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BOOKRINGS at bottom of page; click here to get there fast


WISHLIST (Thanks, Cliff!)



A promiscuous reader (to quote Fran Leibowitz), I used to (BBC) buy only reference books, or books that were special to me. Since joining BookCrossing, I frequent second-hand book sales and thrift shops to buy books specifically to release, and have been able to let go of some of my personal collection too.

Here's a quote from one of my favorite writers, Henry Miller, from "The Books in My Life": He would have loved BookCrossing. As you can see from my release total, I still have a way to go to become a better woman by his definition.

"One of the first things I associate with the reading of books is the struggle I waged to obtain them. Not to own them, mind you, but to lay hands on them... What makes a book live? A book lives through the passionate recommendation of one reader to another. Nothing can throttle this basic impulse in the human being. Despite the views of cynics and misanthropes, it is my belief that men will always strive to share their deepest experiences. Books are one of the few things men cherish deeply. And the better the man the more easily will he part with his most cherished possessions. A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition. Like money, books must be kept in constant circulation. Lend and borrow to the maximum--of both books and money! But especially books, for books represent infinitely more than money. A book is not only a friend, it makes friends for you. When you have possessed a book with mind and spirit, you are enriched. But when you pass it on you are enriched threefold."

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I can't decide whether Eva Cassidy's version of "Imagine" is my favorite or John Lennon's. But if SarahAnn Dippity is the goddess of BookCrossing, maybe Lennon's song could be the anthem?


Imagine there's no heaven
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger

A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one


I saw this quote on Sparky-Redhead's bookshelf, and just had to swipe it: "To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded!" - Ralph Waldo Emerson




PEACE THROUGH BOOKS!

COMMIT RANDOM ACTS OF LITERACY. READ AND RELEASE.
(You'll release everything someday anyway.)

LIVE TO SHARE - SHARE TO LIVE.
GENEROSITY IS CONTAGIOUS. GENEROSITY IS ADDICTIVE.

NO ONE HAS EVER BECOME POOR BY GIVING. (Anne Frank)

WHEN YOU HAVE POSSESSED A BOOK WITH MIND AND SPIRIT, YOU ARE ENRICHED. BUT WHEN YOU PASS IT ON YOU ARE ENRICHED THREEFOLD. (Henry Miller)


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I AM, THEREFORE I READ. (I READ, THEREFORE I AM?)

If I had no other book than only the book which I am myself so I have books enough. (Jacob Boehme)

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. (Joseph Addison)

People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading (Logan Pearsall Smith)

Read in order to live (Gustave Flaubert)

He who reads learns not only how to live, but also how to die. (Fernando Baralba -- who?)

Reading makes a man think, thinking makes a man write and writing makes a man wiser and happier. (Fernando Baralba)

Reading is sometimes an ingenious device for avoiding thought (Sir Arthur Helps)

I would sooner read a timetable or a catalog than nothing at all. (W. Somerset Maugham)

Wear the old coat and buy the new book. (Austin Phelps)

The only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet got ourselves. (E.M. Forster)

A man is known by the company his mind keeps. (Thomas Baily Aldrich)

The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of past centuries. (Descartes)

I have never known any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve. (Montesquieu)

How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book. (Henry David Thoreau)

'Tis the good reader that makes the good book. . . in every book he finds passages which seem confidence or asides hidden from all else and unmistakably meant for his ear. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Let us read and let us dance - two amusements that will never do any harm to the world. (Voltaire)

Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music. (Angela Monet)

Een Hollandse roman is als een lusteloze coïtus.
(Annie M.G. Schmidt, Prisma van de citaten, blz. 252)



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WEBSITES WORTH A VISIT (some of friends and relatives--but still worth a visit)
Amazing and perhaps Disturbing World Clock
Incredible and DEFINITELY Disturbing Photographs
Avner Moriah - Paintings of Israel, etc.
Trash Man Walking
Incredibly Beautiful Fractals
The Cloud Appreciation Society
Yiddish with Dick and Jane
Handmade Paper Art
Katherine Leslie Handmade Soaps





BOOKCROSSING-RELATED WEBSITES:

BookCrossing information and labels in Dutch/Nederlands:
BOOKCROSSING NL


Eurobc for BookCrossing labels, bookmarks, postcards, flyers, info, etc., in English (Worldwide section), Dutch, German, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian.


TexasWren's site for answers to all your BookCrossing questions, RABCK letters, recipes, etc.












"Evolution" (anthony mathieu ©)




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CURRENTLY READING:

"Path of Enlightment," Thich Nhat


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TO BE READ

"Did Adam and Eve Have Navels?: Debunking Pseudoscience," Martin Gardner
"Somebodies and Nobodies," Robert W. Fuller
"Maiden Voyages," edited by Mary Morris
"Dutch in 3 Months," Jane Fenoulhet
"Anders denken; nieuwe kansen," Jeff Gaspersz
"Verbal Abuse," Patricia Evans
"The Mother Book," Liz Smith
"Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life," Natalie Goldberg
"Loving What Is," Byron Katie
"Potatoes Not Prozac," Kathleen DesMaisons
"Motherless Daughters," Hope Edelman


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READ IN 2005:
"A Gesture Life,"
"A Short History of Everything," Bill Bryson
"The Shadow of the Wind,"
"In the Presence of the Enemy," Elizabeth George
"Mother Tongue," Bill Bryson
"Planet of the Dreamers," John D. MacDonald
"A Flash of Green," John D. MacDonald
"The Invention of Solitude," Paul Auster (again)
"Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas"
"Mosquito Coast," Paul Theroux
"And You Shall Know Our Velocity," Dave Eggers
"The Best of Roald Dahl," Roald Dahl
"Youth," Coetzee
"The Five Gates of Hell," Rupert Thomson
"The Secret of the Yamas: A Spiritual Guide to Yoga," John McAfee
"My Secret History," Paul Theroux
"Night Oracle, Paul Auster
"Moon Music," Faye Kellerman (which I nominate for the-worst-book-of-the-year award)
"The Babel Effect," Daniel Hecht
"Neither Here Nor There," Bill Bryson
"The Invention of Solitude," Paul Auster
"The Liar," Stephen Fry
"Dead Famous," Ben Elton
"The Cat Who Came for Christmas," Cleveland Amory
"Potter's Field: A Brother Cadfael mystery," Ellis Peters
"Waiting for the World to End," Nicole Hunter
"In the Beauty of the Lilies," John Updike
"Songlines," Bruce Chatwin
"Bedrock," Lisa Alther


READ IN 2004:

"Wicked Women," Fay Weldon
"Four Letters of Love," Niall Williams
"Between the Waters: A Journey by Sea," Keith Paterson
"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," Mark Haddon
"The Way Through the Woods," Colin Dexter
"Monster," Jonathan Kellerman
"Sexing the Cherry," Jeanette Winterson
"Darcy's Utopia," Fay Weldon
"The Blood Doctor," Barbara Vine
"Playing for the Ashes," Elizabeth George
"Everything is Illuminated," Jonathan Safran Foer
"The Gifts of Eykis," Wayne Dyer
"Life of Pi," Yann Martel
"Wishes," Jude Devereau
"When Venus Fell," Deborah Smith
"Palm Sunday," Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
"That Quail Robert," Margaret Stanger
"River-Horse," William Least Heat-Moon
"Dealing with the Dutch," Jacob Vossestein
"Black Notice," Patricia Cornwell
"Silk," Alessandro Baricco
"Amy and Isabelle," Elizabeth Strout
"The Art of Living: As taught by S.N. Goenka," William Hart (bookring)
"The Island at the Center of the World," Russell Shorto (bookring)
"Eyeshot,"
"The Shipping News," E. Annie Proulx
"Eats, Shoots & Leaves," Lynn Truss (bookring)
"Vermeer: The Complete Paintings," Norbert Schneider (bookring)
"Oprah!" Robert Waldron
"Oprah: Up Close and Down Home," Nellie Bly
"Kinflicks," Lisa Alther
"A Treasury of Cat Tales & Trifles," a National Trust book (bookring)
"The Corrections," Jonathan Franzen
"If Morning Ever Comes," Anne Tyler
"Ladder of Years," Anne Tyler
"The Perfect Mother," Sherry Ashworth
"Southern Cross," Patricia Cornwell
"Ishmael," Daniel Quinn
"Unadulterated Cat," Terry Pratchett
"Track of the Cat," Nevada Barr
"Blue Highways," William Least Heat Moon
"Drowning Ruth," Christina Schwartz






BOOKRINGS I'VE STARTED
PM me if you wish to join any of them. You must be willing to ship internationally in most cases.




Letters to Alice: On First Reading Jane Austen, Faye Weldon (Re-opened)


November 4, 2004: The book is back home after its first world tour (minus the video but plus several postcards). Due to popular demand, the book will be setting out on a new journey. (You must be willing to mail internationally.)

Round II: (so far, and not necessarily in final order. I reserve the right to move names around for the sake of efficiency.)
(Still open)

frisiacantat, NL
elefteria, NL
affinityD, NL
eleonoor, NL
mabelleAmie, NL
loribee, UK
celestewa, Australia (now reading)
juliebarreto, Hawaii
queensissi, Portugal
bookhogger, Nova Scotia
ostarcio, US



Here's where the book travelled on its first trip:

Chocolate-lover, The Netherlands
Xana, Portugal
Starry-Starry, Wales
nikel27, Germany
jennyspkpgs, Sweden
LynneC, England
rose21, RI, US
frs44, RI, US
Nepenthe40, US
LAbklvr, US
Secretariat, US
blacksheeps99, Austria



Tulip Fever, Deborah Moggach

nrrdgrrl, NL
youhouka, Germany
trygvasson, Germany
therubycanary, Maine, US
spaceystacey, NJ, US
juliebarreto, HI, US
ottawabill, Canada now reading

"Girl with a Pearl Earring," Tracy Chevalier
(Still open)
owlet, NL
maupi, NL
ecritures,NL
mirandat, NL
rasas-gramatas, Latvia
gnoe, NL
powerhouse, NL
reneejt, NL
samulli, Germany
hengameh, Iran
vampgirl, Spain
nwadel, ID, US
digitaltempest, AL, US
amber-h, GA, US now reading
natrona, VA US (end)

"Vermeer: The Complete Paintings," Norbert Schneider
(Still open)
Moslog, NL now reading
Maupi, NL
ecritures,NL
YowlYY, UK
hengameh, Iran
digitaltempest, AL, US
natrona, VA, US (end)


"The Surgeon of Crowthorne," Simon Winchester
(Still open)
plinius NL
dutch-flybaby NL
MaaikeB NL
[From this point on, any new readers must be willing to mail internationally.]
yvonnep NL
Marieke NL
Zipenzoep NL still searching her house for it . . .












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