muyū.

Exam period is finally over which means I get to do fun things again. Like reading, and having time to meet with people who also like reading. One such person is Jane, from What Jane Read, who is always so nice to see. And not only because she loves everything I love.

Therefore, I have approximately zero point zero time to read for pleasure. So far this year, I have read five books, out of which one was a research book for my thesis, one was a graphic novel, two were books I thought were easy to get through and wouldn't require too much attention and concentration, and one was a book I had to read, otherwise my friend who kindly lent it to me (a year ago) would hire an assassin just to get it back ALREADY (this is her voice making its way into the text).

Unlike my reading, the non-reading is rather plentiful. Let's have a look at all the books I have not been reading in January.

Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter
I received this book for Christmas, and it has only a little over hundred pages. Yet, I haven't managed to read it. Well done.

Hold Your Own by Kate Tempest
A poetry book. Everyone (I am very selective about my everyones, so to make things clearer: everyone I trust with book opinions) keeps telling me to read this and be amazed. I would love to! Will you go to the exam instead of me? (seriously, though.. I'll bake you a cake)

The Wolf Wilder by Katherine Rundell
Another one gifted to me during Christmas. Time sure flies, huh...

Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck
Acquired this one two months ago... it was a bargain... I wasn't supposed to buy any books, I believed I'll read it very very soon though...





If any of you are more lucky than me and have gotten round to any of these books/any other interesting books, let me know. But please speak a little louder than you usually would, so I can hear you from underneath my massive to-be-read pile.

1. stal se ze mě něco jako zodpovědný skoro dospělý člověk (a nedoporučuju, bolí to)
2. hlásím se na magistra do zahraničí
3. v zahraničí řeší průměr
4. a lepší pozdě než nikdy, ne? 

written by Neil Gaiman

The most inspiring speech I ever encountered. Reading Neil Gaiman’s books is a life-lasting experience of one kind but after reading his speech he had given at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts in 2012 it felt similar to being struck by lightning (not that I would have any experience with lightning but you know what I mean..) and I will need a lot of time to recover. In the best way possible. I loved every word of it. I feel like there is still chance for us all. If you are any kind of an artist at all you should get your hands on this.

With the help of Chip Kidd, a graphic artist, the speech of Neil Gaiman is even more striking. The way this whole speech is printed is so pretty… I just want to marry this book.


“When I agreed to give this speech, I started trying to think what the best advice I’d been given over the years was. And it came from Stephen King twenty years ago, at the height of the success of Sandman. I was writing a comic that people loved and were taking seriously. King had liked Sandman and my novel with Terry Pratchett, Goog Omens, and he saw the madness, the long signing lines, all that, and his advice was this: This is really great. You should enjoy it. And I didn’t.”

You can watch Neil Gaiman say the whole speech h e r e.

written by Allan Hollinghurst

This Picador 40th Anniversary edition of The Line of Beauty was a birthday gift from my lovely friend. Before I unwrapped the book, I have never heard of it, although I did notice the cover in the bookshop. Once I started the book, it was impossible to stop reading, the writing style was so good and pleasant. I thoroughly enjoyed all the themes that were explored in the novel, however there were several things I did not love or wished there was less information/mentioning of them. That is why I could not rate this book a five star.


1980s. Thatcher England. Nick Guest has just come down from Oxford and he moves in with his friend's family. The family is rich, what you would call high society, involved in English politics. This is the time when AIDS and HIV is having its spread, also the time when coming out if you're gay is accepted but not supported, yet. Nick is gay, and what we read about in The Line of Beauty is the life he lives, throughout several years, how him being gay affects his relationships in society, how AIDS kills his friends and lovers. Nick is indeed obsessed by almost every man he spots, and he wants to get every man he spots, however, he is not the alfa type, from what I read.

The social differences and classes were interesting to read about, and thinking that even not so long ago from today, class was a very important issue. Occasionaly, I felt that there was a bit too much politics discussed but that was simply one of the sub-themes of the book, so I got over it. What was described with precision was the gay sex, and quite often, so if you are not comfortable with sex scenes generally, I'd suggest not to pick this book up. There is also quite a lot of mention of drug use (and abuse). I like what Line of Beauty refers to - Hogarth's line of beauty, of course, but also a line of cocaine, as well as the line where something/someone is the idea of beautiful for one person, but not the other.

written by Karen Joy Fowler

I saw this ugly, damaged, library edition of the novel couple of days ago when I went to the library, sitting there on the shelves, and decided it was about time I read this novel, six years after I saw the movie.
My experience with Jane Austen adaptations are not all very good. Mostly bad, actually. This summer I read Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler, and let me tell you - keep your hands of off this one, as it is one of the worst books I have read in my life. There are so many Austen adaptations out there, it is almost impossible to keep count of them. The Jane Austen Book Club is one that made it to the this-won't-make-Jane-want-to-rise-from-the-dead-and-cause-havoc group. Even though I found this book to be an ok one, not a brilliant one, it was entertaining, quite quick and easy to read and very sweet.


There are six people - Jocelyn, Bernadette, Sylvia, Allegra, Prudie, Grigg (the only man in this book club) - which is the same number as the number of Jane Austen novels being read in this book club. The novel is divided into six parts, every part lasts a month, and every month has got a novel and a character who takes the leading role, sort of, as well as hosts the book club at their place. It starts in March, and in March the novel being discussed is Emma, the character who is in the spot light is Jocelyn. In April, the novel is Sense and Sensibility, etc.

This novel is definitely not for someone who has never read a Jane Austen novel, or for those who strongly dislike her. There is a lot of talk dedicated to the main works of Jane Austen. Otherwise, the novel is about relationships, family, friendship, love and connection between people. And a little more. The centre of the story is not mainly the work of Jane Austen, but also the interconnection between the characters and their lives, and how they became who they are now.

What I really appreciated in this edition, and I don't know if the other editions of this novel have this as well, is that after the epilogue, there was a lot of accompanying material, such as a quick overview of Jane Austen novels, opinions and comments on her work by her friends and family, as well as from critics, writers and others, some of which were not very flattering. Which is something I really appreciated, even though this is a novel based on loving Austen, I am grateful that they didn't try to deny there were and still are a lot of negative responses to Jane Austen.