I have been pondering this decision for a while now. I'm not really into reading challenges. Yes, I set myself a reading goal for the year on Good Reads - 150 books for 2013 - but other than that I usually just read whatever happens to strike my fancy at any given moment, or any title that is up for review. But when I saw this challenge to read a certain amount of books written by Dutch authors in the original language I was tempted.
Of course it isn't as easy as it sounds since I live in Ireland and Dutch books are few and far between in the shops here. On the other hand I do have two or three unread books by Dutch authors on my shelves and the husband and I hope to travel to Holland later in the year so I decided that I could probably manage at least 5 books, which is the minimum amount in this challenge.
So the level I'm aiming for is called "Speculaasje" (which is a Dutch, spiced biscuit, as shown in the picture above). I hope I will manage to read more than five Dutch books this year, but considering the constraints I'll be reading under, this seems a reasonable goal.
These are the books I already have in my possession and will be reading in 2013:
1. Een Rus in de Jordaan by Baantjer & de Waal
2. Bonita Avenue by Peter Buwalda
3. Zolang er Leven is by Renate Dorrestein
4. Is er Hoop by Renate Dorrestein.
What the fifth book will be and whether or not I'll read more than five books depends on whether or not I'll make it to Holland and what I'll pick up once I'm there.
Phew, decision has been made and I have to say I'm suddenly really looking forward to reading these books.
If you are interested in this challenge you can find the post in which it was launched by De Boekblogger here. But remember, like the books to be read for this challenge, that blog is in Dutch.
Update:
I just exchanged comments with Judith, the organiser of this challenge and she mentioned to me that if anybody would like to join in who doesn't know Dutch they could just read translations of books by Dutch authors. Let me know if you're interested and I'll make sure the instructions to this challenge are made available in English, either here or on Judith's own blog.
3 comments:
Really nice you're joining in, Marleen! Your list of books looks good. I've read the 3 last ones and enjoyed them a lot.
Good luck with the challenge!
Actually, any of your readers could join in by reading books translated from the Dutch, in case they do not know Dutch. That would be good fun, too!
Judith, I'll edit my post and add that the challenge also works with translated books by Dutch authors and we'll see if anyone is interested. Did you post this challenge on your English blog as well or shall I over to translate the instructions if and when somebody wants to know more?
No, I didn't put it on my English blog, but I have one English-language participant (with Dutch ancestors) taking part.
If you like to translate, please do! It would be fun to get some English readers join in, too.
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