My mum and dad decided when I was 6 years old, to start a bookshop. A great place to be, and I certainly have great memories of the place. Unfortunately they had to close the shop down 10 years ago.
The evidence of being 'book lovers' is easily to be found, if you enter the homes of my family.
My mum & dad have books everywhere around the house, and it's a big selection.
My sister is a manager of a bookshop, so imagine how her house will look like....
And my brother is in the book business as well.
Did I mention my house?
The good thing about all of this for me is, that when I need some advice about what I need to read next, I have plenty of people to ask. The fun thing about visiting family members is also that a lot of times we leave each others houses with a pile of books we want to borrow.
A lot of times it can even go like this:
"If you read it, then give it to your brother...ohh and after that your dad wants to read it too, and after that it will probably find it's way back again to me..."
Our family almost looks like a library sometimes!
Then... if my family members don't come up with good ideas... I can always ask my friends!
Many discussions took place in front of our bookshelves, recommending books, talk about books & be philosophical !
So you can probably guess now as well... I started up my own library exchange with friends (that we also do that with dvds...is another story)
At new years some friends stayed over and of course we ended up in front of the bookshelves again... they left with some books... (you must have seen this one coming), and i got some great advice.
We had the "If you liked this book, then you must read that one..." conversation, and she wrote down the books and writer for me. Ten minutes later she calls me and says... "You already have part three on your shelves!!" Well, things like this can happen in this household. I have so many books that I can't always recall what I already have. The strange thing however was, that the subscription she gave to me about the book wasn't familiar. Did I really have this book?? Didn't I read it yet??
This mystery will be solved very quickly...
When my boyfriend moved in, so did his books... So the mysterious book she was talking about belonged to my dear boyfriend.
When we looked closer to it, we found out that I already knew about the first part of the book. Because I have seen the film. I wasn't so keen on the movie, it was OK... but not extraordinary. But my friend still advised me to read it. Me, always in for new book ideas, decided to try this one. My boyfriend being my boyfriend...got the books for me as a surprise. (We love going to the Waterstones!) So i started reading it.
The first book already turned out to be SO much better then the film. And the second part totally got me sucked in... I'm so curious about the third book!
You all probably know about the first book.... the film they made about it in 2007 is "The golden compass" with Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig and Dakota Blue Richards & Ian McKellen as an amazing bear.
The first book is originally called "The northern light" and is the first book of the "His dark materials" series by Phillip Pullman.
The second book is called "The subtle knife"
And the last book is called "The amber spyglass"
I'm intrigued and almost at the end of part two... can't wait to start reading part three...but I'm also already sad about the fact that I'll finish the books... because that will feel like saying goodbye to a good friend!!
Oh, I always wanted to own a book store! My family and I used to exchange books all the time, too. I would usually buy books for my dad for Christmas, knowing that it was like a gift for myself, too, since I'd probably end up reading them eventually. Fortunately, I've found some good used book stores here in Utrecht with a decent selection of English-language books.
ReplyDelete@oranjeflamingo: I know... isn't it great? I was sad they had to close it down. Luckily I can still buy books at the shops of my sister and brother. (With discount!! :D)
ReplyDeleteIt's great having family and friends you can borrow books from and talk about the books you've read.
Utrecht has some great bookshops I know... isn't there a "Slegte" as well?
@oranjeflamingo: I'm the same. I already have my eye on the book "The lovely bones" I bought her for Christmas.
ReplyDelete@Ladybird: how are you coming along with "The lovely bones" dear?... Why am I asking? Oh... No reason :p
@Stu: I think you'll have to wait a bit longer dear :P First I'll have to finish "His dark materials"
ReplyDelete....first
ReplyDeleteOh my, don't I know this feeling. I have wanted to own a bookstore for many a long year. My ideal was to have a bookshop and cafe in one. I still like the sound of that, but it conflicts too much with wanting to travel on the boat too...so I content myself with writing books instead ;-)
ReplyDelete@ Ladybird - At the speed you are reading I'm not worried :p
ReplyDelete@Vally: What about a bookstore-boat-cafe??
ReplyDeleteIt's new, it's exciting...and you can still travel!
I would love to have my very own bookstore. But maybe I'll just settle for hanging out at the library every chance I get. :)
ReplyDelete@Wendi: That already sounds great! But yes, owning a bookstore is magical :D
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine was telling me about those books (the Golden Compass books) the other day. She really loved them.
ReplyDeleteI'm a book fiend as well. I have an entire bag of books I've borrowed from friends that I'm working through now. I also download a lot of books and use my phone as an e-reader. I love anything by Mike Gayle, my favorite series is the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich, and I am always down for something slightly supernatural. Right now I'm reading Industrial Magic by Kelley Armstrong. I also really like Jodi Picoult, Dean Koontz and Patricia Cornwell.
@Stu - Lovely Bones was a great book but the movie didn't compare. It was ok but really dragged on and didn't have the grip that the book did.
@Breigh I might have to check those books/authors out you just described. thanks for the info :D
ReplyDelete