Boekenfestijn - Festival of Books

Sometimes it is good to venture downtown, like I did yesterday (more in another post). Sitting on the metro, lifting my head from my book (Nausea by Jean-Paul Satre, yes, you need to lift you head from this text from time to time!) and saw this poster for a Boekenfestijn/Festival of Books out at Brussels Expo. Free entrance for the coming days. Since I never had time to visit these exhibitions before, and they are normally crowded during the weekend, I took the opportunity this time.

I parked the car and found my way to the right hall. There are 12 halls, and at this hall I had parked. Turned out not to be too long to walk. Coming into the area, you can hardly call it cosy. A raw, high ceilinged building made out of betong. They had marked off an area for the books and the hobby material which they also had. You were not allowed to take any photos (why??) so my description have to be enough. Being a multi language country you find at least books in Dutch, French and here also in English. I think that the festival is a Dutch one and it goes around to different cities in the Netherlands and the Flemish part of Belgium.

Fiction books

There were fiction and non-fiction. A lot of various areas for non-fiction like, history, art, cooking, gardening, multi-media and more, children's books and fiction. It was really cheap so you can imagine that I quickly grabbed a few books. Since I bought a few books recently I did not intend to buy so many, but what can I say. You see one here and one there and ops...the basket gets filled up!

Once ready with the books I went over to the hobby material and found some nice things for my scrap booking (I bought two books on the matter to improve my skill which is not very good).

Another thing that I am really crazy about are note pads! Different kind, different sizes, preferably with a nice cover or a nice idea to use it for. I could buy note pads every day. I know, it's crazy. Already have a few lying around at home, filled in only partly. Disciplin, is what is needed.

Note pads for week plans and a smaller one to
remind you what to do!

Since I am writing a lot of letters these days (haha) I thought it would be nice to have some nice letter heads!

Nice eh?

While we are at it, here a picture of the bits and peaces I bought for my scrap booking exercises. 

And Christmas coming up...they had some very nice Christmas cards, so I bought 7 packages x 10 cards (99 cents (€) a box, very cheap). There is no way my husband can say that I am not planning ahead this time!

Finally, we are coming to the overall important things; THE BOOKS. First the fiction. I am quite pleased with them all. While looking around, I was thinking that I don't know any of these books (although there were also a lot of classics, but still for the newer ones), but now looking at the six fiction books I bought, I have actually heard about three. 

Fiction

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (heard a lot about this one and wanted to read)
The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton (I like her stories and this one sounds interesting; old family secrets coming up in the next generation)
Wild Romance by Chloé Schama (based on a real case trial between a noble man and a woman from the people; they married twice, at least this is what she said, he said they did not and married someone else)
The First Murder - A Historical Mystery by the Medieval Murderers Ian Morson, Bernard Knight, Philip Gooden, Karen Maitland, Susanna Gregory (sounds fascinating but remains to be seen what it is. I presume it is a fiction, maybe based on medieval murders? Are the "writers" the murderers?? Huuh)
The Other Rembrandt by Alex Connor (a painting to be sold, painted by Rembrandt, or...his apprentice?)
The German Woman by Paul Griner (spies during first and second world wars; but who is true and who is a spy?)

This one I put amongst the fiction but might be non-fiction.

The Song of Taliesin - Tales from King Arthur's Bard by John Matthews (Taliesin, Arthur's poet, who like Merlin, was said to have shamanic powers. The tales have been collected and researched by the writer and here is the result).

Non-Fiction

Great Discoveries - Exploration That Changed History (TIME) (Sounds very interesting)

Mastering Your Digital SLR (I thought this might help me improve my photography for future photos on the blog and for the family album. Let's see!

The Disappeared - The stories of 35 historical disappearances from the Mary Celeste to Lord Lucan by Ian Crofton (Sounds mesmerising! 

Angels - Messengers of the divine (Angels are omnipresent. This books guides us "through the mysterious and meaningful world of angels as it is portrayed not only in numerous religions, but also in spiritual circles". Will be interesting to read)

And last but not least...

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay (the writer - it says on the back of the book - can "demonstrate historical parallels for almost every neurosis of our times". I see that 'Tulipomania' is also inside, must be in connection with stock exchange crashes? (see my review of this mania by Mike Dash here)