Blogging Anniversary - 10 years

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A while ago I checked when I did my first blog post, in order to celebrate with an anniversary post. Well, that day came and went without any reaction from me. Better late than never, so here a reminder of my very first blog post from 24 October 2012.  The book was New Finnish Grammar  by Diego Marani. Marani is an Italian novelist, translator and newspaper columnist. While working as a translator for the European Union he invented a language ‘Europanto’ which is a mixture of languages and based on the common practice of word-borrowing usage of many EU languages. It was a suitable book to start with, being a book about letters, languages and memories. With a beautiful prose, the novel went directly to my heart.  "One night at Trieste in September 1943 a seriously wounded soldier is found on the quay. The doctor, of a newly arrived German hospital ship, Pietri Friari gives the unconscious soldier medical assistance. His new patient has no documents or anything that can ide...
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Book swapping evening in Brussels

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Every last Wednesday of the month there is a book swapping evening in a restaurant in the outskirts of Brussels. Karin is the energetic lady behind this initiative. I was there for the first time this Wednesday and was impressed. Quite a big room on top of a restaurant (very convenient if you are hungry after your book hunting!), filled with book cases and books orderly sorted by language, fiction and non-fiction and books for kids, dvds and cds as well. You bring some and take some.

I had gone through my book shelves and left around 25 books, and found six new ones. One I gave away to a friend, so I came home with five books. My husband was very happy!

Karin to the left, with a customer.
There were quite a few people who looked around and you heard - as always in Brussels - a lot of different languages from the rather big international community. This will be a recurring event for me. I will get back to you later on. Karin has promised that I can make an interview with her, to get the background to how it all started.



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