Read & Listened to in 2024

 

Since way back, I've been keeping a (Works) database list of books that I read, or listened to. Looking back on 2024, most of the titles I've listed were audio books - but with some, I  had both the Kindle and the Audible version and shifted between them. All in all I have some 60+ titles listed for 2024. Most of those new to me were probably reviewed or at least mentioned on my blog along the way, but some re-reads may not have been.

In January and into February, I listened to a series of 8 novels by Josephine Tey, read by Karen Cass. Six of them featuring Inspector Grant. I read some of her books way back in my youth and enjoyed getting reaquainted with them now.

In February-March, I listened to a collection of six of Lucy Maud Montgomery's novels about Anne of Green Gables, read by Beth Kesler. The first one I've kept returning to ever since my teens (in Swedish translation), and I had read a few more in the past as well, but not all of them. - I also read Mary Norton's Bedknobs and Broomsticks on Kindle (children's books).

In March, I reread/listened to three books in Elly Griffiths' detecetive series about Ruth Galloway (forensic archaeologist), and also got started on (re)listening to JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, which I continued with into April.

I continued to reread (as audio books) the Ruth Galloway series (15 books) through spring and summer. I have followed that series book by book as they were published (15 books), some on Kindle, some as audio. I now used my monthly Audible credits to collect as audio books those that I did not already had in that format. I like the characters and they are books I can happily read/listen to more than once.

In between those, I also listened to...
P.G. Wodehouse's first book in his Blandings Castle series (Something New) (Audible),
Patti Callahan's Becoming Mrs Lewis (about C.S. Lewis and his friendship and then marriage to Joy Davidman) (Kindle), The Canal Murders by J.R. Ellis (A+K) (another British crime series I'm following), An Assasination on the Agenda by T.E. Kinsey (Lady Hardcastle series), and Middlemarch by George Eliot, read by Juliet Stevenson (a favourite English classic of mine).

In August, I read/reread (listened to) two books in another series by Elly Griffiths  - Bleeding Heart Yard and The Last Word. After that, I read three Swedish books by a Swedish author (Carin Hjulström) as audio + e-books, borrowed via the library.

In September, a branch library re-opened in my part of town, and I borrowed a few printed books from there. But I find it hard to read printed books now. I was diagnosed with some macular degeneration on one eye last winter - I don't really feel that it has got any worse since then, but "it is what it is", and reading small print is more of a strain for my eyes now than it used to be. Short texts are okay, but with novels I much prefer to listen now - or at least read as e-books, where I can adjust the font and size to suit me. Alas the Swedish libraries and publishers don't use the Kindle system, though, and that's one reason why I read a lot more English books than Swedish these days (ever since my first Kindle which I think I bought back in 2010).

In October I listened to Jacqueline Winspear's 18th book in her series about private detective Maise Dobbs (The Comfort of Ghosts). That inspired me to start over with that series as well, and collect as audio books (read by Orlagh Cassidy) those that I don't already have in that format. (I have followed that series through the years through a mix of printed books, Kindle and Audible; some borrowed and some bought. The ealy books are set in the years between the two world wars, and then go on through WWII and beyond. Some of them I've liked better than others.

In October, I also listened to Peter May's sequel to his Isle of Lewis trilogy, The Black Loch - read by Peter Forbes (who has recorded all of May's novels).

In November, I had a spell of listening to some Great Courses collections of lectures, which I then discovered were free for me to listen to via my Audible membership. (No longer on the "free" list since New Year, though.) Those I listened to in full (except that I no doubt dozed off here and there!) were The Old Testament; King Arthur: History and Legend; The Life and Writings of C.S. Lewis; and (parts of) Great Mythologies of the World.

In December, I continued with a couple of more in the Maise Dobbs series. I also listened to Dickens' A Christmas Carol. And then around Christmas got restarted for the umpteenth time on J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series read by Stephen Fry... (Good night time reading because I know them so well - and still enjoyable because Fry's narration is so good.)

* * *

Anything in particular that you read in 2024 that you'd like to recommend?

Radio

 

Above: A drawing my mum made of me and the radio in our living room, c. 1957.

Swedish Radio (Sveriges Radio)  is celebrating 100 years this year. Their very first radio program broadcasted in Sweden was a church service from a church in Stockholm (St Jacob) at 11 am on 1st January, 1925, and it could be received by about 44.000 radio receivers. (100 years later, services from different churches around the country are still broadcasted at 11 o'clock every Sunday.)

In the first year, SR only broadcasted in the evenings. In 1926, they added a half hour in the middle of the day. In 1933, you could listen to the radio for about 8 hours per day. 

In 1937, they reached 1 million radio licences issued. (Sweden had around 6 300 000 inhabitants at the time.)

In 1938, for the first time, a woman read the news on the radio. (Until then, they were always read by men.) The SR telephone exchange broke down because of all the upset people calling to complain...

In 1955 (the year I was born), a second national radio channel was added. 

In 1956, SR also started broadcasting television. My parents did not get aTV of their own until probably 1960, though (when we moved from the flat where I lived the first five years of my life, to a house of our own). The first time I ever saw a TV was probably at my maternal grandfather's house, in 1957 (when I was two years old). Evidence found in my first photo album:

Under this photo, from the autumn of 1957, my mum has written: Child in the age of television - or "Look, it's snowing..." (referring to the fact that most of the time, there was nothing to be seen, just a blur on the screen)...

In 1962, a third radio channel was introduced. In 1966, the three channels each got their own profile, which they have basically kept to this day. P1 for news and other talking programs. P2 for educational programs and classical music. P3 for popular music. (In 1987, P4 was added as a separate channel for local radio.)

In December 1969, a second TV channel was added. 

In 1970, regular colour broadcasts were introduced. I think my maternal grandfather was (again) among the first to get one. My own first experience of watching colour TV was in his house, and it was an ice hockey match. I think it must have been from the world cup in 1970. I remember the hockey players skating so fast that they kind of left the colour of their clothes behind on the screen! (The quality was not yet very good...)

In 1978, Radio and TV were separated into two different companies (SR and SVT - Swedish Radio, and Swedish Television). 

The first TV channel financed by advertising here (TV4) was introduced in 1990. And in 1992 they were allowed to broadcast via the terrestial network rather than satellite/cable.

In 2005, internet radio broadcasting and podcasting were introduced.

 ...

My four grandparents were all born between 1900-1904. The oldest of them was my paternal grandmother, born in February 1900. She grew up on a farm, where she lived until she got married to my grandfather in 1930. I doubt they ever got a radio on the farm; and in spite of my grandfather being a (local) journalist when they got married, I think it probably took a while before they got a radio of their own in their new house too.

I have known about that; but somehow it never really "hit" me until I started thinking about it all now, that there were no public radio broadcasts yet during WWI. Back then, people depended on the newspapers for news - and not everyone had access to those either.

The world has certainly changed a lot in the last 100 years.

I still listen quite a lot to radio, and especially our P1 channel - the one keeping us up to date with world wide news every hour, and other "talking" programs in between.

...

(Main source for the facts and dates in this post: Wikipedia)

St Knut's Day

As mentioned in my Saturday post, January 13th is the traditional day to throw out Christmas here in Sweden. Because of a question from someone in the comments to that post (why we do it a week later here than in some other countries) I ended up doing some additional research - and found out that the answer goes back as far as to 1680, when the celebration of an old saint by name Knut (Canute in English) was given a day of his own, instead of sharing with the Feast of Epiphany/Three Kings' Day. So the Feast of Saint Knut was moved forward one week here, from the 6th to the 13th. And for some reason, in Sweden (and Finland) the traditions connected with throwing out Christmas must have been more associated with St Knut, than with the Magi arriving at Bethlehem.

There is an old rhyme in Swedish that says "Tjugondag* Knut ska julen [dansas] ut." In English that might be translated "On the Feast of St Knut, Christmas is thrown out [with dancing].")  *Tjugondag = 20th day /of Christmas/.  

How far back in time that saying goes, I don't know. Perhaps even to before 1680, when the feast was still on the 13th day of Christmas? (The rhyme would function just as well with that date, in Swedish.)

Be that as it may... I kept to the tradition this year, and got the last of my Christmas things packed up and  taken down to the storage room today. And my usual all-year-round window lamps are now back on the window sills, instead of the electric candles. 

As always, I found myself missing the electric candles + window star in the kitchen window the most... So I ended up placing my two red battery candles there - for a transition period... 

Outdoors we're back to very grey weather, and now slowly thawing again. I took out a wastebag to the dustbins at the corner of the building, but decided that it was definitely a day better spent indoors than trying to "enjoy" a walk... I'm hoping the old snow and ice will melt away over the next couple of days, before it turns colder again (as sooner or later it no doubt will). 

I did not have a St Knut's Feast as such - but I did finish the last of the ginger biscuits. (I did not bake any myself this Christmas, but I bought some. Sugarfree, not to stir up too much of a craving!)

Sunny but Cold

This weekend we were blessed with a welcome glimpse of sun and blue skies; but streets and walkways are still covered with frozen slush with some loose snow on top. So still every reason to tread carefully when out walking - even when wearing boots with studs on the soles.

I managed my usual weekly walk to the nearest Recycling station, though. (Bag in one hand and one of my walking poles in the other.)

And then back another way than I came - just for some different views. Zooming in on some old houses across the main road. The house on the top of the hill was once upon a time the mansion of some important citizen, but just now I can't recall if a wealthy manufacturer, or some high-ranking military man in charge of the nearby regiment. (Now I think the house is owned by some business or other.)

The snow/ice situation was about the same in the whole area, plus icy winds making it feel several degrees colder than the thermometer said. So I did not extend my walk very far.

Today the wind had died down, and I went over to the cemetery for my usual round there. Didn't stop for photos until I was nearly back home again, though. (Fingers still get so cold when one takes off the gloves...) The two below is fromt the playground in the middle of the housing estate where I live.

(No - there were no children out playing on this Sunday around 3:30 pm.)

 

Packing Up Christmas

 

On Wednesday, between turns to the laundry room in the basement, I also got some of my boxes for Christmas ornaments from my storage room up to the flat, and got started on gradually packing up Christmas. The first thing I did was to fit this little wooden tree and its tiny ornaments back in the right compartments - which is in itself like laying a puzzle...  

Next to be packed up were all the various Santas/gnomes spread out all over the flat. All too often I forget one or two, so I left that box open for a couple of days before I finally shut the lid on it today. The ones dancing on my bathroom wall were the last to jump in this time...

(They used to belong to my mum, who used to have them in her kitchen.)

Yesterday I said goodnight to all the angels and tucked those in; and today I've packed up the Nativity scene on the shelf in my study. (Cf post from 14 December.) The normal residents on that shelf have now reclaimed their usual places. (Only leightweight objects can be put on that shelf as it's not all that securely fastened to the wall...)

The watercolour underneath was painted by me 30 years ago. I seem to recall that I copied it "freehand" (not sketching first but just painting) from a photo in a magazine - maybe an advertisment. The 1990s was a period of my life when I also participated in various water colour classes now and then. (A major reason I've not kept it up is a later injury causing longlasting shoulder/arm  problems. I turned to photography instead, which became so much easier with digital cameras and computers - and blogging...)

My other little Christmas tree, electric candleholders and window stars still remain to be taken down over the next few days. Some textiles that I see more as "winter" than just Christmas will probably stay up for a while longer, though. (Like my red/white kitchen curtains, and some table runners.) 

The "traditional" date in Sweden to "throw out" Christmas is 13th January. Nowadays it varies a lot more. Back in my childhood, when most mothers were stay-at-home moms (housewives), it was common to have special children's parties on or around that date, before throwing out the Christmas tree. The Swedish word for it is julgransplundring, which literally means "plundering the Christmas tree". Originally, I think the tradition stems from a time when the Christmas trees were primarily decorated with edible things (cookies, apples, nuts etc). Not so common any more in the 1960s; but the party might still involve eating the gingerbread house, or the last of other cookies baked for the holidays. Games were played, and if there was room enough, one might dance around the tree. And it was also still part of the tradition that each child got a goodie bag to take home with them at the end of the party. 

Below is a photo of my very first such party. I'm the one to the right, with two bows in my hair. The year is 1960, I'm 5 years old and the photo is from the kitchen table in the house I had moved into some six months earlier with my parents. The three other girls lived in neighbouring houses, one next door and the two others across the street. Two of them a year older than me I think, and one a year younger. And it looks like my mum even baked a cake for the occasion.