Needle

Hi and welcome ! Hope you enjoy yourself around here

I'm glad to read something good about it. I just can't find good consumer reviews no matter where I look. It woud help to find good and bad reviews What worries me the most is its working longevity. Experts seem to say it's the best on the market right now but they can't really give their opinions on that particular point

I laughed when I saw this thread xD Good job Ian I like to dip my chips in mayonnaise mixed with mustard. I don't know if it's a popular combo everywhere in Belgium but everybody in my family does it. We also like ketchup with mayo and what I think is ranch, I'm not quite sure as it's called tartare sauce here. In Belgium, you'll also find a common combo in fries with applesauce. I'm not too keen on it but it's a really popular one in general.

I've been thinking that I might just do that. It seems that despite the price of shipping and taxes, it has many advantages that make up for it. I've seen the Kobo and the reviews aren't that great : it seems it stops working within a year of using it and the store doesn't really fix it. Doesn't seem to be worth it it the end. I have a question though, did you have to buy a power adapter ? If I'm not mistaken, we don't have the same plugs as Americans do :-/ I recently found out that there are people who don't know how well mayonnaise and chips go together and it was a shock to me Glad you discovered it

That's really interesting to read. I personally don't know much about the book industry of my country but I understand what you mean about pricing, we have a similar policy in Belgium. After browsing the e-book section on amazon.fr, I have noticed that e-books were almost as expensive as physical books, which to me doesn't make much sense. I like both format because to me, each has its own place and use but if I can get a physical books for 2 or 3 bucks more, I'll probably do that and convenience be damned !

Apparently, from the Amazon.nl website, you can't buy the Kindle directly, they actually send you over to the German one. I think that one might allow shipping to Belgium but I'm not certain. It might have something to do with the fact that a small portion of the population here speaks German. As much as I'd love to, I think it might be better to just buy one in the supermarkets here even if it's another brand. And if I do pop across, it'd most probably be the last thing on my mind Thanks for your opinion, I've seen many people recommend the Paperwhite and it'd probably have been be the one I chose if I had been able to order it I understand what you mean I was also not seeing the use but since I always have my computer on me now (for work and for class), I don't really need a tablet anymore. And really...it's distracting to receive so many notifications when I want to read

To reply to the both of you, I've done a bit of digging. It has to do with taxes and priority. Here in Belgium, we have e-reader suppliers present on land. It would make them lose their priority if people could easily buy from Amazon.fr As Belgium is a fairly small commercial market (not withstanding the UE overall market), they need advantages and agreements on certain things to make sure that Belgians have to buy certain things in Belgium-based shops. That way, the Belgian government is assured it'll get its money. So Amazon, since it's not yet part of any agreement on that, cannot sell their Kindle here (as well as some electronics and brands for other reasons I won't get into because it's loooooong.) I hope that made sense. I'm glad to see my studies have an actual application in real life

I had never heard of that one :-/ Is it the same as calibre ? By the way, despite my decision to acquire a Kindle, I can't Indeed, Amazon doesn't ship e-readers to Belgium. It's quite disheartening to learn If I wanted to buy it, I'd have to make it come from the US which isn't the most economical solution How stupid is that ? They allow us to order everything else from the French website but won't allow Kindle, tablets, cameras, etc...to go through.

You should really try the Study series I remember reading that one until the wee hours of the morning just to finish it, I tried to put it down but not knowing what was going to happen next was keeping me awake, next thing you know, I had finished it and it was four in the morning Thanks I'm already enjoying myself It seems to be a great way to get back into reading when you have a taste for nothing in your TBR As for the saga genre, I came to a similar conclusion but after failing to find smething that fit that description, I went with something else. According to this dictionary, it's what you said but also "any narrative or legend of heroic exploits" as well as "a form of the novel in which the members or generations of a family or social group are chronicled in a long and leisurely narrative" which makes me come to the conclusion that it doesn't have to be Nordic but it has : a) to be a series : it has to be long, so it spans many volumes ? b) to contain a hero : someone does heroic actions ? Like, saving a country or a king ? To be honest, I think it woud also be easier to find for me xD The only thing that comes to my mind has been the Song of the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce as well as the Farseer trilogy and the Tawny Man trilogy, both by Robin Hobb. I'm also influenced by what is considered "saga" here, in a French speaking country. You've read True Grit ? I finished it and I was a bit skeptical at first, I couldn't really get into it but in the end, I enjoyed it

Oh Yes ! I've heard about that fair too. My Dutch teacher once took us to a similar thing (or was it the same ? I'm not sure) in Antwerpen It was very nice because I love books but very sad, because my Dutch at the time was seriously lacking. I'd like to think it has gotten better but it's probably all illusions When does Het Boekenfestijn happen ? Our book fair generally starts at the beginning of the year and will happen at the end of February this year

Thanks for your recommendations I've already read Twilight and the Study series by Maria V. Snyder is one of my favourites As for The Hobbit, I have tried (and failed) to read it more times than I can count so I think I'm done with that one for a little while I have heard a lot of good things about the Lunar Chronicles and I really hadn't thought of it as mash-up, but it fits if the mash-up genre is what I understand of it I think I'll add that to my list...It was in my TBR pile...actually has been in it for almost two years now. So many books, so little time :sigh: Thanks ! I'll try to finish it and if I fail...my beloved genres will welcome me back with open books, I'm sure

Hi Shyora ! Welcome to the forum I often fall in love with a book because of its cover...it doesn't always have the best results though xD

Thanks everybody I think I'll stay too...I'm starting to like the place

After visiting past challenges, including Vodkafan's challenge which I was directed to, this idea really interested me. I have the bad habit of sticking to the same genres, rotating through the same again, again and again and I like the idea of trying something different and new. I decided to take my inspiration from Ooshie's 2012 Genre challenge (you can find it here) and to maky my final choice in Goodreads suggestions. Here is my list so far : Action / Adventure Autobiography /Biography / Memoir Go Ask Alice by Beatrice Sparks as AnonymousChildren’s / Young Adult Eleanor & Park by Rainbow RowellClassic (pre-WWI) The picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar WildeComedy / Satire Me Talk Pretty One Day by David SedarisCrime Fiction / Mystery Room by Emma DonoghueFantasy / Urban Fantasy Half Bad by Sally GreenGraphic / Illustrated Novel Historical Fiction (Pre-WWII) Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur GoldenHorror / Thriller Angels and Demons by Dan BrownMash-Up Cinder by Marissa MeyerModern Classic (post WWI to 1980s) 1984 by George OrwellNewly Published in 2016 Romance / Erotica Touched by an Alien by Gini KochSaga Science Fiction / Steampunk The Unnaturalists by Tiffany TrentSpeculative Fiction Brave New World by Aldous HuxleySupernatural / Paranormal War The Kite Runner by Khaled HosseiniWestern True Grit by Charles Portis : I have decided to start the challenge with this one. The synopsis was interesting but I’d never have read it if not for this challenge. The story in and of itself is nothing new : a girl wants to avenge her father’s death and so, she decides to hire someone with “true grit” to help her do the job. What is new to me, however, is how it’s narrated : in the first person and almost as a richly detailed memory (?) The main character is young in the memory but seems older in the way she shares her experience, mentioning a few times a later time in her life. Outside of my insight as a reader, I quite enjoy Mattie, the main character. She’s stubborn, independent, calculating and very pragmatic : she cried twice in the whole book, once out of frustration and another time because she was kind of dying. It’s quite strange to think of such a young girl behaving the way she does in such a time. I feel I should also mention the vocabulary : I am used to contemporary English, I’m quite well-versed in urban slang and though I understand everything that is said in the book, I find that English a bit disconcerting. I think the author stayed true to the era, I can’t say for sure as my only foray in the western genre has been glimpses of bad Z-rated western movies translated in French. All in all, I’m not sure how I feel about the western type, I’m not totally against it but I’m not totally crazy about it either. This book bored me at first. It’s probably the worst that can happen out of a book. People usually read to evade boredom, outside from the pleasure one gets from losing themselves in a good book, we also want to start a book and not notice time escaping us, we want to drown in it. However, I got sucked in about halfway through, I really didn’t notice time passing by and it was great. I liked the ending because it wasn’t all rainbows and flowers, none of the characters were left unscathed. So I’m a bit ambivalent about the genre but not the book. The book was good. Not great no, but good. Up to now, I've made most of these choic es after reading synopsises on Goodreads but I'm having a bit of a problem with two genres, Saga and Mash-up. I don't really know what I'm looking for in those two instances. When I put "saga" in the Goodreads search engine, I come up with books like Harry Potter and I'm not sure that qualifies. It's the same with "mash-up" : to my understanding, it's a mix of two different books but I come up with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies...which totally puts me off but that's what this challenge is about after all. I might be surprised... I don't expect it but maybe ? If you have read books in any of these genres, what would you recommend ? And is there something in my list that doesn't quite fit ? I'm trying to include books from my TBR pile in there as well because, while I'm well acquainted with my French "classics", it's not quite the case within the English language Also, can anyone help me fill in the blanks ? As most of these are new to me, I have a hard time making a choice I’ve decided to rate the books I read during this challenge : I hated it : I wanted so badly to just give up and put it down. I liked it : I didn’t mind reading it to kill the time and I wanted to know where it was going. I loved it : I couldn’t put it down ! I’m overly excited about it and can’t really explain why.

Ah ok That's great to know I think I've made up my mind Thank you all for your opinion, it was a great help