Frenzy

The past two weeks have been so chaotic with work, writing, reviewing and life in general that I ended up neglecting my poor little baby aka The City. With no definite projects in sight, I finally have time to devote some much needed TLC to my blog.

So what happenend since last time? Well, I managed to order a copy of Pride and Predjudice and Zombies so yay! I wrote a piece about the City Visions festival in Mechelen. It was kinda rush rush so I hope I didn't give my editor too much of a headache to rewrite the whole thing. I also had to review a cookbook: Fresh + Fast by Michele Cranston which oddly enough wasn't easy. It's a very pretty book published by Marie Claire and contains, like the magazine, a lot of glossy pictures but little or no substance. Highly recommended to satisfy the inner rabbit in us all seeing as lettuce is Cranston's favorite ingredient.

I finally read Eclipse and I have to say that the Twilight series just keeps on getting better! Although I can't wait to read Breaking Dawn, the finale, I'm going to do just that because it pains me to know that the end is closing in, sniff. Now, because the Dutch version of Eclipse was released last week we had to wear Eclips T-shirts at work last week, strangely enough I was the only one who didn't mind. Am I a nerd or what?
Besides Eclipse I also read People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks for our book club. I normally would never have read it because it's contains a few stories within a story and although it was actually quite good, I don't really care for short stories but that's just me. But I did admire how Brooks managed to create such intricate little tales as background information for all the oddities the main character found in a priceless ancient Haggadah.

Now the past two weeks, I have to admit, I've also been in a book buying frenzy. Damn you discount card, Book Depository and Playtrade! I acquired a ridiculous amount of books and spent a little over €50 which I have to say kinda makes me proud.

It all started with Goodbye Chunky Rice, the first graphic novel by Craig Thompson which I've wanted to read ever since I read his spectacular Blankets earlier this year. It stars an adorable and sad little turtle, nuff said. Next up are De Eenzaamheid van de Priemgetallen by Paolo Giordano and An Offer you can't Refuse by Jill Mansell. I don't know which is more shocking, me reading a book in Dutch or me reading chicklit? Both are bestsellers at the store if you were wondering if I had completely lost it.

I also got the entire literary inspired Geronimo Stilton collection because a) he is HOT if you're 9-12 years old and like mouse detectives and b) I loved the way they recreated classics such as Treasure Island and The Three Musketeers for kids, with mice! Trust me, if you don't know what I'm talking about and live in Belgium, have a looksee in the children's bookdepartment and enter the phenomenal realms of the mouse that is Stilton, Geronimo Stilton. I'll probably read them, some day...

Another book that I just started in is Julie and Julia by Julie Powell which I'm kinda excited about after having read rave reviews on numerous blogs plus it was only €4,50 for the hardback version! Anyway, it's about Julie Powell herself who after years of working as a temp decides to give her life a little more meaning by creating a project: making all the recipes from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year aka 365 days, 524 recipes and 1 tiny apartment kitchen. She shared her cooking mishaps as well as their effects on her surounding with the world through a very succesful blog that eventually turned into Julie and Julia. Starting with a dead end job that evolves into a messy kitchen and finally turns into a book deal, a true inspiration on how to turn your life around and probably the real reason why I wanted to read this book.

I also bought Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto and The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson (which has black pages) because they came highly recommended by friends and were rediculously cheap so I'll keep you posted. I added some more Murakami to the collection seeing as I had a gift voucher that was pleading to be returned to it's rightful owner, the store: South of the Border, West of the Sun and What I talk about when I talk about Running. The latter is his memoir which doesn't only deal with his extensive marathon training but should also shed some more light on why he gave up everything (careerwise) and simply started writing, bless him. And finally there's Mr. Toppit by Charles Elton, a mystery / drama set in the classic era of the film industry which I simply adore plus it had a pretty cover. I guess that's about it. That wasn't too bad, right?

Tv and movie-wise not a lot happened seeing as the dvd-player died on me just when I got my special edition copy of Twilight! Luckily my Vaio was more that able to fill the void.