2009 (so far)
01. Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear - A Companion to Wolves
02. P. Nowee - Arendsoog. Vogelvrij {Eagle-Eye Outlaw} [Dutch]
03. Maggie Tallerman - Understanding Syntax (translated into Dutch and edited for Dutch students by Jan-Wouter Zwart) [Dutch] [school]
04. Hanneke Houtkoop & Tom Koole - Taal in Actie. Hoe Mensen Communiceren met Taal {Language in Action. How People Communicate with Language} [Dutch] [school]
05. Erica van Boven & Gillis Dorleijn - Literair Mechaniek. Inleiding tot de Analyse van Verhalen en Gedichten. {Literary Mechanics. Introduction to the Analysis of Stories and Poetry.} [Dutch] [school]

06. Star Trek: DS9 - Relaunch 1-5 - Twist of Faith (S.D. Perry, David Weddle & Jeffrey Lang, Keith R.A. DeCandido)
07. Esther Verhoef - Alles te Verliezen {Everything to Loose} [Dutch] [school]
08. Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game [re-read, it's been years :)]
09. Robert J. Sawyer - Hominids
10. Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere
11. Justin Richards - Doctor Who: The Clockwise Man [Dutch]
12. Star Trek: DS9 - Prophecy & Change (short story collection)

13. Keith R.A. DeCandido - Supernatural: Bone Key
14. Paul Ruditis - Charmed: As Puck Would Have It [Dutch]
15. Laura J. Burns - Charmed: Sweet Talkin' Demon [Dutch]
16. Atte Jongstra - De Avonturen van Henry II Fix [Dutch] [school]
17. Martin Caidin - Indiana Jones and the White Witch) [Dutch] [re-read]
18. Bobbi J.G. Weiss & Jacklyn Wilson - Charmed: Between Worlds [Dutch]
19. Martha Wells - Stargate Atlantis: Reliquary
20. Cameron Dokey - Charmed: Truth & Consequences [Dutch]
21. Sabine C. Bauer - Stargate Atlantis: Mirror, Mirror

22. Scott Ciencin - Charmed: Luck be a Lady [Dutch]
23. Laura J. Burns - Charmed: Inherit the Witch [Dutch]
24. Doeschka Meijsing - Over de Liefde {About Love}  [Dutch] [school]
25. Emma Harrison - Charmed: A Tale of Two Pipers [Dutch]
26. Debbie Viguié - Charmed: Pied Piper [Dutch]

27. L. Frank Baum - The Wizard of Oz
28. Eliza Willard - Charmed: The Power of Three [Dutch]
29. Cameron Dokey & F. Goldsborough - Charmed: The Crimson Spell [Dutch]

30. Suzanne Wood - Stargate SG-1: The Barque of Heaven
31. David Brin - Kiln People
32. A.A. Milne & E.H. Shepard - The World of Pooh (The Complete Winnie-the-Pooh and The House At Pooh Corner)
33. Christopher Golden - Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Lost Slayer (4-in-1)
34. Terry Pratchett - The Bromeliad (Truckers, Diggers, Wings)

35. P.C. Dohery - Murder Imperial
36. Thomas Greanias - Atlantis herrezen (Raising Atlantis)
37. Karen Miller - The Innocent Mage
38. Karen Miller - The Awakened Mage

39. K.E Mills - Accidental Sorcerer
40. K.E. Mills - Wiches Incorporated
41. Terry Pratchett - The Dark Side of the Sun

42. P.C. & Kristin Cast - Marked
43. Amber Benson - Death's Daughter
44. Jeff Lindsay - Darkly Dreaming Dexter

45. The Medieval Murderers - House of Shadows
46. Bernard Knight - The Grim Reaper


Currently reading You Suck by Christopher Moore, Emma by Jane Austen and Marker by Robin Cook. Regardless of that, I'm behind schedule if I want to get to the 60 books that I set as goal at the beginning of this year. I think I can catch up but even if I don't, at least I got roughly the same number as previous years, which is good.

gender today. And we'll touch on sexuality too. (And I'll follow this post with one containing the promised book update (although it might have to wait until I get home again, not sure if I have the up to date reading list with me) and a little something about the job process.)

I don't think I have, on any of the platforms I use to communicate, actually talked about the topic. My facebook page has an infobox on it with my gender identity and sexual orientation in it, but I've never really talked about it (except for two of my friends). Not that I don't want to talk about it, it's just that it never seems to come up really, and it seems weird to just get up and go: "let's talk about my gender identity today" in personal communication. If asked about either (gender and/or sexuality) I'll gladly answer.

A quick little bit of background. I've always known, growing up, I was 'different'. I barely have any memories of my elementary school periods, just flashes here and there. This, I suspect, is mostly due to suppression on account of the many medical procedures I had to undergo as a kid (what with being born with hip dysplasia). The last one of these was when I was ten. So when I say I've always known, I mean starting from ten, eleven on.

I was never interested in boys, or girls for that matter, and other matters dealing with the physical form. I came across something yesterday that nicely describes my general feeling growing up, and now still most of the time. It comes from a post on the genderkid blog:

I didn’t grow up with any body image problems because, for most of my teen life, I’ve done a good job of ignoring my body. Whenever I did look at myself, I didn’t see anything wrong: my body fits pretty well into society’s standards of “normal”. I just didn’t identify with what I was seeing. I avoided mirrors because I was better off thinking of myself as a floating brain.

But while I was growing up, I never questioned the basic stereotypes, took them as something that just happened: I was going to get married a husband, have a couple kids, the whole shebang. Of course, as I got older and stayed not interested, I sometimes wondered but mostly put it to being a late bloomer. I also never gave any thought to other possibilities, like that I might be a lesbian or bisexual and would end up with a woman, let alone considering that there were more 'types' besides men and women.

This was partly due to where I grew up: a very small, rural town where not a lot of people were different in those ways. There was, as I knew it during my teens, one lesbian couple in my town, and a transwoman a town over. I never interacted with the transwoman, I only knew about her because she was the neighbour of one of my friends. I on occasion met half of the lesbian couple but due to the age difference (she was near my mother's age) we'd never interact on an equal base that I'd ask about it, and even if I had, it most likely would've been considered impolite.

Combined with my continued disinterest in all these matters, I never investigated my own difference. Not until I graduated high school and went on to university. There I befriended a boy. And after about a year or so, he came out to me as being gay. I was completely accepting of it from the start, due to the couple in my hometown. I knew it was just as normal as heterosexuality. We discussed it on occasion, being gay, and him being the first non-heterosexual person I was close too was the catalyst that got me thinking about myself and started me on this whole journey of self-discovery and such. Starting with my sexual orientation, but, a year or two later, also including my gender identity.

So, since sexuality came first, let's start with it here too.

I'd already realised that I had no particular attraction to anyone. Sure, I found some people pretty or cute, but that was about it. I didn't, and still don't, have any desires to get physical with someone, be they male, female or something else. This confused me, what did this make me? Apparently not straight since I'd make no distinction between sexes in finding people cute or pretty. But then again apparently not a lesbian either because of previous argument. Was I then bisexual? I labelled myself as such since it seemed to fit best at that moment.

I kept wondering though, surely there must be more people feeling as I did. Or was it just a hormonal thing? In any case, life kept me occupied, school, friends, hobbies etc... and I didn't give it all that much thought. Kinda using the bisexuality conclusion as a temporary end point. A while after, not sure how long, I was watching Discovery Channel one night and saw a re-run of an episode of Sex Sense (which in the USA was called Sex Files and which happens to be on YouTube in its entirety here) about asexuality. I'd seen the original a while before (a year or so i think?) and found many things familiar even back then but didn't give it much more thought. This time however, the similarities with my own situation hit me squarely in the face. Next day I immediately started doing research and pretty soon I found AVEN (Asexuality Visibility and Education Network). And all the information and stories of other people I found on there made me realise that I was, in fact, asexual.

Since this post is getting way out of hand as it is already I'll just point readers towards the AVEN site for more information about what it is and isn't. But in short, it's basically not having a sexual attraction towards other people. Finding this out was a bloody epiphany for me and for the next few years, whenever I went on self-discovering journeys of varying length it mostly focused on the sexuality part. It wasn't until about a year, year-and-a-half ago that gender started coming back into the picture.

When I started to figure out that I didn't feel I was a woman, I at first assumed that must mean I was a man. But that didn't fit either, which confused the hell out of me; what else was there? Eventually the name, or label really, that I picked (for myself anyway, not in public) for my gender identity was gender neutral. Then the whole sexuality thing took center stage and when I came back to gender issues, in part fueled by some things one of my friends told me, I approached it the same way I had done with the sexual information seeking: I dived into Google :D.

A whole lot of research later I learned that gender was not nearly so binary, so simple, as I had always thought. I learned there's way more options and, accompanying that, a plethora of names out there that people use to indicate they identify as something other than male or female. I figured out that I did indeed identify as neither male or female. But whether something outside of it or something in between... I didn't know. So I kept the gender neutral as a sort of 'posh term' but mostly when I thought about what my gender was, it went something like neither? both? all? I'm still not exactly sure how to call it, but by now I have figured out that fluctuating seems to be most appropriate. Most of the time I have no particular gender identity and just go as a neutral. But I have periods, ranging from something as short as a few hours, up until a few days where I balance a little more towards male or female. It's like one of those trend graphs that usually follow a straight line but sometimes have peaks below or above. Same with my gender identity. Usually it follows the straight neutral line but sometimes it peaks towards male for a bit and sometimes towards female for a bit.

It's kinda funny, actually, (and quite stereotypical too :S) but I can often tell if I have entered a male or female period when I'm getting dressed (my brain needs a little startup time in the morning so not a lot of coherent thinking and reflection takes place then :D) since the type of clothing I pick to wear is different then. In female periods I'm more inclined to pick a skirt or otherwise more female oriented clothes (like more figure hugging stuff that shows that I do in fact have teh boobies). In male periods I tend to pick my cargo pants and hooded sweatshirts to hide my female parts. And in the neutral periods I mix and match from both sides.

I think I'm getting towards the end now, I can't really think about anything more to add at this point. And in any case, I've rambled on long enough now :D I'll get back to this topic in later posts, after all, I have a pretty icon for it, I might as well use it :P

I'm doing it again, the blog hiatus things. Somehow I always manage to blog for a while and then I forget it again for an extended period of time. It gets quite annoying really and it also kinda pisses me off, even though I probably have zero readers :S

Anyway, my life is in a bit of turmoil at this point. I no longer have a right to government study financing (you can only get that for 7 years max) so I'm kinda out of money :D So i've been looking for a job. I've always avoided that while I was studying, I was really enjoying my carefree student days where school was the only thing to worry about and I had loads of free time. Add to that that I never really figured out what I want anyway (leading to various studies that never really became anything :S)

I can't avoid it any longer though and am currently in a process that looks promising enough. There's a test coming Monday and if that goes well an interview and if that goes well I have a job at customer service for the government agency that handles unemployment benefits and find-a-job processes and such (UWV, for the dutchies). This would be a lovely opportunity as it is a definite 2-3 year job for 24-32 hours a week, leaving me plenty of time to figure out what I want and where I'm going.

As I'm going through this whole process of looking for a job, I noticed I'm suddenly making a little leap in my maturation process. Before, I was really dreading the idea of entering the working world and it was even making me feel somewhat depressed. Combined with my introvertness and less-than-stellar social skills, I started the job-hunting process purposefully sabotaging myself on occasion. Postponing responding to something "just one more day" since "it's already 4 and they won't read it until tomorrow anyway".

Now, however, I find that I'm actually looking forward to getting a job and entering working life and building some structure and routine into my existence... It was quite baffling to me :D

So we'll see how this test thing goes, the brochure gave some examples and based on that (it is aimed at people of an educational level somewhat below mine) it shouldn't be too difficult. And if prepare myself before hand, I can prep myself enough that the interview shouldn't be too difficult either. So, fingers crossed X.


Oh, and btw, I have a big book update scheduled for tomorrow 'cause I've read a lot more since the last update posted :)

I'm still not quite coherent after this week of mind-wrecking tv but I need to vent things and since that's what this place is for...
Just to be on the safe side I'll put this after a cut for any stumbling in Americans that are waiting for BBC America's broadcast starting July 20th. In short, I loved the series as a whole, well written, well acted, well directed, easily 4 out of 5 stars. I just have some minor issues and one major issue that ruined everything for me.

( Read more... )

The summer, especially June, is party season in my family. Many aunts, uncles and cousins have their birthdays in this period so we (me and my parents; I don't have a car so I ride with them most of the time) go from one to the other.
But this year, three of my cousins are getting married, too :D One of them, who's getting married next month, is living rather far away and they're having a small party so we're not going there. The other got married yesterday and they had a very nice party yesterday evening. My personal highlight of the evening? Seeing my parents dance! I can't remember ever seeing them dance before! So of course I had to document this momentous occasion and not only took pictures but shot some video too :D The third cousin is getting married in September and so far it looks like they'll be having a larger family party too so that's gonna be fun.

The summer, especially June, is also finals season... This is less fun but the unavoidable side-effect of studying :D So far, I think it went reasonable. Got two or three exams more and then a week or two i guess before all the results are in, am keeping my fingers crossed :D In light of this I sat out a few birthdays to study and babysit the family dog, which was kinda fun, I guess :D Especially that one day where I got sick of sitting around with the studybook at my parents so I packed my stuff, grabbed the dog and a bicycle and went home :D

It's been a while since I updated the reading list so here goes.

I'm used to varying quality when reading tie-in fiction, since it needs to compete with the image of the tv-show (since I tend to read tv-show tie-ins) I have in my head. And since I tend to read books of shows I really like, the judging is harsh. That being said, until recently I mostly read Star Trek books and I think they have been blessed over the years not just with great writers, but also great editors. I have been spoiled with a plethora of good tie-in fiction. I've branched out now and added not just Charmed to my list but also Stargate and read a Supernatural book earlier this year and have a Buffy book waiting.

So far, I also love the Stargate books and the Supernatural one was very good too. The Charmed books, however, we're not so good. Caveat beforehand, since I read these in translation I can't really judge if it's the books themselves or the translation that bugs me. I usually buy tie-in in English but got these at a discount store for about 50 cents a piece so had to take them :D

I kept hearing the characters say the Dutch phrases in English in my head but it still wasn't really right. I found, with most of them, the initial plot idea fun and entertaining but the executution either out of character, long-winded, obvious or just plain boring. I might re-read the ones I liked best in English to see if that makes a difference.

I'm curently not reading anything, I'm in the middle of finals. So, yeah I guess I'm reading the school books, but no fiction :D I have planned, for after the finals, to hit the Buffy tie-in book (The Lost Slayer, which is really a 4-in-1) as well as The Color Purple, which I got from the Library's pile of books-for-sale.

2009 (so far)
01. Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear - A Companion to Wolves
02. P. Nowee - Arendsoog. Vogelvrij {Eagle-Eye Outlaw} [Dutch]
03. Maggie Tallerman - Understanding Syntax (translated into Dutch and edited for Dutch students by Jan-Wouter Zwart) [Dutch] [school]
04. Hanneke Houtkoop & Tom Koole - Taal in Actie. Hoe Mensen Communiceren met Taal {Language in Action. How People Communicate with Language} [Dutch] [school]
05. Erica van Boven & Gillis Dorleijn - Literair Mechaniek. Inleiding tot de Analyse van Verhalen en Gedichten. {Literary Mechanics. Introduction to the Analysis of Stories and Poetry.} [Dutch] [school]

06. Star Trek: DS9 - Relaunch 1-5 - Twist of Faith (S.D. Perry, David Weddle & Jeffrey Lang, Keith R.A. DeCandido)
07. Esther Verhoef - Alles te Verliezen {Everything to Loose} [Dutch] [school]
08. Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game [re-read, it's been years :)]
09. Robert J. Sawyer - Hominids
10. Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere
11. Justin Richards - Doctor Who: The Clockwise Man [Dutch]
12. Star Trek: DS9 - Prophecy & Change (short story collection)

13. Keith R.A. DeCandido - Supernatural: Bone Key
14. Paul Ruditis - Charmed: As Puck Would Have It [Dutch]
15. Laura J. Burns - Charmed: Sweet Talkin' Demon [Dutch]
16. Atte Jongstra - De Avonturen van Henry II Fix [Dutch] [school]
17. Martin Caidin - Indiana Jones and the White Witch) [Dutch] [re-read]
18. Bobbi J.G. Weiss & Jacklyn Wilson - Charmed: Between Worlds [Dutch]
19. Martha Wells - Stargate Atlantis: Reliquary
20. Cameron Dokey - Charmed: Truth & Consequences [Dutch]
21. Sabine C. Bauer - Stargate Atlantis: Mirror, Mirror

22. Scott Ciencin - Charmed: Luck be a Lady [Dutch]
23. Laura J. Burns - Charmed: Inherit the Witch [Dutch]
24. Doeschka Meijsing - Over de Liefde {About Love}  [Dutch] [school]
25. Emma Harrison - Charmed: A Tale of Two Pipers [Dutch]
26. Debbie Viguié - Charmed: Pied Piper [Dutch]

27. L. Frank Baum - The Wizard of Oz
28. Eliza Willard - Charmed: The Power of Three [Dutch]
29. Cameron Dokey & F. Goldsborough - Charmed: The Crimson Spell [Dutch]

30. Suzanne Wood - Stargate SG-1: The Barque of Heaven
31. David Brin - Kiln People
32. A.A. Milne & E.H. Shepard - The World of Pooh (The Complete Winnie-the-Pooh and The House At Pooh Corner)

Am a bit woozy today, onset of a cold, grrrr.

Now (re-)reading a convoluted Indiana Jones novel, plus, for school, a Dutch historical novel called De Avonturen van Henry II Fix  (The Adventures of Henry II Fix) so I can do the assignment tomorrow evening. And then, after that, I will be reading 2/3 of a book about Dutch history for the exam coming Monday.

2009 (so far)
01. Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear - A Companion to Wolves
02. P. Nowee - Arendsoog. Vogelvrij {Eagle-Eye Outlaw} [Dutch]
03. Maggie Tallerman - Understanding Syntax (translated into Dutch and edited for Dutch students by Jan-Wouter Zwart) [Dutch] [school]
04. Hanneke Houtkoop & Tom Koole - Taal in Actie. Hoe Mensen Communiceren met Taal {Language in Action. How People Communicate with Language} [Dutch] [school]
05. Erica van Boven & Gillis Dorleijn - Literair Mechaniek. Inleiding tot de Analyse van Verhalen en Gedichten. {Literary Mechanics. Introduction to the Analysis of Stories and Poetry.} [Dutch] [school]

06. Star Trek: DS9 - Relaunch 1-5 - Twist of Faith (S.D. Perry, David Weddle & Jeffrey Lang, Keith R.A. DeCandido)
07. Esther Verhoef - Alles te Verliezen {Everything to Loose} [Dutch] [School]
08. Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game [re-read, it's been years :)]
09. Robert J. Sawyer - Hominids
10. Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere
11. Justin Richards - Doctor Who: The Clockwise Man [Dutch]
12. Star Trek: DS9 - Prophecy & Change (short story collection)

13. Keith R.A. DeCandido - Supernatural: Bone Key
14. Paul Ruditis - Charmed: As Puck Would Have It [Dutch]
15. Laura J. Burns - Charmed: Sweet Talkin' Demon [Dutch]

ETA: I thought this warranted its own icon too. So I made one for cases where I go on a ramble about something personal :D
I also added a cut 'cause I hadn't quite noticed how insanely long it was.


When I graduated high school I promised myself I would do things differently. I'd participate more and go with more.

Backtracking for a sec, I was born with congenital hip dysplasia. If you want to know exactly what is and such, google it. In short, the (left) socket in my hip isn't deep enough. It is in fact so shallow that the ball of the femur doesn't stay in and slips up. There it is being held in place by a bit of bone and, for the rest, the muscles and tendons and stuff that are there. This causes a limp while walking and also hurts when I walk or stand for a long time. Picture it as a muscle ache ('cause that's basically what it is) but then increase the pain. By how much varies with what I've done but roughly five fold for just pushing it and hundred fold when I'm really going way beyond what I should be doing. In the latter case, pain killer/muscle relaxant is my friend.

This has, rather obviously, influenced me growing up. As a kid I've undergone numerous methods of treatment trying to fix it and force the socket to deepen and the femur to stay in place. Unfortunately, this hasn't worked. Even the five surgeries during my first ten years of life were mostly ineffective. However, during elementary school, I didn't notice all that much how it hindered me. ( Cut to hide the rest of the ramble, it's rather long... )

Here's a little bit of everything post to kill some time and populate the journal some more with stuff beyond just books (even though that is clearly more than enough :D ). Also, I'm hanging out at the parents and need to kill some time until my laundry's done (I don't own a washer myself so I come over here for theirs).

So, let's see... I've had fun this week helping my best friend Nienke move house. She went from a tiny house about 50 yards across from me to a somewhat less tiny house right next door :D It was much fun both to watch people move pieces of furniture across the field separating the old block from the new place and to be walking back and forth myself. Connected her computer, messed with furniture placement in the living room and repacked the bookcase. I LOVE organizing bookcases. Seriously, if you want to make me happy, give me access to your bookcase and let me re-organize it.

Right... So Nienke handed in the key to her old place yesterday and then went off to Ikea to get some additional furniture and shelves and such. I was going to spend the day doing some chores around the house so I emptied the trash cans, made food, went to the store and then wanted to vacuum. Only to realize my vacuum cleaner was still in Nienke's house and I didn't have a key yet... (And so began the quest to get the vc back!)

So, instead, I grabbed the dust buster to get rid of the biggest clumps of cat hair and then had a relaxing afternoon. The weather was absolutely lovely for the time of year: sunshine, decent temperature, hardly any wind, so I opened all the windows and the back door to let the fresh air in. The cat was ecstatic to be able to walk in and out as he pleased. He was also very happy to find that Nienke has her attic window (where her bedroom is) open enough for him to climb in to (he jumps from my large trashcan on to a little wall and then on to Nienke's mud room roof and from there it's easy-peasy into the atic window...). He apparently spent some time sleeping there ' cause Nien found a load of cat hair on her bed yesterday evening :D

When Nienke came back she had brought me three little stuffed rats from Ikea as a present. They're absolutely gorgeous and very cute. Then she went off again to go with her parents for dinner. I remembered the vacuum cleaner just a minute or two too late. I ran towards the road but they were gone already... *sigh*

She got home late and since it was too late to actually do anything with it, I forgot about the vacuum again. Instead we watched Stargate. We've been working our way through the entire series, we made it to Season 9 a day or three ago and we're enjoying the Daniel-Vala dynamic immensely :D

This morning I got out of bed and did remember the vacuum cleaner :D I pulled the sheets from my bed and put them in the laundry and then hung the duvet and coverlet out to air. Then I tried Nienke's door to see if she was awake, but no such luck. So I grabbed a handful of cat kibble and started throwing them against her window until she appeared.
After that, I asked her to watch my bedding for me (they are expecting rain today) while I was away and got the vacuum cleaner back, yay!

Not that I really want to vacuum... it is the chore I hate most. However, with a cat that never seems to run out of hair to drop everywhere, it is a necessary evil. *sigh* The dreaded thing awaits me when I get home. If it's still dry then I think I shall open the door again to at least keep some fresh air coming in while I work the monster :D


Outside of the banalities of the household, I should start studying for my history exam in ten days. It's a mid term about the first half of the class (of which my attendance was far from regular). It shouldn't be too much of a problem though, it covers the middle ages and I'm reasonably familiar with that period already; both from my fascination with history from childhood on and my archaeology BA. That was also the reason I took the class in the first place, I figured it'd be an easy way to fill up five of the required 30 credits :D


Ooh, methinks the laundry is all done. See ya!

I made a bunch of icons the other day to use on the LJ and I figured I might as well show them off. Some of them might not be used all that often :)

Please don't take and use these, I made them myself for use by myself.

Finished Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman today, and, as many books I read recently, it was awesome. It's the tale of Richard Mayhew who gets stuck in London Below, a basically twisted through time and space copy of London situated below the Old City divided up in baronies and fiefdoms tied to old underground stations.

One evening, as Richard and his fiancé Jessica are on their way to a restaurant, they come across a young woman lying on the street, bleeding. It is Door, fled from London Below, the only survivor of the murder of her family. Richard decides to help her, against Jessica's wishes who breaks off the engagement. Richard takes Door home to help her. Once there, Mr Croup and Mr Vandemar ring the bell, they're looking for Door. Richard denies her being there and when C&V barge in and look through the apartment, she is indeed not there.

After Croup and Vandemar leave, Door comes back and the next day, with help from Marquis de Carabas, they return to London Below. Richard goes with them for a bit before he returns above ground. He then finds that people don't really see him anymore. At his work they don't recognise him, his apartment is being shown to another couple and Jessica also doesn't recognise him.

He manages to get back Below and finds Door and the Marquis again. They then set of on a quest of sorts together after they hire Hunter as their bodyguard. Richard goes along because there's nothing else he can do and this may be the only way for him to go back. Door comes to find out who killed her family, the Marquis helps to settle a debt to Door's family while Hunter goes with them to so she can eventually slay the Beast of London.

The book is a very entertaining and grips you from just a few pages in. The world building of London Below is excellent, a perfect mix of (semi-)standard fantasy city and weird, twisted modern day London. Richard makes a good main character who doesn't know what he's getting himself into but stumbles on nonetheless because it's the only thing he can do. Door is wonderfully charming and the Marquis... He's intriguing from the beginning and he sets you on the wrong foot on multiple occasions. I found Hunter less fleshed out but she doesn't speak a lot either, she more or less just is, at least  until near the end of the book. The final plot twist then, was not unexpected but felt a bit off.


2009 (so far)
01. Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear - A Companion to Wolves
02. P. Nowee - Arendsoog. Vogelvrij {Eagle-Eye Outlaw} [Dutch]
03. Maggie Tallerman - Understanding Syntax (translated into Dutch and edited for Dutch students by Jan-Wouter Zwart) [Dutch] [school]
04. Hanneke Houtkoop & Tom Koole - Taal in Actie. Hoe Mensen Communiceren met Taal {Language in Action. How People Communicate with Language} [Dutch] [school]
05. Erica van Boven & Gillis Dorleijn - Literair Mechaniek. Inleiding tot de Analyse van Verhalen en Gedichten. {Literary Mechanics. Introduction to the Analysis of Stories and Poetry.} [Dutch] [school]

06. Star Trek: DS9 - Relaunch 1-5 - Twist of Faith (S.D. Perry, David Weddle & Jeffrey Lang, Keith R.A. DeCandido)
07. Esther Verhoef - Alles te Verliezen {Everything to Loose} [Dutch] [School]
08. Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game [re-read, it's been years :)]
09. Robert J. Sawyer - Hominids
10. Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere

I've decided to also start posting quotes and memorable lines I pick up here and there to add some variation to the numerous book and meme posts I've been making. I'll start it off with some Deep Space Nine stuff. I've been watching season 5 over the last few days (I got the dvd sets of season 5 and 7 late last year) and the last two episodes of season 5 tonight.



Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 5.25: "In the Cards"

Dr. Giger (going on about the people opposing his research): soulless minions of orthodoxy

At the end of the episode:

Nog: Lions and Gigers and bears.
Jake: Oh my.

This line is so much fun :D All three things actually refer back to things in the episode: Giger obviously to the character of Dr. Giger, lion to Jake saying they were going to beard the lion in its den and the bear to Julian's teddy bear they have to retrieve.

The episode has so many more funny bits but most of them don't really make sense unless you've seen it so I'll keep it at this.


Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 5.26: "Call to Arms"

Rom (to Captain Sisko about his wedding to Leeta): Would you marry me... I mean us? I mean... would you perform our wedding ceremony?

Garak (to Odo): You're an island of tranquility in an ocean of chaos.

Dukat (to Weyoun): I've found it wise never to underestimate the Federation's technical skill or Captain Sisko's resourcefulness.

Currently reading Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere and need to finish the last story in the Deep Space 9 anthology Prophecy and Change.
Just read Ender's game again and  Robert Sawyer's Hominids, which is so seriously made of WIN!

Next book in the planning after finishing Neverwhere (which I think will happen tomorrow) is Michael White's Equinox. It's one of those adventure books with murder and history and artifacts and stuff so I figured I pick that one to increase variation instead of returning to either sci-fi or fantasy immediately. Plus, I've had Equinox for two years or so and still need to read it...

I'm also planning to enter a contest where you make your own book. This is not just a writing contest, the point here is to create the entire book, whatever way you want, it can be text, pictures, photos, art, or a mix of any or more of this. The best one that is also publishable (or, printable rather) wins and gets published, second and third get money. Those two don't even have to be publishable/printable. And while it would be awesome^10 to get published, my current financial state is such that I would rather win second prize. I know just what I could do with €1000...
Anyway, so far, my book seems to be some kind of Alice in Wonderland thing where the main character is sucked into this really weird world. But I'm not sure yet what's happening exactly, the book just takes me along. I do know it's a massive mix of graphics and text and playing with colours, shapes and textures. I've three pages finished so far. At least, in terms of graphics, text might get edited more as the story continues. Mostly since I have no idea where Furry (as I've named my main character for now) is going to go or end up and what the purpose of this whole journey of his (hers?) is.

Also, something awesome was confirmed earlier today which I can't say anything about just yet 'cause it would spoil the surprise for my friend :D


2009 (so far)
01. Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear - A Companion to Wolves
02. P. Nowee - Arendsoog. Vogelvrij {Eagle-Eye Outlaw} [Dutch]
03. Maggie Tallerman - Understanding Syntax (translated into Dutch and edited for Dutch students by Jan-Wouter Zwart) [Dutch] [school]
04. Hanneke Houtkoop & Tom Koole - Taal in Actie. Hoe Mensen Communiceren met Taal {Language in Action. How People Communicate with Language} [Dutch] [school]
05. Erica van Boven & Gillis Dorleijn - Literair Mechaniek. Inleiding tot de Analyse van Verhalen en Gedichten. {Literary Mechanics. Introduction to the Analysis of Stories and Poetry.} [Dutch] [school]

06. Star Trek: DS9 - Relaunch 1-5 - Twist of Faith (S.D. Perry, David Weddle & Jeffrey Lang, Keith R.A. DeCandido)
07. Esther Verhoef - Alles te Verliezen {Everything to Loose} [Dutch] [School]
08. Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game [re-read, it's been years :)]
09. Robert J. Sawyer - Hominids

One of my literature classes deals with current literature and examines various trends in Dutch literature. One of those trends is that well-written thrillers are more often seen as literature and also get marketed as 'literary thriller'. So for a class on that particular subject in two weeks we had to read one of these literary thrillers. It was Esther Verhoef's Alles te Verliezen (Everything to Loose). Since this is not a genre I generally enjoy, I bought the book second hand. It arrived yesterday and I started reading it around 1 pm today. It's now 4pm and I finished the book about half an hour ago. I've already put the book back up for sale.

I think that says enough about what I think about it. It's not a bad book in itself, it's just very much not my genre and not my style of book. I also found the pace to be on the slow side and the way the descriptions were done to be of the 'look how nicely I can describe the surroundings' variety. It felt as if she really wanted to rub it in how well-to-do her main characters were and how lovely the house and grounds and the stable and so on. I know it was part of the story, to emphasize all that Claire stands to loose, but it felt stilted.

The ending was kinda expected but the actual climax evoked an 'oh, come on!' reaction.

Edit: I just realised, maybe I should say a few words more about the actual plot? Well, here goes. Main character is Claire, married to rich realtor Harald and mother of their two young children. They're rich, they live in a big house with lots of space around, stable, horse, you know, the works. Claire's basically perfect: a stay at home mom, volunteer at the kids' school, and excellent at entertaining her husband's business associates when he throws a party. Claire however, has a shady past which came to an end when her lover in that period was sent to jail. Now, ten years later, he's out and has come back to make trouble.


2009 (so far)
01. Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear - A Companion to Wolves
02. P. Nowee - Arendsoog. Vogelvrij {Eagle-Eye Outlaw} [Dutch]
03. Maggie Tallerman - Understanding Syntax (translated into Dutch and edited for Dutch students by Jan-Wouter Zwart) [Dutch] [school]
04. Hanneke Houtkoop & Tom Koole - Taal in Actie. Hoe Mensen Communiceren met Taal {Language in Action. How People Communicate with Language} [Dutch] [school]
05. Erica van Boven & Gillis Dorleijn - Literair Mechaniek. Inleiding tot de Analyse van Verhalen en Gedichten. {Literary Mechanics. Introduction to the Analysis of Stories and Poetry.} [Dutch] [school]

06. Star Trek: DS9 - Relaunch 1-5 - Twist of Faith (S.D. Perry, David Weddle & Jeffrey Lang, Keith R.A. DeCandido)
07. Esther Verhoef - Alles te Verliezen {Everything to Loose} [Dutch] [School]

Twist of Faith is an omnibus collecting four Star Trek tie-in novels and a novella that continue the story of Deep Space 9 and its crew. In short: I loved this book. I'd wanted to read the beginnings of the DS9 relaunch for ages now and this omnibus edition was the perfect solution (as opposed to buying all the books separately).
The stories were all very well put together, giving attention (and a very good voice) to those regulars that were left behind on the station (or from elsewhere in the ST verse) at the end of the series while skillfully introducing new characters to round out the crew.
The books take place over the course of about a month, three months after the end of the tv series. This was also my only complaint about the books, since so much happens in all of them, it kinda feels like overload to have it take place all in one month. Although this could have been caused by reading all the books in a row without pause.

The first book starts with the station being attacked by Jem'Hadar after three months of relative peace and quiet. The station is still undergoing repairs and not at all equipped to deal with attack. Fortunately, they manage to survive, although not without casualties. Thus begins the search for how and why the Jem'Hadar attacked. Intertwined with this is Jake's story as he tries to deal with his father's disappearance and a mysterious prophecy he is given. The third strand is the murder investigation of a Bajoran Vedek who gave Jake the prophecy. The Jem'Hadar and murder strands are brought to a close by the second book. Jake's story isn't done yet, however, and he sets out to find his dad.

The third book is a Bashir-centered one where he, together with a few friends from DS9, goes off on a mission for section 31 to stop another genetically enhanced human. I found this one the weakest of the books, the solution seemed to be too easy. It felt a bit sudden.

The fourth book is a Gateways book, telling a story about the Iconian gateways that suddenly open throughout the galaxy. Here it just so happens that one of those gateways connects the Delta Quadrant with the orbit of a Beta Quadrant planet. A Malon waste freighter stumbles upon the gateway and decides to dump it's toxic waste into it. The waste threatens the planet on the Beta Quadrant side and a massive evacuation needs to be undertaken to save the people. Against the backdrop of this evacuation a way is being sought to close the gateways while Quark gets in over his head trying to negotiate the buying of the gateways for the Orions.

The fifth story tells the tale of Kira who gets lost in a gateway at the end of the fourth book. It is a lovely story about Bajor's past and offers insights into Kira's mind.

All in all, it was a ride I enjoyed immensely and I can't wait to continue the relauch series with the Mission Gamma books and Rising Son where we will finally learn (among other things) what happened to Jake.


2009 (so far)
01. Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear - A Companion to Wolves
02. P. Nowee - Arendsoog. Vogelvrij {Eagle-Eye Outlaw} [Dutch]
03. Maggie Tallerman - Understanding Syntax (translated into Dutch and edited for Dutch students by Jan-Wouter Zwart) [Dutch] [school]
04. Hanneke Houtkoop & Tom Koole - Taal in Actie. Hoe Mensen Communiceren met Taal {Language in Action. How People Communicate with Language} [Dutch] [school]
05. Erica van Boven & Gillis Dorleijn - Literair Mechaniek. Inleiding tot de Analyse van Verhalen en Gedichten. {Literary Mechanics. Introduction to the Analysis of Stories and Poetry.} [Dutch] [school]

06. Star Trek: DS9 - Relaunch 1-5 - Twist of Faith (S.D. Perry, David Weddle & Jeffrey Lang, Keith R.A. DeCandido)

I got tagged with two memes on Facebook so did them there but figured I might as well re-post them here too.

Also, a quick book update. I'm now one chapter from finishing the first book in Twist of Faith (Avatar book 1) and, as expected, I love it :D
Will continue reading tonight, after I finish re-arranging my bookshelves. I have that re-arrange itch again and I hope to satisfy it with some (for me minor) bookshelf re-arranging instead of going all out and trying to re-arrange all the furniture again. Which I know won't work any other way than it is now unless I really start taking apart pieces of furniture and I'm not that far gone :D So far so good.

Now, on to the memes.

1. The Howling of the Jin

Paul, who tagged me, says he cheated: "OK, here's the meme that everyone seems to be doing tonight. But I'll admit cheating right up front - the first time I did it, only 3 answers were funny. So I did it three more times and took the best answers from each. But the results make it worthwhile, I think...."

so I promptly followed suit and did it three times to pick out the best answers. Cuz, come on, this sorta thing needs to at least give a chuckle here or there, no? I ended up picking mostly the first choices though :D

Instructions:
- Put your iTunes (or whatever) on shuffle.
- For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
- Write that song name down. No cheating.
- Tag some friends – including me!

1. If someone asks: "are you okay?" You answer:
Excuses

2. How would you describe yourself?
Time to Burn

3. What do you like in a guy/girl?
Bleed it Out

4. How do you feel today?
Why

5. What is your life's purpose?
Ripples

6. What's your motto?
Something More

7. What do your friends think of you?
Stap voor Stap (Step by Step)

8. What do you parents think of you?
Move Your Body

9. What do you think about very often?
End of the World

10. What is 2+2?
Savin' Me

11. What do you think of your best friend?
De Speeltuin (The Playground)

12. What is your life story?
Blue Burns Orange

13. What do you want to be when you grow up?
Mr. E's Beautiful Blues

14. What do you think when you see the person you like?
Never Trust a Klingon

15. What will you dance to at your wedding?
Rollercoaster

16. What will they play at your funeral?
Born to Run

17. What is your hobby/interest?
Stan

18. What is your biggest fear?
Hands Clean

19. What is your biggest secret?
Get Over It

20. What do you want right now?
Hollerin' for Haggis

21. What do you think of your friends?
If You had My Love

22. What will you post this as?
The Howling of the Jinn


2.  25 Things

Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things (facts, habits, goals, whatevers) about you.

1. I love cheese dipped in chocolate sauce.

2. I am a major Trekkie, to the core of my being :D

3. I kinda want to be Daniel Jackson (Stargate SG-1) I already have the archaeology BA...

4. In the age old question of whether you would rather go deaf or go blind, I'd go deaf. I cannot live with not being able to read. I know there's braille and audio books but it's not the same.

5. I play the bagpipe, recorder and tin whistle. I still want to learn how to play the piano but need a) a piano and b) the space to put it, first.

6. I'm a grammar geek. I can't help myself but correct people when I see a mistake in something they wrote. Grammar mistakes on the internet (on facebook most notably in those flair apps) annoy the hell out of me. Specifically: its vs. it's and the their/there/theyre thing. Also, then vs. than.

7. I would like to take the TOEFL sometime in the near future, maybe this year, maybe next.

8. I studied in Leicester (UK) for a semester while doing archaeology, it was awesome.

9. I've traveled outside my own country but not nearly enough to my taste. I still want to go to: Australia, New Zealand, Japan, India, Russia, Greece, Italy, Spain, Norway, Iceland, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, USA, Canada and Mexico.

10. I love museums. When we had CKV (cultural education) in school and had to go to a number of cultural things, I chose to go to museums while most of the other kids chose to go those art films and music things. Not that I didn't also do that :D (a film from Tibet and the opera Carmen)

11. I like cooking a lot but sorely miss an oven :(
And just a few hours after I posted the shiny red tabletop oven I'd ordered was delivered :D

12. I talk to myself a lot. I think it's a side effect of having no siblings and a very active imagination.

13. In regards to that imagination, I had lots of invisible friends when I was a kid. Even a whole invisible family. We lived on a horse farm in Southern France, it was much fun :D

14. I have no siblings but a very large extended family seeing as how mom has 3 siblings and dad had 9 and many of these have children and grandchildren of their own.

15. I don't watch TV a lot, but when I do it's mostly Discovery Channel and National Geographic and such. I watch TV-series too (mostly sci-fi & fantasy stuff) but prefer to do that on DVD or my computer.

16. I love strawberries.

17. I have a cat, a large black-and-white cuddle monster. Monet was his name at the shelter and I kinda liked that so instead of renaming him Gibbs (after the NCIS character) as I planned, I just added to his name and it became Jethro Venantius Monet :D But I call him Monkey, which is a name that suits him just fine.

18. I once shaved my head nearly bald just because I'd never done it before :D It was fun.

19. I want to get a tattoo in the near future, just need to shape the idea of what I want a bit more.

20. My favourite colours are black, red and purple.

21. I love taking pictures, when I go someplace, nine out of ten times I'll have my camera with me.

22. My favourite books are Dan Simmon's Hyperion and Endymion books as well as Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.

23. I have the most amazing brown thumbs, it's very hard for me to keep plants alive because I constantly forget to water them. The only real plants I have are a cactus and a bamboo stick... The rest are (good-looking) fakes.

24. I can't wear white clothes because I'll invariably spill something on it not five minutes into wearing it.

25.I like to play board games but no-one ever wants to play... So my pile of games goes largely unused :(

I'm almost done with the current exam period so it's time to direct my focus on to what I plan to read next. I have several books on my shelves that I still need to read and this year I plan to get that done. I've made a deal with myself that I don't get to buy new books unless I read old(er) ones I still haven't opened. The idea is that I need to read two books (at least) for every new one that I want to buy. Since I ordered a new one last week that just got delivered, I need to read two older unread ones to compensate :D Not that it is a punishment, I <3 books.

So, the new arrival is Twist of Faith. An omnibus edition that collects four Star Trek novels and a novella in one cover. These books are the first in the so-called DS9 Relaunch Series where they continue the story of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in book form. Now, I'm a Trekkie to the core of my being and Deep Space 9 is my favourite of the available series so when I learned of the relaunch (started some years ago) I wanted them. Various reasons, a lot of them to do with availability of the books over here, have resulted in a somewhat skip-jumped reading. I read about a handful of books taking place after the show ended but never really in order. Now, with Twist of Faith arriving in my home, I can remedy this and start from the beginning.

Other books that live on my shelves and are to be read this year, and preferably in February and March, are:
Elizabeth Bear - Blood & Iron
John Scalzi - The Android's Dream
Robert Sawyer - Hominids
Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere
Allen Steele - Coyote
Michael White - Equinox

There's a few more but those are planned for later in the year, including China Mieville's Perdido Street Station which I've had for a few years but never managed to get to more than the first two chapters or so. Then there's some "literary" stuff, I guess. Markus Zusak's The Book Thief and James Morrow's The Last Witchfinder. I also have a Kenzaburo Oe novel lying around that I would like to tackle this year.

Additionally, my best friend has a few fantasy/supernatural books that I haven't read and that interest me so I will probably plunder her shelves too.

Ooh, I'd almost forget. I've done major studying which included completely reading three books (instead of that chapter here, chapter there stuff) so they can be added to the list. And there's another bedtime reading Arendsoog book.

2009 (so far)
01. Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear - A Companion to Wolves
02. P. Nowee - Arendsoog. Vogelvrij {Eagle-Eye Outlaw} [Dutch]
03. Maggie Tallerman - Understanding Syntax (translated into Dutch and edited for Dutch students by Jan-Wouter Zwart) [Dutch] [school]
04. Hanneke Houtkoop & Tom Koole - Taal in Actie. Hoe Mensen Communiceren met Taal {Language in Action. How People Communicate with Language} [Dutch] [school]
05. Erica van Boven & Gillis Dorleijn - Literair Mechaniek. Inleiding tot de Analyse van Verhalen en Gedichten. {Literary Mechanics. Introduction to the Analysis of Stories and Poetry.} [Dutch] [school]

And so we reach 2009. For the rest of the year, I plan to post a list every first few days of the month (starting February) listing the books read so far. I might, in between, post when I've read something I enjoyed very much or hated (which is unlikely) or I just feel like I have something to say about.

Not much now, I've only read one book so far (mostly to blame on the fact that it's exam period and I spend most of my time studying/reading school stuff). The book I've read is A Companion to Wolves by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear. I bought this late last year as a result of starting to read Bear's blog halfway through 2008. Then, on my Birthday in September I got a book gift card. I took to the bookstore and went to look for books by Bear and found Dust and Blood & Iron. I read the back cover and was intrigued by both of them so brought them home. I've finished Dust and I absolutely LOVE it. It immediately made its way on to the list of favourite books (where it joined, among others, Dan Simmons'  Hyperion/Endymion series and Keith R.A. DeCandido's Articles of the Federation) and I can't wait for its sequel, Chill, to get published.
I've started Blood & Iron after that but so far it has failed to really pull me in. I don't quite know why, normally it's a type of book I like. I blame it on a somewhat busy schedule in the last few months which didn't give me the uninterrupted time to really dive into a novel. I'll take it up again after the exam period when I can give it at least an hour at a time so i can see if the schedule's to blame or the book.

Anyway, getting back on track, after I'd finished Dust, I knew I had to have more Bear. The description of A Companion to Wolves intrigued me, so I bought it and it ended up on the shelf until a few days ago. A post on Bear's blog about the sequel tot ACtW inspired me to grab it as my next book and once I started, I couldn't put it down, it was that AWESOME.

The story takes place in this Norse-based culture where Wolfcarls, men who bond together with a wolf, protect the villages from trolls. In return, when a she-wolf has a litter, they choose a number of boys from the villages to join them and eventually bond with the new pups.
This happens to the main character of the book, Njall. Njall is the oldest son of a jarl and destined to follow in his father's footsteps and lead the villages. Until the wolfcarls knock on their door. Njall is fascinated by the wolf accompanying the wolfcarl and decides to join them. This is only the start of his new life in which he does not only find new friends and bonds with a wolf of his own, but in which he also learns that life is not as black and white as he grew up believing. Things are not always what they seem.

I love the fact that it uses Norse mythology, history and culture as a base, I've always been a mythology/history nut so... :D I also love the fact that they obviously researched their stuff. The names, culture, behaviour (of men and wolves)... The attention given to the trolls and elves to make them both fit the mythology/culture and keep them different from those generic fantasy trolls and elves... It all created such an interwoven whole that sucked me right in and kept me there. Like Dust, ACtW made its way onto my favourites list and I can hardly wait for the sequel. Too bad that still needs to be written, although the fact that the first two lines have been done is hopeful :D


2009 (so far)
01. Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear - A Companion to Wolves

Almost there now :D Explanation of format and markers is here.

This year I started writing down the authors on tie-in novels in addition to the series they were from.

2008
01. Jeannette Walls - The Glass Castle

02. Mary Shelley - Frankenstein [School]

03. Charmed (Jeff Mariotte) - Mirror Image [Dutch]
04. Star Trek (Keith R.A. DeCandido) - Articles of the Federation [re-read]
05. Harriet Beecher Stowe - Uncle Tom's Cabin [School]
06. Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child - Cabinet of Curiosities (Pendergast 3)

07. Julie Kenner - Carpe Demon (Demon Slayer Mom 1)
08. Susan Albert - Hangman's Root (China Bayles 3) [Dutch]
09. Susan Albert - Rosemary Remembered (China Bayles 4) [Dutch]
10. Susan Albert - Rueful Death (China Bayles 5) [Dutch]
11. Patricia Briggs: Blood Bound (Mercy Thompson 2)
12. William Shakespeare - Anthony & Cleopatra

Starting with this play, a friend and I began the massive job of reading all of Shakespeare's plas together. Out loud. We each take roughly half of the speaking parts and there we go :) We made a playlist, so to speak, by taking turns picking a play. We then also get first pick of characters in the plays we chose. It's SO much FUN!

13. Lindsay Sands: A Quick Bite
14. William Shakespeare - Macbeth

15. William Shakespeare - Hamlet
16. William Shakespeare - Romeo & juliet

17. Terry Pratchett - Making Money (Discworld 31)
18. William Shakespeare - King Lear
19. Terry Pratchett - Thud (Discworld 30) [re-read]

20. Carrie Vaugh - Kitty and the Midnight Hour (Kitty 1) [re-read]
21. Carrie Vaugh - Kitty Goes to Washington (Kitty 2)
22. David & Leigh Eddings - The Elder Gods (The Dreamers 4) [Dutch]
23. David & Leigh Eddings - The Treasured One (The Dreamers 2) [Dutch]
24. David & Leigh Eddings - Crystal Gorge (The Dreamers 3) [Dutch]
25. David & Leigh Eddings - The Younger Gods (The Dreamers 4) [Dutch]

26. Carrie Vaugh - Kitty Takes a Holiday (Kitty 3)
27. Carrie Vaugh - Kitty and the Silver Bullet (Kitty 4)
28. Karen Chance - Touch the Dark (Cassandra Palmer 1)

29. Terry Pratchett, Jack Cohen & Ian Stewart - The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch
30. Lilian Jackson Braun - The Cat Who Could Read backwards (The Cat Who 1) [Dutch] [re-read]
31. Lilian Jackson Braun - The Cat Who Played Post-Office (The Cat Who 6) [Dutch] [re-read]
32. Lilian Jackson Braun - The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare (The Cat Who 7) [Dutch] [re-read]
33. Lilian Jackson Braun - The Cat Who Sniffed Glue (The Cat Who 8) [Dutch]
34. Elizabeth Bear - Dust

35. Lilian Jackson Braun - The Cat Who Went Underground (The Cat Who 9) [Dutch] [re-read]
36. Lilian Jackson Braun - The Cat Who Lived High (The Cat Who 11) [Dutch]
37. Lilian Jackson Braun - The Cat Who Said Cheese (The Cat Who 18) [Dutch]
38. Lilian Jackson Braun - The Cat Who Robbed the Bank (The Cat Who 22) [Dutch] [re-read]
39. Lilian Jackson Braun - The Cat Who Brought Down the House (The Cat Who 25) [Dutch] [re-read]
40. P. Nowee - Arendsoog en de man zonder verleden {Eagle-Eye and the Man without a Past} [Dutch]

Arendsoog (Eagle-Eye) is a series of adventure books for boys, written a long time ago (I have about ten of these books that used to belong to my father when he was young). They are about a young rancher in 19th century America with his Native American friend White Feather. It's a bit like those Karl May books but then really geared towards kids. It's pretty obvious they were written a long time ago based on how the books portray White Feather, but if you ignore that it's a nice read to kill a little time. I recently bought this one (and three others) for a few euros. They are cheap mass-market reprints of the older works and suit their purpose (as a quick bedtime read) perfectly.

41. Stephenie Meyer - Twilight (Twilight 1)
42. Stephenie Meyer - New Moon (Twilight 2)
43. P.Nowee - Arizona Arendsoog {Arizona Eagle-Eye} [Dutch]

44. P. Nowee - Arendsoog. Mexicaans avontuur {Eagle-Eye. Mexican Adventure} [Dutch]

Explanation of format and markers is here.

I didn't read anything in January so there's only 11 bookclots. Also, can you tell I love Discworld? :D

2007
01. Arthur Conan Doyle - The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes
02. Arthur Conan Doyle - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

03. J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter 6)
04. J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Harry Potter 1) [Dutch] [re-read]
05. J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Secret Chamber (Harry Potter 2) [Dutch] [re-read]
06. J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter 3) [Dutch] [re-read]
07. J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter 4) [Dutch] [re-read]
08. J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter 5) [re-read]

09. Terry Pratchett - Interesting Times (Discworld 17) [re-read]
10. Terry Pratchett - Thief of Time (Discworld 26) [re-read]
11. Terry Pratchett - Maskerade (Discworld 18) [re-read]
12. Terry Pratchett - Going Postal (Discworld 29) [re-read]
13. David & Leigh Eddings - Polgara the Sorceress [re-read]

14. Terry Pratchett - Pyramids (Discworld ) [re-read]
15. Henny Thijssing-Boer - Jouw liefde is mijn geluk (Geluk is als de wind; Een huis met open deuren & Leven met jou) [Dutch] [re-read]

A book of my mothers' that I had read when I was about 14ish and decided to re-read. It's what the Dutch call a streekroman, which is kinda like a romance novel in that they center on the relationship and they always get each other in the end but these very specifically take place in rural countryside areas (and often on farms that regularly feature whole dynasties) or small(er) towns. It's still being written today but the period it takes place in is usually some years ago without all the comfort of nowadays, this can be all the way back to early 20th century or as late as the 60s, 70s or 80s, as long as we've not entered that whole computerised everything era.

16. Duistere Parels [Dutch] <anthology>
17. Terry Pratchett - The Colour of Magic (Discworld 1) [re-read]

18. Laurell K. Hamilton - Guilty Pleasures (Anita Blake 1) [re-read]
19. Laurell K. Hamilton - The Laughing Corpse (Anita Blake 2)
20. Robert Louis Stevenson - Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
21. Terry Pratchett - The Wee Free Men (Discworld YA 1 ) [re-read]
22. Laurell K. Hamilton - Circus of the Damned (Anita Blake 3)
23. Tanith Lee - Biting the Sun <Contains Don't Bite the Sun & Drinking Sapphire Wine>

24. Laurell K. Hamilton - The Lunatic Cafe (Anita Blake 4)
25. Terry Pratchett - A Hat Full of Sky (Discworld YA 2)
26. Charlaine Harris - Dead Until Dark (Southern Vampire 1)
27. Lilian Jackson Braun - The Cat Who Could Read backwards (The Cat Who 1) [Dutch] [re-read]
28. Lilian Jackson Braun - The Cat Who Played Post-Office (The Cat Who 6) [Dutch] [re-read]
29. Lilian Jackson Braun - The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare (The Cat Who 7) [Dutch] [re-read]
30. Lilian Jackson Braun - The Cat Who Went Underground (The Cat Who 8) [Dutch] [re-read]
31. Lilian Jackson Braun - The Cat Who Robbed the Bank (The Cat Who 22) [Dutch] [re-read]
32. Lilian Jackson Braun - The Cat Who Had 14 Tales (The Cat Who Special) <short stories>
33. Carrie Vaughn - Kitty and The Midnight Hour (Kitty 1)
34. Patricia Briggs - Moon Called (Mercy Thompson 1)
35. Rachel Vincent - Stray (Faythe 1)

36. Kim Harrison - Dead Witch Walking (The Hollows 1) [re-read]
37. Neil Gaiman - Fragile Things
38. Kim Harrison - The Good, The Bad And The Undead (The Hollows 2) [re-read]

39. Dolf Verroen - De verschrikkelijke schoolmeester {The Horrible School Teacher} [Dutch] [re-read] <Children's book. I read it when I was a wee one and re-read it cause I was, at the time, studying to be an elementary school teacher. Same goes for the next two books.>
40. John Marsden - So Much To Tell You [Dutch] [re-read]

41. Ellen Tijsinger - Nikolaj [Dutch] [re-read]
42. Terry Pratchett - Wintersmith (Discworld YA 3)

43. Kim Harrison - Every Which Way But Dead (The Hollows 3) [re-read]
44. Kim Harrison - A Fistful of Charms (The Hollows 4)

45. Khaled Hosseini - The Kite Runner [Dutch]