Сельма Лагелеф (1858–1940) – Шведская писательница, лауреат нобелевской премии по литературе (1909). "Чудесное путешествие Нильса Хольгерссона по Швеции" появилось в 1906 году. Задумывая учебник по географии для шведских детей, талантливая писательница создала книгу, которая стала классическим произведением мировой детской литературы.

Здесь представлен полный вариант книги, а не тот "пересказ со шведского", который был ранее у нас известен.

Skriven som läsebok för folkskolan, erbjuder den samtidigt en saklig översikt över geografi, natur och kultur samt ett spännande äventyr utan motsvarighet i svensk läromedelshistoria.

Iran looms large in the psyche of modern America. For decades, it has been “the enemy,” its government taunting us and attacking our Western, secular lifestyle. That is largely the Iranian government, however, not the Iranian people. Here’s the proof.

When Jamie Maslin decides to backpack the entire length of the Silk Road, he decides to travel first and plan later. Then, unexpectedly stranded in a country he’s only read about in newspapers, he decides to make the best of it—but wonders whether he’ll make it out alive. Maslin finds himself suddenly plunged into a subversive, contradictory world of Iranian subculture, where he is embraced by locals who are more than happy to show him the true Iran as they see it—the one where unmarried men and women mingle in Western clothes at secret parties, where alcohol (the possession of which is punishable by hand-amputation) is readily available on the black market, where Christian churches are national heritage sites, and where he discovers the real meaning of friendship, nationality, and hospitality.

This is a hilarious, charming, and astonishing account of one Westerner’s life-altering rambles across Iran that will leave you wondering what else you don’t know about Iran and its people. [24 color illustrations].

Prof. Lidenbrock bestudeert een oude IJslandse gecodeerde runentekst. Uiteindelijk weet hij, met enige hulp van zijn neefje Axel, deze te ontcijferen. De tekst luidt:

De professor onderneemt hierop met Axel de reis naar IJsland om in de slapende vulkaan Snæfellsjökull af te dalen, samen met de ingehuurde gids Hans.

De groep daalt dieper en dieper af en reist daarbij ook zuidwaarts, weg van IJsland. Ze zien allerlei rotsformaties, fossielen en mineralen. Op een diepte van "dertig uur gaans" (ca. 150 km) bereikt het gezelschap een onderaardse zee, die de Lidenbrockzee wordt genoemd. De enorme grot wordt verlicht door een elektrisch verschijnsel en er komen zelfs weerverschijnselen voor. Op een geïmproviseerd vlot vertrekken ze van Grauben-haven (vernoemd naar Axels geliefde) via het vulkanische eilandje Axel naar Kaap Saknussemm aan de zuidkust van deze enorme zee.

De oversteek duurt vele dagen en de reizigers ontdekken prehistorische dieren en wonen zelfs een gevecht bij tussen een plesiosaurus en een pliosaurus. Ook raken ze in een storm verzeild.

Bij Kaap Saknussemm blijken zelfs prehistorische bossen, dinosaurussen en een prehistorische mens te leven. De groep vindt dit niet erg veilig en trekt zich terug. Bovendien blijkt Saknussemm een grot bij de kaap ingegaan te zijn, wat blijkt uit een oud mes en een inscriptie.

Al snel blijkt de weg door een rotsformatie te zijn geblokkeerd. Axel en de professor trachten het blok met buskruit op te blazen, maar de ontploffing heeft een onvoorzien neveneffect. De zee met het vlot met daarop Axel, de professor en Hans wordt in een donker gat gezogen.

De stroom leidt uiteindelijk weer omhoog, naar de kraterpijp van een vulkaan. Het water verdampt meer en meer en een soort lavadeeg blijft achter. Uiteindelijk verliezen ze hun bewustzijn, komen met hun vlot en al door de krater naar buiten en komen aan de voet van de vulkaankegel weer bij. Zij blijken op het Italiaanse eiland Stromboli te zijn.

Na Hans te hebben uitbetaald gaat elk zijns weegs. Professor Lidenbrock wordt zeer beroemd en Axel trouwt met zijn beminnelijke Gräuben.

Популярный роман английского писателя Даниэля Дефо об удивительных приключениях Робинзона Крузо, прожившего двадцать восемь лет в полном одиночестве на необитаемом острове.

Художник: Ж. Гранвиль.

MORE THRILLING ADVENTURES WITH THE WORLD’S FAVOURITE SAFARI GUIDE

Plans are usually only good for one thing—laughing at in hindsight. So, armed with rudimentary Spanish, dangerous levels of curiosity and a record of poor judgement, I set off to tackle whatever South America could throw at me. Not content with regular encounters with dangerous animals on one continent, Peter Allison decided to get up close and personal with some seriously scary animals on another. Unlike in Africa, where all Peter’s experiences had been safari based, he planned to vary things up in South America, getting involved with conservation projects as well as seeking out “the wildest and rarest wildlife experiences on offer”. From learning to walk—or rather be bitten and dragged along at speed by—a puma in Bolivia, to searching for elusive jaguars in Brazil, finding love in Patagonia, and hunting naked with the remote Huaorani people in Ecuador, is Peter’s fascinating and often hilarious account of his adventures and misadventures in South America.

Join writer, raconteur and chronic traveler Kevin Armstrong as he journeys through time and space on his gay sex odyssey. As Kevin explores gay saunas and other haunts throughout Asia and the Land Down Under he shares his outrageous experiences (he cheerfully admits to being something of a sex addict) of m/m sex, circle wanking, cock sucking and docking and inter-racial sex. His journey will appeal to mature gay men, younger gay guys just starting out, bi guys and even “curious” straight men and women.

During his epic gay sex odyssey Kevin Armstrong re-lives his youth and his sexual awakening. He recalls his discovery of wanking and the joys of sharing, the gayest Boy Scout troop on the planet, his “first time” and his adventures with Helmut the Helmet amongst others.

However during his odyssey we realize that there are certain threats to Kevin’s free and easy life-style. Sluttish, irresponsible, life-style some would say. In a remote country town in Australia where he has gone to direct the musical “Cabaret” he falls in love with a just-turned-legal cub reporter. Although the boy is a one man cock-sucking welcoming committee to sailors arriving from the four corners of the world, he insists that he is not gay.

EXTRACT:

On his odyssey our intrepid traveler provides plenty of advice on living a gay life such as:

• Keeping safe in gay venues.

• What to do if you are hassled.

• Proven techniques for cock docking and can circumcised guys participate?

• Secret, unwritten codes used in the gay sauna.

• Cut or uncut? The pros and cons.

Although he is a self-confessed gay slut our Kevin wonders if he has finally met his match when in Kuala Lumpur he comes up against Adrian, a beautiful Burmese boy. As his relationship with Adrian develops through many sexual encounters Kevin finds himself relating his experiences to his friend Chen who is a handsome young Chinese actor in the film industry. Although Chen is possibly the straightest guy Kevin has ever met he seems to have an avid, even an obsessional interest in hearing about Kev’s love-making with his Burmese boy. Will this lead to further complications?

EXTRACT:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Kevin Armstrong works as a scriptwriter in Australian and Asian film and television. “Burmese Boy – a Gay Odyssey” is his first e-book for Balmain Publishing.

“Burmese Boy” contains graphic descriptions of gay sex acts. It should not be read by the faint-hearted or those below the age of 18.

For most of us, traveling means visiting the most beautiful places on Earth—Paris, the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon. It’s rare to book a plane ticket to visit the lifeless moonscape of Canada’s oil sand strip mines, or to seek out the Chinese city of Linfen, legendary as the most polluted in the world. But in , Andrew Blackwell embraces a different kind of travel, taking a jaunt through the most gruesomely polluted places on Earth.

From the hidden bars and convenience stores of a radioactive wilderness to the sacred but reeking waters of India, fuses immersive first-person reporting with satire and analysis, making the case that it’s time to start appreciating our planet as it is—not as we wish it would be. Irreverent and reflective, the book is a love letter to our biosphere’s most tainted, most degraded ecosystems, and a measured consideration of what they mean for us.

Equal parts travelogue, expose, environmental memoir, and faux guidebook, Blackwell careens through a rogue’s gallery of environmental disaster areas in search of the worst the world has to offer—and approaches a deeper understanding of what’s really happening to our planet in the process.

Beyond the hideous Plain of darkness, past the terrifying secret city, deep within earth’s dank uncharted caverns, a monstrous hybrid race stood guard at the entrance to the great white space.

So it was that the Great Northern Expedition ventured into the horrors of a stupendously vast underground terrain, in search of the legendary opening to another universe, peopled by an unimaginable spawn of darkness…

After decades spent representing Britain around the globe, Antrobus has earned a shirtful of medals and the right to pass afternoons in his London club, musing over old times. His memory is long, and every old embarrassment still rankles — no matter how ridiculous. The incident with the Yugoslav ghost train, for instance, still causes him to clench his fists in fear. When he speaks of Sir Claud Polk-Mowbray, he takes pains to lower his voice — lest an American hear. And his stomach has never recovered from the incident involving the fried flag.

Based on Lawrence Durrell’s own experience in the diplomatic corps, Antrobus’s cutting observation is drawn from the strange and humorous truth. Few are those with a better sense of place than Durrell, and even fewer with wit to match.

Lisa Dickey traveled across the whole of Russia three times—in 1995, 2005 and 2015—making friends in eleven different cities, then coming back again and again to see how their lives had changed. Like the acclaimed British documentary series , she traces the ups and downs of ordinary people’s lives, in the process painting a deeply nuanced portrait of modern Russia.

From the caretakers of a lighthouse in Vladivostok, to the Jewish community of Birobidzhan, to a farmer in Buryatia, to a group of gay friends in Novosibirsk, to a wealthy “New Russian” family in Chelyabinsk, to a rap star in Moscow, Dickey profiles a wide cross-section of people in one of the most fascinating, dynamic and important countries on Earth. Along the way, she explores dramatic changes in everything from technology to social norms, drinks copious amounts of vodka, and learns firsthand how the Russians feel about Vladimir Putin.

Including powerful photographs of people and places over time, and filled with wacky travel stories, unexpected twists, and keen insights, offers an unprecedented on-the-ground view of Russia today.

For more than twenty years Louise Erdrich has dazzled readers with the intricately wrought, deeply poetic novels which have won her a place among today's finest writers. Her nonfiction is equally eloquent, and this lovely memoir offers a vivid glimpse of the landscape, the people, and the long tradition of storytelling that give her work its magical, elemental force.

In a small boat like those her Native American ancestors have used for countless generations, she travels to Ojibwe home ground, the islands of Lake of the Woods in southern Ontario. Her only companions are her new baby and the baby's father, an Ojibwe spiritual leader, on a pilgrimage to the sacred rock paintings their people have venerated for centuries as mystical "teaching and dream guides," and where even today Ojibwe leave offerings of tobacco in token of their power. With these paintings as backdrop, Erdrich summons to life the Ojibwe's spirits and songs, their language and sorrows, and the tales that are in their blood, echoing through her own family's very contemporary American lives and shaping her vision of the wider world. Thoughtful, moving, and wonderfully well observed, her meditation evokes ancient wisdom, modern ways, and the universal human concerns we all share.

"This book is a treasure and a delight."-"Minneapolis Star Tribune"

"Hornblower and the Widow McCool" is a short story by C. S. Forester, featuring his fictional naval hero, Horatio Hornblower. It was published together with the unfinished novel Hornblower and the Crisis and another short story, "The Last Encounter". It is titled "Hornblower's Temptation" in certain US editions.

The story is set very early in Hornblower's career, in 1799 or 1800, after Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, but before Lieutenant Hornblower.