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It has been a while since I've had the time to read books now, but when I one day discovered that the thin book Elin have had lying on the kitchen countertop was written by Kristopher Schau I had to read it. I've read about the book some time ago, back in 2008 Schau read an article in Aftenposten about funerals where no one shows up to attend it. (Maybe it was this article www.aftenposten.no/../article2787287.ece, but I don't know). The book is called "På vegne av venner" - On Behalf of Friends. Thin, but a very good book!

Two women, both born in 1916, meet each other at the thermal institute of the famous health resort Spa. One, Anna, is German. The other, Lotte, is Dutch, but not by origin: her impeccable German gives her away. She turns out to be the twin sister of Anna, with whom she spent the first years of her life in Cologne....[read more]

My latest book, borrowed from my mum before I was about to leave from Mosjøen til Bodø by train. Unlike me I've read a fiction novel, but since the story is based around WW2 Elin was not surprised at all :-)

On our way to the kindergarten today Anders and I spotted two guys in a van. They parked along the road, opened the trunk and started lifting various things out of it. Anders got kinda curios off course so we stopped. Then one of them got behind the wheel, and all of a sudden backed the car and drove over the equipment. And to make things even worse he put the car in 1'st, and drove over it once again. Then he got out of the car cursing (but off course!!)

Then they picked up the equipment and drove off...

I had to take a picture, a bit discrete.

My latest book about was about Vietnam. A very good book I must say. It is considered the definitive oral history of the Vietnam conflict featuring civilians, soldiers, protesters, journalists, survivors, exiles and refugees from all sides. If you want to learn more about the Vietnam war, I really recommend this book.

My latest book "Kampen om ekteskapet og barnet" by Nina Karin Monsen. I had to understand what all the fuzz was about. She won the The Freedom of Expression Prize, and due to this there was a lot of noise from the especially The Norwegian LGBT Association. This was because of her getting the prize based on opinions she has expressed in her book.

I do not want to go into whether or not I agree with her here on my blog, but what I want to say is that in my opinion the book really sucks. I could not agree more with this review "Prisbelønnet usaklighet".

My latest book is Band of brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose. This is the book which lead to the making of the famous tv-serie with the same name. All in all a very good book, as I'm able to judge referring to the events as they where, not as we want them to appear when writing "our" version. I now need to buy the DVD collection box and spend the winter watching the 10 episodes.

My latest book is about the allied invasion of Normandie and Europe in 1944. Well written by Michael Tamelander and Niklas Zetterling. I found the book very good since they do not in a way do not support any side, like books have done since the end of the war. Instead they try to explain why the allied was able to win thanks to the fact that they outnumbered the Germans and the fact that most of all Hitler did some very, very tactical stupidites (Thank God for that!). The book points out the weak sides of the Allied forces, things that I have not been aware of. It also points out why the German leadership was way better than the Allied leadership, when it comes to leadership out in the field. If you are interested in WW2, I will recommend the book for sure.

http://www.haugenbok.no/resverk.cfm?stipr=aktoer-0_46772-1_3&cid=180789

My latest book is "Korstogene sett fra arabernes side" or "Les Croisades vues par les Arabes" written by Amin Maalouf Got it as a present from Sveinung and Margit at my birthday. Interesting book, but a bit hard to read due to the amount of details. But I would recommend it for those who want to understand the Arabic world better.

My latest book is UD 17-1 Håndbok for soldaten, a soldiers handbook from 1965. It was Elins uncle who got this book when doing his service back then. Kinda funny to read it, is is without doubt some years ago. Here are some quotes from the book provided in Norwegian

En mann som på grunn av militærtjenesten kommer til et sted hvor han ikke er kjent, f.eks under permisjonsturer til en by, kan lett være fristet til å søke omgang med kvinner av den type som er villig til å innlate seg med ham uten forutgående bekjentskap. Han bør da være oppmerksom på at straffeloven setter meget streng straff for utuktige handlinger overfor piker under 16 år, og likeledes overfor åndssvake.

..Uansett hvilket transportmiddel som blir nyttet, er det klart din plikt å vise lojalitet og positiv reaksjon på ordrer og retningslinjer som transportbefalet måtte gi...

Din egen oppførsel avspeiler din modenhet...

My latest book is written by the Norwegian WW2 hero Max Manus. This is the story about the years before the war and from when the war started up to about 1943. He tells about his military career. As said here http://arkiv.poeten.no/default.aspx?pID=5&aID=80314 the book is not well written, apart from obvious typos the language is his own, written like he spoke. It is important to remember that the book was written just after the war, if that is not taken to consideration the book is ... not a good one.

I must admit that I did not get the feeling of reading the story of a great war hero. He was brave without no doubt, but sometimes thanks to the bootle of whiskey. And talking about whiskey, there are many stories from various bars in the book...

As I remember it, it must have been Svein Blindheim http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svein_Blindheim who said that the members of Company Linge agreed that they would not write their memoirs until after the treason trials where finished. Max Manus did not follow this agreement and wrote the book and published it without telling anyone else...why would I then ask?

And at the end, referring to Hans Petter
http://www.fosseng.info/2008/05/20/123-meme/

Vi lærte her om det nye sprengstoffet plastikk; det var dengang svært hemmelig, og det ble oss fortalt at oppskriften til det var stjålet fra italienerne av det engelske Secret Service. Vi lærte å forme de riktige sprengladninger ved å bruke plastilin. vi fikk flere hemmelige bøkser som det stod "Secret" på over alt, og de var fulle av de mest djevelske måter å sprenge jernbanelinjer, broer og maskiner på