Raving about books

I received two books for Christmas. One was from A, with whom I was giving hints to buy me something from Roald Dahl. I originally wanted "My Uncle Oswald" which A himself read in Czech and instantly enjoyed, and which my French-British co-teacher was raving about for its hilarity. What I received has a couple of stories from Oswald's diary. "Switch Bitch" is no less funny. I was laughing from cover to cover and immediately hailed Roald Dahl as the author for providing me the biggest laugh this year.

Not far from this category is a book given to me by my sister-in-law, Michaela. One would think that a user's manual for foreigners is anything but funny or entertaining. Terje B. Englund's "The Czechs in a Nutshell" is exactly that-- funny, entertaining, insightful and according to expats.cz, "honest without being too judgmental." I have been living in Prague for almost two years. I thought this gave me enough time to understand the Czechs' society and the Czechs themselves in general. Let's not forget that I'm also married to one but it's only now, after reading this book, that I have a clearer view of why they are what they are. If you're a foreigner living in CZ or married to one, this is a good read. It has a lot of info about CZ's history, culture and tradition, not to mention the great people that came from this country or at least had their roots from here.

Come to think of it, I didn't even know Madeleine Albright is actually Czech by birth. My sister had a copy of Madam Secretary's memoir, which she was talking nonstop about when I was still living in Cebu, and which I found no time to read. But anyway, it's another book and of course, another story.


PS: I read on Inq7 that Rizal's Noli Me Tangere is now available on Penguin Classics in a new English translation. That means our own Rizal joins the league of Austen, Dickens, and this "canonizes the novel as one of the classics of world literature." I have to admit I've completely forgotten its story, one that was required to read back in my university years. (Is it still required?) So now we all have a chance to get a copy and read it again...