Athena
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Posts posted by Athena
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Welllllll. Yeah. This isn't the place for a discussion on it really beyond 'I personally support x', but basically - super Catholic country for a super long time. Values get embedded. That's essentially what it comes down to. We have Civil Partnerships, which only came in a few years ago, for same-sex couples, lacking 160 legal rights and protections by comparison with Civil Marriage.
Sorry you've got the flu
That's horrible. I know the feeling, I go through phases like that each year where I just get very poorly with colds and flus. Hope it buggers off soon. 
That makes sense, I hadn't thought of that.
Thanks Noll
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Awww it's a shame you didn't enjoy it so much. I hope your next read will be more enjoyable!
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Great review! I'm glad you enjoyed this book
. Do you think I will be able to follow the book allright, not knowing that much about that time period and event, or would it be beneficial if I were to read some about it on Wikipedia or such, before starting on the book (that I will read eventually as it's on my TBR). -
My sister visited the Niagara Falls last year, and she will be visiting them again this year (but this time with her boyfriend). Last year she had a conference in Toronto, this year her boyfriend has a conference somewhere so they're making it a holiday together, before it starts. Then my sister will fly back home and her boyfriend will attend his conference. They're both doing their PhDs at the moment. My sister really liked the Niagara Falls.
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No, they are quite cheap, usually running from one to two dollars each. Sometimes less, sometimes, for special editions etc, a little more.
That's awesome!
Much cheaper than second hand bookstores, and much less than marketplace on Amazon. As posted just above, they are in the one to two dollar U.S. range. So, in all I think we paid about 35 U.S. dollars for the books I've listed in the two posts above from that particular estate sale.
Sad thing is, there were not that many book buyers visiting the sale. I am sad for all the "left over" books and wonder what the family will do with them. I just don't understand the family not wanting to keep at least some of their father's books.
Awww, yeah, that does seem a shame. I can understand not wanting to keep a huge collection from a deceased relative due to space issues, but maybe keeping their favourite books or such.. well, I think I would heh (well, if I was at all interested I'd probably keep it all). It's great though that a lot of the books are given new homes for people who are interested. I can't stand the thought of people throwing away books. Books don't belong in a bin or papershredder, they should be in shops, libraries and with people in their homes.
EDIT:
I tried to do some Googling, but the closest thing to "estate sale" I can find in the Netherlands is either a "vrijmarkt" or a "rommelmarkt" or sites to buy a property. The vrijmarkt or rommelmarkt are just people selling a few of their old things (like a 'car boot sale' in the UK?), I've been to a few but there weren't many books to be found. They are normally there on "King's Day" (used to be called "Queen's Day"). We went to the one in Helmond (on Queen's Day) I think maybe two years ago. It was very busy, and there were only a couple of stalls with a few books, and sometimes they weren't that cheap to be honest (people set their own prices I believe). Anyway, that's just based on some quick Googling.
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It'd be so difficult answering some of these questions (but also tempting..)! Missu Löytää Ratkaisun sounds interesting (it's easier than I thought to type the ö and ä on my keyboard), did you read this when you were a child?
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Wow! None of the libraries even in my surrounding counties have it! Now I am just getting curious. I found a used copy from Amazon for 77 cents to $4
But I want it to take on vacation with me and it's got a ginormous swastika on the cover 
Rees also did a 6 episode documentary of it on BBC, which is all on YouTube, but nicely blocked, thanks to BBC. And I just can not find it anywhere else.
Yeah.. I wouldn't recommend taking a book with such a cover with you on holiday, the people might not appreciate that at all. The war can be a sore point, in particular for the older citizens.
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I'm on page 181 (out of 753) of A Perfect Heritage by Penny Vincenzi. It's about a beauty company, I'm enjoying reading about the lives of the characters involved as well as to hear about the business side of the company.
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Yesterday we re-watched The World's End. It was very enjoyable, though I do prefer Hot Fuzz. Which I really want to re-watch too now, even though I've seen it quite a few times already. Maybe we can do so soon. I also want to see Shaun of the Dead again but unfortunately we don't have that one on DVD. I haven't seen it in any shops here in the Netherlands, but I can order it online. Might have to do that some time.
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The afternoon didn't go quite as I'd hoped … spent half an hour on the phone to a company trying to sort out an issue, so didn't have time to get to the cafe before my hairdressers appointment, but then as it was a lovely afternoon, managed to get my dad out in the garden for an hour and before I know it, that afternoon's gone! Will try to fit some reading in before tea, but got a few bits and pieces to do around the house first.
I'm glad you had fun with your dad and I hope you have a nice weekend
.Last night at 2am I spotted a 'Digital Production' role with the Irish Times (reputable newspaper) which closed for applications yesterday. So, naturally, I threw a cover letter together as quickly as possible and submitted it, at 2am.
Worked, got a receipt email today. I won't get it, I don't have the experience, but if they at least called me for an interview it would be an experience and a challenge to my rusty hermit ways.
In other news, today is the first day I've started getting really riled up about the Marriage Referendum being held here in May 2015. Being that my friends are awesome (shots fired!) I've seen no opposition at all to the idea of same-sex marriage so far, but today I learned about a '7 Great Reasons to Keep Marriage As Is' leaflet circulating in the city and grrrrr. So I'm currently working on writing a letter addressed lately to people who claim same-sex couples would undermine or fundamentally change the nature of marriage. Apparently there's a newspaper publishing a lot of no-vote support, so people are planning to launch a counter to that.
That sounds like a nice job for you, it's a shame you think you probably won't get it but I hope they will at least call you in for an interview.
I find it hard to understand why people are against a same-sex marriage. Well done for you on supporting it! I didn't know Ireland didn't yet have a same-sex marriage law. I hope the vote will go in favour of same-sex marriages.
What I thought was hayfever yesterday turns out to be a bad cold or a flu. Since yesterday evening my nose has been blocked up and drippy, my throat has been hurting, my head has been hurting and my muscles feel weak. Ugh, I've been ill a lot in the past year, I didn't want to get ill again this 'soon'.
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We started to watch Angel Beats!, a Japanese anime TV series. My boyfriend has seen it before, I haven't though. I wasn't sure if I would like it, but we watched the first two episodes of the DVD and I like it so far
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I get that too sometimes
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^ Frankie, that's a classic song
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How brilliant you joined on 08/08/2008! I've always seen your logs as a great example of how to be organised
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The post! You were so organised even in your past reading logs
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I found this thread, so it must have been a while ago. I look forward to read your answers in the next while
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Mine too!
Yes, I'm having a pretty good year all in all - so far I've given twelve books 4/5, three books 5/5, and only one book 3/5. That's pretty good
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I found the list of questions somewhere on the internet a few years ago, but I couldn't possibly remember where. I think I posted about the origin of the list when I first 'introduced' the questions on my reading log but I have no idea where that particular post is. Too many logs with too many pages to go through to look for it
Ah don't worry, no need to look for it
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That was actually a great and very interesting answer! Sometimes I wish that in America we had to learn one language the whole way through school like European schools do with English just so that we could be fluent in reading, speaking, and writing another language. I guess to some extent Spanish is like that for us, but it's honestly not taken grammatically seriously until high school so the years spent in Spanish before that are wasted. I only took it for a few years before I went to private school and I learned basically nothing other than counting, some simple phrases, and the months.
I'm currently taking German for the second year, but I still probably couldn't read a book in German. I might be able to read and somewhat understand a paragraph or two if I had a dictionary for some of the words I don't know. So basically, I just wish we had one language to learn besides our native one because I think it is an important skill to have.
I think it is so cool that you can read in three different languages. So many more options for reading because as you mentioned one translation might defer from another.
Thanks
! It's nice you were taught some German. I agree, it is an important skill to have, though not everyone is as lucky that they are able to have such an education which is a shame (children and teenagers learn a new language much more easily). I dunno, it all depends how seriously the school takes it. I learned French in school for 7 years straight, and was never really taught to speak or understand anything more than a few basic words and sentences.
I'm in awe of those on this forum who can read entire books in their second, or even third, language, and who post on here in absolutely flawless English. Hats off to you, guys.
Wow.. that's a lot of years! I had French for 5 years, and while I could speak and understand quite some of it at the time, I don't remember much of it nowadays (the same with German, though that was 4 years). But I am more easily able to understand German, ie. I could probably understand a large part of ie. a German TV show (particularly my favourite one, the older seasons of Kommissar Rex
). I've helped my dad translating some German documents (for something work related). I don't think I could read a complicated book in German, but I think I would be able to read a less complicated children's book (it would take a little while though!).Thanks
!Ya ditto and ditto. I took Russian for 4 years straight and learned really basic things, words and sentences like Laura. I also think it is awesome the way the posts on here are flawless English, a lot of times Gaia and I have to laugh at our expressions/ slang.
In California, though, Spanish is a serious deal. Not only is our state (and others like Arizona, New Mexico, Texas) inundated with the Spanish language, there are more Mexicans in CA than any other nationality. My daughter has a bilingual class, for the most part. Most of the children in her school speak Spanish and English, they even have a book bag that gets exchanged every Wednesday, all 3 books included are with a Spanish translation on the opposing page.
Russian sounds very difficult to learn.
Yes
!Yeah it's amazing Spanish is such a big deal there, even though you live in the US. It does make sense, but I don't like that some people there look down on your for not speaking it much!
Wow! That's really interesting that they have books with both languages. I live in the midwest so other than Chicago there aren't that many immigrants in my region. Learning spanish could be helpful or could not. I took German because I liked the German teacher better.
Haha, that's a nice reason
! I took Russian because I loved the alphabet
Also an interesting reason
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Great review! And a 5/5! You're reading a lot of enjoyable books lately
. I quite like that cover, blue is my favourite colour. -
It is one of my favorites that she has written and that says a lot.
Mine too
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I hope you enjoy them
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Running into a few venue issues actually - got the date held for two weeks while we looked around and made a decision but OH currently incapacitated after winter sports injury so I'm not sure we should go ahead now.
Awwww I'm so sorry
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I'm loving The Rosie Project. So far behind most on this forum
Just frustrating because I have so little time to to read ATM and I want to devour it
I'm glad you're enjoying it so far
! I hope you get a bit more time to read soon (but not due to scary reasons like breaking a leg or anything!).I finished The elite by Kiera Cass last night and am debating starting the third today. Just worried if I get to the end and it's a hanger I'll have to wait for the next one to be released. So it's a toss up between The one by Kiera Cass or Skulduggery Pleasant armageddon outta here by Derek Landy.
I've heard good things of both of these series, I hope you enjoy whichever book you decide to read next
.I've spent to much time thinking about this.
I've decided that a 30-hour day would work better for me. Two for sleeping and four for playing. Haha
! This makes sense to me 
.I'm currently on page 70 of Penny Vincenzi - A Perfect Heritage, at my current pace it'll take me a while to read this. I'm enjoying it so far though so that's good.
Your Book Activity - April 2015
in Past Book Logs
Posted
You could read outside? I hope you'll have more time to read soon.
Good luck, I really hope you will manage it!