Turning 26, reading thrillers, visiting beautiful cities and instagram challenges. Here’s a glance at my February at the moment!
February 2019.
January passed by quickly and it feels like February is doing the same. As I’m writing this (February 16th) the sun is shining and has been the whole week. I had my first ice cream of the year yesterday and it feels like spring is coming earlier than expected!
For the last week I’ve had a week off from work. I’m turning 26 on February 17th and what a better way to celebrate than have a week off to read books and have some fun days out?
My parents surprised me by taking me out to Den Haag and Amsterdam this week. In Den Haag I visited the ‘House of the book’, Meermanno, a museum all about books. A place I’d been wanting to visit for obvious reasons haha. But also because there was this great Quentin Blanke exhibition on, displaying his illustrations for books like Matilda by Roal Dahl. I’m planning on writing a full blog post on that and sharing some pictures, so keep your eyes out for that!
In Amsterdam I visited the Van Gogh Museum. I’m a huge fan of Vincent van Gogh’s work so I couldn’t have been more excited to visit this place. Four floors of beautiful paintings, sketches and letters he wrote in his lifetime. I wasn’t able to take a lot of pictures, but if you are ever in Amsterdam I definitely recommend visiting.
Books
With a week off comes a lot of reading time. In the beginning of the month I thought I had a bit of reading slump, but that was solved quickly by re-reading an old favorite. In the last week I had two one-day reads. The Bell Jar and My Sister The Serial Killer, both books I really enjoyed.
Other that I read a thriller this month. A genre that is far out of my comfort zone but I really enjoyed. I picked up De Krokodilvogel by Katrine Engberg at work after being intrigued by the plot. It’s a crime-thriller where fiction and reality gets mixed up. One early morning in an apartment complex the bloody body of a young woman turns up. It’s the start of a nightmare for the inhabits of the apartment complex. We follow the police team of Jeppe Kørner en Anette Werner as they try to solve this mystery. But things get weirder and weirder as they discover one of the inhabitants of the apartment complex was writing her own thriller. A story about a young woman getting murdered, in a bloody manner, in an apartment complex…’
I have a full Dutch review up on the blog, if you’re curious to hear my full thoughts!
I’ve discovered that crime-thrillers really work for me. Another example of those is the original Millenium trilogy by Stieg Larsson. I am a lover of true crime, so it only makes sense that I love reading about this subject in books too. Now that I’ve dipped my toes into this genre, I’m hoping to read a lot more gems!
Blog
I’m currently very satisfied with the Dutch-English balance on the blog. I try to review every book I read in Dutch, but still maintain my English posts next to that as well. I think it’s a good mix, and hope you, as the reader, agrees with me on that. 🙂
Talking about the blog. On the 31st of January something very cool happened. I was checking my blog-stats and realized I had a lot of visitors on the page of my review for Een Sky Full of Gedoofde Lichtjes. After a bit of research I discovered that the author of the book had linked my review on his Twitter page. It was very exciting to read that tweet, and it felt like an honor to have the author of the book like my review.
And it served as a great reminder to keep writing reviews. Also because I just love doing so, booksandmacchiatos.com has become like my child, soaking up all my attention haha!
Lastly, I want to talk about something very exciting happening on Instagram in March 2019! Together with my dear bookstagram friend Amanda we announced the second round of #macchiatosineden. Click here to see the announcement post!
The challenge is based on photo prompts, where you are challenged to post a picture matching the prompt. I’m very excited to see how this will turn out. After a successful first round, just look for the tag on instagram to see all the amazing responses! Amanda and me wanted to try something new. We have divided the challenge-month into 4 categories;
- ABOUT THE BOOKSHELF. The focus is all on your collection of books, show them off. Including a #sundayshelfie!
- ABOUT THE BOOKSTAGRAMMER. Finding out some fun stuff about other bookstagrammers is a great part of the community. Tell us all about your reading habits, your history with getting into reading and your book buying habits.
- BE THE BOOKSELLER. As a bookseller myself I’m super excited to see your answers to these prompts. It’s all about recommending books, I’m curious to see what books will pop up here!
- SHARE THE BOOKLOVE. And finally, let’s share some booklove. Favorite covers, favorite adaptions and books from your childhood. It’s time to gush over some books!
The response to the post has been great so far, and I can’t wait to see what people will come up with. And I’m, of course, very excited to join in myself as well!
Have a good month!
I hope you enjoyed this little glance at my month. Thank you for coming along with the journey!
PS1. If you liked this post, please tap the little heart. It means a lot. 
