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bestfriends

Joined Saturday, August 6, 2005
Recent Book Activity

Blue Monday
Agnes (Rainbow pockets)
Duel
Song of Solomon
De poppendokter
Dochter van de nomaden
Magdalena
Predikant (Patrik Hedström, #2)
Heldere hemel
Capriolen
Robert Ludlum's The Altman Code: A Covert-One Novel
Ik heet Kim
Duivelskus
Naar de bliksem? Ik niet!
Een echte vrouw
De boekhandel
When the Boat Comes in
The New York Trilogy - City of Glass, Ghosts and The Locked Room: City of Glass / Ghosts / The Locked Room
Het dak van de hemel
Bad Signs
Statistics
 4 weeks all time
books registered 0 667
released in the wild 0 527
controlled releases 0 342
releases caught 0 247
controlled releases caught 0 298
books found 0 360
tell-a-friend referrals 0 81
new member referrals 0 12
forum posts 0 22,473
Extended Profile


Welcome to my bookshelf and profile


(last update: 1st December 2015)





In a hurry and here for a specific reason?

Here's a list to Click if you want to skip other info, to jump directly to:

CONTACT info (Including dates I'm away from home)

RINGS AND RAYS I JOINED

RINGS and RAYS I STARTED

KEEP THEM MOVING 2008/2009/2010/2011

MORE ABOUT ME

BOOKS READ

Hope you can spare a minute to visit:


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About Bookcrossing & me:


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I first heard about Bookcrossing when one of my daughters had found a travelling book in Amsterdam. It must have been in 2003. She wasn't too keen to join BC herself, but she let me know 'This is absolutely something for you to join' . It took a while before I became a member, because at the time I was too busy running a B&B in France and besides, I had a slow and very expensive dial-up internet connection, so I avoided on-line activities like that. It took until August 2005 to actually join and I never regretted it.

I'm Dutch, but I left the Netherlands in 2002, to stay away for almost ten years. I first spent five years in Northern France, then four and a half years in the French speaking part of Belgium. Finally, I spent 3 months in the South of France, but I moved back to Holland end of February 2012.

Being abroad for so long has made wild-releasing a little difficult for me; practically all my books are in English or in Dutch. In the beginning I used to send a lot of books abroad by mail, fulfilling wishes etc. I still do sometimes (especially books not registered by me, see my "Keep them Moving" stats), but not as often as I used to while in France, where they were having a special low postal rate for books. In Belgium and Holland postage is very expensive. Well, now that I'm back I can wild-release books more often of course!

My screenname is bestfriends, because of the saying in Dutch:
"Boeken zijn je beste vrienden" (A book is like a Best Friend)


I did not like the way I had to spell it though (in one word) but there was no other possibility as the correct spelling (like with capitals and a hyphen) was already taken or would not be accepted. I would have needed to add a number and I wanted to avoid that.

You can also find me on Facebook.

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also on:

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and as BestFriends on


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I joined the Kiva Bookcrossing team


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Currently reading:



Familieziek - Adriaan van Dis
W is for Wasted - Sue Grafton

next up:
The Fault in our Stars - John Green
Darkness Peering - Alice Blanchard





Books I've Read in 2015





Books I've Read in 2014 (32)





Books I've Read in 2013 (60)





Books I've Read in 2012 (54)







Books I've Read in 2011 (71)







Books I've Read in 2010 (85)







Books I've Read in 2009 (68)








Books I've Read in 2008 (76)







Books I've Read in 2007 (84)






Books I've Read in 2006 (62)




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Books moved on in 2008 (48)




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Books moved on in 2009 (22)






Books moved on in 2010 (28)





Books moved on in 2011 (15)




I also 'kept them moving' in 2012 and I do participate in the challenge, but I don't keep a list here anymore.
In 2013 I stopped taking part altogether, because I want to consentrate on challenge in the Dutch forum.



Contact info




You can find my email and snailmail address at RABCK.com
If you are not a member please leave a message in one of the forums, if I don't answer your PM's. I normally answer them within say 48 hrs. I fnot, it's possible I have not received it or......that I'm away from home without internet access.

Please note: dates that I'm away from home without internet access will be mentioned here:



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links to BOOKRINGS I joined:



<=== with me now
*** on it's way to

NONE


January 2008: Postage turned out to be much higher in Belgium and on top of that they will cancel economy mail in February. Had to ask to be removed from a lot of shippinglists!!!!

Gösta Berling's Saga - Selma LagerlöfSTALLED (asked to be removed 21/1)
Suite Française STALLED (asked to be removed from list, will buy own copy).
The Kalahari Typing School for Men STALLED
Life of Pi STALLED (asked to be removed 21/1)
Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen asked to be removed 21/1 (will buy copy of my own)
Anastasia - Peter Kurth (asked to be removed from list 21/1)
The Almost Moon - Alice Sebold NEVER STARTED!
The Full Cupboard of Life STALLED Asked to be removed 27/3

Rings I read and sent on:


Stuffed - Patricia Volk =>
The Whale Rider =>
Memoirs of a Geisha =>
Maps for Lost Lovers =>
Brokeback Mountain - Annie E. Proulx=>
Chickenfeed - Minette Walters =>
The God of Small things - Arundhati Roy=>
The time traveler's wife-Audrey Niffenegger=>
Reading Lolita in Tehran =>
Me talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris =>
The Memory Keeper's daughter =>
Under the Skin =>
Parvana =>
In the Country of Men - Hisham Matar=>
A Tree grows in Brooklyn ===>
Pigs in Heaven - Barbara Kingsolver ===>
Tipping the Velvet ===>
The Piano - Jane Campion ===>
Parvana's Journey ====>
A lifetime Burning - Linda Gillard====>
Sins of the 7th Sister - Huston Curtiss===>
The Conjuror's Bird - Martin Davies===>
On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan ====>
Corelli's Mandolin - Louis de Bernieres ====>
Night Watch - Sarah Waters====>
Bridge to Terabitia ==>
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak ===>
The Almost Moon - Alice Sebold ===>
Dear Stranger, Dearest Friend - Laney Katz Becker ====>
Sunday at the Pool in Kigali - Gil Courtemanche====>
The Hours - Michael Cunningham===>
Isabel's Daughter - J.R. Hendricks ====>
Unless - Carol Shields ===>
Over de liefde - Doeschka Meijsing ===>
Italian Shoes - Henning Mankell ====>
Bitter with Baggage seeks Same ====>
Crossing Paths - Debbie Robson ===>



links to BOOKRAYS I joined:


<=== with me now
*** on it's way to me

None


Note:
January 2008: Postage turned out to be much higher in Belgium than in France, where they had special rates for sending books. On top of that they will cancel economy mail in February. Had to ask to be removed from a lot of shippinglists!!

De winkel van mijn vader - Simon Rozendaal ====>
De laaste liefde van mijn moeder - Dimitri Verhulst ===>
The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood (asked to be removed 21/1)
The Wild Sheep Chase - Haruki Murakami (asked to be removed 21/1)
Faithless- Karen Slaughter STALLED (asked to be removed 19/1 as RABCK was offered).

Rays I read and sent on


Blackberry Wine =>
The Tao of Pooh =>
The 5 People You Meet in Heaven =>
Veronika besluit te sterven =>
Tess of the D'Urbervilles =>
Just one Look - Harlan Coben=>
The Alchemist-Paulo Coelho=>
Lost in a Good Book=>
Oranges are not the only fruit =>
Dry: a Memoir - Augusten Burroughs =>
Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver =>
West from Home - Laura Ingals Wilder =>
Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman Aged 55 3/4 - Sue Townsend =>
The Murder Room - P.D. James was sent to #2 (?)
The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri =>
The Little Calico and Tortoiseshell Cat book ===>
Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood (rayed forward)===>
The Kalahari Typing school for Men (last one on list)
The Fifth Child - Doris Lessing ===>
The other Boleyn Girl-Philippa Gregory ===>
The Life and Times of the Thunderbold kid - Bill Bryson ===>
Saving Fish from Drowning - Amy Tan ===>
Earthly Joys-Philippa Gregory ===>
She's come undone - Wally Lamb ===>
Out Stealing Horses - Per Petterson ====>
He who fears the Wolf - Karin Fossum ===>
The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly ====>
The Thirteenth tale - Dianne Setterfield ===>
Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman - Buchanan ===>
On the Road - Jack Kerouac ====>
Snuff - Chuck Palahniuk ====> Waiting for the Barbarians - J.M. Coetzee ===>


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RINGS I STARTED:

For more details and a mailinglists click:

Het Marco-effect . Jussi Adler-Olsen COMPLETED

Also succesfully COMPLETED:

The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett Closed
The Gathering - Anne Enright
The Grandmothers - Doris Lessing
Until Death Do Us Part - Ingrid Betancourt
The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls
My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult
Never let me go - Kazuo Ishiguro
A Heart of Stone - Renate Dorrestein
Sixty Million Frenchmen can't be wrong
In a Dark Wood Wandering - Hella S. Haasse

STALLED OR LOST:
Invisible - Paul Auster
CLOSED (the book is considered lost or stalled).
bookmaniac70 will replace the book with this copy and continue the ring.
Valse Salie - Roos Boum (Dutch) MISSING IN THE MAIL. Now on "Lost Book Island".
Me talk pretty one day - David Sedaris STALLED with lmjsmum. Now on "Lost Book Island".

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COMPLETED RAYS:
Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
Bitter Herbs - Marga Minco
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank - Thad Carhart (INT)

STALLED:

The Piano Shop on the Left Bank - Thad Carhart (EUROPE) LOST IN MAIL (or stuck with andthings?) Now on "Lost Book Island".



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