Four things tag

I've been tagged by Carissa from Musings of an Introvert.

Four jobs I've had:
1. PhD student/researcher
2. Administrative assistent (multiple times)
3. Bookstore employee (for exactly one week...)
4. Cleaning lady

The Happy Tag

It's been a little while since this tag was making the rounds on many of the blogs I read, but I really liked the idea, so here is my take on The Happy Tag, which has only one rule: to list things that make you happy in a number of categories.

If any of you want to play as well, please do!

Books:

End of the Year - Book Survey

Here we are again with the annual End Of Year Book Survey, hosted by The Perpetual Page Turner. I had a lot of fun looking back at my reading in 2015 and answering these questions. I hope you enjoy reading about it and let me know your thoughts if you've also read some of the books I mention here!

2015 READING STATS

Number Of Books You Read: 59. A little less than last year, when I read 66 books, but considering how busy I've been, I'm quite satisfied!
Number of Re-Reads: Only 1,5/2 (I reread Lady Susan and The Watsons by Jane Austen, but they are both so short, I wonder if you can call it 2)
Genre You Read The Most From: Historical fiction/historical romance

Sisterhood of the World blogger award

Hamlette tagged me for the Sisterhood of the World bloggers award. Thank you so much Hamlette!

Here are her questions:

1. Do you like westerns?
I... think I do. If you look at my answer to question 2. But I don't really watch many Western movies, maybe something I should remedy?

The Bookshelf Tag

This really fun tag, hosted by Natalie at Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens has been going around my blogging friends. I finally found time to take some pictures and type this up!

Describe your bookshelf (or wherever it is you keep your books-it doesn't actually have to be a shelf!) and where you got it from:
I've got two bookcases since I moved in January. I think they're both from IKEA, I bought the second one from the girl who lived in my appartment before me, but it looks IKEA to me. The main one (left) is in the living room and holds all of my fiction and the historical/general interest non-fiction. The other one is in my bedroom and holds my spiritual/theological books, my studybooks and some nature related references.

 

Janeite tag!

Joanna from The Squirrel´s Diary tagged me a while (aka a month...) ago in the Janeite Tag. Thanks Joanna, I hope I´m still ´in time´ with my answers ;-)

The rules:
- Thank and link back to the person who tagged you.
- Tell us how you were introduced to Jane Austen and share one fun fact about your Janeite life (this fun fact can be anything from "I stayed up all night reading Emma" to "I visited Chawton and met Anna Chancellor.").
- Answer the tagger's questions.
- Write seven questions of your own.
- Tag as few as one or as many as seven other Janeites and let them know you've tagged them.

How I was introduced to Jane Austen:
I don't remember exactly when I heard about Jane Austen for the first time. I do know I watched Pride and Prejudice '95 on Dutch television when I was around 16 or so. I really loved it and we then also bought the VHS (!) of Sense and Sensibility '95. Sense and Sensibility was the first Austen I read, I read it for a book report for my English class in secondary school. It was also the first full-length novel I read in English! I remember having some nice discussions about the book with my English teacher and got a good grade ;-) I then tried to find all the other adaptations and slowly read the rest of Jane's works in the coming years.

8 Bookish and Not-So-Bookish Thoughts (3)

Bookish and Not-So-Bookish Thoughts is a weekly blogging event hosted by Bookishly Boisterous. It allows
book bloggers (and non-book bloggers) to write about pretty much anything, bookish or otherwise (i.e. sharing
exciting plans for the weekend, rants on things they've encountered during the week etc.)

1. I have a new phone, yay! After struggling with a slow, always full and often crashing Alcatel phone for ages, I now have a lovely, fast Samsung Galaxy Core on which I can download all the apps I want and still have lots of GBs of memory left! There's just one little downside to this: about half a year ago I was browsing through Etsy and came across some great, classic literature inspired phone cases. I then decided: when I get a new phone, I'm buying one of these cases. Unfortunately, these cases are only made for standard model phones like iPhones and Galaxy S. So now my great new phone is dressed in a boring black case, all I could find for this model (#firstworldproblems)

8 Bookish and Not-So-Bookish thoughts (2)

                Bookish and Not-So-Bookish Thoughts is a weekly blogging event hosted by Bookishly Boisterous. It allows

book bloggers (and non-book bloggers) to write about pretty much anything, bookish or otherwise (i.e. sharing
exciting plans for the weekend, rants on things they've encountered during the week etc.)

1.Next weekend, one of my best friends is getting married and so I needed some festive clothes. Now I really, really don't like clothes shopping and I haven't had to buy special/festive clothes for years, so I was dreading this a bit. Luckily, a sweet friend of mine went along and I bought a lovely dress. Mission accomplished, now I can just look forward to the wedding day!

2.It's been so warm here in The Netherlands the last weeks. I was walking around in summer clothes mid-September and even bought a icecream at a stall this very weekend! The next week looks to be a bit more autumn-like and I must say I don't mind at all, it's just time for cosy afternoons with hot chocolate and scarfs etc.

3. At my mother´s birthday party this weekend, I was talking with one of my uncle´s (from the in-law side). He told me about his family history and how his grandfather (his grandparents where Germans) had been fighting in the trenches in WWI and had been wounded there. It was so interesting to hear about this as I never before talked to someone who had a direct connection to WWI, being that The Netherlands was neutral during this war. 

4. I've been reading quite a lot about WWI recently, last month The War Horses by Simon Butler about the horses who were used in the (British) army in WWI and am currently reading a book about Dutch people who volunteered to fight with either the Allied or the German armies during this war. There is also an exhibition going on at a museum close to where I live about the Belgian refugees who came to The Netherlands in large numbers in 1914 which I hope to visit sometime soon.

5. I've been enjoying the return of Downton Abbey very much! It almost feels like returning to a group of well-known friends after a long absence! It's such fun seeing the Dowager at her scheming again and hearing Mrs. Hughes down-to-earth wisdom.SPOILER

I'm really glad to see Daisy developing herself, but I'm not to keen on the developments with Miss Bunting and Tom and also Mary and Tony Gillingham.

END SPOILER6. I went to see the new Woody Allen movie Magic in the Moonlight in the cinema last week which was okaish (I'm not a big fan of Woody Allen movies, but I just love this particular old-fashioned cinema and like to go there now and then, even if the movie is not super interesting). But the fun thing was, a few days later I was having a conversation with my boss about movies and we discovered he has also been to that movie AT THE SAME TIME AND PLACE! And we hadn't seen each other!

7. Work-wise, it's only a few weeks until I officially enter the last year of my PhD and with that, the last year of my contract at the University. I'm starting to stress a little bit about finishing up my research and writing my thesis, but on the other hand, I've learned in the past three years that you can't really rush research, it goes as fast as it goes. So I just keep doing my best and hoping it will be alright
:-S

That's about all I've got to talk about this time! I hope you're all having a nice weekend and enjoying autumn.

A-Z bookish questions

A to Z Bookish Questions

Borrowed from Kara at Flowers of Quiet Happiness

Author you've read the most books from: I'm not sure, but I think it might be Lynn Austin. I read almost all of her books.

Best sequel ever: Well, maybe not the best (and I know many people will not agree with me), but certainly a remarkable one was Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley. Just because it gave us a chance to spend more time with Scarlett and Rhett and for them to have a happy (happier?) ending.

Currently reading: Slowly making my way through He knew he was right by Anthony Trollope and just about to start on Jane Austen's First Love by Syrie James

Drink of choice while reading: Tea all the time!

End of the year - Book survey

There it is again, the wonderful End of Year Book Survey hosted by The Perpetual Page Turner. The survey without which a year of reading is not complete ;-) Hope you enjoy reading my answers and I'm looking forward to reading all your end-of-year lists!

Best in books 2013

1. Best Book You Read In 2013? (If you have to cheat — you can break it down by genre if you want or 2013 release vs. backlist)
Sigh, let's tackle the most difficult question first. I'll make it a top 5, in no particular order
1. Her mother's hope by Francine Rivers
2. Cinder by Marissa Meyer
3. Promise me this by Cathy Gohlke
4. Crusade in jeans by Thea Beckman
5. Miracle on Regent Street by Ali Harris

End of the year - TV meme

Which TV shows did you start watching in 2013?
I started watching Elementary and I watched the first three seasons of Primeval over the summer months. I also watched a good few miniseries, one of them BBC's The Village and ITV's Mr. Selfridge, which I believe are getting second series