I’m currently halfway through Sarah Turnbull’s Almost French – A New Life in Paris but tonight my father handed me Mauri Kunnas’ The Seven Dog Brothers which an uncle had sent my little brother for Christmas.
It’s a kids book with illustrations that tickle at your attention but it’s based on the Finnish classic The Seven Brothers by Aleksis Kivi so I had to delve in. The tale tells of seven orphaned, slightly thick skulled, dogs known as the Jukola brothers who try to make a life for themselves. Being taught to read proves a big hurdle and from various hardships they learn their lessons to become respectable “men”.
On my last visit to Finland I bought a copy of Kivi’s The Seven Brothers (translated to English … it’s a hefty novel and I get frustrated at my slow pace when reading Finnish) – I’ll have to give that a go when my boxes are cleared through customs in the next few weeks.
Still on the topic of books – I’d forgotten that some Australian bookshops place annoying chunky security stickers on the inside covers of books. Almost French has one and there’s absolutely no way to remove it without taking a chunk out of the cover. Even the flat square ones bug me. I like my books stickerless. I’ll have to remember that Dymocks tends to plaster them everywhere and to check books from now on. Hmf.
I’m left wondering if I order over the internet from Dymocks would the books arrive un-stickered or do they just send out stock from shop shelves?
Off the topic of books then – I went and bought a bed today to be delivered on Tuesday. I had a look at various other things like lamps, sofas, fans, bookshelves, desks etc and can’t wait to start filling my apartment up with all sorts but I need to check the measurements of the place first and also figure out what I left here in storage.