I'm very interested in this, but also a bit concerned. If you (general you) are a good sleeper, wouldn't taking melatonin mess that up? I'm all for taking vit D etc, but messing with my sleep....sounds risky, right?

I'm only popping in for a minute, but want to say that I appreciate this thread. And to add to @StellaM's good mental health news, in the Netherlands there is a 20% reduction in suicides at the moment. Nobody can explain it, but I'm happy about it.

Yep, we have those too in the Netherlands. Makes me want to scream! Threads like this always make me a bit nervous. We don't vaccinate against chicken pox here, and somehow all my kids haven't had it yet....which makes me worried about my eldest especially. And noone, really noone, is getting their tithers checked and vaccines updated as an adult. My family doctor would think I am crazy if I suggest such a thing. But I agree it would be a really smart idea with my general weak health. Hmmm, what to do....

I can declutter/KonMari anything.....except books. I have always had the rule, for my books, that I only buy books that I use or will definitely re-read. But I now also have a lot of books that I might not re-read, but one of my children might want to read when they are a bit older. And my library is getting rid of soooo many good books, Dutch books and the few English books they had. They still might have Stephen King, but when I last checked, they didn't have 1984 anymore. I am getting rid of all books my youngest has grown out of, so that is something.

It's the same way in the Netherlands! I was reading this thread and kept thinking 'What's the problem?? Of course you organise a party!' But apparently this is not so in America? Ha, learn something new every day! :-) So, my vote: throw yourself a party, your friends will love to celebrate with you!

I'm here! Looking forward to talking about Middlemarch. I'm really enjoying it, but I'm pretty sure I'm missing a lot of context. I ordered a copy with lots of notes, but it hasn't arrived yet, so I'll keep reading my Gutenberg e-book. Lady Florida, please keep seperate threads for the different sections, please.

I am suddenly a member of : Chinese Homeschoolers Pregnancy without Dr Fiesta Texas Peeps Current Events I'm NOT interested in these clubs. I used to be a member of: Literary Hub (active and I really, really miss it) Minimalism Classical Unschoolers, or something like that and several others that I can't remember. I don't mind those other clubs (they were not active anymore), but would really like to return to Literary Hub.

I'm so sorry! Wishing you strength. :grouphug:

I came back to this thread to read War and Peace with you ladies, but then my mother got diagnosed with cancer. She is 79yo, the cancer has spread all through her body with no options to treat. I have been taking care of her (and my dad) since then. My mother stopped eating last week and barely drinks anymore. Yesterday the doctor started (at my mother's request) sedation for part of the day and the whole night. I don't have the time or energy to join you here on this thread, although I'm still reading W&P. I'll be back when things calm down again.

Did you hear anything from them, yet? :bigear:

I agree.

Mmmm, nog so sure about that. I keep hearing Americans talk about never finishing a text book at school, but in the Netherlands you do finish your text books every year, for every subject. So I would not count on the Swiss not finishing their books. ETA: Dutch textbooks have less pages and less fluff than American textbooks. If our textbooks had 600+ pages, we also would not finish them :D.

I'm interested.

Hi ladies, I'm back :D. I took a Lent break and due to health problems I had not visited the forums again. A friend told me you were going to read War&Peace together and I simply could not miss that :lol:. I bought a new Dutch translation (with translated French parts) and I'm all set. I've read 109 books so far this year, which is an insane amount of books for me, mostly due to being too tired to do anything else than sit and read. I'm going to try another migraine medication next month, after I've finished reducing this one (Topamax) ....hopefully that will make a difference and my reading rate will drop, which is probably a weird thing to say on this thread :lol:, but actually having enough energy to *do* things would be nice for a change. I hope everyone is fine and I'm looking forward to reading all your book posts!

Yes, you can keep private book notes. If you select a book and click on 'Add a review', you get a new page with a large space for a review (which is public), but on the same page below the dates and other stuff, there will be a space labelled 'private notes shown only to you' which you can use for those notes.