Welcome to Dolly’s Books!

This is the blog of the bookworm and bibliophile Dolly.

I am always struggling with having (e.g. choosing to have) enough time to read all the book I want.
I tend to read book related to my work before reading novels – but those books you’ll find at Marketing Words, my blog related to marketing.

I want this space to breath literature and feed off letters. I also have a strong passion for paper and pens (as I was harshly reminded in a recent move), which means I’ll probably go on and on about such things once in a while as well!

I live in Stockholm , Sweden and as such things may lean against Swedish literature…but I DO read a lot of English books as well – and I promise to inform you whenever translations are available of the Swedish books. Deal?

You can expect book excerpts, rambling on generic stuff somewhat related to books, tips on other good (better?) blogs about reading – and then, the other side of reading – Writing, of course! Hope you enjoy!

If you find my reading (and therefore blogging) to slow, please interact with me in these ways:

Marketing words – marketing centric blog, including markeeting and sales related books!

Dolly’s Doings – everyday life of the girl that wishes she was really named Dolly

Twitter – DangerousDolly

ÄNTLIGEN!

Äntlingen bokrea o lite nytt liv i bokhyllan!

Spring

So far we’ve had 4,5 months of snow in Stockholm and I’m dying for spring to arrive!!

Short of anything to resemble a garden I’m at least blessed with a balcony. And my favorite book right now is one all about growing potted plants. Christel Kvant is the author and she’s also the one that has taken all the wonderfully inspiring photos. This book is truly giving me an outlet for my sunshine hunger, but it’s also making my fingers itch of craving for cultivation…

If you’re in Swe you can buy the book at Bokus or check out Cristels website.

De omänskliga

A book in Swedish, about Swedish politics – for that reason, the rest of the post is in Swedish.

Söderbokhandeln hade författarträff med Torbjörn Nilsson – alltså köpte jag boken där. Det Söderbokhandeln gör är fantastiskt! (men det har ju inget med den här bloggposten att göra så det tar vi en annan gång)

De omänskliga av Torbjörn Nilsson är en angelägen bok ett valår. Jag skulle råda alla med rösträtt att läsa den – det hjälper antaligen de som tjurskalligt röstar likadan varje gång lika mycket som det hjälper de som lägger sin röst på den med bäst valkampanj.

Svensk politik är verkligen inget jag kan något om, jag har helt enkelt aldrig fångats av den. De omänskliga gör ett bra, om än något rörigt, intryck och jag ville aldrig lägga ifrån mig boken – trots mitt uttalade ointresse.

Läsvärd är den alltså. Intressant likaså. Men rörig, ja i alla fall för mig. Boken verkar inte kunna bestämma sig om den är ett reportage med skönlitterära grepp eller en faktabok baserad på sanningen – alltså blir den båda, lite blandat. Att författaren dessutom valt att stycka upp den huvudsakliga berättelsen, med både instick om historiska politiska händelser och personliga reflektioner samt bitvis oordna den kronologiska ordningen, gör det inte lättare att hänga med.

Men läs den – gör det! – kan du nåt om politik och politisk journalistik kommer du ha mycket lättare att följa berättelsen, det är jag säker på.

Watching Mad Men much?

Don’t ask me how i got started, and seriously I don’t even like the show that much – BUT the clothes, and the advertising history (real and made up) is just enough to make me keep watching.

If you like Mad Men – just a bit – and enjoy marketing – make sure to read the book Syrup  by Max(x) Berry.
At least, make sure to read my post on the book

A new era for an old employer

Yesterday I found out that an ex employer of mine have got a new CEO. This is big news in my world! It’s something special because I love that company! That doesn’t happen much with companies I’ve left

The company is a Swedish chain of bookstores – PocketShop. If you’ve ever been to the airport Arlanda (ARN) you’ve probably seen one of their purple stores filled with paperback books.

PocketShop is a brilliant company in so many ways. First, they gave me THE BEST part-time job during my education. Then we have the fact that they sell books at train stations and airports – people are so grateful when the store is open in time for the 5.40 AM train! And then the history of the company. They started at Stockholm Central Station over 10 years ago with a small,small shop, they moved to a bigger store, opened another one and another one. People think it’s an American import or a franchise – but it’s not, it’s privately held and until now the founder has been the CEO.

Of course the organic growth and fairly slow expansion rate has lead to a special type of company (at least it was 3 years ago when I left after 4 years). The people in HQ have worked in the shops, everyone cares a lot about the company and takes responsibility that is unusual within retail. Then, although you hardly see you co-workers,  people just become good friends. It’s a corporate culture that I admire, and one that hope will stay with the new management.

The new CEO is a renowned marketing guy. Per Sjödell has been the marketing director for H&M, communications manager for ICA (Swedish supermarket chain) as well as managing director at Gant in Sweden. An impressive CV, and he got a hold of a company I care deeply about and that I see has a lot of potentials. It can’t be anything but great!

The scenery is everything, but not all

This Friday I went to an “author meet & greet” at a small bookstore in Södermalm, Stockholm.

I went for two reasons;

A) The author – Klas Östergren (again, this is my FAVORITE writer, closely followed by Paul Auster)

B) The bookstore – old, authentic in Södermalm (Meeting Östergren in Södermalm, is like meeting Auster in New York – it’s the heart of the books)

 

The bookstore is pretty small, only one room with a long counter in the middle and books climbing the 4 meter walls. One side of the store is a big window, and in front of that they had placed a bordeaux red 1800-century sofa. In many ways it was like sitting in a historic library, and then there was Mr Östergren!

His publisher interviewed him, talking about books past and present, about art as a trigger for his writing, about facing your early work and finding pride in it.

Of course, I also got him to sign my book – as well as one for that dear friend that is the reason I read Östergren in the first place. The realization I got from Mr Östergrens signature tops most. For starters he writes “Klas Ö” – WHO would talk about him as “Klas Ö”? No one, that’s who – but for him, he is not “Mr Östergren”, most probable is that that gets him thinking about his father.  And he definately has just added the “Ö” because there happened to be two “Klas” in his class at school.

Anyone who knows anything about Klas Östergren knows that he loves his typewriters and that he doesn’t use computers. After seeing his handwriting I can only conclude that he loves the typewriters so much that he doesn’t even scribble ideas by hand – he writes his name in a way that is common in middle school, and he uses a handwriting that probably hasn’t changed much since that time. This, of course, only contributed to my idea of Klas Östergren as a fantastically human and imperfect person that still manages to be a 1 in a million writer.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… CY: wait… I: wait… YCat: wait… I: wait… Top: wait… I: wait… L: wait… C: wait…

I wish I could love them all equally

I’ve been hanging out with my books this weekend. I mean truly hanging out, since I’ve unpacked them after 5 months in boxes. They have a brand new place and brand new bookshelves!

I feel my love of all things paper and ink returning with force, but at the same time some of them annoy me.

I’ve grouped the books into cooking, paperback, books on language and other university/non-fictional books. The paperbacks works fine – since they’re mostly the same size. But the cookbooks! Damn those things, not one of them the same size as the other… As much as I adore holding a heavy cookbook with colorful pictures in my hand, just as much I hate holding a 20-something pages booklet with recipes on asparagus – but nevertheless I own them, and the might hold a goldmine recipe wise…

And then the CD’s and DVD’s that should also go in a bookshelf – I mean, it’s a modern household so we shouldn’t even have CD’s, but that won’t help 20-or-so years of buying them, will it? The DVD’s luckily, I’ve hidden away in a drawer beneath the TV – but the CD’s, they take up so much space and they are soo ugly!

O woes me! ;)

I know I should give the books that annoy me to charity. And I will! But I am dead scared that knowledge in my head will disappear if I no longer own the book it came from – the total opposite of what an online focused person like me should feel, but old habits die hard.

One thing’s for sure though – One less loved book will have to move out when a new pearl finds its way to my hands!

Review of THE marketing book

I know, I know – summer is gone an NO book reviews! I’m ashamed… But, no time to rest – there are LOTS of books to be read, and some that are read and craving a review! This is one:

If you haven’t already reached the conclusion yourself, this is a book full of humor and equally filled with irony. The actual story – about Scat, 6 and Sneaky Pete, about business ideas that get stolen and what advertising will be in the hands of the right (and the wrong) people – is entertaining and a fun read, but it’s secondary to the fact this book is the BEST book in basic marketing you could ever read!

That is just a taste of my newest book review… but in the interest of trying to keep “marketing stuff” separate from “book stuff”, this book had to end up in Dollys marketing blog.

Read the full review of Maxx Barry’s “Syrup” here

Almost vacation time

Two days left until vacation time! Honestly, I still haven’t grasped it.

But, since the plans involve

• 3-4 days at parents-in-law vacation home
• 1-2 days on the beach
• and hopefully (!) several days on the balcony

well, I need some good reads!

I’m thinking;
Marley and Me

Fantomerna (Swedish book by Klas Östergren)

but then I’m out of ideas :S
ALL of my books are in boxes since the move… so please, give me some tips on books! (I’ll even take marketing related ones, even if I’ll probably save them until after the vacation )