Riddley Walker is a good contender for my all-time favourite novel. It’s a post-apocalyptic story told in the first person, with altered spelling and reinterpreted expressions and the rhythms of oral history to match. The language is at first intimidating, and it’s a testament to Russell Hoban’s writing that you get caught up in the [...]
So there are also Dutch words you perhaps shouldn’t wear on a t-shirt if you’re coming to New Zealand.
It’s Māori language week (te wiki o te reo Māori) in Aotearoa (New Zealand), and although I’m ashamed of how little I can remember, here’s a few links for anyone interested.
Wikipedia has a good entry on the language, with a bunch of outside links. There’s also a site for learning and a translating dictionary developed [...]
It’s not news that the English band I Am Kloot has an unfortunate name if you speak Dutch.
So it takes some serious cojones (so to speak) to wear one of their t-shirts around Amsterdam, like the bloke I saw in Centraal Station the other day. I like to think maybe he just didn’t realise, and [...]
Meisje op mobiel: “Weet jij wat overdose betekent? Ja, het Nederlandse woord overdose… want ik dacht namelijk dat het een doos moet zijn, die over is.”
#173: Under the railway overpass way off to the side of Centraal Station.
Not that I normally would, only the back tyre sprung a leak during a thunderstorm, and that was the closest place I could lock it up under shelter.
And not that it got stolen, either. Instead, some klootzak slashed the seat and both tyres [...]
Heads up: The Black Seeds are hitting Amsterdam again!
They’re promoting the European release of the album Into the Dojo, out in this country today. (No, I wasn’t queueing for it. I bought it on their tour here last summer. So there.) In my opinion the album isn’t up to the standard of On the Sun, [...]
LibraryThing has split the ‘watchlist’ option into two: ‘interesting libraries’ and ‘friends’. So if anyone I actually know is using it, drop me a friend request. As you might have guessed, my LT name is tikitu.
(I don’t, as a general rule, do social networking. But I’m genuinely interested in the books people I know are [...]
Night Shade Books is having a half-price sale to clear room for incoming stock. There’s a four-book minimum order and I’m broke (the last couple of posts should make clear why), but if anyone wants to go part shares and pony up the cash I’ve got my eye on a couple of titles. Stefan, I’m [...]
For last month’s trip to Brussels I stayed at an incompetent hostel. Since I didn’t have enough cash on me when I arrived (and apparently nowhere in Belgium has heard of pin/eftpos/debit cards), they took my Dutch residence permit as bond.
And lost it.
They were awfully apologetic when I went to check out, and got me [...]