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From: Kimberley Verburg <kim@lspace.org> Newsgroups: alt.fan.pratchett Subject: [F] BookstoreSandrianaBirthdaymeet Report Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2002 01:32:03 +0200 Message-ID: <ub39ru0uk5mmjrh87r0fhiig0q40bqbd1a@newszilla.xs4all.nl> Attending bibliophiles: Jos Dingjan, Kimberley Verburg, Maarten Kreuger, Martin Wisse, Menno/Flexor Willemse, Michel/Cybercat Lanting, Patrick Dersjant, Rolf Milde, Sandriana and Uwe Milde Last Saturday, a small group of afpers and their reluctant wallets went to Amsterdam for Sandriana's Birthday Bookstore Meet. Jos and me arrived at Barry's Book Exchange before everyone else, which caused me a brief crisis of conscience. Should I make the most of my head start, remembering how Eelco had snatched _Inferno_ from under my nose once before, or should I give the others a fair chance and wait for them? This was easily solved by asking the question, "would they be nice enough to wait for me?" Silly question, really. Ten minutes later, the pitter patter of thundering feet above our heads heralded the arrival of the others. Apart from some "excuse mes" and muttered recommendations, there wasn't much talking for the next hour and a half. It's hard to move your mouth when your chin is helping to hold down a stack of books. I bought "Chocolat" by Joanne Harris and finished it yesterday, along with more chocolate than I usually eat in a month. I'd seen the film adaptation first and found that the film had really done justice to the book, in spite of the different ending. I also bought a cool Celtic fantasy -- one of Katherine Kerr's Deverry books -- while Martin sniffed, "no *wonder* you like Connie Willis." A *thbppt* with Hugos on top to him. Patrick joined us at the Thai restaurant where we looked over everyone's spoils. Michel easily won Largest Stack and he also owned up to Worst Book, something by the Eddingses. Hungry people perused the menu for their favourite numbers and Jos's Palm Portable Keyboard was admired amidst remarks about bad table Mennos. By some miracle, we found a pub after dinner that was not crowded and where you didn't have to shout over the music to be heard. Patrick awarded the Guinness a mere "okay and no more than that", so I guess you can't have everything. At the start, serious topics dominated the conversation: politics, security and religion. The Dutch Cabinet had collapsed three days ago, so more than a few kicks were aimed at the dead body politic. Later on, we reminisced about meets past and complained about early Sinterklaas and Christmas advertising. Rolf and Uwe explained the appeal of Dark Angel. I think it came down to "Jessica Alba". :-) Bad jokes were told about babies, blenders and blondes. Sandriana set Martin's beard on fire, but funnily enough, no one was prepared to throw their Guinness on him to put it out. At the very end of the meet, karma bit back and she had to submit to having "Happy Birthday" sung at her. QUOTES "Labrat is the one with the ponytail and glasses." -- Menno "Menno is the one with the glasses and ponytail." -- Martin Kim -- "I used to live in Voorburg, which is..." "...a free-range nursing home." -- Jos "This door intentionally left blank." -- Rolf -- Kimberley Verburg kim@lspace.org
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