In August 2014 I decided to review every book I read, and in October 2015 I decided to revamp an old, dormant blog to host them in a place of their own. You are reading that blog.
I read a lot as a kid. But although I’ve studied linguistics & literary science, somewhere in my early 20ies I stopped reading fiction. What followed was a strict diet of non-fiction and some poetry. 10 years later, a friend recommended Anathem by Neal Stephenson. I decided to give it a go, since, well, I used to love reading fiction. It clicked. Banks’ Culture novels followed after that. Dune became one of my favorite SF books, and I’ve written 6 lengthy pieces analysing all the books in the original series – some over 10,000 words. I branched out to fantasy too, so there you go. I’ve also been reading a bit of art books again, as well as non-fiction, and occasionally a book of Dutch literature.
At first I read about book a week, but at the beginning of 2017 life happened, and because of that my reading dropped to 2 or 3 books a month, depending on the page count, work, stuff.
I live in Belgium. My mother tongue is Dutch, which might explain some mistakes or oddities in my English. Drop me a note if you spot any.
Don’t hesitate to comment if you want to share opinions.
“What do you despise? By this are you truly known.” – Princess Irulan
Weighing a pig doesn't fatten it. 
Following!
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Thanks!
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Forgot to ask before – where does your site’s name come.from?
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It’s just an English expression I came across, I liked it as a counterweight to me being too critical & opinionated…
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An English expression? Never heard of it (English is my first language). I thought it must be a translation from Flemish!
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Ha, funny, yes it’s English, gets some hits on Google too 😃
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Please tell me the URL of your site – schicksalgemeinschaft.com – is not English as well! Looks like German, what does it mean?
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It’s German indeed, it’s a handle I used to use back in the days of internet forums.
For it to be truly correct German it should be ‘Schicksalsgemeinschaft’. It translates as something like “community of fate” or “unified in destiny” or “fortune solidarity”, and to me it just expresses the basic idea that we are all humans in the same boat.
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Interesting combination of names!
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I came to the blog because of the name – we use it as a comment on testing in education here in the UK i.e. testing children doesn’t make them any more intelligent. Love what I found here. I too am a fan of the Dune series but I’m more a fan of Ursula K Le Guin’s work. I shall be a frequent visitor her.
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Thanks for the kind words!
I loved The Left Hand Of Darkness, but had problems with both The Dispossessed and Lathe. I’m planning to read Earthsee in the near future, I hope I’ll like that a lot as well.
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It would be strange if everybody loved the same thing. It was the Earthsea series that got me hooked on UKLG. Hope you enjoy the novels.
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Nice story of the url and name of the blog.
I would have never noticed that English is not your first language, because it’s not mine either. I already noticed a mistake in my first comment on your post about rereading Dune.
I will be coming back to read more of what you write.
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Thanks! Looking forward to more of your comments!
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Love your reviews! I found you through your Dune review, but noted that we seem to have a pretty similar book taste. So, I connected also on GR. Come by at my blog!
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Thanks! I’ve compared books on Goodreads, I must say your ratings are indeed pretty similar to mine, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a closer match there.
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You seem a prolific blogger. I couldn’t manage one blog a day. Looking forward to reading some of your reviews.
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Thanks! Not every day is the same, of course. I ride that dragon as long as it’s flying 😁
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Following from Taiwan at cli-fi.net
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A couple of SF recommedations for you:
Not This August, by Cyril M. Kornbluth
Shockwave Rider, by John Brunner
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Thanks! Kornbluth is a new name for me. I have a copy of Shockwave Rider on my TBR – I loved Stand on Zanzibar, one of my favorite books.
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Let me add — everything by George R. R. Martin. Start with Sandkings. His short stories are also excellent. Game of Thrones got a lot of attention due to HBO, but don’t let the TV connection mislead you. Martin is the best SF author I’ve come across.
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I must admit I haven’t read anything by Martin. I thought the tv show was okay the first couple of seasons, but they didn’t prompt me to read anything by the man. I’ll check out Sandkings, thanks.
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Following – based on Dune. I don’t read much SF and little fantasy any more – I write mainstream fiction and don’t have the energy to read when I’m writing (long story) – but Dune is one of the complex many-layered novels that I use to spot potential readers of my own fiction, so I couldn’t possibly pass you up. It is mainstream literary quality in a SF bong.
I have an open mind – but no capacity; maybe when I finish what I’m writing (7 more years?).
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Thanks! What’s your own fiction about? Either way, I can imagine writing to be consuming your mental bandwith.
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I write mainstream fiction – and am very slow. The first volume in the Pride’s Children trilogy, PURGATORY, took me 15 years to write. I’m almost finished (7 years later) with NETHERWORLD, and hope to finish the last volume much more quickly.
From the beginning of one of my favorite reviews: “Elegant literary fiction which is also literate, modern, gripping, and extraordinarily entertaining, to label the subject matter a ‘love triangle’ would be like daubing the Taj Mahal with graffiti.
Alicia Ehrhardt takes the reader into the persons of Kary, Andrew and Bianca by turns, and uses this approach with consummate skill to construct characters whom one comes to know, ((dare I say this?)) rather better than one knows one’s spouse, or significant other. She does this better than any other author I have yet read. The plot is more than character-driven; there is a sense in which the plot is the characters…”
Electronic ARCs always available for anyone who might CONSIDER writing a review – I don’t nag. I suggest checking the Look Inside feature on Amazon first, and reading some of the reviews – then let me know if it is your kind of big book. Thanks for asking. And yes, it takes all my bandwidth. It has to be right – and I have very good teachers, of whom Frank Herbert, père, is one.
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Will do, even though it looks miles from what I usually read! As for electronic ARCs: I still do my reading on paper.
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Looking forward to seeing if you become a convert. Don’t worry, no expectations, but I love to hear from my male reviewers who say they never read this kind of book, but…
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(That´s a long gestation time, btw)
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Just to bring you up to date: I published Pride’s Children: NETHERWORLD in Sep. 2022, and am working on LIMBO – still in my required plotting stage (I’m an extreme plotter for structure to hold up the writing side). Still read your blog.
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Forgot: the NETHERWORLD reviews are even better than the PURGATORY ones.
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Do you feel the writing has payed off in number & reactions of readers? Or doesn´t that matter much to you?
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Reactions – YES. But number of readers still eludes me.
The reason is probably that I barely have enough function and energy to write – and had the highest quality mainstream fiction to educate me as a kid – everything from Dune and Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose toJane Eyre and Great Expectations and On The beach and GWTW and Tolkien… – so I have high expectations and good models. But I’m dismally slow – so I don’t expect to be doing enough marketing until finishing the trilogy, but the reviews I do have tell me I’ve found some of my demographics.
It matters – a lot. I have a couple of things built in that I don’t see in other writing – but I don’t push. Readers have left interesting bits of themselves.
I have an odd habit: when I reach the end of what I have so far, I go back to the beginning of the trilogy and start again – I’d be embarrassed to tell you how many times I’ve read the whole, a bit at a time, without wanting to change a word.
I will be satisfied if I’m my only reader (‘m not) but hope I can really get it going. Aargh! Explaining yourself as a writer is probably a lost cause.
Read some reviews – try for yourself – ask yourself if you’ve been entirely satisfied with the books being produced by big publishing with titles like ‘She knows what you did’ which tells me exactly nothing.
If you do try, give it a couple of chapters to catch on.
Last try: if you’re one of the readers who would leave a long thoughtful review of why you didn’t like The Goldfinch, you may be one of mine.
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