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Shackleton!

December 9, 2021 by Christoffer Petersen 7 Comments

More books from Britain!

And an irritating one at that!

This was an impulse buy as I just “had to have it”. Shackleton is one of my heroes, and this just seemed to be exactly what I was looking for.

Except, it really isn’t.

While I have a lot of respect for Ranulph Fiennes, if I wanted to read a book about Ranulph Fiennes then I would do so.

I have done so, and enjoyed them.

But this is supposed to be a book about Shackleton.

I could care less about Fiennes experiencing something “similar” to Shackleton every fourth paragraph or so.

Although, it is kind of ironic.

The tagline they have slapped on this book is “To write about Hell, it helps if you have been there.”

I get it.

I even use something similar to slap some authenticity on my own books.

But even though I get it and use it, I can’t seem to distract from it when reading this book.

Ah, back to Roland Huntford! 😉

Chris

Taaqtumi!

December 7, 2021 by Christoffer Petersen Leave a Comment

I visited my folks in England recently. It has been almost two years since I saw them (mum and stepdad – now just ‘dad’). The last time so much time passed between seeing them was when we first moved to Greenland.

Ah, corona!

But regardless of it being a great trip, that’s not what this post is about.

Since Brexit I have stopped buying books.

I used to buy a lot of books, especially second-hand books that were out of print. But when the UK left the EU everything suddenly got really expensive, especially if I had it sent from the UK to Denmark. Anything bigger than a postcard (more or less) gets slapped with a 150,- kroner charge for the letter the Danish postal service sends when informing you of a parcel from a so-called “third country”.

Yep.

England, and the rest of the countries comprising the UK, is considered a third country.

Where am I going with this?

Taaqtumi is where I’m going!

I wanted to buy this book a few times, and I wanted it in my hands – not digital this time! So I bought it to coincide with my trip to England.

It’s a gorgeous book (full of raven illustrations) collecting several short horror stories, set in the Arctic, written by Inuit writers.

I read the first story last night.

Good story. Very atmospheric. Fun to read.

In fact, it was really fun to read.

All the Inuktitut words – very similar to Greenlandic in spelling and pronunciation – were written in italics (most of them, anyway). I had this weird sensation of reading my kind of book, i.e. the kind of book I like to read, and the kind of book I like to write. So, even though I haven’t got very far yet, I’m loving this book for a whole bunch of reasons!

Chris

When you strike gold

November 9, 2021 by Christoffer Petersen 8 Comments

Denmark has, in my opinion, one of the best library systems in the world. I’m not sure “systems” is the right word, but everything is connected. All the libraries are connected. I can order something from the database, and it might be plucked from the Royal Danish Air Force library and sent to my local library to be picked up. I’ve ordered articles from old newspapers and a librarian scans it and sends me the PDF. I can watch 100 films or documentaries every month, and borrow the DVDs of those films not available for streaming. CDs, board games, computer games – anything you want, and more, when you’re not careful. Like the time I thought it would be interesting to read Sir Richard Burton’s notes from 1001 Arabian Nights. Well, they arrived, all 13 volumes, but they were so old I had to read them at the library.

I must admit, I bit off more than I could chew there. But nevertheless, it is a rare occasion indeed when the Danish library cannot deliver.

Sometimes it feels like magic, as a certain character of mine might say.

However, another character of mine is rather less loquacious. And whereas I know where he got his name from, I did not know the name Maratse also belonged to the man believed to be the very last shaman in Greenland.

I only discovered this recently, but now, thanks to the library, I have Kirsten Bang’s book in my hand.

There’s not much to say at the moment, other than how cool I think it is that with all the shamanism (fictional and heavily dramatised) in my books, I love the fact that there’s a link, if only in name, to my main character.

So I’m going to put aside A Very Stable Genius which I’m currently reading, and crack open a very old book about a very old man, and see if I can’t lose myself in East Greenland for a while.