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Arjan Boltjes

tinyspheresof@bookrastinating.com

Joined 1 year, 1 month ago

Just a casual reader. I have lots of books, most of which I haven't read, yet. If only I stopped bringing home books from the library, or buying new (for me - mostly 2nd hand) books, and instead read the books that are already on my shelves. ;)

Importing books into bookrastinating has failed miserably, until now. So, I'll just add books while I read them.

I have a book club with a number of my best friends. It's called Nosnost Boekie. The books that we have read and discussed until now, you can find here

Link to my Mastodon account

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Arjan Boltjes's books

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Amerikanen fietsen niet... (Paperback, 2015, Elmar Uitgeverij) 4 stars

Inspiring journey, uninspiring writing

4 stars

8500 km of cycling in about half a year. That sounded awesome, so I picked this up during our own #cycling vacation in a local bookstore in Deventer. And I still think this entire trip or anything like it is worth the time and effort. The sheer distance and height difference tackled are inspiring, and the setting - the USA, car-centric country number one in my mind - seems quite a challenge. And it was, including desert landscape, the aforementioned mountains, empty roads. Sadly, the writing style is not what I had hoped for. Only little of the story drew me in, with an occasional anecdote interesting enough to truly entertain. The rest left me mostly untouched. At least it was an easy/fast read. And, plenty of cycling to think about it. Yet, where am I going to find six months to go cycling!?

Neerslag van een huwelijk (Hardcover, Dutch language, 2018, Atlas Contact) 4 stars

Painful breakdown of a marriage

4 stars

It took me about fifty pages to get into this, but well worth reading after all. Van Keulen has a nice writing style, even in a diary like this. She clearly paints a picture of her failing marriage, her then husband, the seventies and the Dutch writers community. As always, I cannot help feeling that the sexual freedom won in the 1960s and 1970s was mainly for men, not women. A prime example being Lon, Van Keulen's husband, fucking around, indicating in multiple ways he has every right to do this within a marriage. At the expense of the writer. The impact of all this on Mensje van Keulen, being physically sick of it and hardly getting work done, is crystal clear. Aside, also of interest, the total lack of abstinence from alcohol or smoking while being pregnant. Different times for sure.

All in all, a good but painful read. …

Wires and Nerve (2017) 4 stars

Reasonably entertaining

4 stars

Apparently, looking at the backside of the book and the prices and accolades, the Lunar Chronicles series are (or were?) a thing. Before finding this #GraphicNovel in our public library, I had not heard about it. But it could be that I'm not necessarily the audience aimed for.

This graphic novel apparently takes place after the happenings in the original five books. It's told from the perspective of an android, although not entirely consistently. In short, it's about - what they call - wolf-hybrid soldiers threatening peace on earth, and between the moon and earth, this aforementioned android going after them, and a subset of these soldiers then going after her friends (the main characters of the first five books).

Not a big fan on the graphic art. A lot looks the same, like the characters. The monochrome style probably doesn't help either. Although a style like that can add …

Onkrijgbaarheid (Hardcover, Dutch language, 2022, Prometheus) 5 stars

True love?

5 stars

Content warning Spoilers ahead

J. Kessels: The Novel (Paperback, Dutch language, 2011, Contact) 4 stars

Fun read, bit repetitive

4 stars

This is probably meant to be pulp, as opposed to Thomese's usual literary work. He puts himself and a friend as main characters, but I very much doubt there's much autobiographical truth in here. ;) Nice style, from time to time hilarious storytelling. Gloriously over the top, incorrect, sleezy, but also quite repetitive, driving points home again and again. All in all, a fun read, but not much more than that.