Boekenwijs tries 75 again

I didn't even come close to 75 books in 2011, it was only 56. But I still believe I can do it. Just not playing with my phone so much would help...

Reading plans?
More classics (nine sceduled) and more originally Dutch (I enjoyed them a lot last year). And I will read all the five parts of the Hitchhikers trilogy.




The books I read:
1. Bleekers zomer by Mensje van Keulen (7/1) (#12) (3.5 stars)
2. Nairobi heat by Mukoma wa Ngugi (12/1) (#15) (3.5 stars)
3. Op zee by Toine Heijmans (15/1) (#16) (4.5 stars)
4. De oversteek by Justin Cronin (11/2) (#22) (4.5 stars)
5. De omweg naar Santiago by Cees Nooteboom (19/2) (#23) (4 stars)
6. De familie onderweg by Tommy Wieringa (20/2) (#24) (3 stars)
7. The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy by Douglas Adams (1/3) (#27) (3 stars)
8. Palmwijn by Adriaan van Dis (4/3) (#27) (2.5 stars)
9. Stitches by David Small (7/3) (#28) (4 stars)
10. Sacred and profane by Faye Kellerman (17/3) (#29) (3.5 stars)
11. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (23/3) (#30) (4 stars)
12. Seeing red by Tanya Lloyd Kyi (24/3) (#33) (4 stars)
13. Heldere hemel by Tom Lanoye (25/3) (#34) (3.5 stars)
14. The future according to me by Rob Kutner (25/3) (#35) (2 stars)
15. Dotter of her father's eyes by Mary Talbot (26/3) (#35) (3 stars)
16. De aardbeibeet by Barbara Voors (5/4) (#36) (4 stars)
17. Afrika by Herman Huppen (#37) (12/4) (2.5 stars)
18. The alphabet of Vietnam by Jonathan Chamberlain (#38) (29/4) (3.5 stars)
19. Tampasta en nazi goreng by Sander Ruijsbroek (30/4) (2.5 stars)
20. Het meisje met de negen vingers by Laia Fàbregas (6/5) (4 stars)
21. Banden by Rood & Rood (2/5) (2.5 stars)
22. Through the grinder by Cleo Coyle (26/5) (3.5 stars)
23. The restaurant at the end of the univers by Douglas Adams (02/06) (2.5 stars)
24. De ooggetuige by Simone van der Vlugt (9/6) (3.5 stars)
25. Juni by Gerbrand Bakker (24/6) (5 stars)
26. The book bind by Saski de Rothschild (28/6) (2 stars)
27. De heren van de thee by Hella Haasse (2/7) (4.5stars)
28. De lachende politieman by Sjöwall & Wahlöö (8/7) (3.5 stars)
29. Dagboek van genante momenten by Robyn Harding (14/7) (3.5 stars)
30. The man in the empty boat by Mark Salzmann (22/7) (4 stars)
31. De kat die van achteren naar voren las by Lilian Jackson Brown (3/8) (3.5 stars)
32. Blauwe maandag by Nicci French (15/8) (4 stars)
33. The pirates! in an adventure with scientists by Gideon Defoe (18/8) (3.5 stars)
34. Meneer Sadek en de anderen by Kaweh Modiri (4/9) (3 stars)
35. Zondaarskind by Marion Pauw (8/9) (3.5 stars)

NB. For the Dutch readers, I have a Dutch blog. Find the address in my profile.

Welcome back!

Great to see you back, boekenwijs. I'll check out your Dutch blog too.

Glad to see you back with us again!

Bookmarking your thread. I have as one of my intentions for 2012 a reread of the Hitchhiker's trilogy (in five parts) and am curious to see your Dutch reading :D

I'm going to finish part 5 of the Hitchhiker's Guide as well as part 6 (by Eoin Colfer) this year :)

Hey, welcome all! Cool to see that I'm not the only one to read the Hitchhiker's trilogy! I'm curious what you think about it.

Happy New Year and welcome back! I hope you succeed in your reading plans. As for having more time for reading by not playing with the phone so much, I have solved that one by using my phone as an e-reader, so instead of playing sudoku games in spare moments, I read a few more pages of one of the free classics I have downloaded with my Kindle app on the phone.

P.S I love the Hitchhiker books - though I love the original radio-broadcasts even more (you can get those as audio-books).

I will try to keep a closer eye on your thread this year.

I see you are reading De omweg naar Santiago (in English: Roads to Santiago). That book got me hooked on Nooteboom. I think of all his travel writing, this book, about Spain is his best. (His books about Germany are also very good).

Unfortunately De omweg naar Santiago takes me more time than expected. I'm fond of the writing style, but the stories don't always match. Partly because I don't know to much about Spanish history (and Greek and Roman philosophy) so I tend to miss something. And the stories are mostly written in the 1980s. While I'm born in 1982 it's sometimes difficult to relate. But the books about Germany also sound good. I might know a little more about the country as I went there on holiday a lot and I'm now busy to get my knowledge of the language to a somewhat higher level as I've quite some business contacts in Germany. And I have a book about Nootebooms travels in the Caribean, which interest me as I have lived in Suriname for a few months and then fell in love with the area.

Reading-wise, the year started well. In a not too busy the first week of January I had the evening plenty of time to read. And yesterday I had the time to actually take a whole book in one day to read.

1. Bleekers zomer by Mensje van Keulen
(originally Dutch, not translated to English (I think))

The story was written in 1972 and it feels like that too. Willem Bleeker seems a somewhat older father and I was a little shocked to find out that he is only 32. He has an ulcer, is constantly tired, is stuck in his job already and actually it's a hopeless case. Civilian life he doesn't seem to be able to handle it. But the uncertain life of his former friends in Amsterdam is even worse for him. That he finds out when he runs away from home.

The entire story covers just a few days, the days he ran away from his wife and two young children y in The Hague to Amsterdam, where he grew up. Although his old friend Gerry immediately accepts him, their lives cannot be more different. And none of the described lives is recognizable to me. Is it because I was in a different environment? Or has life really changed that much in 40 years? I guess it will be a combination of both.

I read the book with interest, but it also felt very old-fashioned. And it's not a book that I will list for high school students to read. Then the fun of Dutch literature is gone. For me having to read such books was the biggest reason not to read a lot of Dutch literature for a long while, although that is completely unfair to contemporary Dutch writers.

I am glad your reading year has started off well for you!

> 12: Yes in 40 years our society has changed an awfull lot...

2. Nairobi heat by Mukoma wa Ngugi

Another book from Netgalle A book that I read with interest. A book that both an 'ordinary' thriller / detective but it also made me think about Africa and America.

The narrator is the main character, the black American Ishmael. A blonde woman is found in front of the Rwandan Professor Joshua Hakizimana, also peace activist. Or not?

The murder leads to Kenya, where Ishmael together with O starts looking for a possible link with Joshua. On their quest they run into other police cases as well . They are describes by Ishmael in an impressive way and how he sees it, from his American perspective.

The story has some unexpected twists and is a real page-turner. Recommended for fans of the detective genre.

Please be warned if you want to read this book, as it is impossible to write about it without spoilers or at least some pushing in a certain direction.

3. Op zee by Toine Heijmans
(originally Dutch, not translated (yet))

I know this author from a column in a newspaper that I enjoy reading. So it was not a difficult choice to read his book. A book that reminds me of Life of Pi by Yann Martel and Het kleine meisje van meneer Linh by Philippe Claudel. What is true? What is fantasy?

Father and daughter (7 years) sail from Denmark to the Netherlands. For father is the last stage of a tour of three months, for his daughter it are two days of adventure. And adventure it is. The story is exciting and confusing and therefor you will finish it in an afternoon. You just want to know how it ends.

Short story: The final problem by Arthur Conan Doyle

The first thing I read for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Book Challenge 2012 and the first Sherlock Holmes adventure that I read was, ironically, The Final Problem. And a few days later I saw the most recent BBC adaptation of Sherlock, which includes this story. I must admit that the television episode was a lot more exciting than the story. But I'm triggered to read more of his adventures.

The "extraordinary gentleman" in this story is James Moriarty. Who he is is still a mystery to me, but book and TV make it clear that it is someone to be reckoned with, Sherlock greatest enemy and challenge. Who puzzles the fastest and wins the fight?

I like to start reading some more adventures of Sherlock and the BBC series is just brilliant!

I loved the (few) books of Sherlock Holmes I read a few years ago. My favourite so far must be The Hound of the Baskervilles. I also saw the recent BBC-adaptation, but I thought it was something else altogether. There's no comparison between the two, but I both liked them. I only wish that somehow I would be able to "breed time" to read more.

What classics are you planning on reading?

The new BBC Sherlock adaptations are very good, aren't they. I like the way they have completely re-worked the story for a modern setting, but with all kinds of references to the original stories (at least, I can recognise that with the stories that I have read, which is not all of them).

Yes, the BBC series is different, but was closer to the stories of Arthur Conan Doyle than I expected. I was a little confused when I saw the name of Irene Adler in the first story of my story collection. Untill now I've only read The final problem (luckily before I saw the last episode, without knowing it would be the same story), but I plan to read more this year.

The other classics I would like to read this year:
- King Solomon's mines by Heny Rider Hagard
- Dracula by Bram Stoker
- 20,000 leagues under the sea by Jules Verne
- The adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
- The picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wild
- The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
- The invisible man by H.G. Wells
- The phantom of the opera by Gaston Leroux

And although I don't post a lot of reviews, I'm still reading. Just over 2/3 in The Passage by Justin Cronin which I like a lot, but which also is quite a chunkster.

4. De oversteek by Justin Cronin
(Dutch translation of The passage)

This was a book that I wanted to read since I knew it existed, but I didn't get to it for quite a while. And I also didn't really understand why I wanted to read it, as it is dystopian and has vampires, two things I don't really like. But it kept pulling me, and I'm happy it did. Last weekend I read the final200 pages (of 760) in almost one sitting. I wanted to know how it ended (or at least this part, because it is part one of a trilogy that will be continued in 2012 and 2014).

To be honest, there were times when I almost gave up. The first part of the book is set in the nearby futere and it is conceivable. You see that all will go horribly wrong and you see it happening. And then we're a hundred years later, a group of people living in a colony, wondering if they are the only ones left. The beginning of this second part was too long and I did not understand what the next 500 pages would be about. Luckily the slow part only took 100 pages and in them this new world is became familier. And after that is gets rather exciting and unexpected things happen.

In addition there is also room for some happy romance, the importance of family plays a big role and the author use different writing styles. This results in a long journey described as a travel diary of one of the participants. A good solution, which rapidly describes a longer, rather boring, stretch of time in a short way with a personal touch and with sufficient detail.

And so writing style and storytelling convinces me a bit to a genre that I normally wouldn't pay any attention to. The next two parts of this trilogy, I will certainly read. And maybe I might try some more dystopian books...

5. De omweg naar Santiago by Cees Nooteboom
(translated as Roads to Santiago)

My first acquaintance with Cees Nooteboom is via this bookk. I already was curious about his work and then I got this book as a present. That was one-and-a-half year ago, just before my first trip to Spain. Now my third trip is planned and I finally read this book.

Unfortunately I don't know a lot about the history of Spain and that makes this book sometimes complicated, as I have to fill in some gaps. The same applies to the many architectural descriptions of small churches. A topic I'm not too interested in.

But that does not mean I didn't like this book! I loved the writing style of Nooteboom. But I also found out that you need time for it (which wasn't a problem at all). Tthe book is divided into about 25 separate stories, that can be read in one sitting and are not really connected, so I read the book over a couple of months. And I had the version of the book with pictures, so there is plenty to watch.

I can imagine that I will read this book again as I've been more in Spain and I when I have deepened my hirstorical knowledge. I definitely want to read more by Nooteboom. Although he makes a lot of detours it is very interesting. And I'm also curious for his novels.

6. De familie onderweg by Tommy Wieringa

This is a thin booklet with some travel stories. Most of them somehow contain death. Most things happening are suprising. The story I liked the best was about a man bringing cheese from the Netherlands to someone in Ethiopia. One woman in Amsterdam always says to people to bring cheese for him. He doesn't seem for it...

I love, love, love Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. I hope you do get to read more this year, they're highly entertaining and you'll find more character development if you go back and start reading in chronological order! :)

You finished De omweg naar Santiago! It is a big book, and, as you have seen Nooteboom's observations about Spain are truly profound. I think he was really deeply interested in Spain and Germany. In my opinion, his later travel books about other destinations, never reach the same depth.

I have read many of his novels, not the most recent ones, but they could never really charm me. The one that left the deepest impression on me is De ridder is gestorven, which touches on the Spanish experience. Anyway, many of his books are quite short, so you can try a few.

I am sure you will be able to read Knielen op een bed violen soon. It is very readable. I read De wilde getallen is a day.

@ Edwin: I'd like to read more of Nooteboom. I have his travelogue about the Caribean (De koning van Suriname) and his novels Rituelen and Philip en de anderen, so enough to explore.

7. The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy by Douglas Adams
This book was a re-read. I've read the first three books on the trilogy in five parts some years ago, but with to much time in between, so I forgot to many details. So now I want to finish all of them in a reasonable time span. Unfortunately, I liked this book better when I read it the first time. I did appreciate the nerdy humour better by then, being a nerdy technical student at that moment. But well, still curious how it all ends.

8. Palmwijn by Adriaan van Dis
One of this thin books, lying around for a while. Perfect for a lazy Sunday. And the author is presenting a program about Indonesia, starting last weekend. Good moment to read this book, although it is about Africa. Set on an isolated island belonging to an unmentioned country where north and south fight each other. Susan ended here after discovering the world and wants to help a hand. Because we, the outsiders, only observer...
The book is about 15 years old, but the story holds, looking at the current situation in the middle east and of course also Africa.

9. Stitches by David Small
This graphic novel has been around in the blogosphere quite a lot the last year. Graphic novels are a 'genre' (are they, as you can have a range of topics?) I want to explore more.
This book is pretty impressive. Although I wouldn't call the drawings partcularly beautiful, they tell the story dramatically.
David, abused and neglected at an important situation, has a difficult youth. Made clear very well, but not pittyful. A gripping story. And due to the lack of long texts, a fact read.

10. Sacred and profane by Faye Kellerman

It's been almost two years since I read The ritual bath, the first part of the series of thrillers by Faye Kellerman Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus. Time for part two in the series (of a total of about 20): Sacred and profane.

Peter carefully started a relationship with Rina. This does however mean that he should become Jewish, because Rina is an Orthodox Jew. Since Peter also has a Jewish background and is interested, he wants to go for it. Although he is rather difficult for him.

The story begins as Peter goes camping with the children of Rina and the children find two human skeletons in the woods. By dental comparisons is found out who they are. But what do they have in common? A difficult case for Peter.

Because the story is interspersed with Peters and Rinas ordinary life, the story is not too heavy and it shows that police officers are ordinary people. A series that continues to fascinate me, so there will still be several parts to follow.

11. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Why does it cost so much effort to start reading a classic? Most of the time I really like them! This one again. Although I knew the clou (try not to), I didn't know the explanation. And that was really interesting.

Who is the mysterious Mr. Hyde. Why does Dr. Jekyll sometimes act so weird? Why does his inheriteance go to Mr. Hyde? How do we live with our dark sides?
All questions to be answered.

This book is only thin, but a joy to read.

I've put the Santiago book on my wishlist - I'm interested in the Camino and different approaches to exploring it. Thanks for your reivew.

I don't think I've ever read Dr Jekyll - one of those books you tend to know the basic idea of without getting round to reading it. I really should one day!

Hi Genny,

Thanks for coming by! Nooteboom's book speaks about much more than the Camino and gives a nice view into Spain in the 80s. And yes, you should get to Dr. Jekyll! :)

12. Seeing red by Tanya Lloyd Kyi

Although this books are meant for children/teenagers, I like the books by Tanya Lloyd Kyi. This one is about blood. Not an enormous overload of information, but I still learn interesting details from it.

In this book the significance of blood in our body is discussed, even as the different meaning in different culturen, passage rites, eating and drinking blood, blood ties and personal information to be traced in your blood (and DNA). All told from the history, extended to the present.

Interesting and with some humour. A good read.

13. Heldere hemel by Tom Lanoye

This book is the present we got in the Dutch week of books. This time written by a Belgian.

This story is based on a real weird accident that happend in July 1989, where an unmanned Mig (Russian aircraft) enters the Western European air. No-one know why, but it's still the Cold War. And no one know where it will hit the ground.

This story tells about the NATO, but also about the people that by bad luck live where the plane falls down. A mixed story and very well written. That's what I learned from this read: I like the way Tom Lanoye writes.

I've neglected this little space of mine on the world wide web quite a bit over the last month. I just saw that I wrote my last entry here a four weeks ago! I've been quite busy and didn't read a lot either, but I've three reviews to add. As it's a long weekend (Queens Day tomorrow), I also hope to finish some books.

14. The future according to me by Rob Kutner
This one is a Kindle Single that I read on my smartphone. This book was ideal for this kind of reading, as it consists of about 30 small pieces. That all talk about a possibility of how the future would look like. Most of them I thought were a little pale, biut some were quite okay. So there was one about global cooling, one about an all destroying virus, one about women and men being able to exchange sexual characteristics and one about finding back everything you loose in a black hole. An okay read, but that's it.

15. Dotter of her father's eyes by Mary Talbot
Somehow I wanted to read this book since the moment I heard about it, so it was an easy decision when I found it on Netgalley. To be honest, I don't really know wanted to read it. Most likely I was triggered by graphic novel memories like Stitches and Persepolis.
I started to doubt about things book when I found out that it was about the daughter of James Joyce. I've read Dubliners, but wasn't really convinced about it. For the rest I don't know much about Joyce and when I was in Dublin a few years ago, I didn't even visit the James Joyce museum. Still I enjoyed this read. The father of the author is researching Joyce and using a lot of his sentences at home as well. Next to this he works hard and the relation with his daughter isn't very easy. For Joyce holds the same.
The story is drwan beautifully and while different ways of colouring are used, different story lines can be distinguished easily: present time, the past of the author or the live of Joyce's daughter. Recommended for everybody who is slightly interested in Joyce.

16. De aardbeibeet by Barbara Voors
(originally Swedish, read in Dutch, English translation: unknown to me)

Although I have Zusje van me waiting on my shelves for some time, I first read De aardbeibeet by Barbara Voors. This only because I borrowed it while a friend set to me I should definitely read it. In the first chapters I doubted this a little, as the circumstances and events were pretty vague. What has happened between Molly and her husband that Molly puts information about his sexual affairs in the booklet of the concert where he is a conductor and she plays cello?

So the beginning is slightly vague. Who are the people that talk about Molly. Does she really exist? But slowly it becomes clear the events are not accidental. Everything that happens to Molly is based on the Requim of Mozart. The reader starts to worry if Molly will survive...

I didn't like the character of Molly. Having affairs herself, but blame her husband when she found out he has a mistress as well. And she isn't too nice to her childern, especially to her son. Neither is she to her colleagues of even her friends. But still I'm worried about Molly the whole time.

I had to get through the beginning, but after that it was definitely worth it. An intrigueing book, that learned me something about Mozart as well. And it let's you think about your own behaviour as well.

17. Afrika by Herman Huppen
via Netgalley

This book is a comic. Comic e-books work terrible on my e-reader (too small), but on my computer it's fine. Unfortunately, the story didn't really impress me.

A journalist travels to Africa to find out about a wild park. There she meets the surly guard, who has little to tell, but a lot of love for the animals in the park. He is also constantly looking for poachers. Until they are a little too curius and have to flee.

In between we see teat political scenes in, I think, a neighboring country. The relationship of the housekeeper of the guard also is a little fuzzy. Some loose ends, where nothing happens to. Too bad, because there are ingredients enough for a good story, but maybe it are too many clichés.

18. The alphabet of Vietnam by Jonathan Chamberlain
via Early Reviewers

I don't know exactly why I requested this book. I don't feel a lot about Asia and even less about the war that was in Vietnam. Most likely I've seen more than enough movies about it when I was younger.

Still I was curious for this book. It is about Jacks brother Joe. Joe died and although it looked like an accident, it is not the case as Jack receives a package with Joes dairies. Based on what he read he leaves to find the cabin where Joe stayed the last couple of years, together with Wash. Hes has to save a pregnant woman there. Jack also visits Vietnam, hoping to find and feel the spot where Joe suffered during the war.
All the story lines are bunched together and it took me some time to understand which story I was reading about. But thas was only at the beginning of the book.

The events in the book and its language are quite coarse. Not everyone will appreciate this. On the other hand, it makes clear how devastating that war can be for the soldiers who must fight it.

Eventually I found it an impressive story, although sometimes I just could bear a few pages. The variation in storyline however makes that there's something funny in there as well at times.
This book is really not for everyone but I gave me some insights in world where I might prefer not to know that also exists.

19. Tampasta en nazi goreng by Sander Ruijsbroek

This book focuses on annoying (and stupid) errors in official document. Unfortunately this happens quite a lot (at least in Dutch, but I guess in English as well). Although I see these errors pretty often and although I don't understand that those texts are send out, I found this book a bit presumptuous.

Perhaps this is because it is unclear to me who the target audience is. When it's for the people that make those errors, I don't think they will read this, as I don't think they are interested. If it's for people that are annoyed by those errors, all the included tips are unnecessary.

Although I have found no errors in the written Dutch, I found the writing style very disappointing. Far too many repetitions, more than half could have been skipped. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the book is published through TenPages, an initiative to find sponsors for your book. This book could have used an editor. But it's encouraging to see that there are enough people around that are interested in these writing errors and want to get rid of it.

30. The man in the empty boat by Mark Salzman
(via Netgalley)

This book I chose quite arbitrarily from Netgalley. Probably I was mainly triggered by the cover. This kind of drawings attract me. Therefore I had no idea where The man in the empty boat of Mark Salzman was going on when I started to read it.

It is a biography about a period in the life of the author where he has an writers block and his sister falls seriously ill. Very openly he tells about the anxiety he feels all the time. As his father used to have this as well, he knows it runs in the family. For Mark it´s so bad, that he gets anxiety attacks.

Although it is a tragic story, it is not difficult to read. And it is written in such a way that you just want to read on and find out what happens next. Touched by this style of writing I am looking fiction works by this author.

Hi Boekenwijs, so good to see a new post on your thread. I notice you have been reading quite a lot and you managed to squeeze in a few Dutch books. Congratulations :-)
And wow, 5 stars for Juni by Gerbrand Bakker and 4.5 stars for De heren van de thee by Hella Haasse! That good?

Hi Monica,

Thanks for you reaction! I'm terribly behind with adding reviews here and keeping up reading thread and commenting. Unfortunately I got 'overworked', which makes me tired easily and makes it difficult processing lots of information. But it's getting better now, so I will start updating reviews more often hopefully :)

I consider myself a fan of Gerband Bakker and I enjoyed Juni a lot. Mostly because of the atmosphere, which somehow feels a little familiar. And I was possitively suprised by Hella Haasse, as I always ignored her books as I thought I wouldn't like them.