Where do I buy my books? (Bol.com, Thebookdepository.com, Bruna, etc ... )

I got this question quite a lot and I have to say it's quite a good one. Because I live in the Netherlands I'm kinda limited on where I buy my books. I mainly read English books and normal bookstores actually don't sell them over here.
Here I have a list of websites and bookstores where I buy most of my English or Dutch books:

1. Bol.com
Bol.com is a Dutch website where you can basically get anything, you can compare it to Amazon.com. over the years I have bought many things there, from make-up to perfumes and books. Books are however pretty expensive on bol.com, around 2 to 4 euros more expensive than for example thebookdepository.com, which brings us to number 2!

2. Bookdepository.com
I have to say this is my most used website for buying books. Around 80% of the books I own I have bought on this website. They have a really good customer service and the good thing is you can pay with paypal, which is great for when not having a credit card. paperbacks cost around 6,7,8 euros a piece, which I find a great price! hardcovers are more expensive. They cost around 16,17 euros a piece. When buying hardcovers I always compare bol.com and thebookdepository.com, sometimes bol.com has hardcovers which are little cheaper :) When having problems with your order it is easy to mail the customer service at thebookdepository.com, they reply to answers very fast and when something is wrong or if your order hasn't been delivered they just give you back your money!


3. Bruna
In our village we have 1 shop called Bruna. They sell magazines, pens, things for your printer and books as well. Bruna has tons of stores across the Netherlands. Our Bruna sells paperback books and sometimes hardcovers as well. Most paperbacks vary from 10-20 euros, this because they have been translated to Dutch. Dutch books or translated books always are more expensive than the English ones. Our Bruna also has a section of German books, which I find great. The area I live in is very popular among German tourists, so that's why this shop sells also German books. I never bought a German book in there but I'm planning on doing soon.

4. Waterstones
I go to Brussels several times a year (I live close to the Belgian border). Brussels has a waterstones shop which is pretty huge and they sell tons of English books over there. Every time I visit brussels I make sure to have some time to stop by :)

5. Betterworldbooks.co.uk
Betterworldbooks is one of my favorite websites to buy books on. They only sell 2nd hand books and they ship them to Europe for free! The money they get for the books go to literacy funds and high schools to support libraries. In the past I've had some pretty good deals on there. At least once a month I check if they have new books added to their YA section and when I found one I like I also buy them straight away. Their prices vary on the condition and the popularity of the book. And now comes the bonus point for them : You can pay with PayPal as well!

These were the places I buy most of my books. Sometimes I wish that I could support independent bookshops more, but the stupid thing is we don't have any close to where I live. I also really want to buy books on amazon, but because I have no credit card I can't :(
Where do you buy your books mostly?

Recensie: Meester Jaap houdt van iedereen! door Jacques Vriens

Titel/Auteur: Meester Jaap houdt van iedereen! door Jacques Vriens

Jaar gepubliceerd: 2006 door van Holkema en Warendorff

Genre: kinderboek
Hoe heb ik dit boek verkregen: bibliotheek

Waarom las ik dit boek: omdat ik toekomstig lerares zal worden sprak mij dit zeer aan 

Rating: 3.5 van de 5 sterren

Meester Jaap krijgt een groep 5/6. Als de kinderen voor het eerst bij hem binnenstappen, kruipt groep 5 gauw bij elkaar en gaat groep 6 ook apart zitten. 'Dat wil ik niet' roept de meester en hij zet meteen de hele klas op zijn kop. En als de kinderen denken dat hun meester verliefd is op Myrthe, zegt hij: 'ik hou van jullie allemaal. De ene dag wat meer dan de andere, maar meestal wel'.
Meester jaap zorgt ervoor dat het gezellig is in zijn klas. Hij verzint grappige oplossingen als er problemen zijn, hij komt op voor kinderen die gepest worden en rijdt zelfs in een rolstoel.
Japie is af en toe een beetje gek vindt Quinten.
De anderen zijn het met hem eens, maar ze vinden hem ook keigaaf!

Recensie
Dit boek gaat over een meester, meester Jaap. Dit schooljaar krijgt hij een deelklas, groep 5/6. Dit idee vindt hij vreselijk en spreekt daarom af met de klas dat hij het woord deelklas niet meer horen wil. Dit jaar zijn ze de klas van meester Jaap. Iedere dag maakt de klas allerlei dingen mee en vindt iedereen de meester geweldig. Er zijn regels in de klas waardoor alle kinderen goed met elkaar omgaan. Ook als er nieuwe kinderen in de klas komen worden deze allemaal hartelijk verwelkomt.
Er gebeuren ook vaak grappige dingen in de klas, zoals meester jaap die crepe papier per ongeluk in de fik laat vliegen! :O Dit vinden de kinderen maar al te grappig.

Dit boek las ik voornamelijk omdat het onderwerp van een schoolmeester mij wel leuk leek. Het boek had leuke grapjes en vooral dat de situaties ook soms wel echt in een klas voorkomen.

Er waren ook wat minpunten, daarom heb ik het boek een 3.5 van de 5 sterren gegeven. Wat ik vooral hinderlijk vond waren de korte hoofdstukjes en de constant nieuwe verhaaltjes in het boek. Er was wel samenhang tussen de verhaaltjes maar toch ook weer niet. Het ging telkens over wat anders, een andere dag of een andere les en dat was soms wel wat frustrerend. Het boek op zich was ook wel wat kort wat eigenlijk wel wat langer had gemogen.

De schrijfstijl van Jacques Vriens vind ik wel heel leuk. Hij schrijft de situaties zo, dat kinderen er ook echt plezier aan beleven zo een boek te lezen. Vooral de kinderen in het boek waren echte schatten!

Review: Through the woods by Emily Carroll

                                                  

Title/author: Through the woods by Emily Carroll

Originally published/ year published: July 2014 by Mcelderry Books

Genre: Graphic novels, young adult, horror

How I got this book: bought

Why I read this book: It sounded very mysterious and exciting to me!Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

'It came from the woods. Most strange things do.'

Five mysterious, spine-tingling stories follow journeys into (and out of?) the eerie abyss.

These chilling tales spring from the macabre imagination of acclaimed and award-winning comic creator Emily Carroll.

Come take a walk in the woods and see what awaits you there......

Review

ohmygod! this story was so scary! The first couple of pages already were! this book contains 5 short stories,  following men and women in their lives. In all the stories the woods play an important keyrole. The story I liked most was the one that takes place in the 18th century and is called 'a lady's hands are cold'. Also the title sounded so scary! This story follows a woman who is going to marry a wealthy man and they live happy, until she hears strange sounds and voices. She gets out of bed and follows the sounds she hears, until she walks into a wall. The sounds come from behind this wall. She decides to smash the entire wall into pieces and finds a body, cut in pieces, and a head, of another woman. When she lays all the pieces on the floor in the right order she sees this person was a woman, now dead. She actually now is kind of a ghost and talks as well. The woman finds out it was her husband who did this, and this was his ex wife. He acting nice to her was all a scam. The dead woman also decides to keep haunting the new lady of the house....

yes, I was scared to death when I read this graphic novel. The images are so well drawn and the stories have the right amount of horror, which makes it just perfect!
I enjoyed reading this very much, although it totally was outside my comfort zone. I liked the thrill it gave me. However, this book really is not for the faint hearted! you can easily get nightmares because the images give you a good reality.

The book mainly is colored black, red and blue, which give it the mysterious look. In every story the black and red come back the best, which gives you a dark feeling.
I gave this book 4 out of  5 stars and can recommend this to everyone who dares to read it!

#Fridayreads 19-02

It's time for another #Fridayreads! I had a busy week and did a lot of schoolwork. But I'm proud on myself and the work I did. It's friday, so finally having weekend again! This weekend is pretty busy again, I want to do some schoolwork and also am going out tomorrow evening with friends. It's the last weekend of my best friend, before he leaves to Paris on thursday, so we decided to have a nice last weekend! We'll be going out in Knokke, which is a nice place.

This weekend I'll be reading 2 books:
-The princess diaries, a royal disaster by Meg Cabot

- Winterdieren by Bibi Dumon Tak
I already started both books and like them both so far. I recently read the 1st princess diaries book and totally loved it! The 2nd one is really good as well so far! Can't wait to finish it!
I recently bought the hardcover version of Passenger by Alexandra Bracken on Bol.com, this will arrive tomorrow!

By the way, I have a question to all of you! I always know that I love reading and watching book hauls myself and it occured to me I'm not doing this on my blog. Would you guys like to see a monthly book haul on the blog? I was thinking about doing so :)

Happy weekend!

Review: The princess diaries by Meg Cabot

Title/author: The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot

Originally published/ year published: June 2001 (2015 version by MacMillan Children's)

Genre: young adult, Romance, chick lit, Fiction, Contemporary

How I got this book: bought

Why I read this book: my all time favorite children's movie! :)

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Mia Thermopolis is pretty sure there's nothing worse than being a five-foot-nine, flat-chested freshman who also happens to be flunking Algebra.
Is she ever in for a suprise...
First mom announces she's dating Mia's Algebra teacher. Then Dad has to go and reveal that he is the crown prince of a country called Genovia. And guess who still doesn't have a date for the cultural diversity dance?

Review
As a child I always loved the 2 princess diaries films. Anne Hathaway looked so pretty in them. Who doesn't want to be a princess when they're little right? I think I watched the 2 films over a hundred times each haha.

now, around 12 years later I finally read the 1st book in the book series called 'the princess diaries'. the 1st thing I noticed is that the films are completely different than the books! They made so many changes, but that didn't made me enjoy the book less. differences with the 1st film: Mia's dad is actually still alive in the book and he's the one who tells her she's a princess & Carice (her grandmother) actually is very rude and smokes a lot haha!

Basically this book is about this girl called Mia, who is being told she is the princess of a country in Europe called 'Genovia'. Because her dad can't have any more heirs to the throne she'll have to take the duty on her. Her grandmother comes to New York to give her princess lessons and Mia doesn't enjoy it at all! at some moment the press discovers there's living a princess in New York and they seek her up! also she has her 2 friends Tina and Lilly helping her with it. And oh boy, who does she likes best? Josh or Michael? .......

I looooved this book a lot! Really a lot! It made me all think of the days back when I was a small child. I could imagine all the things in the book and it really was a fun read. Mia was witty and funny but also smart and clever. She clearly has her own mind on things which give her personality a lot of credit.

The book I own in the new MacMillan editions and they are so great to have in your bag. They don't weigh much. However there's also a downside, the book is quite fragile and gets beaten up quickly in a bag. But the new editions overall have a great new look!

The book I gave 5 out of 5 stars. I just loved it!