The last HP?

Here another book blogpost. This time "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" form J.K. Rowling. A small book of circa 125 pages.

In the past there where only seven copies of the book, which were handwritten bij Rowling and were bound in leather and inlaid with semi-precious stones. One of these Rowling offered for auction for charity (The Children's Voice). The other six were given away. But after some persuasion by fans, the book is now available in print. Also this time some money will go to charity, namely Children's High Level Group. By buying the book you not only get a nice book, but you'll also help charity.


As the title indicates the book contains several tales that were written by Beetle the Bard. A name the readers of Harry Potter will know of. It contains five tales namely:

1. The Wizard and the Hopping Pot
2. The Fountain of Fair Fortune
3. The Warlock's Hairy Heart
4. Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump
5. The Tale of the Three Brothers

And all of this has been translated by Hermione Granger. Besides that Albus Dumbledore gives after every tale some notes of himself. Giving more information about the tale.

The tales are nicely written, but personally I found them a little bit short. The notes of Albus Dumbledore are interesting to read. All by all it's a nice book read and it gives more insight in the world of Harry Potter, but don't expect a book like the other Harry Potter books, because that it is not. The only thing I'm wondering about the Harry Potter world is: Is Rowling going to write another Harry Potter book like this? I'm wondering about this because this book refers to a tale that isn't written down in it. Does Rowling keep the Harry Potter open for another book or does she keep the fantasy open for here readers? Time will tell I guess.

Chirp Chirp

Every year in the Nederlands we have a bookweek. This year was the 74th time and the motto was: Chirp Chirp - The literary zoo.

Every year there is a bookweekgift. This time it was "Een tafel vol Vlinders" (A table full of butterflies) from Tim Krabbé. It only has 90 pages. I've read it this weekend and I have to say it's a nice book. But just as last year I have the strong feeling that the bookweekgift doesn't fit in the motto. The only point that's coming near to it is the comparison of the table full of butterflies. Personaly I find that not sufficient enough.

Back cover text: And Bram was a son. Just because he was not - you are obligated to love your own sone, through witch you always doubt if your realy do so; he loved Bram just because it was Bram.


The book only has two chapters. In the first chapter you get the story of Fred. It's his text that was printed on the back cover. He's the one who sees Bram as his son.. even if Bram isn't his son.
The second chapter tels the story of Bram in the form of a diary. It brings some contrast to both stories. Both stories are good. But there isn't much variety in it. If the motto was Love, than this book would perfectly fit in it.

Personally I found the writing style not that great. The text wasn't alway that fluently. That and absence of variety made the book for me nice and not great.

Besides the bookweek gift I also had my eyes on the bookweek essay. Under the titel: "Piep - Een kleine biologie der letteren (Peep - A little biology of the literature)" Midas Dekkers tells about the use of anumals in literature.


The book is 60 pages long or more like to short. Midas dekkers writes with his own sense of humor his, sometimes absurd, look on thinks. Like all good essays he uses a lot of external sources.

And these are also very nice and sometimes funny. So if you can read Dutch, try to get a copy of it and read it. :)

Last weekend

It was a busy time last weekend. On Saturday I was in Oldenburg (Germany). It was just as alway a lot of fun. Again I bought some nice games (I was given some money for that day). The games I bought were: Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, Black Buccanneer, Universe at War en Amiga Classix Gold II all for the PC en Guitar Hero On Tour Decades for the NintendoDS.

I just had to buy Dreamfall after I had so much fun with The Longest Journey. The other PC games were just cheap. 2 of them were 2,99 euro and 1 of them was 2,49. I liked Guitar Hero On Tour and I couldn't resist buying Decades, the sequel, for just 25 euro and that's with the Guitar Grip included.

Further more I bought some magazines with some free games. And for my seals collection I bought a nice item. Also I got two bottles of honey-wine with cherry and two very sweet porcelain rabbits for easter. It was a very successful day. :D

The rabbits

On Sunday I went to my grandmother. On such a day there is nothing to do in the city, so I've just did some reading. I've read "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" from J. K. rowling and a little bit more then half of "Een tafel vol vlinders" (A table full of butterflies) from Tim Krabbé. Soon some more about these books.

So that was my weekend, and it all means I had to drive a lot. Because driving to Oldenburg and to my grandmother cost two hours to and twee hours back. But it was all worth it. :P

The Chronicles of Narnia

In the genre of fantasy genre there are some series you have to read if you are a fan. for example: The Lord of the Rings from J.R.R. Tolkien or Harry Potter from J.K. Rowling. An other one that belongs to this list is The Chronicles of Narnia, written bij C.S. Lewis.

The Chronicles of Narnia include these seven books:
- The Magician's Nephew
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
- The Horse and His Boy
- Prince Caspian
- The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
- The Silver Chair
- The Last Battle

In 2005 the book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was made into a film and because of this I bought a book with all the Narnia books in it in 2006. It was a big one, counting 1184 pages. In the first summer I've read the first three books and then I layed the book aside till the end of 2008. And I read the lost page some week ago.

At first I wanted to write a blogpost for every book. But I didn't get to that, so that's why I'm only writing this general post.

Every book tells a story of an adventure that's placed in a world named Narnia. A world where all sorts of mythical creatures live and where it's normal that animals speak and are bigger than the ones here on earth. Beside this all, Narnia is sometimes connected with our world and then it is possible to get to this Narnia. But only if you are a child and only three times. This means that, as a reader, you don't follow the same earthly children. But the different earth children are connected with each other. But I'm not gonna tell you how, for that you'll have to read the books yourself.

The books on there own aren't that big. Between the 150 and 200 pages. They are easy to read because they fit into the category child-fantasy.

As a Christian I noticed that the books had some Christian influence. Somebody who doesn't know anything about the Christian believe will not see this... but I can understand that someone who does can have a negative feeling about the books. But I didn't mind the influence at all.
There are also people who have the meaning that the books are patronizing females. Personally I don't have that meaning. I think the female characters are very strong and brave. But, they are sometime to sweet and nice.

I liked the world Lewis created and loved to read it. It's such a wonderful place. The following up of the books, in the order that I've named them here above, fits very nice. The end of the last book is a bit of sad. But it round it all off.

Bad Jokes

The day before yesterday I saw the movie A Prairie Home Companion. The story on it's own isn't that great. It's about a home radio variety show recorded and performed live in front of an audience in a theater in St. Paul, Minnesota. The problem is that the show is too old and has therefor been canceled. The performers know it's there last night, but the audience doesn't. As viewer you see how the performers react on the canceling of the show and how there lives are connected with it.

for me the story alone doesn't make the movie great, but the music does. Just like O Brother, Where Art Thou?, but that one had also a great story. It's the same sort of music, and I just loved it. One song in particular. When I heard this one I just laughed. And here it is for you to watch :)

Christmas competition 2008 2

I promised to post a picture if I had all the prices that I've won in the Fok!games Christmas competition. And yesterday the second post-package came in. So here it is. :)



I'm very happy for all this free stuff of course. But there's one small thing I'm not that happy about. The case of the PSP game Star Wars renegade Squadron is broken. There is a split in it that covers 1/3 of the case. Don't know how it happened, probably through the mail. I made a comment about it at fok!games... and got the reply that they'll try to get a new PSP case for me... and when they have it they'll send it to me. So now it's waiting time again. Oh well, the game is still in good shape. :)

The wind in the Willows

Some animation or movies based on a book can give a warm feeling in the heart thinking about them. One animation I like to think of is The Wind in the Willows. I know there are more of them... but one in particularly I was very fond of.

I was still a little boy when I saw that animation. And because of this animation I wanted to read the book for myself a very long time. Some time ago a purchased a copy of the book and one week ago I started reading it. And I just loved it.

It's such a nice, sweet and cuddly story. Sweet little Mole and his nice friends Rat and Badger... and not to forget that crazy Toad. I knew most of the story... But Kenneth Grahame's writing style just kept me reading. It pulled me in, to that English country where no real trouble exists. To all those animal characters you just have to love.

I just know that this is one of those books I will read more then ones in my life.