#Mikkel Birkegaard

[coolladydot]

Biblioteca umbrelor (recenzie)

Închipuie-ți că toți cei din jurul tău ar sta și ar citi nestingheriți, continuă bărbatul izbind cu sticla în masă. Toate cuvintele și propozițiile ar zbura în vârtejuri prin aer, ca fulgii de zăpadă într-un viscol. Bărbatul ridică mâinile și începu să le agite într-o serie de mișcări circulare. S-ar amesteca unele cu altele, s-ar împreuna în propoziții neinteligibile, s-ar despărți ca să se…

[isabelle201180]

Dans le livre des rêves de Mikkel Birkegaard

http://www.universpolars.com/2023/04/dans-le-livre-des-reves-mikkel-birkegaard.html?utm_source=_ob_email&utm_medium=_ob_notification&utm_campaign=_ob_pushmail

[contre-qui]

Book 9 of 2021: The Library of Shadows

The Library of Shadows by Mikkel Birkegaard, translated by Tiina Nunnally

(paperback, 430 pages, magical realism, fantasy, adult, thriller)

Normally this is where I put in a quote, but this book was literally so dry that I could not find a quote (through neither my own reading nor the vast internet) that stood out to anyone. I have never had a book from which I couldn't quote. I think that speaks to the writing in this novel, frankly.

I expected a lot from this novel. It seemed to have a pretty much everything I could want - a cool and unique magic system, an adult fantasy novel, a fantasy novel about books and the magic of reading. That all sounds great. But the book kind of flopped for me. It just felt very much like it was written for men, and it was pretty dry in some places.

The Library of Shadows is about a man named Jon Campelli just after the death of his father, Luca. Luca owned a bookshop, which he has passed to Jon, despite their mostly estranged relationship. Jon finds himself pulled into a world of magical realism as he meets his father's associates and comes to learn that there is more to reading than most people assume. Mind control, conspiracies, book lovers, and magic come together in this novel as Jon comes to terms with his family's past and must decide what to do with his future. Should he forget the bookshop and continue his successful career as a lawyer, or should he embrace his father's gift to him and enter a world from which he can't return?

On the surface, this seems like such a cool book. The concept is really intriguing, the magical realism is done in a really nice way. Unfortunately, it was just flat. I didn't find myself engaged with any of the characters; none of them were very likeable or even compelling. The romantic subplot felt odd, and the two characters involved didn't seem to have any chemistry before they randomly got together. My stepmother disagrees with me on this point, so maybe I just don't get straight people, but I felt like their relationship came out of nowhere. I didn't see any flirting or build-up before they got together, and they didn't seem to have that much chemistry even once they started dating. There were also a few plot points that didn't really get wrapped up by the end of the book. There was a particular location/organization that I expected to come into play with the conspiracy later, but it just never came up again. That made the ending feel somewhat ambiguous, and I felt like I was still waiting for resolution on a certain character by the end of the book. Birkegaard took forever to get to the climax of the novel, which left only a few pages for falling action and conclusion. The ending of the book felt unsatisfying and sudden because the whole thing was tied off so quickly. Additionally, the writing was pretty dry and there were moments where action was disturbed so characters could sit around and provide exposition through dialogue. It was slow to read, and the writing was pretty meh compared to other books in this genre.

There were so many men in this book. This was not a book written with women in mind whatsoever. There is only one woman who actually has a significant role in the plot, which just felt odd. I also felt like there were some weird racist undertones in this one; there is one Asian character (no, there is no other specification, even though Asia is a massively diverse continent,) and he is extremely stereotypically East Asian. So that was definitely off putting and weird. There were maybe one or two (speaking, relevant) non-white characters, and they also felt like they were described a little oddly. It was a vibe more than anything else with some of those, so maybe it was just a translation thing.

Trigger warnings for violence, mentions of blood/injury, electrocution, character death, fire, hospitals/medical care, gun/weapons, and stereotyping/racism.

My final opinion: Not worth the read.

[gooseandcaboose]

Luca Campelli's wish to die surrounded by his beloved books came true late one night in October.

The Library of Shadows by Mikkel Birkegaard, translated by Tiina Nunnally

[existential-celestial]

Hello! Since you're reading the shadow of the wind, do you know any similar books you could recommend? The last book I've read was last year and I've started reading many books this year but couldn't finish reading any of them. Tysm 💗💞 love your blog

hello @nunkkoch!

thank you for the kind words about my blog, and yes! i am now more or less 60% through The Shadow of the Wind. i have to say, this book is not my usual shade of darkness, but i am enjoying it a lot. the intuitive part of me is very amused with every hunch i prove correct, or every mystery i have unraveled in my head even before the grand gesture of an actual revelation in the story.

when you asked about similar books to TSotW, i automatically thought in films! this book is written like a film, which is not quite surprising since Zafón is a scriptwriter. anyways, as to book recommendations, here are some books on my goodreads list that have gothic elements, mystery, some (or little) romance, and/or magic realism that might be of the same vein as TSotW (disclaimer: i’m listing these intuitively, based on what i perceived reading excerpts and synopses):

The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco

Possession, A.S. Byatt

Night Train to Lisbon, Pascal Mercier

The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov

The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami

Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier

Perfume, Patrick Suskind

ofc, the Bronte Sisters’ works would fall under this list too, but the language and style will be very different to TSotW because of their own different milieu. magic realism is also present in the works of Isabelle Allende, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and TSotW is also often compared to the works of Jorge Luis Borges (based on the excerpts i’ve read/seen, i think i agree).

lastly, i found discussions online that mention these books multiple times comparing them to TSotW (although i have not yet read excerpts/synopses about them):

The Club Dumas, Arturo Perez-Revente

The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield

The Library of Shadows, Mikkel Birkegaard

you can check more read-alikes here and here.

happy discovering/reading,

janyn

p.s. anyone who wants to recommend more books, please comment/reply them here! :)

[overfeeler]

I just finished reading the library of shadows by Mikkel Birkegaard and wanted to something about this book. Also I am planning to do more drama edit so tell me what you want to see.

Kisses Annie

[xavicuevas]

Hola lectores!, luego de un tiempo sin postrar (y ya con internet), acá está la nueva actualización del blog: https://xavibooks.wordpress.com con una colección de libros que hablan sobre libros, los títulos y sus autores son: La comerciante de libros - Brenda Rickman Vantrease El niño que robó una librería - Leonardo Navarro El Sr. Penumbra y su librería 24 horas abierta - Robin Sloan La encuadernadora de libros prohibidos - Belinda Starling La librería ambulante - Christopher Morley La librería encantada - Christopher Morley Una libreria con magia - Thomas montasser La librería de l as nuevas oportunidades - Anjali Banerjee La librería - Penélope Fitzgerald Libros de Luca - Mikkel Birkegaard La ladrona de libros - Markus Zusak El taller de los libros prohibidos - Eduardo Roca Saludos y felices lecturas!! #ereaderlover #bookworm #ebookreader #ebookblogger

[wishingnevergetsyouthatfar]

The Library of Shadows

I have mixed feelings about The Library of Shadows by Mikkel Birkegaard. The central concept is excellent (secret societies of people who can affect people using the power of reading), the story itself feels slightly stale and predictable. Honestly the story sometimes feels like a fill in the blanks thriller. The hero who initially knows nothing about [insert name of secret society] is initiated…

[from-books-with-love]

Pourquoi n'a-t-il rien dit ? — Tu ne l'as pas encore compris ? demanda Tom avec une légère impatience dans la voix. Il voulait te protéger. Luca préférait être un mauvais père qu'un père sans enfant.

Mikkel Birkegaard, La librairie des ombres.

[contre-qui]

It is wayyyyyy too hot to be reading outside, so instead I'll take my ridiculous (self-assigned) summer reading stack indoors with a new favorite drink! I have to read Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead for my Humanities class next year so I decided to pick up Hamlet as well just to really understand everything. Right now I'm still going strong with Survival of the Sickest - it's making me want to read more nonfiction!

[qualmo]

The Library of Shadows

So... I just finished readingThe Library of Shadowsby Mikkel Birkegaard. I love finishing books that I've never read before!

Honestly, I've been reading this book for a LONG time. I bought it back when Borders were closing down (;-;). But it's taken me a while to read because the beginning of the novel was really, really slow for me. About halfway through the pace got better and it became a lot harder to put down, so I've actually probably read 3/4 of the book in the past few days.

But the book wasn't bad at all, even though it was slow to begin with. It was actually a really enjoyable book. The characters were mostly really bland, and, if asked, I probably couldn't describe the main character at all beyond that he's nondescript. I didn't really connect with anyone except for Pau, who I loved a lot and pitied a lot, but I won't say more about that because of spoilers. But aside from that and the pacing, the plot was amazing and super, super original. Like... I've never read anything that touched even remotely on what this book was about, and it was exciting to see something so unexpected. Also, the author has a lot of talent. I was taken on adventures through Denmark and Egypt, two countries I've never been to, but I felt like I was THERE and it seemed more like travel lit than the fantasy/drama/romance hybrid that it actually was. I was so crazy about the settings, from the main character's apartment to the streets of Alexandria. I felt like I was on vacation.

Good book. I feel so fulfilled having finished it. Now I need to decide what to read next!

Recently I've been really crazy about translated novels. I've been rereading Ring by Koji Suzuki (the Japanese novel that the movie by the same name is based off of - it is more science fiction than horror and the novel is SO GOOD like holy shit this author is the most crazy man in the world good) and it's made me crave more novels about Japan. And the last book I finished that I have never read before was The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (a book originally written in Spanish and set in Barcelona) and that book TOOK MY FUCKING BREATH AWAY and I wanted to just DIE when it was over because it was so gorgeous.

[contre-qui]

Books of 2021 Wrapup!

Finally! 2021 is at a close and it’s time for me to give my overall thoughts and reflections of 2021 as a reading year for myself.

First up, the general stats:

To determine my top and bottom 5 of this year, I actually did three different brackets! I pitted my books against each other in three different ways: picking my favorite for each month and eliminating from that initial 12; pitting them against each other numerically (1 v. 2; 3 v. 4; etc.); and pitting opposites against each other (1 v. 74; 2 v. 73; 3 v. 72; etc).

Top 5:

Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier

The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo

The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis

Special Mentions:

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Antigone by Sophocles, translated by H.D.F. Kitto

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex by Angela Chen

After Ovid: New Metamorphoses, edited by Michael Hofmann and James Lasdun

Bottom 5:

Daughters of Joy, Sisters of Misery: Prostitutes in the American West, 1865-90 by Anne M. Butler

The Simarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant

The Library of Shadows by Mikkel Birkegaard, translated by Tiina Nunnally

Fastest Read: Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong (<60 minutes)

Slowest Read: The Simarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien (~5 months) - I kept picking it up and putting it down and dragging my feet with it

Longest Read: The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty (782 pages)

Shortest Read: Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot, illustrated by Edward Gorey (56 pages)

2021 as a Reading Year:

My goal(s):

Read 40+ books

Post reviews within 1 week of finishing books

Journal about all the books I read, even just a few lines

How did I do:

Great! I almost doubled my book goal by reading 74 books. I didn’t post my reviews within a week at all, but that’s always been a struggle for me so maybe I need to open that window to 2-3 weeks for next year. I did journal about all of the books I read, so now I have a record of my thoughts on them at the time that I read them, as well as quotes that stood out to me, etc.

How I felt about reading this year:

Last year I felt really disconnected from my reading for most of the year. I didn't read very many books and I felt kind of gross because reading makes me feel more like myself and it refreshes my creative energy. So to have surpassed my goal so thoroughly feels great! I got so many off of my physical TBR shelf this year, so I’m extra pleased about that. I feel really good about what I've read. It was a great reading year - I found some new favorites, I feel creatively refreshed and inspired, and I'm happy to be partaking in one of my oldest and most favorite hobbies again. I read so many great books this year that have really helped me stay in love with reading. I had a few slumps, but I think it's natural to vary in how much you read throughout a time period so it doesn't bother me too much.

What affected my reading:

I did a lot this year! I applied for and got into my top-choice university and program, I successfully applied for a student visa, and I moved to the UK for uni. So especially around the time I was packing and moving (August-September), I didn’t read as much. When I was bored around the beginning of the year because I was starting my first semester off from university since I started, I read a lot more. I also read a lot for class! I read a ton of classics this year because I had to once I started at my new uni.

How my reading affected me:

I felt so much more creatively engaged and inspired because I was reading all the time. I genuinely love reading, so it was great to get back into it this year. I’m really proud of myself, but I’m also so pleased to have found so many great books and to have rediscovered others as well. This was kind of a crazy year for me, but committing to a hobby I enjoy so much definitely helped my mental health through the whole process.

2022 Reading Goals:

52 books read - 1 per week, on average

Create and use standardized star rating system for consistency in reviews

Read 10 books from TBR list

Continue journaling my reading

Post reviews within 1 month of finishing the book

Read below the tag if you’d like the full list of my reading and the links to each of my reviews on those books!

Books of 2021:

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty

Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History by Stephen Jay Gould

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant

The Pearl by John Steinbeck

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

The Library of Shadows by Mikkel Birkegaard

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein's Brain by Michael Paterniti

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams

There There by Tommy Orange

Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams

A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire

Daughters of Joy, Sisters of Misery: Prostitutes of the American West, 1865-90 by Anne M. Butler

I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier

100 Selected Poems by e.e. cummings

Blackout by Connie Willis

A Mercy by Toni Morrison

Hedgewitch's Field Guide by Siolo Thompson

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

All Clear by Connie Willis

Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams

Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex by Angela Chen

By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept: A Novel of Forgiveness by Paulo Coelho

Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown

The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories by H.P. Lovecraft

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

The Green Witch: Your Complete Guide to the Natural Magic of Herbs, Flowers, Essential Oils, and More by Arin Murphy-Hiscock

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (a biomythography) by Audre Lorde

The Simarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien

Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf

Tar Baby by Toni Morrison

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel

Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction by Jonathan Culler

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan

The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty

Changing Planes by Ursula K Le Guin

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Walter Shewring

Antigone by Sophocles, translated by H.D.F. Kitto

Oedipus the King by Sophocles, translated by H.D.F. Kitto

Electra by Sophocles, translated by H.D.F. Kitto

Dune by Frank Herbert

Beowulf by Anonymous, translated by Seamus Heaney

Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles, translated by F. Storr

Ted Hughes's Tales from Ovid, adapted by Tim Supple and Simon Reade

Evil Roots: Killer Tales of the Botanical Gothic, edited by Daisy Butcher

Inferno by Dante Alighieri, translated by Michael Palma

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde

Aspects of the Novel by E.M. Forster

La Vida de Lazarillo de Tormes by Anonymous, translated by Michael Alpert

After Ovid: New Metamorphoses, edited by Michael Hofmann and James Lasdun

The Tempest by William Shakespeare, edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine

Candide, or Optimism by Voltaire, translated by Robert Bruce Boswell

The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis

Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong

Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory by Peter Barry

El Buscón by Francisco de Quevedo, translated by Michael Alpert

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn

[from-books-with-love]

Tu peux être Lettore, Jon.

Mikkel Birkegaard, La librairie des ombres.