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[atopmountains]

Literary tastes change over time, but it always feels weird to think about authors who used to be widely read, but no longer are. Most prominently in my mind is Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, who won the Noble Prize in literature but who no one in Norway really reads anymore. His contemporary and rival, Henrik Ibsen, is still hugely popular - even internationally.

I think it's mostly to do with Bjørnson's emphasis on national romanticism, which isn't that popular anymore. If we are to compare him with Ibsen, he wasn't as socially transgressive as him, so there is not the same "ahead of his time" feeling with Bjørnson as there is with Ibsen. And I'm part of this too, I have not read a single full length work by Bjørnson! I did however, really enjoy a silent film based on his novel (or it might have been a play) Synnøve Solbakken, so I will definitely read that, and eventually his other works.

I didn't read any of his poetry in high school, and now that they've changed the curriculum to be more flexible in terms of what books teachers assign, there's not any chance he'll have a comeback soon. But, my opinion on that is a different matter entirely.

You can be instrumental in the formation of a national identity and recieve prestigious awards, but once people are comfortable with and understand their national identity, maybe they don't need it reinforced in this internal way. In Norway today, we are much more obsessed with how people from other countries view us.

[atopmountains]

What is your favourite place to read? I don't have a picture from the library but it's definitely a favourite of mine too!

[atopmountains]

I want to read the books on the reading list for this semester that I haven't gotten to yet, but instead I have to read 50 pages of someone else's analysis and then write a submission about that... I was so into the groove of medieval literature too!

It does make me a little extra excited to get back that eventually though.

[atopmountains]

Reading early chapters of Don Quijote

I haven't gone about reading a book by merely reading a single chapter of it a day since grade school. My dad would read to me this way by my bedside each evening and so it feels very nostalgic. For such a monumental work of literature, trying to read it as fast as possible would feel wrong.

It is an hilarious book and I've laughed out loud multiple times, though I shared some qoutes with an aquaintance and she didn't find it as funny. It is very much my humour, though in some cases it stops being funny and starts being sad, particularly the scenes where Don Quijote is being physically beaten by others and unable to retaliate. It has been difficult to read those parts.

It's over 900 pages and each chapter has scarcely been above five pages so this will take a good, long while. But I think this is good, it means that if I begin reading something less than stellar I will still have a chapter of this masterful novel to enjoy by my bedside.