Little blue book

I own a little blue book in which I write all the books I would like to buy. That can be extremely practical when standing in a bookstore, or not… Sometimes I forget my little blue book. And then it so happens that I buy a book (or two) I already own. There was a time I knew exactly which books I had. But with over 1600 books and an aging brain, I can’t remember. Hence… the little blue book. Which of course only helps when it is in your bag. The last two holidays we spent in England, it was at home. Lying lonely in one of the drawers of my desk. England for me is always an excuse to buy books. As much as possible, or as much as can be fitted in the trunk of our car (alongside the model kits dear hubby buys). So, at the beginning of this year I made a sort of resolution: I would put the little blue book in my bag and it wouldn’t leave my bag ever again. No sooner said than done.

Last Friday we were in Haarlem, visiting – among others – the local second hand book store. And I found use for my little blue book. I checked the book I wanted to buy and… yes… I hadn’t bought it. So happy as I was, I paid. Coming home, I checked again. Mm, it seemed like a new series from one of my favorite authors. Or was it? Looking onto the bookshelves I found the books by the author I thought I had bought. Only instead of Michael Connelly, this one was named John Connolly. Or the other way around. I can’t remember (which is exactly why I need that little blue book).

What went wrong? I think I know. Generally I only write down the books I want to buy. In Connolly case, I only wrote down the books in the Charlie Parker series. But sometimes authors writes books outside of their series. And I thought this was one of them. If I had read the back cover, I would have noticed that it stated ‘Harry Bosch nr. 13’.  Alas.

Do I regret spending my money on the wrong author? No, not really. The book is now on my bedside table. Great reading before going to sleep. A serial killer and Harry Bosch is the detective who wants to capture him. No gruesome details yet. So for now, it stays where it is.

And next time, I check, check, double check.

An Englishman in Venice

For me personally, it never is a good sign if I can put down a book for a really long time. This was the case with "The cemetery of secrets' by David Hewson, which I just finished. I've read books by Hewson before. I do like his Nic Costa-series. This one, however, doesn't belong to this series. I don't know whether it was for this reason, of because of the story, but it took me more than half way through the book 'to get into the story'. That doesn't mean the story wasn't any good or the way it is writen. It just didn't work for me. The funny thing is that reading the book was a slow process, writing this review went the same. I don't know why. The book is namely not a bad read.

It is the story of an Englishman, named Daniel Forster, who arrives in Venice for the summer to do some work for a shady Venetian, Scacchi. He gets involved in the business of buying a stolen violin, while he also finds a anonymous concerto. Scacchi and another Englishman, Massister, talk him into pretending to be the author of the concerto. Also involved in the whole story are an American violist Amy, a Venetian cop Morelli, the housekeeper Laura and some other minor characters. Although some die, in the end all ends well. I'm not sure whether it is a good end, but it fits the story.

Besides the tale in our time, there is a secondary story which is set in 1733. This story is actually on some level better than the present day story.It gives a nice insight in 18th century Venice. It tells the story of who wrote the anonymous concerto. It involves an ancestor of Scacchi, Lorenzo Scacchi and his love for a Jewish violist, Rachel Levi. He smuggles her out of the ghetto to play in the orchestra of Vivaldi. She gives him a concerto she wrote. Conveniently enough Lorenzo's uncle owns a printing office. In search for money to print the concerto and having it played, they find an financier, the Englishman Delapole. Just as in the present day story, the Englishmen are the bad guys. They are both manipulative, shady men. They give the story a little zing. Otherwise it would be a rather bland tale.

All in all not a bad book. But I would recommend the Nic Costa series over this one.

What is so special about vampires?

Last year I read 'Dracula' by Bram Stoker for the first time ever (the Wordsworth Classics edition, 1993). We'd visited the lovely town of Whitby during our holiday in England. Whitby is famous for being the landing place of Dracula in England. It is also the place where he stalks Lucy for the first time. Figuring in the tale are the town, the 199 steps to the Abbey and the cemetery on top of the cliffs, besides the ruins of the abbey. It is – besides the abbey – one of the selling points of the town. And yes, you can find shops with Dracula stuff.

The vampire according to Bram Stoker is the classic vampire: it feeds on human blood, cannot be seen in daylight and sleeps in a coffin. Although the book is sometimes quite slow in its pace, for a book first published in 1897, it is remarkably exciting. A lot happens. And of course the men in the tale risk everything to save the damsels in distress.

Reading and buying

I bought two new books during the Holidays and even received one from Santa. I received S.J. Parris’ “Heresy”. As a huge fan of C.J. Sansom and his Shardlake-series, I’m really curious about this book. Is it as good, or... It will have to wait a little while longer, because currently I’m reading “A discovery of witches” by Deborah Harkness (which I recently bought). At page 31, chapter 3, I like the book so far. The heroine is working in an academic world and it is set in Oxford in the Bodleian Library. She’s doing research into alchemy. The funny thing is, the back cover says the book will be irresistible to Twilight fans. I’ve read only 31 pages, but the book is so much better in these 31 pages then in the whole Twilight book. Diane is a grown up woman. She does have her issues, but she doesn’t moan over a boy/man (so far at least). Twilight sucks, but this book is promising. I’ll review the whole book after I finished it.

At the same time I’m also reading David Henson’s “The cemetery of secrets”. I confess, I already read how it ends (a terrible, but irresistible trait of mine). This is not one out of the Nic Costa-series, but rather a stand-alone. It plays in Venice. At this point, we have a mysterious violin, a thief, an art dealer, an English scholar, and an American do-gooder. Of course they’re all connected. I’m a fan of the Nic Costa-series. I even took quite some trouble last year to catch the latest one in hard back in England. With this “Cemetery”, I don’t know. It took me some time to “get” the book. I even put it down for a while. For now I’m giving it a second chance.

For the future there are several books waiting. There’s Carlos Zafon’s “The midnight palace” (also recently bought); G.R.R. Martin’s “A dance with dragons” (not so recently bought, but also not very high on the list – I do dislike mr. Martin’s attitude towards his fans) and several more. Too much books, too little time.