My bookshelf

Behold, my bookshelf. These are the books I either brought with me when I moved out or I’ve bought since I’ve lived here. I’ve got two Dutch books and the rest on the shelf are all in English. I haven’t read all of them yet, but I am eventually going to.
For a closer look, keep on reading.

I will start on the left of the shelf, with the The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series written by Douglas Adams.

This series (which I actually keep in a pretty box) contains five books (even though it’s called a trilogy) and I really like them. I’ve read them a few years ago for English class and my teacher at the time had a great sense of humour, so I liked to do my oral exam on these books with him.
In one of the books, I don’t remember which one, there’s a part I particularly liked, namely when it’s told how someone must learn to fly. The main point of learning to fly is to fall and then to just simply miss the ground. And I mean miss the ground in a way like I play soccer and I want to kick the ball away and I just kick plain air. That kind of missing something, just not hitting it.
I mean, come on. That is hilarious, how can someone ever come up with that (but then again, I think that with most stories and books and movies. How does someone come up with something that’s not been thought of before?! HOW?!). I highly recommend you to read the books and watch the movie, which has Martin Freeman in it, whom we all know as Bilbo Baggins in the latest The Hobbit movie (and also as John in Sherlock).
Another thing I really like about the books and I didn’t notice before I took the pictures this afternoon, is that they’ve got ADAMS printed on their fronts. Not really something special, but I kind of like it.

Next book on the shelf is The Complete Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe. I can’t really say much about this book, since I haven’t read it yet. It’s not really on my list to read soon, but it’s there for when I do want to read it.

The book following Edgar’s book is kind of an unusual book. It’s called Gothic Art (by Jasmin Becket-Griffith) and it’s filled with, how surprising, gothic art. I might post a more eluded view on this book later, but I am not sure if I’m allowed to show the pictures that are inside.
Anyhow, I bought this book once because I was in my infamous emo-phase. I’m pretty sure almost every girl of my age has had one, so I am not ashamed (also, I am not ashamed because I still tend to dress a bit more alternatively than most girls my age). I used to draw a lot (and I am going to pick that up again) and I used to go through this book for inspiration.
It’s not a book I would recommend to anyone, but if you’re interested in art and gothic-ish stuff, I would tell you how much I (have) love(d) this book.

The next book is a Dutch one and it’s En dan nog iets by Paulien Cornelisse. It’s the second book she’s written like this and I do own the first one (called Taal is zeg maar echt mijn ding), but it’s at my parent’s. The books are written about modern day language and how weird it can be sometimes. For example, to like someone is different from to like like someone. Everybody knows the difference, but I can see how it’s weird that it’s a thing people say.
If you’re interested in languages, I’d recommend this book. I can’t read a whole lot in one go and I haven’t read this one completely yet, but it is fun to read when you’re on a bus and have some time to spare.

The fault in our stars by John Green. I know everybody has read it and everybody loves it and I am almost afraid to say this – I don’t think it’s that special. I’ve read it two times and the first time I just really wasn’t impressed at all. Then EVERYBODY LOVED IT, so I decided to give it a second chance and I did like it a bit better, but I’ve still only given it a three stars rating on Goodreads (but then again, I almost don’t give five stars ratings, so four would be highest and so three is still not bad at all and anyhow, not the point).
I’ve read more books by John Green and I am going to be hated for this, but I am just really not that into them. I’ve tried, but no.

The book next to TFIOS is The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I loved and hated this book. Loved, because oh. my. god. The story is just amazing, like seriously, what I said before, how can anyone think these things up. I loved the idea of the time traveler who didn’t know where or when he would be and still had a wife who loved him. But also, I hated it, mainly for -if you’ve read it- obvious reasons. Some plot twists I cried over at night and all.
There’s a movie made from this book and I would recommend both the book and the movie. Of course, I would suggest you’d read the book first before watching the movie, but that would just be so you didn’t know the horrible plot twist already. The movie has Rachel McAdams starring as Clare (the wife) and I don’t think they could have made a better choice.

Next little overview of my shelf. I apologise for blurriness, I have to practice keeping my hand still when taking the picture.

My sister’s keeper by Jodi Picoult. I’ve seen the movie before I read the book and the book has a whole different ending (which I won’t spoil, obviously). The story is pretty insane. It’s about a girl who has leukemia and her parents made a sister who is about a genetic copy of her, so she can donate all kinds of body parts to her sick sister. I don’t think this is really legal (I am not sure if this is discussed in the book. I believe so, but it’s been a while since I read the book), but it’s certainly an interesting idea. The sick sisters gets more sick and then there’s the discussion of how far the donor sister has to go to save her sick sister and what feeling who has. If you haven’t read the book yet, you will be very surprised, I promise.
In short I will say this: if you feel like crying, go read the book. If you feel like crying even more, go watch the movie too.

The next book is Divergent by Veronica Roth. I presume everybody’s read this book too, or at least heard of it. Another dystopian book, yes, but I was definitely not disappointed while reading it. It’s part of a trilogy of which the second book is called Insurgent and the third book is of yet nameless, I think. I haven’t read the second book yet (yes, shame on me) and I will have to reread Divergent again before understanding anything happening in Insurgent.
It’s very stupid, but the main thing I thought about while writing about Divergent, is that when you order both Divergent and Insurgent at bookdepository, you get books with a different height. That bothers me. A lot. And that’s why I haven’t gotten around to buying Insurgent yet.

The next series standing on my shelf, is a series EVERYBODY has read. EVERYBODY.
It’s the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling. I’ve bought these ones myself, since my mother bought the series in Dutch. I do like the Dutch covers better, they’re prettier (look them up), but since I like English books better, I had to buy myself these.

I hate the weird little fold in the back of the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I haven’t even read that one yet, this is how it arrived. Not pleased.

The book standing next to the Harry Potter series, is Extreem Luid en Ongelooflijk Dichtbij by Jonathan Safran Foer. It’s the Dutch movie edition of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and so far, I don’t like the book. I haven’t even finished it yet, even though I started reading it about nine months ago or something. I don’t know what it is, but I just can’t seem to get through. I have seen the movie and I did really like it, so it’s not that I don’t like the story. I think it’s something about the way it is written, but as I said, it’s been quite a few months since I read it, so I don’t really remember that well. Maybe I should pick it up again sometime soon and try if I like it better this time.

The next three books are in a box together. They are three books (Wreck this Journal, Mess, This is not a book) written by Keri Smith and they are not your average books. They’re books meant to make you do something. As you can see by how pretty they still are, I haven’t gotten around to actually doing any of the ‘assignments’ in them. When I’m finished with one of the -probably Wreck this Journal, since it’s a goal on my Day Zero list-, I will make a post specifically on the book and what I’ve done with it.

And this marks the last overview of my bookshelf. Only a few more books to go.

These are the books by Nicholas Sparks I own. I have read The Notebook and The last song. I can’t remember if I’ve read A walk to remember, because I have seen the movie and now I’m just not sure if I’ve actually read the book too. Dear John I am still reading, but mweh. I don’t really like it, didn’t like the that much either.
I think almost every book written by Nicholas Sparks eventually becomes a movie and honestly, if you’d just see the movies, that would be good enough for me. Most of his books are fun, but they’re not literature or books that make you think about life or something. They’re just nice to read when you’ve got nothing else to do.

And last but certainly not least, the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings books. I haven’t read any of them yet, but I will! Soon! The covers only scream to my that I have to read them, now. They are so pretty.

And that was my bookshelf. Not that many books, but it still took me a very long time to write this post.