Some books you fall in love with head-over-heels.
Some books are a slow burn.
Some books are an on-off-on affair.
Some books you revisit over and over and the spark is always there.
Ah, books.
Apparently, making these kinds of declarations out loud in public allows your friends to label you a weird nerd. Let me assure you: I wear the label with pride.
Travel time!
A short weekend trip to Aachen was on the calendar recently.
Friend P and I hadn’t been there before even though it’s only 5km across the border from Vaals, the most southern part of the NL.
We left bright and early and arrived before most of the shops were even open. Any excuse to sit in a backerei with a fresh bretzel and coffee.
Stuff to see in Aachen: the cathedral, old city hall and healing waters. There are also remains of Roman buildings, and statues everywhere. The statues were not just of old guys on horses, there was one of the big dude (Charlemagne, or Charles the Great) just standing in a fountain and holding a globe and sword, without a horse in sight. Then there was one of a horse without a rider. We never found out whose horse this was, but either way, it was a refreshing change.
The best statue by far, is the one of a young woman reading.
Aachen is a small and compact town that you can easily cover in a day, if you don’t let yourself get distracted by shops or the plenty picturesque squares and parks. P and I easily get distracted though, so we were happy to have two days to wander around and discover.
Stuff we discovered:
- an English language section in a bookshop which cost us dearly
- pineapples you can drink from
- a new variety of one of my favorite beers available and on sale
- booze and books are an excellent combination (this was more an affirmation than a discovery, but still)
We didn’t just do (drunk) touristy stuff, but also did some solid shopping: products sold at the drugstore are much cheaper in Germany than they are in the NL. Here, these products are taxed as luxury goods, which leads to an almost 50% price difference. So, anytime I’m in in Germany I make sure to stock up on make-up, shampoo, soap, vitamins, toothpaste.
We also went to the supermarket (I love going to a supermarket abroad) to stock up on alcohol, because yes, that’s also much cheaper there than it is here.
We ended up with a car full of shopping bags, empty wallets, and memories of a great time; the sure signs of a great trip.
Reading challenge 2023 – No. 13
No. 13 – A banned book
Mijn kamp [Mein Kampf] / Adolf Hitler
(My Struggle)
I’ve already shared my thoughts about the banning of books and this book in particular, so for that, please see here.
The book itself..ugh, it became a DNF (did not finish).
After the first chapter things escalated quickly and the whole thing became unreadable: clumsy sentences due to the translation based on the old-fashioned German in combination with the author’s inability to write.
It’s hard to understand how more than 12 million copies of this book were ever sold.
It’s easy to judge the people who read this and didn’t stop what happened, because time creates distance and perspective, but it’s scary to realize that this book was very much a playbook.
Then again, current leaders also publish books that end up on bestseller lists and not all of them are good, and who knows what they will lead to.
Usually I don’t bother working my way through books that aren’t for me. If the story is bad, or too complex or too-whatever-it-is-that-makes-my-blood-boil, I label it DNF and move onto the next one.
As this is a banned book (edited, but still) though, I felt obliged to give it my best try, just because I strongly oppose banning books. But it was such slow goings that I needed an extension of the loan period and that turned out to be impossible because there was a reservation for the book. Yes, there actually was another reader who wanted to dig into this and to them I say: best of luck to ya.
To me, it meant a forced DNF and I’m fine with that.
Reading list box checked. Moving on.
Day out
Friend C and I recently had a day out and spent it in…Rotterdam.
The country was our oyster, but a combination of factors had led to the home game. I’m happy to report that we still managed to find stuff to do and see that was (partially) new to us.
We kicked things off with coffee at the coffee shop in the library and then got a move on to the Museum 40-45 museum.
Neither of us had been here before and shame on us because it was very interesting.
Insider tip: the national museum card is valid there and the museum has free entry to all on the first Saturday of the month.
This museum is located just outside the Coolhaven metro station, so a perfect destination for a rainy morning. It’s a small-ish museum but packed with materials and information and we easily spent an hour and a half browsing the shelves, reading and learning.
The museum is dedicated to Rotterdam during World War II, and hosts a gazillion objects donated by people who lived through that time.
From a deck of cards made and used by people in hiding, to the lock that was used to close up the barn where Rotterdam citizens had to report/were taken for deportation, and half of a children’s tea set that was the only surviving item from a house that had burned down in a bombing.
Hitler’s Mein Kampf is also following me everywhere, because an original copy of it is one of the first items you see as you enter the exhibition.
Along with the many, many items on display, a timeline with notable events of WWII in local and bigger context is displayed, and there is an immersive short film about the May 1940 bombing that gave me goosebumps.
There is a small exhibition about rebuilding the city, and an interactive section that is specifically aimed at school kids (but was still interesting for grownups) about discrimination and judgment.
I thought the photo exhibition about bombed out cities across the globe was impressive. Several of the pictures were of Rotterdam, but there were also pictures of Aleppo and Baghdad. Because they are all in black-and-white you don’t notice the different locations until you start reading the text. Rubble looks exactly the same anywhere. It’s painful / shameful to realize that people keep doing this to each other.
After all that we needed some fresh air to process what we’d seen and because it was no longer raining, we walked back into city center for a late lunch.
After lunch we continued our walk along the wooden pedestrian bridge Luchtbrug from Central District to North and back for a 5k walkabout.
By then it was not only dry but the sun had come out as well, so we treated ourselves to the drinking of a few beers on a terrace.
The beers led to pizzas and while I’d like to say we hopped on a train and metro to get back home, it was more that we hoisted ourselves onto them.
All in all, a day well spent in great company.
Review – How to kill men and get away with it
How to kill men and get away with it / Katy Brent
I grinned while reading it on the metro and the man sitting across from me said it made him feel uneasy.
I guess that’s a mission accomplished for Miss Brent.
The story is about Kitty Collins. Influencer. Vegan. Murderer.
That’s not spoiling anything because one look at the cover is enough to know what happens. Kitty kills.
The story is told from Kitty’s perspective and being inside her head is a thrill ride: her thoughts about influencing, friends and men are funny and sharply observant. And the way she rationalizes her actions is scarily understandable.
The book opens mid-murder and then flashes back to “the beginning”. The beginning is an accidental murder that happened months earlier and wetted Kitty’s appetite for more.
She knows she was lucky getting away with that first murder though and realizes she needs to be organized and tactical about it in the future. She also compiles a list of no-no’s to murder: no women, no innocents, and no homeless people/vulnerables because they have it hard enough as is.
It’s basically open season on any other and Kitty takes catfishing to a new level and enjoys the irony of turning the predators into prey and becoming a predator herself.
And although she lives her life open on social media it becomes clear that not all is what it seems.
Also, there is a person stalking her online, leaving comments with hints to knowing what she did. After a murder, Kitty waits for a new message from the stalker, almost excited about it.
The story is packed with action, abuse, murder, friendship and romance.
It’s about drawing a line and getting even. It’s about being misunderstood, not being seen and wanting to be loved.
It’s dark and twisted and different.
It is highly entertaining and if I were the kind of person to give stars to stuff, I would have given a lot of them. But I don’t, so I’ll just tell you: if you’re looking for a fun and different read, this is it. Enjoy!
Puzzled
During the pandemic I was one of many people who (re)discovered the joys of doing jig-saw puzzles.
Some friends and family members had picked up on this too, which was great because it meant we could do puzzle swaps and didn’t have to spend inordinate amounts of money on pieces of carton with pictures glued to them.
Lockdowns came and went and life has returend to “normal”. I still enjoy puzzling, although it now takes me much longer to finish one because there’s so much life happening. Good thing I have a puzzle plate that allows me to shove the unfinished work under the sofa so it doesn’t get in the way and is easy to pick up again.
I like puzzling because it takes me away from a screen and I can listen to a podcast or just music.
Most of all I like doing a puzzle with other people, chatting and drinking while sticking pieces together.
The 1000 pieces jigsaws are my go-to, and the topics are mostly book-related: bookshop interiors, bookshop exteriors, bookshelves, book covers and libraries.
My second-favourite category is Christmas related, with Christmas shops, Christmas markets and decorations.
I’ve got quite the collection of puzzles by now. Maybe I should start cataloguing them…
The city
The bookworm side of me has been plenty on display by now but the city side is long overdue a telling.
Hear me tell.
The city I call home is Rotterdam, which gets its name from the dam that was built in the river Rotte back in 1270. Sometimes it really is that simple.
The area had been lived in for a couple of hundred years already but people got tired of getting their clogs stuck in the mud, and the dam was the first start of regulating water levels.
Water regulation is still happening today because 90% of the city is lying below sea level and it requires a lot of dams, sluices, dikes and tanks to make sure we all stay dry.
The city is something entirely different from other cities in the country: no pretty leafy canals lined with gabled houses in the city center here. No cobblestoned squares and no picturesque drawbridges either. Rotterdam used to have all that as well, but most of it got destroyed during WWII.
This meant there was a lot of rebuilding to be done and it was done in an efficient, modern way.
But, you can get all that from a guidebook or a wikipage.
What really makes this city, is that the vibe is no-nonsense with a can-do attitude: we push up our sleeves, dig in and get things done.
Rotterdammers tell it like it is, and don’t have patience for blowing smoke or bullsh*t.
Anybody can be anything here, but please, don’t be cocky about it and just be.
If you’re waiting for a door to open that’s not an automatic, you won’t be told to “push”, but to “push, princess”. If you can’t laugh about that, this city isn’t for you.
(It’s not done to be rude, hurtful or offending: it’s done to remind you that you shouldn’t expect things to happen if you don’t put in the effort.)
Showing off is not appreciated and expensively designed buildings, streets and art get mocked with alternative names.
Years ago, there was a lot to do about the expensive purchase of the Santa Claus statue. It was promptly hidden away in a museum courtyard where it was ridiculed and renamed Kabouter (gnome) Buttplug.
It gave the statue cult status and after a while it was decided that it deserved a more visible, prominent spot. It’s now standing proud in the city center where it’s become a true landmark and hardly anybody remembers its original name.
I’ve lived in different parts of this city and enjoyed them all, especially the city center. While living there was amazing, I could only afford to do so with roommates and tired of that concept, I eventually found a spot in the more affordable southern part of town.
The south is the most no-nonsense part of a no-nonsense city and being a no-nonsense kind of gal, that suits me perfectly.
Other parts of town are only a short walk, bike ride or metro ride away anyway, because distance here is all relative.
Like any big city, this one has its air share of problems (criminal activity, housing crisis and pollution just to name a few), but I’ve never felt unsafe, threatened or scared: I can travel alone on public transport or bike home on my own, at any time of day or night.
To be able to bike home after a night out is something I took for granted until living abroad for a while. Now, it’s something I cherish deeply.
Librarians attending the IFLA WLIC conference this summer, will get a chance to discover the city, and some of the amazing libraries in the area (and beyond). If you’re one of them and want a guided tour by a fellow librarian/reader/nerd, feel free to reach out.
Reading challenge 2023 – No. 18
No. 18 – A book with snow on the cover
The Wish / Nicholas Sparks
Years ago someone tried to shame me for not having read a Nicholas Sparks book. Needless to say, that did not make me run to the library/bookshop for one of his titles any faster.
(Don’t worry, this was a complete stranger and not someone I had to cut out of my life.)
Then during last year’s Christmas break, I treated myself to a trip to the bookshop and ended up at the register with a copy of The Wish. It had a cozy cover with snow which I was in the mood for, and I figured it was about time that I give this author a try after all.
However, the book ended up on my TBR pile and it wasn’t until this weekend, on the hottest days of the year so far, that I picked it up. You can never predict when the mood strikes you.
By the time I finished the book I had half-melted. Unfortunately that wasn’t because of the story, but purely due to the heat.
I’ll try not to give away more than what it says on the preamble on the cover while expressing my reading experience.
This book is a tearjerker with frosting for extra sweetness on top.
It’s set during Christmas time and the main character is Maggie, a successful photographer who shot to fame due to social media.
The gallery she co-owns gets visited by fans who hope to catch a glimpse of her.
Maggie got pregnant at sixteen and was made to sit out the pregnancy, waiting for the baby to be born so it could be adopted. She does this far away from home, on an island off the North Carolina coast.
There she meets Bryce, who at eighteen is basically superman: he’s cute, non-judgmental, patient, smart, sweet and caring. He helps out anyone; from his mother, to his fisherman grandfather and the ladies running a diner in the only town on the island. He also helps homeschooling Maggie, and he received recommendations from multiple Senators for his West Point application. Oh, and he trains aid dogs.
Over the course of a few days Maggie tells the story of how she and Bryce fell in love during those six months way back when.
She is talking to the gallery’s new sales assistant whom we get to know little about expect that he is very much in love with his girlfriend and can skate really well.
I don’t mind an emotional punch or two and have sobbed over books many a time, but this felt a bit like an attempt to cram as much emotional stuff in there as possible: Adoption. YA angst. Lost loves. Other stuff. Christmas time.
Subtle it is not. As a result nothing of the story came as a surprise to me and it left me with an “is this it?” feeling.
Maybe my expectations were too high after all the praise from friends who read the other books.
Maybe these books just aren’t for me.
Based on this title, I’m not in a rush to try more.
Banned books
I’ve been thinking about banned books a lot recently.
It’s an item on my reading challenge which in recent days became a hot news topic (again), and to be honest, the concept about banning books is just beyond me and it had me in a bit of tailspin.
I did a deep dive on the subject which left me feeling slightly depressed and very angry.
Libraries here are allowed to, and can without fear, have any title on their shelves. I cannot imagine having it any other way.
Pupils can read anything in schools.
Bookshops can sell almost any title.
That last one is an almost, because we do have one banned book here: Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.
This ban is an official one, making it illegal to sell and publish the book, which can lead to hefty fines.
However, libraries are allowed to have it in their collection as they don’t sell/publish, and in 2014 an antiquarian in Amsterdam who was sued and fined for having a copy in the shop window, fought his case in court and had the charges dismissed.
(For curious minds: due to its publication date the book was considered to be in line with everything else on sale. There was no proven intend to discriminate and because the book is available in libraries and online as well, the judge ruled in favour of the shop owner. It was also noted that all cases would not, from now on, automatically be waved in favour of booksellers; each case will be weighed carefully still.)
Although the ban is understandable with the darkness and devastation of what it caused still so close and tangible when it was imposed, I think a review is overdue: we’re living in different times now and in fact, so much time has passed that the copyright of the original work has expired.
And almost as soon as that happened, new editions were published: after an updated edition was released in Germany in 2016, a Dutch language update was released two years later.
The ban does not apply to these works because these editions include historic context and were published with academic “feedback” to the original text.
The new editions also lack the creepy cover art of the originals, and are just solid grey with a title and author mentioned.
The new releases proved no rise in the number of antisemitic, fascist or racist incidents, taking away the main arguments for the ban.
So what use does the ban still have?
In my idea of a perfect world there would not be a single banned book, no matter how controversial the contents of the work.
Because banning books is more scary than whatever can be written in it.
Because someone deciding what you can or cannot read, is oppression.
Banning books doesn’t stop violence. It doesn’t stop racism.
It doesn’t stop people from coming out as part of the LGBTQIA+ community.
It doesn’t stop people from using drugs or having sex.
Banning books does stop people from getting smarter.
It does stop discussions and growth.
It does limit freedom of expression.
It does feed bigotry, fear, narrow-mindedness.
I went to the library and checked out the 2018 edition of Mijn Strijd – Mein Kampf. I haven’t found the courage to get started yet, but I will. Just because I can.
Bliss list
To counter the Bitch & Moan list, I thought about the unexpected stuff that makes me super happy.
It’s my Bliss List:
- Opening a book and discovering that the chapters have titles.
- Finding money in a purse or jacket pocket. It’s like winning the lottery, even though it was my own money in the first place.
- Turning on the radio to an all-time favorite song.
- Spotting someone reading a book I really like. It feels like we could become instant friends but I never dare to interrupt their reading time.
- Thinking I missed the train or bus only to find out it had a slight delay and still being able to hop on.
- Spotting a new stem or flower on one of my plants. Makes me feel like a proud plant mama and a personal thank-you for caring.
- Doing a puzzle in pen and not having to cross anything out.
Bookworm in the City 