Athena

Nice to hear things are working out for you. The ring sounds really sweet! Happy (belated) anniversary!

I hope you like your Paperwhite! I really love mine.

I've put NOS4R2 on my wishlist.

Nice pictures!

I think Chocolat is on my wishlist, nice review!

Here in the Netherlands in book shops books generally cost more than in the UK (or US). A new book can cost 15-30 euros (depending on whether it's a paperback or a hardcover and what kind of book). Many older books still cost quite some. Sometimes some older (paperback) books are cheaper and you find them for 5-10 euros (or more). Dutch books and translated books generally cost the same or more than their English counterparts. Even in Dutch online shops, the prices can be somewhat cheaper but it doesn't get as cheap as sometimes in the UK (ie. The Works doing a 3 for 5 pounds deal). Charity shops are an exception, those books are cheaper (they are second hand, usually between .50 cents and 1.50 euros). Generally most Dutch book shops mainly have Dutch books or books translated into Dutch. Some shops have English books, though mainly certain genres. For example, you hardly see any science-fiction here (either Dutch or English). I buy a lot of books at a Dutch book fair. The Dutch books (or translated into Dutch) can cost 5-10 euros (fiction, non-fiction costs more), the English paperbacks are generally 2.50 or 2.95 euros (some are between 0.99 - 3.95, bigger ones can cost a little bit more, ie. my Jane Austen omnibus). The savings are up to 90% of the shop retail price, they say. For anyone in the Netherlands I recommend going there, if there is one nearby you. I also buy books from places such as Amazon or The Book Depository (sometimes bol.com, a Dutch online shop). Now and then I buy books from the charity shop. When I'm in the UK I always like to go into UK book shops or charity shops. It makes sense that Dutch shops have higher prices, they have to pay for the shop's location and their staff and so on. With translated books (which I don't buy anymore) they also have to pay the translator. So in a way sometimes it makes sense, though other times I feel prices are quite steep. It happens now and then that a book I want to buy can only be found quite expensively, often I end up waiting or even not buying it at all (because I lost interest in the end). Also for me personally, it matters to me how many pages a book has compared with the price. If a book has a lot of pages vs. the price, compared with not so many pages vs. the price, this influences me. I'm more likely to buy the first book. I'm certainly not saying I prefer quantity over quality as this isn't the case, however often it does influence me a little. Ie. I'm more likely to pay more for a book that has more pages compared with a book that doesn't have many pages. I'm not an economist nor do I fully understand economics (only some parts of it).

I like the Book Depository however they don't provide tracking of packages for me (nor a tracking number). I prefer to know when something is going to arrive, so that's the only downside really. Also twice I received a book with a different cover than the one on the picture (it wasn't a big deal as I liked the covers I got better). Generally though I feel positive about them .

x I generally have the light turned off (lowest setting) unless it's a bit dark in which case I turn it up a bit. It's like having a normal Kindle and a Kindle with a light in one. I'm quite pleased with it. @ julie Glad to hear you like your new Kindle!

I haven't done a lot of reading since my boyfriend arrived. I've been spending a lot of time with him instead (and also working for uni of course). The next book I'm going to read (in paper format) will probably be The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. I'm hoping to do some reading soon, but to be honest I'm having fun catching up with my boyfriend since we hadn't seen each other in a while.

I don't know yet if I'll be participating next time. It's the weekend before my big presentation so I'm just going to do what I feel helps a lot against being stressed (and of course practise the presentation). I don't know if that'll be reading, since when I'm very stressed reading doesn't always help to be honest. I haven't read a lot in the past few days, so I am looking forward to doing some reading, but I have to see how things go really.

I sometimes feel dumb when talking while I'm stressed (to people I don't know well), however writing is a lot easier for me since I have some time to think about it. Then I usually can filter out all the mistakes and silly things I would've said. I have said some really silly things, when stressed and tired . It must be frustrating for both of you .

I wish you lots of fun Devi, it sounds awesome .

That must be really exciting, Kell .

Some not very nice news here today.. 6 of our zijdehoender chicken have been killed by some kind of predator. It's really sad . There's feathers everywhere in their pen. We've found two bodies so far, it looked like they were dragged across the fence, since inside their pen there aren't any bodies (they are maybe 10? meters away from it). There don't appear to be many wounds and they weren't eaten, it seemed pretty pointless. The other bodies must be either eaten after all or dragged somewhere else in the garden, I may still find them later (our garden is big). We're having a very humid, warm day with rain and thunder storms so I don't really want to be outside atm (thunder scares me). There are also feathers somewhere else in the garden, there are some chicken from that pen missing but I'm hoping they're walking in the forest (there's a small hole in their fence so they can get out) rather than killed. I'll have another look later and see if I see anything (good or bad). These zijdehoenders were born here and have grown up here.. they were pretty tame so it's really not nice at all that we lost them, they weren't so old yet or anything (pretty young I would say). The other zijdehoenders are older, they are still all there (gladly). I've been feeling sad all morning . We're not quite sure what kind of predator it is, so far what we've thought of all treats their prey differently, ie. a fox would eat the chicken. Tonight we'll definately close the little house of the other zijdehoenders. We can't close the shed of the goats and chicken. Our dog Pamuk is still limping with her paw, so she can't chase the predator as well as she otherwise might have. She's mostly inside since she injured her leg. I'm not sure if she would chase it but it might help. The dogs did bark yesterday evening, around 9ish, I went to them but didn't see or hear anything. It's likely that they did hear something. I should've let them outside perhaps (if they had wanted that). All in all I feel pretty sad about it.. the poor chicken . EDIT: I've found two more bodies, one of a white chicken that was with the goats and one zijdehoender.

x Thanks ! x x I agree. x x This is excellent news! x x That's all good to hear. And yes, it makes sense to read the books first. I plan on reading the second book not too long from now, I'm eager to see what will happen! First though I think I might read the July read, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Thanks for your reply .

George R. R. Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire 1: A Game of Thrones Genre: Fantasy Format: Paperback Pages: 804 (excluding the family trees) Synopsis (GoodReads): Summers span decades. Winter can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne has begun. As Warden of the north, Lord Eddard Stark counts it a curse when King Robert bestows on him the office of the Hand. His honour weighs him down at court where a true man does what he will, not what he must … and a dead enemy is a thing of beauty. The old gods have no power in the south, Stark’s family is split and there is treachery at court. Worse, the vengeance-mad heir of the deposed Dragon King has grown to maturity in exile in the Free Cities. He claims the Iron Throne. My thoughts: I saw season one of the TV series before I read this book (I haven't seen season two yet, because I want to read the book first). While I like the TV series, I believe the book is better! (as is usually the case for me, tbh) This book was really good. I admit, it's taken some time for me to read, I read some other books in between (such as for the read-a-thon) but all the while it was quite interesting, particularly the second half of the book. The writing is quite good. The book is told from several points of view, each chapter is seen from a different character. I liked a lot of the characters, though there were a few I couldn't stand. In the case of some, this is maybe meant to be as they're not exactly nice people (which is why I don't like them, they're very evil). The plot twists were quite good. I enjoyed reading it all even though I knew what would happen through the TV series. There isn't as much violence as nudity in the book as there is in the TV series, and I really appreciate this. I was able to read the book fine for the most part, without too much cringing (like I did with the TV series) (it might have helped slightly that I knew what was going to happen). It does make me a bit mad, in my opinion it wasn't neccessary to add the violence and nudity into it (the parts that weren't in the book I mean), to me it seems it's done for spectacle's sake, to get more viewers. Anyway.. I plan to read the next book before I watch the next season, I think that'd be better. However if my boyfriend really wants to see it or my reading is going very slow, we may watch season two first anyway. I've heard season three is a mixture of books three, four and five so that'll be more awkward, though the Blu-ray isn't out yet so it'll be a while until I can see it anyway (the regular TV channels here haven't even broadcast season two yet if I'm correct, HBO might have though but not RTL4 where I watched season one on). Normally I don't like starting a book series if it's not finished yet nor will be finished soon, but in this case I had already started watching the TV show so I figured I might as well read the book(s) too. This book had been on my shelf for more than four years, so quite a bit of time (though I have books that have been on the shelf longer than that). Rating: ***** (5/5)

We haven't talked much about it yet, though there is a seperate topic for I think the PS4. Here's some thoughts / a rant on the Xbox One (and PS4 a bit too): (warning, a long post ) Well for me personally, if I have the option to buy a game new I'll generally buy the new game rather than a used one (unless the price difference would be like 90%). I would rather my money go to the creators of the game rather than a shop. If the game isn't available new, ie. a ten-year-old game then I'd buy it used. (I hardly play any games these days but.. I'd hope I'd still be qualified as gamer). So while it may not bother me a lot that you can't use used games (still a bit though) on the Xbox One, I think it's a bad decision and the consumer will be limited in it. The whole thing of having to check-in every 24 hours with Microsoft, is ridiculous. I don't know how it works if you don't check in, what if there happen to be days where I don't play the game at all (ie. a lot of the time)? Does that count? I think with that in place I'd just feel as if I'm being treated as a criminal beforehand (though this isn't different from what some PC games do, ie. Starcraft II) and I don't like that. I'm absolutely against piracy (I feel quite strongly about this subject) and I don't like to be treated as if I can't be trusted. Admittedly some PC games do this too and I never like it. When my internet connection isn't good, which happens now and then where we live, rural, with a low connection speed, or several people are using it, I don't want to have to be online to play a game. If my parents are using the internet to work then I can't play a game that requires online because it lags their work. Our internet connection isn't so fast so it can't do all these things at once without slowing down. Btw, I don't mean to sound ungrateful about my internet connection. 10 years ago, everyone had cable or ADSL and we had dial-up. I'm already very glad I can do most of the daily things ! Several single player games that require an always on connection I've not played because of this. An example is Diablo 3. I was interested in the game, but there were a lot of server issues. I don't think I'd even want it as a gift now, I'm just not willing to put up with the online restrictions. I did play the demo and it was laggy and when I wanted to pause it I wasn't able to. ie. I need to go to the bathroom and then when you exit and reload you have to play the whole bit over again. Anyway.. I don't like that Microsoft forces you to be online every 24 hours. I only play single-player games (co-op on occasion) so I don't want to have to check in online. Sometimes I put up with it on the PC, because I really want to play the game, ie. Starcraft II, however sometimes I do not. When I want to play the game and the internet isn't working, it won't work and then generally what happens is that I don't play the game anymore if it happens too often. I don't like Microsoft's focus on things that have nothing to do with gaming. For me a game console is a game console. Our internet is too slow to watch films with, we don't have Netflix or anything here anyway yet, I think?, anyway it'd be too slow even if we did have it. For me a games console is a games console, I don't really need most of the other features. Of course, if in the future I move and the internet will be quicker, then I might be inclined to change my mind in some way. I generally don't watch a lot of TV anyway, if I watch things it's usually a DVD or Blu-ray. I believe in supporting the shows and films I really like. I'm also not comfortable with having Kinect on all the time. I don't like Kinect anyway period, I much prefer a controller over the whole wave your hands in the air approach. Admittedly I haven't actually ever used Kinect, I've never owned a Microsoft system though I've played on my boyfriends' Xbox360 (he doesn't have Kinect). I don't like the idea of having a camera being always on me or the possibility that I could be recorded. These things don't need to be in my single player games. One of the reasons I like to play games is to escape. That means I don't want to be confronted with my picture, my voice, a video of me or whatever. I didn't like the Social Media focus of neither Sony nor Microsoft, I don't want to share stuff with people so when it comes to it, I'll not link facebook, twitter, youtube, whatever, so even if I accidentally click on it, not much will happen. Backwards compatibility, I get why the console manufacturers (except Nintendo) would choose not to include it, since it'll cost money to do so, however I do find it a shame. It'll be very awkward if you have to have all these different consoles under your TV. There aren't many games I'll go out and buy just after they're released, often I like to wait a bit for the price to come down and for some reviews to be available (I don't always play them straight after I bought them either). Sometimes I don't play a game until a few years later, so this isn't very convenient for me. The console manufacturers might add the ability later perhaps, but I don't doubt that they'll likely make you want to pay for the game again and download it. I'm not comfortable with digital downloads on consoles (ie. you can only download 5 times before you have to buy it again), so I don't think I'd buy the game again, I'll most likely not bother with the whole thing and just go do something else (play another game or read a book). I should point out, I used to play quite a few games quite a few years ago and I used to follow many game news sites and I had subscriptions to game magazines (I was also on some gaming forums). Then slowly they started to tire me too much and playing got harder and harder. These days I don't like the direction in which the game industry is heading. There aren't many games coming out that I think I'd like to play, or that I think are worth putting up with the pain for. The kind of games I like aren't made much anymore. On the PC a lot of the games I bought two years ago were indie games rather than AAA-titles. The past year I've tried not to buy many games, because I was buying a lot and not able to play much. So I restricted myself and only bought what I felt I really wanted to buy and would be worth playing, I struggle to think of any games I've bought the past year. So, I've changed and the games industry has too. I don't miss gaming that much really, I've always liked reading more. Though I do like to watch certain games being played and their story, I find the gameplay interests me less and less, because it's so tiring (there are a few exceptions). I do like to watch my boyfriend play certain games. I do plan on playing Pokémon X, I've agreed with my boyfriend that if it does come out around my birthday ish then he'll buy it for me as a gift (and I'll buy the 3DS to play it). Pokémon RPGs (main ones) are nice and easy to play, I enjoy them and they don't tire me so much. Maybe once I'm graduated and rested I can try to play more games. I'd love to play some more Skyrim for example. I don't know, maybe. I don't know if this was interesting to anyone , but I hope at least one of you didn't mind reading all my rambling . This could well be the longest posts (words wise) I've ever made on this forum (not counting the lists of books read this year etc.) tl;dr I think the Xbox One has some bad features and much prefer the PlayStation 4.

Awww, I didn't know one of your dogs has elbow displacia. One of our dogs had that too, well, hip and elbow displacia I think (if that's possible). As she got older she started to have more and more trouble walking. In the end she just laid down a lot. We had to put her to sleep, it was really sad, she was in so much pain. We did have pills for it and they helped a bit for a while but the pain kept getting worse. She did become seven, normally dogs her breed become about ten years old. Dogs with this affliction sometimes need to be put to sleep much earlier, she held out quite a long time. I hope you have fun with your new dog, I look forward to see some pictures. It should be good for her to have obedience training etc., she'll probably like to do a lot of exercise. Have fun .

Welcome here! I'm not a big fan of thrillers anymore but I love fantasy. I hope you like it here !

I've heard that the PS4 will have a lot of nice features (and some I'm less pleased with), compared with the new Xbox (is it called Xbox One? Or did I misunderstand that). It made me more interested in the PS4 (even though there aren't many games coming out these days that I want to play). I think my boyfriend will be getting one when the time comes. If he does, I can play on his console if there'll be games that interest me. I look forward to hear/read what you think of it when you have yours. Do you know when it'll be released? A quick Google search told me in November but I don't know if this is true or not. @ Steve I hope that it gets better later on!

That's awesome!

This sounds awesome !! It's so nice she let you go through all the boxes and gave you a discount too! I'm glad you had fun .

x I agree! My cover looks like that too, it's quite pretty.

Thanks julie .

I quite like to cook (when I'm not tired). I feel most comfortable preparing cold food, ie. various kinds of salads or top a pizza. I also know how to prepare quite a few foods in the oven or on the gas cooker (ie. pasta), however I'm more uncomfortable with this because I'm afraid to get burned and you have to pay more attention within a faster time period. I can also make some cakes and pastries however I haven't done so a lot on my own, usually I do this with someone else and we prepare things together (this happens with dinner sometimes too, and then I prepare the cold salad for example). I also make ie. herb butter for on stickbread or Turkish bread, I've done that quite often, among many other things.. I cook quite a lot on my own lately. I plan to do more cooking, try out more new recipes and new things, when I'm done with university. I have some cookbooks that I'd like to flick through and make things out of as well as there is the internet, there's a pretty good Dutch site that has nice recipes that I use now and then. I'm not good with cooking things I don't like myself. I tend to not want to learn how it's done if I think I won't like it or if I don't like one of the main ingredients (does that make sense?). Maybe it doesn't make sense, in the case of most things you cook, ie. fish I can say that if I cook it I'll have to smell that awful fish smell (which I really don't like), however I don't have a big reason for some other things that stay cold. I'm just not as interested in a recipe if it's something I think I won't like.