Books Are Jazzy

A reader lives a thousand lives before they die. The person who never reads lives only one.

Like every Sunday morning, I put on my winter boots, threw on my warm eskimo coat and dashed down the short driveway only barely staying upright on the ice rink like ground. I opened the mailbox and grabbed the papers. Then, clambered back inside with my fresh paper in my tight grip. Back inside I made myself a cup of tea and sat down to read the day's actualities.

This time I was greeted by an especially nice surprise. The weekend extra, which I usually bypass in lack of time, featured a nice, four page article about tourists running around Barcelona in search of Sempere&Son and other places familiar from the Shadow of the Wind book by Carlos Zafón Ruiz. I had to do a super animated double take since I had just done the same on my BCN-vacation! I wrote  a whole post about it here. Actually Laura wrote a post about the book too (here's her thoughts).



It was really cool to look back and be reminded both of the book and the trip so suddenly without any warning. I certainly hadn't expected to see that when I flipped the page. So I guess I should encourage everyone to read news papers and not only hard cover novels. ;)

I also learned that the book is only the first in a series and that Barcelona is the setting for so many other interesting books both by the same and other authors. Fair to say my Goodreads "to read"-list gained a few new rows of books.

Have a great Sunday everyone!

-Anna
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In my opinion a trip begins already weeks in advance through planning, packing, scouting places to visit, budgeting, reading tips and of course daydreaming. My summer’s trip this year was a week-long visit to the beautiful and versatile Barcelona in Spain. As always, I began my trip early. This time, however, I had a nice twist to my normal vacation-fantasizing routine: I read a book set in the city. 

This was a very fresh and genuine way to discover the destination. It helped me form a certain picture of both the history and the present state of the city giving me a more personal look into the otherwise tourist-filled BCN.

The introduction for my stay was not the only good that came out of reading the book before the trip. At the very end of The Shadow of the Wind a map along with short descriptions of the places from the book is found. While walking around in the Gothic quartier, shopping on the Ramblas and visiting the Picasso museum I would squeeze in a location or two from the book. Also, while touring around the city and checking out the sights, I recognized places mentioned in the book such as La Sagrada Familia, Montjüic and Tibidabo. This was a very nice experience and a cool activity! I warmly recommend similar ways of exploring new places and will definitely try to incorporate it into my own journeys from here on!

This map totally gave me thrills; Just try to imagine me walking around smiling like an idiot hugging the book.

8 on the map. The Picasso Museum is on the street nowadays.
2 on the map. No real bookshop here but it was still clearly named for me.
11 on the map. Els 4 Gats is a really fancy restaurant-café -unfortunately I didn't get to dine here because our packing hadn't known to consider the dress code :P
Seeing the city and the familiar places from the book altered my picture of the city. I had thought it to be more town like and hadn’t realized the presence of the beach at all. Being there in July I also had much trouble feeling the cold that was often present in Daniel’s story :D This was a unique and interesting experience and I ended up falling deeply in love with Barcelona.

The narrow alleys were a perfect match for the ambiance that I got from the book.
9 on the map. The Barcelona Cathedral.
I had received the recommendation and book from Laura as she had just recently visited Barcelona and read the book only afterwards (as you can recall from her earlier post here). The read was a very welcome one. I loved Carlos Zafón Ruiz´s text and the story seems intricately built and was therefore so easy to follow. Even if you haven't been to Barcelona and aren't planning on visiting anytime soon, I do recommend reading the book. 

-Anna






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About Us

Hi! We're Laura and Anna, two twenty-something women who love reading! We originally met each other in Atlanta, GA, over 10 years ago. Since then, we moved back to our home country of Finland, and now that we are in university, Anna lives in Turku, Finland, studying medicine and Laura lives in Asheville, NC, studying literature.

We read in a wide variety of genres, including all forms of young adult fiction and some adult books as well. Laura tries to focus on fantasy, but sometimes her coursebooks get in the way, whereas Anna is happy to read anything other than her textbooks!

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