As I constantly scan through book charts and read those book reviews to find the next best book, these are some of the books that I still remember reading them:

Stieg Larssons’ trilogy
I recalled myself enjoying one of the first two books much more than the other (as well as watch the bad movies of the books) such that it was only months later, upon recommending the first two books to another, did I find the motivation to finally finish the third book, and to only realise that it has all but ended. Having someone to talk to also sparkled more interest such that at one point in time I was reading up on the places featured in the trilogy, saw how those places looked like and thinking that one day I could be there too as Sweden is one of the places I have wanted to visit. Stieg Larssons’ death meant the half-written book 4 might never be published but really maybe sometimes only the best is the best, otherwise nothing is better.


Sarah’s key
I read this some time ago and enjoyed it enough to remember having read it.


The White Tiger
One day I was on the bus reading the last of Stieg Larssons’ trilogy thinking that it might take a while to find another interesting read when I spotted someone reading this while standing up (which means this must something good). Other than randomly reading its review, I borrowed and began reading it. It was easy read and totally hilarious despite painting mostly the cruel/dark side of the country/the developments.


A Fortune teller told me: earthbound travels in the far east
I read this review and expected the story to focus on a journey without planes due to the fortune teller’s warning of the dangers involved in flying. Which is exactly the kind of journey I enjoyed most- trains and trains and trains (and other forms of transport). However the author constantly sought for the so-called best fortune teller after fortune teller each time he landed in a new place so as to somehow justify his decision to not fly for a year and from his observations also concluded that developments have killed much of the soul of those places. Still the journey taken, the history and descriptions of those places, mostly in Asia/to Europe, were enough reasons for me to want to finish it.

"When he left Turtle House, with his half empty purple sack over his shoulder, it was as if he left behind a trail of little white stones - or breadcrumbs? - to show me the way towards new explorations."

"Distances became real again, and I reacquired the taste of discovery and adventure."

"Reading a guidebook while hopping from one airport to another is not the same as the slow, laborious absorption - as if by osmosis- of the humours of the earth to which one remains bound when travelling by train."

"Reached by plane, all places become alike- destinations separated from one another by nothing more than a few hours' flight."

"A railway station, on the other hand, is a true mirror of the city in whose heart it lies. Stations are close to the cathedrals, mosques, pagodas or mausoleums. On reaching them you have well and truly arrived."

"I was happy. I was alone, and I found the solitude (of my travels) a magnificent companion."

"Let us prescribe sea journeys for those who can no longer bear the burden of life, who feel suffocated and see no reason to carry on."

"The more one looks around, the more one sees that our way of living is becoming more and more senseless. Everyone is running, but where to? And why?"

"Only in a train, with so many hours of travel ahead, with the countryside gliding pleasantly past the windows and a fine sudden tropical storm bucketing rain you catch by the handful to splash your sweaty face, can you let yourself go like that, and talk without worrying about the time or the apparent absurdity of the conversation."

"Travel makes sense only if you come back with an answer in your baggage."

"I said that I travelled because my nature is that of a fugitive: sooner or later I always have to escape from where I am."

"The wise man knows that life is nothing but a small flame shaken by a violent wind."