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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Bike, Read and Bookswapping

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Yesterday was a busy, bookie day! Weather has turned nice, warm and sunny. I perfect day for a bike ride through the forest, down to the next village of Terveuren. There is a huge park, with lovely ponds and birds. I stopped there to sit on a bench in the sun and read The City of Fallen Angels by John Berendt.

In the evening I went to the book swapping club which celebrated its 5th anniversary. Lots of people, a wonderful singer-songwriter, Sandra Ferretti, accompanied by guitarist Daniel Vincke, who entertained us with popular music. Both I and my friend Karin managed to convince our husbands to come as well. We took this opportunity to try out the food in the restaurant and found a table outside! Yes, for once this year we could sit outside.  We had a lovely meal of Cevapcici and a wonderful red Macedonian Merlot wine.

For the book swapping I had brought four books and got three with me back home. Mind you the 'Berlin' book was chosen by my husband. We intend to go there for a weekend, so this guide book will come in handy.




The Book of Salt by Monique Truong I took to read for Paris in July. It "takes the reader on a strange journey, from Indochina to Paris, as the Vietnamese cook for Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas reveals his own fascinating story...". Sounds intriguing I think. What do you think? Anybody who has read it?

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