My Nook of Books

Found this book in our Ferienwohnung in Austria . It is a good holiday read, simple, happy end, someone goes through a crises and comes out stronger and happier. But do not expect too much ;) Title : 44 Charles Street Author : Danielle Steel My edition : 2016, Luitingh-Sijthoff (Dutch translation) Cover : I always think it is a bit egocentric to print your own name larger than the title of the book. I know it is probably a marketing strategy, because Danielle Steel has written over 90 books and people know her name, and she didn't design the cover herself, but still... It's not a very interesting cover. Innerwork : The translation wasn't really good. Near the end I found more and more typo's. Some editor was falling asleep during work hours, I guess... Compatibility with reading on the train : I didn't read this book on the train, but I think it would suffice. Synopsis : Francesca has broken up with her boyfriend and is trying to find a way to pay for their

What is a nook of books with just books? It also needs a good reading chair, a case to hold books, sometimes some good music, but most of all: a lovely cup of tea in a bookish mug. 1. Roald Dahl's Matilda I'm wondering what to read next This one is stored in my cupboard and used a lot :)   2. Jane Austen's books 3. My book smells better than your tablet So true! 4. Go away! I'm reading This mug is available in all variations of rudeness, from 'kindly go away' to 'fuck off' 5. Just one more chapter Who hasn't been here? Unfortunately, when reading in bed, my boyfriend puts out the light at a certain point...

Already two weeks ago I finished this book on holiday in Austria. I found it in the bookcase of our apartment, and since the two books I brought myself weren't going to be enough reading material for the week, I threw myself onto this thriller by Arnaldur Indridason, an Icelandic author. Why is it that all these Scandinavian authors write thrillers or detectives? Is it the landscape of these countries that inspire them to write about awful deaths? Title : Jar City Author : Arnaldur Indridason First published : Mýrin, 2000 My edition : Noorderveen, 2016 by Q (in Dutch) Cover : Not bad for a Dutch cover, great image of the Icelandic scenery. The blurb on the back was awful though. It said that the book was about a murder which could not have been solved without the modern DNA-technology. Well, that really distinguishes this book from others... Innerwork : Can't really remember, so must have been fine, otherwise I would have remembered ;) Compatibility with reading on the

You might have thought: why does a Dutch girl write a blog in English about English books? It's really simple: I just majorly favour English books for a ton of reasons. They look better, there are more of them, Dutch literature is always a bit weird.. et cetera. When I look at my bookcases, I always get a warmer feeling from the left one - the English one - than from the right one - the Dutch one. It looks more colourful, but also calmer, because all the books are the same size. The sizes of Dutch books go everywhere, and the spines are most of the time in one colour, with a very formal font for the title. Boring! So let's gush about some covers... One of the covers I love most is the one from The Book of Lost Things , by John Connolly: This book just looks so attractive! However, it has not been translated to Dutch, so we have nothing to compare it with. Let's move on to a book I just finished: Don't you think that the purple colour of the Dutch version

Waiting for the new rug that we ordered for our living room might be one of the best times to write a blog post (if you're wondering: it is red, very bold, so I am super excited and can't wait till it's here!) On holiday in Austria I finished The Only Story by Julian Barnes. I received this book with my Christmas presents from work and had quite high expectations, as a friend of mine is a fan of the author. Therefore it came as a surprise that I actually found this book boring! It don't say this often about books, but I really didn't enjoy it. I did finish it, because I expected a change in the story, as Julian Barnes is supposed to be this very gifted writer. Unfortunately, when I reached the last page of the book, it was still boring. I do however, still think that Julian Barnes is very gifted. Read on if you want to know why! Title: The Only Story Author: Julian Barnes First published: 2018, Jonathan Cape   My edition: 2018, Jonathan Cape Notice the aw

Dear readers, Two days ago I re-emerged from a holiday in Austria with my boyfriend and his parents. With some 50-80 cm of snow, a frozen lake and some beautiful mountains and woods around us, it was bound to be a success. We had a lot of fun walking, sledding, cross-country skiing and ice-skating (we actually completed a half marathon and earned a medal!) Of course I read a lot in the evenings, snugged up on the couch with a cup of tea. Luckily, the apartment included a small book case, because the two books I brought myself wouldn't have been enough for the whole week (and the only disadvantages of the village we were staying was that it didn't include a bookshop and that the few books at the supermarket were in German ...)   Most of the books at the apartment were in German too, including some old children's books, the less interesting old romantic-ish omnibuses, but also some Kafka. Coincidentally, it also held the book I was reading in this village las

Title : Manhattan Beach Author : Jennifer Egan First published : 2017 My edition : Corsair, 2018, paperback Cover : The colours are great, and the picture gives a view of New York around the time the story takes place. I just don't like all these quotes on the front. Covers should be pretty, and quotes are not pretty ;) Innerwork : Pleasant font, quite large, but not too large. Compatibility with reading on the train : Not too great. Although it is a paperback, the book is quite stiff and heavy, which makes it difficult to hold it open with just one hand. Synopsis : The book tells the story of Anna Kerrigan, who accompanies her father on business meetings at the age of twelve, and who is a diver at the Naval Yard during the Second World War when she is around twenty. During her teenage years, her father goes missing. Anna doesn't give it too much thought, until she is older and meets Dexter Styles. She remembers visiting him with her father years ago and starts i

Yesterday it was snowing, and that is quite rare in the Netherlands! It happens maybe three days a year, and I love it :) People always complain about traffic and trains and slippery roads and I get that, but the world is so light and quiet and beautiful and slow. There is nothing better than walking in the snow or curling up on the couch with a book while peaking out of the window, looking at the soft white layer on the world. Speaking of books and snow; here are a few of my favourite books featuring snow, to get in the mood: - The Rabbit Back Literature Society , by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen. Situated in Scandinavia, it is not a surprise that there is some snow involved in this book. Ella, a literature teacher and possessor of beautifully curving lips, is selected to be a member of a secret writer society. Strange things are happening, and things are not what they seem to be... - Jane Eyre , by Charlotte Brontë. I do not associate this book very strongly with snow and winter, b

I know, it is a bit late to talk about Christmas presents, but I just wanted to share (and bloat about) the best Christmas presents you can get from your employer. I work as a production editor at a small typesetting company, guiding author and publisher through the process from (usually finished) manuscript to a pdf-file that is sent to the printer. Working at a big firm might have it advantages, but so does working at a small company where you share the office with your boss. Last year I received a card for unlimited cinema access for two full months. I do like going to the movies, but I ended up using the card only two times! This year me and my boyfriend moved away from the big city, increasing the distance between our house and the cinema even further. So my boss asked my if I would like something else for Chistmas this year. I replied that I really liked books, so maybe he could think of something involving those. And he did! I received a very heavy package including fi

Title : Pride and Prejudice Author : Jane Austen First published : 1813 My edition : Collector's Library, 2003 Cover : To be honest, I'm not really a fan of dust jackets. I know they are meant to project the book, but most of the time they just get in the way. They always slide a bit, which makes them crumple, which makes you concentrate on how to hold your book, instead of focusing on what is in the book. Futhermore, a dust jacket hides the beautiful linnen cover beneath it! Look at the beautiful red cover, with the title and author in gold and the embossed logo of the publisher! It is not really visible on the photo, but the red colour is a really perfect deep dark red. Innerwork : The lines and pages have an agreeable length, the font that is used is pleasant and the book looks neat. Only the illustrations are not always placed with the same care: the distance between the bottom of the illustration and the text differs a lot. Furthermore, two illustrations do n

Today's bookstats are about the characters in Jane Austen's Pride &Prejudice , the book I'm reading at the moment. What a pleasure to begin the year with a story so captivating and familiar. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PrideAndPrejudiceTitlePage.jpg This book has over 120.000 words and the longest word is disinterestedness (17 characters). The aim of today's bookstats is to find out which character is, according to the number of mentions in the book, the most important! As you can probably guess, it is Elizabeth! She is mentioned 752 times in the book as either Elizabeth, Lizzy or Eliza. Before I started this little investigation, I took a moment to consult with myself what my expectations of the outcome were and made a top 5. Maybe you would like to write down your own expectations before you read on! 1. Elizabeth 2. Jane 3. Lydia 4. Mr. Darcy 5. Mr. Bingley Also, I asked two friends what their thoughts on the subject were: Friend 1

Dear readers, For a while now I have been thinking about starting a blog, to share my thoughts about the books I read, the cakes I bake and other awesome things I try to establish in my life. So with the start of a new year, there is also the start of this new blog. And here I am, trying to write my first blogpost. What can you expect (or what will I try to accomplish this year)? Ofcourse, reviews of all the books that I read. And lists of books I find that I want to read. I mean, this is a book blog, what else would you expect? But, as I am kind of a beta nerd and a little bit into statistics, I also want to write about bookstats and answer questions such as How often are the Bennet sisters mentioned in Pride and Prejudice? And is Elizabeth more often called Lizzy, Eliza, or Elizabeth? Which Bronte sister writes, on average, the longest sentences? And who uses the most conjuctions? Et cetera. If you think of any questions, do not hesitate to ask them in the comments! Further