About books...

It's early in the morning and I woke myself up, because I was talking out loud in my dreams. I was making an inventory of a house full of furniture and the Exfactor was taking notes. I was putting a value on all the different pieces, because they were all antiques and very precious. I was discussing the old pine furniture and how you couldn't just polish it with any kind of wax, because it was so valuable. There was some confusion on the Exfactor's part as to what was the old pine furniture and I was explaining it to him. I woke myself up saying, "Okay, and now we can move to the next batch." No doubt I was taking inventory of my marriage there.

Before I do anything else, I have to tell you about a place called The Book Depository. It is an on line bookstore where you can buy books at a major discount and they ship them worldwide free of charge. You should really check them out, as you can save a lot of money buying books and they have a large selection. All you need is a credit card.

I got another book recommendation from Connie Rose. She is quite a reader and I trust her judgment on what is a good book, because I know the kinds of novels she reads. This time the author is Wallace Earle Stegner and the name of the book is Angle of Repose. If you follow the links you'll find out all about it.

Babaloo told me that Until I Find You is not John Irving's latest novel. Last Night In Twisted River is. I went to Bol.com and found out that it is only available now in hardback, but the price is not bad, so I put it on my wish list. Soon enough it will come out in paperback anyway.

Another author I want to recommend is Anita Shreve. I have eight of her novels and I have read her in the past. I haven't read any of the novels that I have by her now, but she also came recommended again this time by several people. Strange Fits Of Passion is a good one to start with.

Then there is an author I enjoyed very much and that is Julia Glass. I've only read one novel by her and that was Three Junes, but it was an excellent book. If you want to read an intelligent book about an interesting family than this is it. She's a completely believable and convincing writer.

If you think Joyce Carol Oates is unapproachable, you have to try and read Missing Mom. It is such a wonderful and heart wrenching novel about love and death and mothers and daughters. I've read it twice now and will no doubt read it again.

Last but not least I want to mention Sebastian Barry, because his novel The Secret Scripture made a huge impression on me and I still have to think about it, months after reading it. It is a treasure. It is so well written and the subject is so interesting that I can't get it out of my mind. Some books stick with you and this one does. Maggie May recommended that book to me and I'm grateful to her for it.

This was just a short post about books I've read or am going to read. I'm going to eat breakfast now and go back to bed with my more than interesting book. I hope you all have a good day and that you're all keeping warm and cozy.

Ciao,
Nora

Self indulgence.

I just walked the dog and it was raining. It melted a lot of the snow, but many places were still very icy, so you can imagine how it was to walk there. It was like taking your life in your own hands. I ended up walking in the middle of the street, because it was the least slippery there, but the dog couldn't figure out why we were walking there. We got very wet. My boots are soaked and so was the dog, but he loves to get rubbed dry with a towel. He comes back for more and stands there patiently while I get him as dry as possible.

I just finished reading 'Superior Women' by Alice Adams and now I have to choose a new book. I'm completely undecided yet and will just walk to the bookcase and let my instincts guide me. As a matter of fact, I'll go do that right now.

I've picked 'Prodigal Summer' by Barbara Kingsolver and now I can't wait to get started on it. I think it's something completely different than Alice Adams. I tell you, a good book can save your life. I would give up a lot of things before I gave up books, especially now that I'm feeling so very low and reading seems to be one activity that I can still do easily. Well, it's almost the only thing I still do.

Three books arrived in the mail today, two of which I ordered at Bol.com. They are 'My Sister's Keeper' by Jodi Picoult and 'The Almost Moon' by Alice Sebold. The other book that came is 'Ellen Foster' by Kaye Gibbons. I also have 'A Virtuous Woman' by her. I haven't read that one yet either. I get very excited when I have an unread book in my hands and when I look at all the unread books on my bookcase. I also feel very good about putting a finished book back on the bookcase, knowing that one day I will maybe read it again, but also knowing it is there and looking at it with fondness because of the good memories.

I feel very proprietary about my books. That was one of the hard parts about Bookmooch, giving up your own books to get other ones, yet you got three books for every two that you gave away, so there was a reward system and I did end up with a lot of books. But there was a big price to pay in the form of postage. Now I get to keep every book I own and I feel good about that and I will fill my bookshelves in the living room and in the bedroom. The books that I will get rid off are the beat up and discolored ones, but I think I already mentioned that.

There's a book called 'Ecotopia' by Ernest Callenbach and I have a very old and beat up edition, but I hate to get rid of it because it's such a good book. I want to try and get a new edition to replace this one and read it again, or have other people read it, because the idea behind the book is so novel. Northern California and Oregon and Washington declare independence from the USA and become isolated and mysterious. Wonderful things happen there and finally a visitor is allowed who makes a report about it to the President. It's a real eye opener and completely up my alley.

I just went to Bol.com and saw that it is still in print and I put it on my list of books I want to get. The ever growing list of books to which there is no end and which will always keep growing no matter how many books I get. It's possible that I care about books even more than I care about clothes, at least at the moment I do. That may be because I have enough clothes to wear, although you could argue that I have enough books to read also, but I can't get enough of them.

I had a library card when I was a kid and my kids had one also. When they were growing up, we were lucky, because the library was just at the end of our street. We went there often and came back with arms full of books. My son ended up reading a lot of fantasy books, but my daughter read everything she could lay her hands on. For a long time I was indiscriminate in my taste and read whatever was on the New York Times bestseller list. Tom Clancy and John le Carré and John Irving. When I came to the Netherlands I decided to focus on female authors and I've been doing that almost exclusively ever since, except for a long period when I was not doing well and couldn't read at all. That was a miserable time in my life. There's nothing worse than not being able to read.

I still like John Irving, although some of his books are to thick and too laborious, but I loved 'The World According To Garb' and 'The Hotel New Hampshire' and 'A Prayer for Owen Meany,' which I reread not too long ago. I also want to reread 'The Hotel New Hampshire.' 'A Widow For A Year' was good also. Oh, and of course, 'The Cider House Rules.' He's a quite talented man.

I read Isac Asimov for a while and Stephen King, but then I decided I didn't want to scare myself half to death anymore and science fiction lost my interest too, because as far as I'm concerned I'm living in it. I read all of the 'Dune' books. I was fascinated with them for a while, especially the first one. It spoiled it when they made a movie out of it. When I was younger, a teenager, I read Ray Bradbury, but it was very pessimistic. Science fiction was very pessimistic back then. And of course I read Arthur Clarke and I love that movie, '2010, A Space Odyssey.' Funny that we should be living in that year now.

I'm sticking to my female writers now, although I make an exception now and then and include a male writer. I have some books by two male authors I have yet to read, David Guterson and Michael Cunningham. I haven't tackled them yet, I'm waiting for the right moment. I suspect David Guterson of being too soft and Michael Cunningham of being too intellectual, but I may be completely wrong. I need a little bit of extra courage to get started on them. I don't have that much capacity right now.

It's time for me to get my pajamas on and to get something to eat. I haven't had dinner yet, but just a glass of juice. I've had two cups of coffee that helped me get out of a terrible dip that I was in. I probably got that way because I didn't have my quota of caffeine for the day. I hadn't had a cup of coffee since early this morning and that is too long to go without for me. I was going through withdrawal. I'll also take my medicines and get ready for bed. I have a new book to read and I am looking forward to that. There are clean sheets on the bed too, so that's nice.

I hope you're all having a wonderful Saturday and that all your books are enjoyable. Suggestions are always welcome.

Ciao,
Irene

Sunday on the better side of it...

I've been up for a while, drinking coffee, smoking my cigarettes and answering my emails. I'm also pretty much caught up on my blog reading, although I didn't leave comments everywhere. Sometimes I'm just short of words and sometimes I'm only a lurker. I read other people's comments and wonder where they get the imagination to write such good ones, because I really have to stop and think of something sensible to write and sometimes I give up completely. It's not that I'm not amused or that I don't empathize, it's just that I can't find the right words to express that and I really have to try very hard to come across as a sincerely involved person, which I am, make no mistake about it. I just assume it speaks for itself, but it doesn't, of course, and I know how much I appreciate each comment that I get, so I try very hard to say something relevant if I can.

When I first started reading blogs, long ago in the Dark Ages before I wrote my own blog, I didn't realize it was customary that if you didn't have anything good to say, it was better not to say anything at all, and that you should always try to find something positive to comment about, even if it was just a minuscule detail. I was always putting my foot in my mouth by being to straight forward and calling a spade a spade. I thought I was a criticizer and not just a reader who could put her positive two cents worth in. It was in a time of my life when I was super critical of anything anyway, so it was the imperfect setup. Very unfortunate. Since then I've learned to keep silent if I think something is nonsense, or to at least find something positive to focus on and to bring any criticism as diplomatically as possible and not see it as a matter of life or death.

It's in the national character to be very critical of things to the point of being rude. That's no excuse to act like a clodhopper, of course, but I used to meet many of those Dutch kind of people when I still lived in the States. They were critical of everything and all things were better in their own country. Those are the kind of people you don't want to read your blog, because they will find all sort of faults with it and trip you up on the smallest details and have an argument with you. I think that's another reason why I don't write in Dutch. It's to prevent me from meeting those kinds of people. English speaking people are more polite as a rule. They come better equipped to hand out the niceties of life and isn't that just a much better atmosphere to write in?

You all know that I only read English language blogs and novels. The only Dutch I read is in the TV Guide and in the articles I read in magazines in waiting rooms. My Dutch is good enough now that I can pass for a native, which I am, after all, although for a long time I didn't feel like one, but I don't have the least desire to read Dutch language novels, many of which would be translated out of another language anyway. There are good writers here, there's no doubt about it, but I'm not the least bit curious about them. My interest lies mainly in English language female authors and there are so many good ones to choose from, that it will keep me busy for a long time, and I will even read male authors now and then.

This specific interest was born after reading a big collection of short stories by female authors that I enjoyed very much and I started reading them and subsequently discovered other English language female authors. Our library has a very good collection of English language novels and I was able to extend my list of authors quite a bit. Now, of course, I mooch books through Bookmooch and I have been very successful so far. What I can't get, but really want, I order occasionally at Bol.com at a discount. Every time I hear about a new author, I look into it and add her to my list if she sounds interesting.

So, you could really say that English is my first language and that Dutch is my secondary language. I don't know if I could express myself as well in Dutch as I do here in English, although I am aware that the occasional mistake slips through every once in a while. I make more mistakes in Dutch.

It's snowing outside and there are a couple of centimeters. Only one car had driven on it so far, so it looks very pretty. I have to take the dog for a walk, because he's waiting impatiently. I'll have to dress warmly, because there's a cold wind blowing.

Well, that was all about writing and reading and such. I hope you all have a nice day.

I'll be thinking about you all on this Sunday and wondering how you are doing.

Ciao,
Nora