01/26/2026
For my minor final project in Scandinavian Studies, I've decided to read a book by a Nobel Prize winner from each of the Nordic countries. Gösta Berling's Saga was my first for the project! I was genuinely surprised by how fun I found this book. It was so full of action, emotion, and charm. I'm surprised that it hasn't been adapted for television yet, because the chapters were all fairly episodic (the book was initially released in weekly magazine installments if I remember correctly), and I think would be easy to transfer to that medium. It was adapted into a silent film starring the incomparable Greta Garbo in her first major film role! I really want to see the movie someday.
01/08/2026
The Sound and the Fury was not an easy book to get into, but that challenging aspect of trying to parse what was going on was part of what made the book so engaging to begin with. The book is about the deterioration of a once well-off family in the South, which special attention given to the fate of Caddy Compson and told through multiple perspectives. The perspectives in the book all had their own completely unique voice and individual way of processing the world around them. I found Quentin's storyline particularly compelling.
This was the first of Faulkner's novels that I've read, but I would like to read more in the future!