mei 30, 2010
Yesterday Jay and i went to the “Fries Straatfestival” in Leeuwarden. I brought 6 bookcrossing books with me for release.
The first one i released almost immediately when we got off the bus at the “vrouwenpoortsbrug“. There’s some steps to the water and Jay pointed those out to me. When i saw them i grabbed the first book and left them at the bottom of the stairs. The second one i released somewhere on the “Oldehoofsterkerkhof“. The third book we left at one of the entrances to the “Prinsentuin“. The fourth one i left in a planter, right on the edge of a restaurants terrace.
The fifth bookrelease was a little more daring, but not too much. Jay and i done this before. We were sitting in a tearoom with my dad and stepmom, who we found in this huge crowd. When we prepared to leav i slipped Jay the fifth book. He left it on his chair, but we weren’t even ten meters away from the tearoom when one of the girls who work there came running after Jay and handed him the book. “Sir, you forgot your book.” Jay couldn’t do anything but give it back to me. My stepmom saw it happen and she and i laughed out loud. My dad was pretty confused as he hadn’t seen us leaving the book. After i told him what happened he thought it was pretty funny.
I looked around as we walked up to the “Oldehoofsterkerkhof” again. That’s when i saw a bike with a child seat on the back. Hoping the lady who owns the bike has children a bit bigger too i left the book in the childs seat. After that i had only 1 book left and it burned in my hands to release it somwhere really good. I had thought about slipping it into a childs hands, but i have no idea how big a child is when it can read this particular book. So i ditched that idea pretty quick.
We were walking through i huge crowd when i noticed a mom with a stroller. She turned her back to the stroller and was talking to a woman, without paying any attention to her child, who looked pretty bored. I then got another great idea (at least, i think it was a great idea). I bent down towards the kiddo and slipped the book under his/her legs. The kid looked at me for a sec and then looked away.
I would have loved to see the mothers face when she discovered the book under the kid. She must have been pretty confused. Haven’t had a journal entry for the book yet, but i really hope i’ll get one.
maart 10, 2010
Today was my interview with the local newspaper. The journalist was very interested in BookCrossing and loves to read, so we talked about books for a while before getting to the BookCrossing bit.
I told her about how i came into contact with BX (thanks Aaltsje) and told her about a few really nice catches i remembered from the top of my head. Including the book ‘found’ by our Queen and my moms book which traveled from Groningen to Bahrein. I alos told her a lot about OBCZ, releasing, themed releases and all kinds of stuff. I threw in a few numbers about how many books were registered, how many members there are worldwide, in the Netherlands and in Fryslân. She absolutely loved that i new that. We talked for more then an hour and she told me that she wanted to place the piece in next weeks paper. The internet edition of the piece will be up as soon as possible.
I’ll link to it when it’s up, but it’ll be in dutch, so you might not be able to read it. But then, there’s a picture of me included, so you can just admire me 
maart 1, 2010
A few weeks ago i wanted to bring the subject of BookCrossing to the attention of the local newspaper. I emailed them, told them a bit about BookCrossing and asked them if they wanted to do an article about it. Today i got an email back saying they wanted a full interview with pics and all.
I am so thrilled about it. I never expected them to even concider an interview about it. So next week i’ll be giving an interview and doing a wild release in front of the camera. I hope more people will get interested and register with BookCrossing. It would be fun to have a few more Crossers nearby.
februari 8, 2010
I’ve already dedicated a few blogposts to her. I so love her books. This weekend i’ve finished Life skills, that i read in 2 days. And (as almost all the books) it was awesome.
I love the characters, i love the way everything works out in the end.
So far i’ve read:
- Wedding season
- Going dutch
- Practically perfect
- Flora’s lot
- Restoring Grace
- Highland fling
- Thyme out
- Life skills
Paradise fields was the only one that i just couldn’t read. Nel’s boyfriend reminded me so much of my ex that i wanted to kill him (the guy in the book i mean). I just couldn’t bear the read through it. Even though i knew everything would turn out fine in the end, i just couldn’t do it. Maybe later.
I’m currently reading Love letters. And i’ve ordered Artistic license and Wild designs from the local library. Too bad i can’t get my hands on Living dangerously, The rose revived and Stately persuits. The aren’t in any library within 50 kilometers. And there’s no way of getting them from another library. I’ve looked if there was anyone in the Netherlands on BookCrossing that had them, but sadly not. All of those are located in the UK, USA or other countries around the globe. And while i know people might be willing to send them to me, the shipping cost will ba as high or even higher then buying them online from somewhere. So i guess my best option is to keep an eye on the sales at the online bookstores and ask people for bookcoupons on my birthday. That way i can afford to buy them.
I tried reading some of the books in dutch, but with the translation a lot of it’s magic has disapeared. It’s a shame, but that’s how it is. I might ask the library if there is a way of getting them from somewhere else, but i don’t have high hopes for it.
november 28, 2009
Three weeks ago i released 7 books on a special release challenge i set myself. The nursinghome where i work is building a whole new building (well, actually 3 new buildings) and we had a party for that. I thought it was a good idea to release a few books about islands and asked Aaltsje for a few books as i don’t have anything about islands myself. She was very excited about it and i picked up a few books. I randomly placed them all through the building and hoped for some Journal Entries.
I was a little disappointed when nobody reported any of the books. Although i saw one client with one of the books. I know she won’t report it as found, but it made me happy.
But today, i wasn’t even checking it, my eye fell on the sidebar with recently caught books. I was a bit astonished to see a familiar title there. The first book of my release challenge has been found. It traveled from Terschelling to Veenhuizen in two and a half weeks. I know this because the last time i saw the book was 4 days after i placed it on a windowseal. I wonder how it got from the island to the main land, but i guess i’ll never find out. I’m glad someone is going to enjoy this book.
november 8, 2009
Last week i finished Going Ducth, another book of Katie Fforde. And because i am totally in love with her writing i went to the library again the same day and got two other books. One of which is Flora’s Lot. I love watching auction programs and the back of the book looked promising. When i got home i started reading almost right away. At first the story didn’t grab me, but soon i found myself unable to stop reading and had to drag myself away from the book. By friday i was about 70 pages from the end when i had to go to work. I was totally unable to stop reading and i had to run to work. At work i couldn’t stop thinking about the story and i so hoped for a good ending.
After work i went back to my room as soon as i could. Went to bed and grabbed the book. I read the last 70 or so pages in about an hour. By the time Flora ended up in bed on a few safety pins i fell out of bed laughing. My coworker knocked on the wall, asking if was okay. I was almost unable to answer her, so hard was i laughing.
The book was an absolute delight to read. The end was predictable, but so funny and cute. It made me feel all warm inside.
So thanks Katie, for this great book. I hope my next read (Highland Fling) is as enjoyable, i suspect it is!
oktober 27, 2009
After reading a bit about Katie Fforde i decided to get one of her books from the library. Was quite hard, as it turns out not many of her books are in the library here. I decided to go for the english section and indeed a few more of her books were there. Went for “Going Dutch” in the first place.
I didn’t immediately got sucked in as i found it quite hard to keep track of the characters after reading a lot of books which are written in first person. But after i while i got used to it. Her writing is really good and her books are very entertaining. I had a few weird faces when i started to laugh out loud on the ferry. But her some passages were really making me LOL.
The end was a bit predicbut who cares? Not me. I went back to the library as soon as i could to get two more books. Hoping i can find all her books. I’m currently reading “Bidding for Love” and have packed “Highland Fling” too.
So if you want a nice breezy read, try Katie Fforde!
oktober 3, 2009
Today Jay and i went on an unexpected shoppingtrip with his parents. We went to Sneek, a town about 25 km from here. Not too far away, but since there is not a good bus from here to there, i never been there shopping before.
We bought a new winter jacket for Jay, as his old one is no good anymore. Then we looked in some other stores, before we ended up in a huge bookstore. It was amazing. I’ve been in many bookstores, but not one like this. Everywhere tables with book, low bookcases with lots and lots of books. Many cards, bags, pens, agendas, anything you can think of. I couldn’t believe my eyes.
Too bad i carried too many bags around, so i couldn’t look around properly. Jay was just as amazed as i was, he asked me if we could live there 
But seriously. I so want to go back to Sneek, just to go to that bookstore again. I simply can’t help myself, i’m a sucker for great stores.
oktober 1, 2009
Today i’ve updated the bcrelease bot again.
This update prevents the bot from ReTweeting a message already RT’ed by another person.
