Dare to be different and learn to be lonely

This was my sort of comment-to-be-added-sticky-post for 2024.
Now it's just a list of the books I read this year.
You can find my current reading-list on top of my LJ and DW:)



( What I read in 2024 )

Happy Reading! ~ J.
What I read in 2023 [DW] / 2022 [DW] / 2021 [DW] / 2020 / 2019 / 2018 / 2017 / 2016 / 2015 / 2014 / 2013 / 2012 / 2011 / 2010 / 2009 / 2008
My old archive of alphabetized book reviews / Readingcommunity thej2bee LJ

This was my sort of comment-to-be-added-sticky-post for 2022.
Now it's just a list of the books I read this year.
You can find my current reading-list on top of my LJ and DW:)



( What I read in 2022 )

Happy Reading! ~ J.
What I read in 2021 [DW] / 2020 / 2019 / 2018 / 2017 / 2016 / 2015 / 2014 / 2013 / 2012 / 2011 / 2010 / 2009 / 2008
My old archive of alphabetized book reviews / Readingcommunity thej2bee

This was my sort of comment-to-be-added-sticky-post for 2021.
Now it's just a list of the books I read this year.
You can find my current reading-list on top of my DW:)



( What I read in 2021 )

Happy Reading! ~ J.
What I read in 2020 / 2019 / 2018 / 2017 / 2016 / 2015 / 2014 / 2013 / 2012 / 2011 / 2010 / 2009 / 2008
My old archive of alphabetized book reviews / Readingcommunity thej2bee

If you follow me on Twitter you may already know that from Oct. 1st I will have a permanent position on the geodata project I love so much! The past few weeks were particularly stressful because I was about to reach the maximum on the temporary contract I've been working on for the past 5,5 years, pfff. The option of steady jobs on the project came right on time! In order to round up my current contract properly, I had some collected vacation time left to burn, so I took last week off for another short trip to a Dutch area I hadn't been before: the Achterhoek! ("the back corner";)

Booked myself two nights in the so-called 'waterfun' room of a fancy hotel in Doetinchem, which is about 90 minutes away by train from Z. To end up right on the front steps of the hotel, the public transport app recommended a route by train and bus, so that's how I chose to travel. Here's my picspam of Day 1!

( Doetinchem, Day 1 )

...to be continued...

Off to mod claims on the SPN_ReverseBang! *runs*

J.

This was my sort of comment-to-be-added-sticky-post for 2020.
Now it's just a list of the books I read this year.
You can find my current reading-list on top of my LJ:)

( What I'm reading in 2020 )

Happy Reading! ~ J.
What I read in 2019 / 2018 / 2017 / 2016 / 2015 / 2014 / 2013 / 2012 / 2011 / 2010 / 2009 / 2008
My old archive of alphabetized book reviews / Readingcommunity thej2bee

I had an extralong weekend because May 5th is a national holiday and I had saved up loads of overtime training new people in the past few weeks, so I took Monday the 4th off as well. I had planned to do another Japan picspam, but then I spent all Sunday on the couch with a book and loved that so much that I did that again today.
Yesterday I caught up online, cleaned out my Gmail box and did another landofart Challenge. So once again I didn't get around to selecting photos from the final few days in Japan, but you can see a little travel sneak peek in my previous LoA post when I made photocollages of buildings, which also includes pics of London and Dallas, from when I did that roadtrip in the USA in 2015!

Below are my latest Land of Art designs for Round 2 of Hide & Seek, which is a long running challenge throughout Phase 14, where you make graphics based on given themes. You create art to vote for that theme to be included in the next round. The themes I voted for are: Looking Up / No Eyes / Shapes / Sharp & Blurry / Vintage / Yellow /
See if you can see which is which;)

Skam Sigtag, featuring Isak Valtersen (Tarjei Sandvik Moe)


( Five Tumblr Graphics )

Hide & Seek Round 1

J.

P.S. I reread Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, and followed up with The Testaments. Still don't feel the need to watch the TV series, no need to convince me. These are the kind of books I love for what they are:) <3 Last time I spent all day reading a book from beginning to end in a day was when the final Harry Potter book came out. I missed being able to do that:) Book recommendations are always welcome!

If you follow me on Instagram you've already saw a sneak peek of it: I bought a bath bucket! I've always dreamed about having a bath tub, but alas, I don't have the space. That's why I look forward to my trips to London, where I have been visiting the same hotel for years, because it's the only one where even single rooms have a bath tub:)
When I was traveling through Japan last year, I discovered their high baths where you sit up in. Because they are high, your body still gets to be completely under water, it was very nice and even better for reading in the tub than a regular laying down bath.
So when I got back home, I figured I'd do a bit of browsing for smaller, high baths and this bath bucket popped up! I wasn't sure if I would fit or was bendy enough, even though I'm a lot leaner now, but it was very affordable, so I thought I should at least give it a chance. I'm so thrilled that I did, because it is AWESOME! I had a little bath party all by myself, read a book in between splashing about and it was great. Here are some (decent;) pics of my new happy place.

( Bath time! )
If you love baths but only have shower space, I recommend giving this bucket a go. I paid 65 euros and it was well worth it (I'm also pretty sure you can find it cheaper if you shop around, I just didn't want to wait;)


SURGERY PHOTO WARNING
Last wednesday I had a bit of surgery on my elbow; I've been walking around with a little bump there for quite some time. Even though it was tiny, it did randomly (once or twice a week) swell up and get extremely painful, but when I went to my GP about 3 years ago, she kind of dismissed it and I just tried to live with it.
Until the end of last year when the pain caused a tingling sensation in my hand and I had enough of dealing with it. I was determined to get the thing taken out and went to the GP's office again, this time I asked for my GP's replacement and she set things in motion. I was sent to the hospital clinic for an ultrasound and then got an appointment for surgery. (Well, that turned out to be another check up first, where an old surgeon just looked at my arm to determine what kind of surgery was needed and then it was another couple of weeks before I could make another appointment for the actual cutting, *sighs*).

I was happily excited for it and had initially planned to just cycle to the hospital, but was advised to bring someone with me just in case, so my mom offered to drive me.
She was then also allowed to come with me into surgery (I asked, so she didn't have to hang around in the waiting room) and she was clever enough to ask if she could take pictures of the whole process. I was very happy she did because I was immensely curious about the procedure, but couldn't see or feel a thing when I was lying down.

I already shared a couple of the cleaner pictures on my Instagram, go there if you prefer those. Behind the cut I will include a slightly bloodier photo, you have been warned!
( Elbow surgery! )

It's been an exciting couple of weeks:)

J.

Trying to get back on track with the reading updates. This is a copy of my check-in on thestoryinside.

Who was your buddy this month? welshgirl15

What books were chosen for you?
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen & Seth Grahm Smith (Thriller & original Female Author)
Circe by Madeline Miller (Female Author)
The Anatomy of Murder by The Detection Club (Thriller* & Female Author as part of group)

Which books did you read and would you recommend them?
I made an effort to read all of them, to various succes;)
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was a disappointment; I thought it would be a lovely twist on the original Pride and Prejudice, but it was much less exciting than the story it used as an inspiration. The dialogue is not as sparkling and often feels out of character. The zombies are mostly only talked about and we don't really get to see them in action. The first fight scene is over just like that. I was very bored and eventually decided to not torture myself any longer. I'm putting the original on my next reading list in stead!

Circe is a wonderful retelling of the life of immortal goddess Circe, daughter of god of the sun Helios and the nymph Perse (daughter of Oceanus). It reminded me of Margaret Atwood's Penelopiad, in that the story is told from the point of view of a woman who before was usually portrayed based on the men her life was influenced by. When the gods discover Circe can do magic, she is banned to an island. That doesn't stop her from leading an inspiring life. Definitely recommended if you were fascinated by Stephen Fry's Mythos, or liked the aforementioned Penelopiad, both good books to prepare you for the adventures of Circe.

*I'm still in the middle of The Anatomy of Murder, which turned out to be not a thriller, but a collection of reports on courtcases by a group of authors who were intrigued by real murders in Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. I wasn't aware because this was a book I bought based on the cool cover and as per usual I did not read the backflap but just dove in. So far the stories are well researched; the authors make use of witness reports as well as correspondence between police detectives. The Detection Club was established in 1930 and this book was first published in 1936. Most of the murders are not well known (anymore) but indeed interesting, varying from gunshotwounds to poisening. Having been an avid viewer of CSI (the original Las Vegas version;) I was surprised by the amount of evidence that was collected even back in the nineteenth century. Recommended for lovers of detectives and law & order proceedings!

Outside your chosen books, what books did you read this month, and would you recommend them?
Didn't read any other books because of a the SPN_J2_BigBang event, where I read two long fics about magic and mermaids respectively. These will be published sometime in the Summer with artwork by me. (This is why I'm not a bookbuddy in June and July:)

This year I plan to post bookreviews again. I joined reading community thestoryinside and for this first bookpost I used their comment template as a guidance for my summaries and reviews. Special thanks to matchboximpala, my bookbuddy for this month, who went through my bookpile to pick three books that were either written by a male author and/or part of the fantasy genre (read more about genre categories here.

These books were chosen for January:
Less by Andrew Sean Greer, a novel about an American male author who's about to turn fifty. When he gets a wedding invitation from his ex-boyfriend of nine years, he avoids having to go by accepting all the requests in his mailbox for readings at literary events around the world. Traveling confronts him with memories of his life.

Spinder by Simon van der Geest, a Dutch childrens' book about a boy who's telling the story of the fight he is in with his older brother over their secret basement. Spinder is keeping his insect collection down there, his brother wants to use is for his drumming. Ever since their eldest brother died, their mother has been escaping into work and she's hardly ever home. The fight between the boys escalates into full on terrorisation.

I'm still reading A Field Guide to Fantastical Beasts by Olento Salaperäinen with illustrations by Andrew Pinder. This book is unrelated to the famous 'Fantastic Beasts' universe by J.K. Rowling, but rather an independent catalogue of all sorts of supernatural creatures, from fairies to goblins and beyond, exploring the origin of all those beasts. It references to original ancient fairytales, but also current literature, such as Harry Potter.

( Spoiler free reviews & recommendations )

J.

Okay, it's been a bit of a week month, but I'm slowly crawling to where I want to be and I will make time to post more often. Heh, I tweeted a shout out to people who still take the time to leave comments on artwork, and it got 4 times more 'likes' than my most recent artpost got comments. That's ironic, right? Anyway, in case you missed it (not being subtle here, am I) I made art for the Quicky_Bang MatchMaker Challenge: it's J2 in Together, or Not At All [DW] Rated PG for Zombies!

I don't know if I should keep promoting my LJ posts and communities on Twitter or Discord, does anyone have any thoughts on that? Do you hang on other platforms than LiveJournal or Dreamwidth? Do you mix and match your posts? I crosspost on LJ and DW, but don't really like the interface of Tumblr and Pillowfort. I do spend a lot of time on Twitter, even though I hate it for talking about fannish things, it's just too out in the open and its fleeting character makes it impossible to archive cool conversations. Sadly it does seem the most alive place in fandom these days.

I finished the first book my bookbuddy matchboximpala picked for thestoryinside and started in my second book yesterday. That's a children's book in Dutch, so I'm already halfway (it's very tense and I worry about the maincharacter like whoa). Here's my readinglist for January, reviews will follow.

Next up: a post about podcasts!