For a long time I wanted to be a writer. A real book writer, that is, think literary novel or something in the fantasy genre. I think it would be so cool to go into a bookstore, preferably in a completely strange city, and see a pile of books with my name on the cover.
At a certain point in my school career I wanted to put my money where my mouth was and study Dutch in Groningen. But my havo diploma and two half propaedeutic years from different programs were not enough to be admitted to the university.
Every now and then this dream pops its head back around the corner; almost every year when autumn comes and when reading a book written by Ronald Giphart. The way he uses words gives me instant writing inspiration, whether it's for a blog like this one or for any other random text that has to come out of my pen (keyboard).
This man is single-handedly* responsible for filling almost half a shelf on my bookshelf, with thirteen books.
My love for Ronald started around the year 2000 I think, when we had to make book reports in the fourth grade. With 'Phileine says sorry', 'Ik ook van jou' and 'Giph' a whole new world opened up for me. Because it was about life, about becoming a writer and about literature. About love and also about sex, but functionally because that is also life. I would now like to emphasize my point with some nice example sentences from his hand, but then I have to choose A. and B. take a sentence out of context.
All the time
Via Storytel (what an invention) I am now listening to the last Giphart 'Alle tijd'. What a wonderful book again. On the way in the train or bus I sometimes enjoy it out loud. What strikes me is that (and of course I am not a real literature expert) there is more than two decades between his first work and his last book, it is still typically Giphart, but you do notice that he has become older (more mature) or something. The theme of friendship has always played an important role, but now also the leading role. Instead of a young man with an excessive interest in literature who sometimes mainly follows his ***. Well, that's what.
At the moment I don't have the time or the space in my head to start working on a book. But luckily I can play with language to my heart's content here. Just writing for the sake of writing, to express and share my amazement and wonder for the world and all its special inhabitants. Telling stories , fantasy or non-fiction, remains my thing. If you need a blog or other text, I write also on order.
(*A first place that he has to share with Rascha Peper. What I like so much about her books are the characters. They have special professions, from oceanographer to ornithologist and from a historian with a fascination for the last Russian tsar family to a sandcastle dealer. There is always something going on with them, which makes them a bit strange on the one hand and very vulnerable on the other. So beautiful!)