John Lanchester | The Literary Bunny

As part of our vacation activities this year, my boyfriend/fiancé and I took a day trip to Copenhagen – mainly to buy books. My favorite Danish bookshop is located på Rådhuspladsen in Copenhagen and the reason that I love it is, that it stocks all the new contemporary fiction – in English. I am of course talking aboutPolitikens Boghal which is one of the few places in Denmark where you have a great selection of fiction written in English. And since that’s what I read the most, of course this is my favorite bookshop.

So I bought 7 books in Politikens. 6 fiction, one non fiction. Most of these were already on my wish list and I’m excited about all of them.

Lev Grossman: The Magician King (The Magicians #2). The second volume in this fantasy series, inspired heavily by Harry Potter and Narnia.
Ramona Ausubel: No One is Here Except All of Us. A sort of 1001 Nights set in a tiny Jewish village in Romania in WWII.
Carlos Ruiz Zafon: The Prisoner of Heaven (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books #3). The final installment in this trilogy. The first one was amazing. I plan on reading all three together – hopefully soon.
Christos Tsiolkas: The Slap. What happens when a father slaps a child who is not his own? Simple premise – but I expect a lot from this Booker shortlisted novel.
John Lanchester: The Capital. I bought this book mainly because it takes place in London during the recession. An entire street in London with very different people, yet all receive a card in the mail with the same message on: We Want What You Have.
Tom Perrotta: The Leftovers. What happens after a rapture like event has removed millions of people from earth? How do the leftovers react and go about their lives, rebuilding societies etc?
Nicholas Joll (ed.): Philosophy & The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy so many times as a teenager. I plan on reading it again soon – and this will be a wonderful companion read.

Close to Politikens, you can find a small bookstore in a cellar, Fantask. Fantask is the place to go if you wish to buy comics, graphic novels and fantasy.

L. Jagi Lamplighter: Prospero Lost. A fantasy version of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Beautiful cover!
Terry Pratchett: Snuff. The newest paperback in the Discworld series. Can’t wait!
Neil Gaiman: The Doll’s House (Sandman #2). I am pretty sure I read the Sandman series years ago – now I’m slowly buying them for myself.

And finally, we also visited a sale. Again, very close to Politikens, there’s a huge – and I think permanent – book sale called Vangsgaards Bogudsalg. I mostly picked up some coloring books and picture books for the girls but I did pick up a couple of books for myself too – one of these unfortunately in Norwegian…!

Alan Moore: From Hell. Alan Moore’s take on Jack the Ripper. I’ve been wanting to read this book for years. But it sucks that I somehow ended up with a copy in Norwegian!
Jasper Fforde: Shades of Grey. I really like the one Thursday Next book I’ve read and the idea of your ability to see colors determining your place in society sounds intriguing.

So 12 books all in all did I carry back home in the train. Quite a good haul, I think. I’m looking forward to reading them!

So I’ve written about my to-read list before (Being Bad and The never-ending to-read pile) but I’ve never written about my wish list. The concept of my wish list is very simple. If I see a book I’m interested in reading, it goes on my wish list. Books go off the wish list if I buy them or – less often – loose interest in them. About 1,5 years ago, I felt like my wish list was getting out of control and I went through it, deleted quite a bit of books from it. And since then, I’ve just kept adding more and more books until just the other day, I realized that I had made it to 999 books. 999 books I’m interested in reading! So I knew I wanted to do something to mark when I reached 1000. I’m just not sure if I want to celebrate it … or cry!

Anyways, yesterday, I read a twitter about John Lanchester’s new novel Capital. I went to goodreads to check it out and, well, it caught my fancy enough for me to add it to my wish list. The book focuses on the people living in one street in London and how the financial crisis has changed their life. One day, a note is dropped into every letterbox saying ‘We want what you have’… So this is the book that’s my number 1000 on my wish list. Cue the balloons and party hats! Or tissues.

What this means is, that my wish list is just as much out of control as my to-read list. And I’m not quite sure what to do about it. Any suggestions? Do I just keep on adding books or do I do a purge of the wish list to see, if there’s any books on it I’m no longer interested in?

I’m still not sure if I want to celebrate or cry – but Capital sounds great! I guess the real question is whether the 999 other books are great too …