I usually don't read two books at once, but when I do, it's good for the statistics. I decided to take a light-weight book along with me while commuting this month for my student job, and it ended up begin 'De wetenschap van de zee' (translated: Marine Science), a book published by the Flemish institute for marine science. It was an interesting introductionary read with variating topics, like marine geology, marine biology, biotechnology, waves... All with a focus on the North Sea, though.

Books finished in 2016:
#1: Winter's Heart, Robert Jordan
#2: Dune, Frank Herbert
#3: Crossroads of Twilight, Robert Jordan
#4: Tower of the Swallow, Andrzej Sapkowski
#5: Knife of Dreams, Robert Jordan
#6: The Long Earth, Terry Pratcher en Stephen Baxter
#7: The Gathering Storm, Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson
#8: De wetenschap van de zee

Finished Digital Fortress again last week, has lots of cool stuff like hacking, encryption and giant code breaking computers in it. I wish every novel was a Dan Brown novel.

I'll take the opportunity to ask you about online NL books as I know bol.com but there was another "big" NL website (shipping in Belgium) which exists but I definitely can't remember its name. So if you know it.... ;)

* Legends of Corsica * by Francette Orsoni

As the title says, it's a compilation of local folk tales from the "Isle of Beauty". The various stories are told in simple French (so it's readable to kids and teens) and it gladly uses some Corsican expressions. Each chapter/tales is introduced by a black&white full-page illustration and finished by a smaller one. It was quite a pleasant reading.
https://www.amazon.fr/Contes-L%C3%A9gendes-Corse-Francette-Orsoni/dp/2092547208

I went camping last weekend so I churned through a few!

Ichor Well by Joseph Lallo - a part of his "Free Wrench" steampunk series. He started it as a NaNoWriMo project, I believe, but had to turn it into a real series because of the popularity. It's good fun!

Open Season by C J Box - the first Joe Pickett novel. Wow, what a fantastic book! The suspense was intense, and just got more intense as the book went on. I couldn't put it down.

The Other Eight another Joseph Lallo novelette. This one was about superheroes that have useless powers, and was another NaNoWriMo project. Meh, it was not great, especially when I read a much better book ("Playing for Keeps") on the same topic.

Outlaw by Edward W. Robertson. A new Storybundle space opera. Some space crewers on a ship discover that their captain has turned into a pirate... there is a significant subplot involving FTL travel. This is apparently a sequel to another series he wrote ("Breakers") and it turns out the first three are free at Amazon.

The Martian by Andy Weir - LOVED IT! I was worried that watching the movie would ruin some of the suspense... Well, it does, but it was still gripping, and a real hoot to read.

I also read a few miscellaneous short, unfinished things.

My complete list has been updated

Unfortunately, I don't. I don't often buy books, and when I do, it's mostly in the stores themselves.

I really liked it, but that could be a side effect after reading a lot of The Wheel of Time. It has lots of character development, as it has only 2 main characters for the majority of the book, so they don't bore. The sci-fi- part is explored well, with showing the many effect of having acces to nearly unlimited new worlds, on both personal and societal levels. But what me really kept reading, was the sense of wonder, the chance to discover new worlds. Knowing that there could be a totally new world on the next page was quite cool :)

Sword of Destiny

I'm not keen on short stories and the first four in this book more or less just proved me right once again. They are well written and it is a plus that they're connected, with bits of a bigger story to be found inside them, but they are nevertheless pretty much just short stories, at times forced, at times striding too far either into humor or into a fairy tale, at times simply seeming to not quite fit, and overall rather missing the tone, setting and mood that I expected, and which they perhaps sought. Also, one particular reason to be angry with Yennefer sure is stressed at some point, and by that I don't mean the one most people reading this will assume. That one just makes me feel even worse about the way what to me is the only right choice was treated in The Witcher 3.
However, I rated this the way I did thanks to the last two stories, which definitely belong alongside the proper books in the series, being properly connected and certainly finding that tone and mood and setting, never losing their way. After reading the fifth and seeing as the book is titled after it, I assumed that will be the best one, but the last then proved me wrong. That was in good part thanks to the outstanding and guttingly bittersweet scene between Geralt and Yennefer, which caused me to need to take a break and which I'll probably need a longer time to recover from, but definitely not only because of that.

Rating: 4/5

Black Hawk Down

Was incredibly interesting, as a military novel, a true story and the politics surrounding it.

Was also an interesting glimpse into the usually secretive elite Delta operators.

Recommended.

* Look at me Tokyo * by Antoine Kruk

About Japanese street fashion but instead of showing pictures, the author has redone them through watercolors paintings and put his random personal thoughts besides.

Watchers - Dean Koontz

I read this a long time ago and it remained in my mind as my favorite Dead Koontz novel. It was absolutely as good or better than I remember. I am annoyed now that I havn't got anymore Dean Koontz novels to read.

Has a great monster in it called The Outsider. And a super smart dog. Very likable characters. Would be a great movie.

* Face 2 Face * by Bart Steenhaut

This a collection of interviews of pop/rock artists published from 2002 to 2010 in the Dutch-speaking Belgian newspaper "De Morgen". You can find nig names such as Nick Cave, Radiohead, Depche Mode, Sigur Ros, etc. Those interviews are more interesting as "snapshots of the times" rather than being thought-provoking. It's only for music fans obviously.

Since the last post, I finished two more books, The Towers of Midnight and a Memory of Light, both by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson. I read the last one in 6 days, so my mentally slightly exhausted mind can say nothing beyond 'it was awesome. Thanks, Jordan'.

Books finished in 2016:
#1: Winter's Heart, Robert Jordan
#2: Dune, Frank Herbert
#3: Crossroads of Twilight, Robert Jordan
#4: Tower of the Swallow, Andrzej Sapkowski
#5: Knife of Dreams, Robert Jordan
#6: The Long Earth, Terry Pratcher en Stephen Baxter
#7: The Gathering Storm, Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson
#8: De wetenschap van de zee
#9: The Towers of Midnight, Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson
#10: A Memory of Light, Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson

Araminta Station (Jack Vance)
Ecce and Old Earth (Jack Vance)
Throy (Jack Vance)

Together these books make up the Cadwal trilogy. The story is about the planet Cadwal which has been set up as a Nature Conservancy, and deals with the efforts of those people loyal to the Conservancy against those who want to break it. The story is action-packed with dastardly deeds, cunning heroes, and mystery. A very good series and highly recommended, although unfortunately the story really slows down a lot in the last book.

RA Salvatore - Dark Elf Trilogy