Extras

Random Things I Like

You know how sometimes it is difficult to find a good topic of conversation with someone we just met? So, if you are having trouble to find something to say, pick randomly from this list and let us discuss.

  • Reading books (see next box)
  • Very salty cheese
  • The Python programming language
  • Listening to podcasts, especially Bookworm. There are many others that I like too, ask me if you are interested.
  • The Adriatic Sea and the Ionian Sea
  • The "Doctor Who" series. Christopher Eccleston, the 9th Doctor, is my favorite. Not that I don't like the others, they are all wonderful. But Eccleston was the first one I watched, back in 2006. As they say, it was love at first sight!
  • Cantautori Italiani, especially Lucio Battisti
  • Watching tennis (when tennis was on broadcast TV. Alas, that is no more!)
  • Watching European football (in another lifetime, glimpses of which I get when I go back to Albania to visit my parents)
  • Richard Linklater's trilogy of romantic dramas: Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight with Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke
  • Daniel Day-Lewis in all his movies, especially in The Last of the Mohicans

Books I've enjoyed recently

I admit that "recently" is a stretch. I have read some of these books 4-5 years ago. I'm making an effort to organize them by year. For example, here is the list of the best books I read in 2017.

  • The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin
  • The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud
  • The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin
  • Kill all Normies by Angela Nagle
  • The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
  • My Brilliant Friend and The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante
  • Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
  • Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
  • Euphoria by Lily King
  • The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
  • Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion