2010 Roudup

2010 turned out to be quite an interesting year, to be honest it has been my favorite year so far: I have two jobs I really love, celebrated five blissful years with the pumpkin and I finally found a little direction. For the first time in my life, I can actually say that I’m truly contented. I know that over the past few years I’ve done my fair share of nagging but it’s true what they say: the older you get, the more you are able to place things and that’s one of the many tidbits I learned this year. The road to inner peace has become slightly less bumpy and a tad more cinnamon scented. I also stopped taking this for granted, like our apartment which is my favorite place on earth right now and my mother and brilliant grandmother who bug me on a daily basis but whom I couldn’t live without. And I never thought I’d go to work with a smile on my face or have my own column, life can sometimes really surprise you.

Although not as much as my 2010 reading list:

Books read: 82

• Fiction (no mysteries or short stories): 29
• Nonfiction: 12
• Mysteries/Crime/Suspense: 4
• Cookbooks: 14
• YA novels: 7
• Children’s books: 6
• Books in Dutch: 7
• Short story collections: 5
• Graphic novels: 12
• Poetry: 1
• Book club books: 10

Favorite books of 2010: One Day (David Nicholls), Invisible (Paul Auster), The Year of the Flood (Margaret Atwood), and The Other Hand (Chris Cleeve)

Yummiest book of 2010: The Hummingbird Bakery cookbook

Biggest waste of time of 2010: Big Brother in Europe, don’t even get me started. I had to read it for the Groene Waterman Prize and it was so bad in so many ways.

Prettiest book of 2010: The Art of McSweeneys, wow!

Most overrated book of 2010: Freedom, no contest.

Special credit to The Clock without a Face by Gus Twintig because it’s not just a great story, I absolutely loved the puzzles as well. Ingenious!

Finally, seeing as there’s always room for improvement this year’s resolutions are:

• Become a vegetarian, already two days and counting
• Read more, buy less and read more non-English authors
• Blog more
• Save up for the mother of all kitchen appliances: a cranberry Kitchen Aid
• Do more pilates
• Finish that novel, damn it
• Be more patient
• Be a better Godmother, I already endured hell aka the Samson & Gert Kerstshow today so that’s already one gigantic leap in the right direction

I guess that’s it for now. I just want to wish all my readers a happy and healthy 2011 filled with great photo opportunities, inspiration, laughter, new experiences, enlightenment and fulfillment.