A while ago I participated in a contest at Voodoobunny.se and won! This is the first time I win a blog contest so this is super awesomecake!

So what did I win? A copy of the Barnes & Noble edition of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

I’d like to recommend a book which has had a profound effect on me. It’s called Before I Die and is written by Jenny Downham. The book follows fictional sixteen year old Tessa’s last months after she finds out the cancer she’s battled for years will ultimately claim her life. This sounds like a really sad story, which it of course it. But, it’s also one of the stories most full of life I have ever read. How can a book about death be full of life you might wonder. It sounds odd. But it is, because instead of lie dying in her bed the Tessa decides to make the most of her last months, to live before she dies.

This is a book to read if you’re feeling down, if you feel that your life isn’t what you want it to be. Whenever I need a reminder of how blessed I am just to be here, to have my health, to be loved, to have my whole life ahead of me, I read the last chapter of the book. It doesn’t just leave me sobbing because it’s heartbreakingly sad but also reminded of how thankful I should be of being alive. Because life is the greatest gift you will ever receive and in the end, it’s what you make of it. If Tessa can find happiness while dying what fools are we not to not find joy while living?

Today I woke up thinking it was monday and I thought so until I spoke with mom who was kind enough to let me know it’s actually sunday. Since I was free from work friday I partied with my friends thursday and my whole routine was put out of balance. I always work fridays and therefor never party on thursdays. So yeah, I lost track of what day it was. How odd. Usually that only happens during my summer holidays.

AND moving on!

After realizing I’ve only read two books this year I immediately went through my book shelves in search for something interesting. I mean, two books in four months! Embarassing! I don’t deserve to name litterature a interest of mine anymore! I don’t deserve my 250 books and should immdiately put them off for adoption to a person who will apprechiate them more than I do!

I used to do so much more reading and I need to get back to that. Of all of my favourite things reading is what I like the most. More than writing, more than painting, more than listening to music, even more than this site of mine.

Do better Angelica! Better!

I bought two antique books yesterday. One is from 1866 and the other from 1870. I collect antique books but I only have fifteen so far. Most of them are from the 19th century and a few from the early 20th.

I love old books. I love the broken old leather and the yellow pages. I love to read the signatures on the first pages, printed down by the people who owned them a  long time ago. I love the small newspaper notices I sometimes find between the pages. I love the smell of the dusty attics and old boxes they’ve been kept in before they found their ways to the acutions and thrift stores where I found them.

It’s amazing to think about how different the world was 150 years ago. The world has changed so much and everyone who lived back then are dead now. But their books are still here, in my book shelf. A piece of that time is kept. The same book I hold in my hands were held by someone else 150 years ago. Perhaps it was read on board of a steam engine train by someone dressed in a long flowing victorian dress. Or by a farmer in a cottage in the woods, in the light of a kerosine lamp. That time is long gone but the books remains. For me it’s just the most amazing feeling. To own such a piece of history.