmish, but if I don't sleep enough and/or have too much coffeine in my system I get these horrible headaches I can hardly get rid of and can do no work with, so sleep deprivation really is a vicious circle.  Anyway, my point is, that by the time I get home I am so exhausted and have so many miles in my feet that I can hardly push myself to do anything productive the rest of the day, I usually get stuck in front of the bloody internet, staring at the vibrating and flashy screen of the laptop for hours, than- if I am lucky, - some life comes back into me and I can read for another couple of hours or write a journal entry, but I ran out of energy again when it comes to writing a blog post... 

Hopefully I will eventually get used to such hectic days, or rather weeks, as things will remain the same until the end of May at least, and I will start getting less and less tired by each day, and can do some more work after I get home. The other thing is that I should go to bed earlier. If I fell asleep by 11.30PM-midnight then I would be able to get up at 7AM, an do a whole hour of reading/writing/creating posts, etc. in the morning before getting ready and leaving for school. Oh, I only wish a day consisted of at least 36 hours, OR four hours of sleep per day would be enough for me...

So much to do in soooo little time.

Anyway, let's hope that from now on I will be able to blog again, if not on a daily basis, then at least a few days a week, becuase there are, most certainly, things to write about. Several things, actually.

The only issues is time, bloody ticking time.