Welcome to Litsy!

More planning opportunities for #foodandlit #Norway in May: Netflix has an original series called Ragnarok, set in Norway with a Norwegian cast. It has subtitles for the non-Norwegian speakers among us.

Probably my favourite novel about mythology, perhaps joint with American Gods. It was just the right amount epic and dream like, and just enough anchored in the present day through the wartime plot to feel really interesting and different to other books about mythology I‘ve read. I adored all of the psychology and exploration of what specific myths can mean to people, and I loved the thin child both as a character and a literary device.

The black thing in her brain and the dark water on the page were the same thing, a form of knowledge. This is how myths work. They are things, creatures, stories, inhabiting the mind.

I could genuinely quote something from every single page of this beautiful book 💖💖💖

She imagined the asthma which inhabited her as an alien creature, it was true. It was pure white and flimsy, it spread its parasitic body through her desperate lungs, her spinning brain, it was like roots working their way into stonework, it was a relative of the boa constrictor and the strangling fig.

I know this passage is about asthma but it sounded so much like my anxiety to me it really resonated with me

Bought this when it first came out and never got round to reading it! Upsides is having to save money at the moment is getting to rediscover the hundreds of unread beauties I have on my shelves.

I PROMISE this time that this is my last stack of books from the literary festival... probably. Been wanting all of these for ages! The Baudelaire is a really gorgeous parallel translation with an amazing introduction and my friend has been recommending me John Berger since forever. I‘m so excited for all of these tho I‘m sure they‘ll be in my tbr for a while before I get to them #bookhaul #tbr

#Septembowie Day 10: What happens during Ragnarok: #AshestoAshes, Dust to Dust. End of Days.

While I read this book, I felt a peculiar distance from both the characters and the stories. It was only after I read the essay at the end, Thoughts on Myths, that I understood that this distancing was intentional and Byatt's rationale -- that gods and myths aren't meant to be humanized -- made sense to me. Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology tells the same tales but with more human gods, making it interesting to read both in the same year.

I'm going to try #TBR Bingo and see if it will keep me reading what I've already got. I'm going with a smaller set of books than I've seen others use though.

Accidental library find! I LOVE Byatt and Norse Mythology so am expecting to enjoy this one. Two more books from my library pile to go. Really *need* to finish them tonight before my new requests pour in!

"The thin girl" begins the story after arriving in rural Britain from shelled-out London, and finding a book of Norse mythology. This may be a book about a child, but it's not a children's book. She made an A++ representation of Loki, if that's a hint. Byatt brings out all the gods and their world in full, vibrant color, and in detail that makes you wonder where myth and reality end.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this novella but it's a lyrical retelling of the Norse myths interwoven with a young girl's (Byatt's?) experience of reading these myths during the Second World War. It also touches on how humans are bringing about their own Ragnarok. It's a quick read but very fulfilling.