What I Read Between November 2022 and January 2023

Some time ago, I decided to start keeping a book list and wanted to start writing some notes about them. But, unfortunately, life happened, and I forgot that I was supposed to make these notes. Of course, I don’t have anything or anyone enforcing me to do these, but I still want to keep my own promises. So, now when I found some time, I decided to do this small overview of the months that I missed. Hopefully, in the future, I could continue this habit monthly. So here are the books I read between November 2022 and January 2023.

Jason Molina: Riding with the Ghost by Osmon, Erin, ISBN: 9781538112182

Jason Molina has been one of my favourite songwriters for a very long time. Still, I never knew too much about him, so I wanted to pick this book up as a desperate fanboy.

Rautatie by Aho, Juhani

I mainly use Kindle for my reading, which naturally depends on Amazon itself, sadly. Since moving to Berlin, I’ve missed Finnish literature since, naturally, those books are pretty hard to come by here. At the same time, Amazon doesn’t really have too many of these. Then I found out that Project Gutenberg provides lots of books not only in English, but in other languages, too, such as Finnish. For which I wrote a little appreciation post a while ago.

Juhani Aho is one of the first novelists coming from Finland during the time of late 1800s and early 1900s, Rautatie (engl. Railway) being one of his most notable novels. A culturally important book about a man and woman living in the countryside in the late 1800s, where they start hearing rumours about trains without seeing them.

To Live’s to Fly: The Ballad of Late, Great Townes Van Zandt by Kruth, John, ISBN: 9780306816048

In the same category as Jason Molina’s biography, Townes Van Zandt is also one of my favourite songwriters, and I was interested in learning more about him.

The Prophet by Gibran, Kahlil, public domain

Another classic. An excellent and short book with lots of profound teaching and philosophies about life. Inspirational.

Be Here Now by Dass, Ram

When moving to Berlin, I sold everything I owned and moved only with the clothes I had. The sad part is that I had to sell all the vinyls I owned and all the books I owned. The only physical book that I brought with me was this one. Very hippy-dippy book to some, but I love it. I’ve read it multiple times before this and will most likely reread it.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Márquez, Gabriel García, ISBN: 9780060883287

For some reason, when I started to keep this reading list, I filled it up with classics that I, for some reason, hadn’t read earlier. This is one of them. A fascinating book filled with symbolism, some could say a little bit too much of it even, telling the story of one family living in a small town and their problems with the world and how history keeps repeating itself. Classic for a reason, definitely a great read.

Juoksuhaudantie by Hotakainen, Kari

Despite not being too old book (coming from 2002), many would call it already a classic in Finnish literature. It was awarded the prize for literacy excellence (Finlandia award). When I started reading this book, it really didn’t hit me too much, but despite this, I decided to continue reading, and in the end, I feel that I was rewarded. The story of a delusional man who tries to get his family back, whom he lost due to his own mistakes.

Hävitys by Rauma, Iida

Last year’s Finlandia award winner. Tells the grim and dark story about the effects of bullying in school.

Juha by Aho, Juhani

Another classic by Juhani Aho which many would consider his most important work. Tells the story of a “love” triangle in Sweden occupied Finland.