The Sagas of the Icelanders | 
pick800 pages of Thorgil Thorgilsson pirating around, forming blood feuds, exchanging giant rings and gilded swords, and "discovering" Canada. Did you know Vikings named it Greenland as a marketing tactic? So more Norsemen would want to move to that desolate place and keep them company.
Loved it
pickThis has been my bedtime reading since January! Aside from my getting all the Thorkels and Thorsteins in a hopeless muddle, it made for easier reading than I might have expected. It gives a great view of early Icelandic culture, of course, but also these are enjoyable tales of vivid men and women working through the challenges and opportunities that their character, family history/circumstances, and fate have handed them.
I FINALLY FINISHED THE SAGAS OF ICELANDERS! Medal, please.
I experimented with gimlets as I read, since it seemed appropriate to have a sailors‘ drink while I read about vikings. I‘ve learned I like Raymond Chandler‘s gimlet recipe best (equal parts gin & lime cordial ftw) and also that one shouldn‘t drink two gimlets before supper unless one has trained up to it. #gimletsandsagas
It‘s the return of #beerandsagas—now with tasty, cheese-smeared baguette!
I dove back into the book this week after a little break, and tonight‘s reading took me through the penultimate Saga. Just one to go, plus six short Tales!
NB: “The Saga of the Greenlanders” features a chapter where a guy named Thorstein hangs out with a guy named Thorstein. Gotta love those Thorpeople.
Listen, I know I JUST quoted a paragraph about some Thorkels, but I‘ve gotta share this one too because it‘s FULL OF THORPEOPLE GOING TO THORSNES. Look at all them Thors!
Sagas pro tip: at least a third of the old-timely Icelanders were named Thor[something], and at least half the Thor[something]s were named Thorkel*.
This makes the Sagas extremely easy to follow^.
* I haven‘t actually run the numbers, but this feels legit
^ this is a lie. I no longer even try to keep track of which Thorkel is which. Ditto which Egil is which. They might all be the same Egil. I doubt they‘re all the same Thorkel.
I‘ve wanted to try mead since I was 12 years old, and now a local apiary has made my dream come true! It‘s good. Paler than I expected, with a surprisingly nice sweetness. I don‘t like sweet beer, but apparently I can make exceptions.
It felt appropriate to drink a glass while I read more of THE SAGAS OF ICELANDERS. Somehow, the shorter sagas are less engaging than the longer ones that opened the volume. I‘ve stalled out again.
My enormous bedside book stack is a bit smaller now! Last week, I:
• Finished THE GENTLEMAN‘S GUIDE TO GETTING LUCKY, GIANT DAYS Vol 11, HONEY HUNT Vol 6, THE CARRYING, HEARTS ON HOLD, and NDN COPING MECHANISMS (last two not pictured).
• Formally abandoned THE QUEENS OF INNIS LEAR and CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS.
• Made good progress through the Sagas and Colette. #bookreport
so-soInteresting but I think that it‘s appeal would be limited. Read January 2020
It was #teaandsagas tonight instead of #beerandsagas. I‘ve slowed down a lot with this reading project, but I‘m hoping I can pick up the pace again now I‘m far enough into the book that it‘s pick-upable. It‘s hard, dealing with very thick books when your fingers don‘t have much of a reach. I hope you large-handed people appreciate the comparative ease of your reading lives.
This has been one of those weird days when I‘ve only managed to snatch scraps of reading time, but I‘m finally able to sit down with the Sagas! I‘m close enough to the end of “The Saga of the People of Vatnsdal” that I‘ll probably push through and finish it tonight.
Also, I‘ve decided #beerandsagas is a thing. Because vikings like beer, y‘know?
From Jesuits in space (The Sparrow) to Vikings in longboats... I'm all in! If I'm not back in a few days, someone please come and find me.
Sagas progress. I finished with Egil yesterday and made a good start on the People of Vatsndal. They‘re cheekier so far, which is fun.
I‘m pleased this is going faster than I thought it would, but it‘s been all too easy to get wrapped up in it and ignore other things. Like, it took me three days to read Butler‘s PATTERNMASTER, even though it‘s short and her prose is so clear it practically reads itself.
Sunday night beer and Sagas. I won‘t finish “Egil‘s Saga” tonight, but my daily chunk should get me close enough that I‘ll be done with him tomorrow.
I drank a lovely Friday afternoon beer while I drafted a scene and read a few more chapters of THE SAGAS OF ICELANDERS. I‘m now 40 chapters in, and if I can keep reading 20 chapters a day I should finish in late January or early February. (The longest chapters are, like, three pages. Most are way shorter.)
Last year I read THE TALE OF GENJI, chapter by chapter across January and February. This year I want to do the same with THE SAGAS OF ICELANDERS.
I don‘t know how I‘ll break it up yet, since each Saga is a long piece with lots of very short chapters, but I read the 60-page intro today and I‘m excited.
(I‘m also taken with the glossy pattern on the matte cover, so I deliberately got some glare into the picture.)
Happy New Year, dear Littens!
Thank you for your company last year (thereby helping me stay sane): I wish you all stacks of bookish love in 2020. 📚
I've decided not to do any reading challenges this year, but I do want to prioritise my owned books TBR, amongst which are the three mighty tomes pictured!
#7days7covers day 6, a day late
Yesterday the hubby bullied me into going back to the urgent care, after an afternoon of shortness of breath and light-headedness. Turns out my cold became acute upper respiratory infection became early bronchitis. New meds and hoping to feel better soon.
I think there‘s nobody left to tag!
This is what I love about my city - you think you know it well, then you turn down a street you‘ve never walked before and you see this!
Have picked my July read. Prepping for a trip to Iceland! So excited!
I don't have #TBR piles I have to be finished piles #TBF... Which books should I definitely finish in August?
#MakeMeReadIt @TheReadingMermaid #LitsyHappenings
pickI DID IT! I couldn't read this all in one go, I had to read it a saga at a time, which might be the best way to read it. A lot of the narrative was quite 'this bloke killed that bloke & then this bloke killed that bloke etc' - the Icelanders in these stories are tough, stubborn & quite often ridiculously violent. But also poets. The female characters, while almost never the main protagonist, are really interesting. A slog but definitely worth it.
Fuck off. The women aren't the ones going round punching horses.
No reading in the garden at work today. Happy #WorldBookDay, everyone. Stay indoors. Put the fire on. Read books.
What it feels like at home right now Vs where we'll be this time next week ❄☀
Had a pint waiting for him when he finished work. He is a lucky man. (Yes I did to sit here reading his book and drinking wine while he worked on a Sunday. And?) #BooksAndBooze
#OversizedBook #riotgrams
I was aiming to finish this in February but I fear I will once again fail.
SO HELP ME GOD I WILL FINISH THIS BOOK, IN THIS LIFE OR THE NEXT #BooksAndBooze
First time I came across the term #berserker was in this. 2018 WILL be the year I finish this. #NuYear @cinfhen @TrishB
pick11 months and 3 bookmarks later, I've finished Sagas! The book's looking a tad well-loved now!
Chunks of it were much funnier than I expected, and I loved learning about the way of life in Medieval Iceland - so many unexpected details! They're sagas, so there's a little(!!!) death, destruction and revenge killing. And clever, riddley, word-play poems. But also porridge, ghosts, exploration, procrastination & romance. Well worth the effort!
Bizarre Viking revenge killings #698
"It was then Eirik lent Thorgest bedstead boards"
Finally getting through these 🤞- I've finished 3 sagas this weekend.
My favourite turned out to be Gisli Sursson's Saga. When I stopped trying to work out who did what to who (& why. Still no idea.), and started reading it as cat-&-mouse & cartoon violence, it was quite fun!
Gisli needs to say #PinchMe every time he closes his eyes, because actually sleeping seems to be a very bad idea. Good Dream-Woman and Evil Dream-Woman are giving him no end of grief!
(Other than that, I have to admit to having No Idea what's going on in this particular saga 😕. Much sneaking round spearing each other and head-chopping-off-ness.)
#TuneIntoNovember
#BigBooks #riotgrams
The never ending story
@bookriot
A sunny #LitsyPartyOfOne on the balcony, with Sagas & a mint tea.
I'm on the saga of the People of Laxardal, and I'm liking this one the most so far - it's that bit more domestic, with that bit less blood and bravado. Instead, today, we've had romance, magic, spurned wives, home furnishings, murder (obvs!), hauntings, revenge, livestock management and religious conversion. You know, day-to-day stuff!
And Egil makes a brief appearance!
I loved this coffee shop/cultural centre/library in remote Iceland. Books are big here! 📚😍
It's not that I've given up... It's just that I've stalled quite horribly and am a good 250 pages behind where I wanted to be at this point in August.
Still planning on finishing it before Christmas though...
#nevergiveup #totallyunrealisticplans #augustgrrrl @Cinfhen
Gorgeous shelf of books at the new Airbnb! 😍 Wish I could read Icelandic! 📚
One of the Saga books at my Airbnb. Wish I could read Icelandic! 😍📚
Check out this mural of a viking reading the Sagas with a quotation from one of them. Iceland 😍
#ReadingHabits #JubilantJuly
There's always at least 3 books on the go (print, audio,ebook). Currently 5.
@RealLifeReading
My morning reading started with chapter 5 of the #LOTRchapteraday 🗡📯(I know it's not a gold ring, but it was the closest I could find!)
Then on to Sagas, and I've *finally* finished The Saga of the People of Vatnsdal - that one was a bit of a slog! Next up we're on to Laxardal, which I'm looking forward to. The intro suggests it might have been written by a woman author, and the focus seems to be much more on the women. 🤞
#24in48
