Patos XIX - 120526 - Danderyd, Stockholm

A sunny afternoon at the end of May, six months after our last meeting - on the dot, Patos got together at Anders's place; no longer an apartment but a house! Charlie* joined us as member number four and he took the lead when we relocated to Anders's parents place a few kilometers away - where Patos was founded just about eight years ago - and the quartet hit the sauna... Back at Anders's place we barbequed - Krister worked wonders with the commodities and the meat turned out spic and span. That bull had not ran in vain... Eurovision Song Contest was watched from beginning to end - and Loreen whopped everybody with "Euphoria", a fact that even swedish television's commentators grasped eventually! Baku (Azerbaijan) seems to be a truly faboulus (!?) place - as Anders's neighbour pointed out via SMS, asking when we are going there - the land of the poets, artists, horses et cetera et cetera et cetera intemperance. "Comics - hotter than ever" was a headline in the latest issue of "Our Kungsholmen" - so our choice to read Neil Gaiman's "The Sandman" felt - in hindsight - pretty good...

* a respectably beefy dog - one-eyed after a fight with an anteater in Trinidad...

Book 44 - ¨"My Struggle/A Death In The Family" by Karl Ove Knausgård (2010)
Krister (!?**) 5 - Now it is time to write the whale of a novel, so one has something to look look forward to.
Ola 5 - This man can write. About anything. Period.
Anders 4 - He is a great thinker and I wish that I someday will find time for such reflection.
Average rating 4,66

Book 45 - "1Q84" by Haruki Murakami (2011)
Krister 3 - It is good but I am not impressed.
Ola 5 - Surprisingly easy-to-read. And long. And good. Murakami has explicitly dampened his excesses and refined his style.
Anders 5 - I was gonna speedread it, but it is too good for that - so I will get back to you... 121013 Anders said the following: A masterpiece of dignity, but then again it is about space - with two moons one can never go wrong...
Average rating 4,33

Book 46 - "The Sandman Vol 1: Preludes & Nocturnes" by Neil Gaiman (1989)
Krister 3 - It is a pity it is cartoons...
Ola 4 - Somewhat swaying, but filled to the brim with potent moments. Hope!
Anders 5 - Death and The King of Dreamers as rockers - it does not get better than that...
Average rating 4 - Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

** After 8 years all of a sudden Anders is not the default opening marker...