Stories

Books

I read much less than I would like to, and if I do read a book, it mostly is non-fiction. I think the dividing line between fiction and non-fiction is vague. I very much love descriptions of other societies than ours, that even if they're made up from a to z are presented as being 'real.' There is a list of inspiring literature on the subject of geofiction here.
Some of my favourite writers of fiction are Franz Kafka and Willem Elsschot. I have read the complete works by the both of them, and I think all is in the range from beautiful to brilliant. I have also read a lot by Hermann Hesse, and I think Narziss und Goldmund (1930) and Das Glasperlenspiel (1946) are his most beautiful books (I read German books in a Dutch translation).
Myths and sagas fascinate me, for instance the Edda, the Egyptian book of the dead, the Gilgameš-epic, the Kalevala, Ovid's Metamorphoses, the Te-Tao Ching, and many others.

Laura reads a lot more than I do.

Graphic novels

I do not like the word 'graphic novel' very much. I think the story is still told using words, only with the aid of pictures and text-balloons. Besides, 'graphic novel' sounds quite pretentious. But I dislike the American word 'cartoons' even more (that implies that it is one big laugh, or that it is just a story about supermen), so I'll stick with 'graphic novel.' The most important thing is that readers and listeners know what I talk about.
In graphic novels I prefer to read fiction. There isn't that much non-fiction around in graphic novels, almost all written and published only recently. I for instance very much like the stories Safe Area Goražde (2000) and Palestine (2001) by Joe Sacco.
In fiction I love the first four stories about Giuseppe Bergman by Milo Manara, HP en Giuseppe Bergman (1982), Een schrijver op zoek naar zes personages (1983), Dies Irae (1984) and Dromen Misschien (1989). I think the series about Max Fridman by Vittorio Giardino is very beautiful, especially Hongaarse Rapsodie (1982). I also find the series Donald Duck very inspiring (especially the stories written by Carl Barks and those by Keno Don Rosa), and also the series Thorgal and the series about the Freak Brothers. I admire Carl Barks because of the far-fetched but still imaginable situations Donald Duck manages to get himself into, and because of the creation of Duckburg and its inhabitants. The series Thorgal by Jean Van Hamme is interesting because in it a society is portrayed in which magic has a common, everyday place, a society that doesn't keep on asking for explanations. The Freak Brothers are hilarious anyhow.

Some of my books. From when Laura and I moved in toghether our books are mixed.

Movies

I very much like movies with a story that put the viewers on the wrong track. My favorite director by far is Terry Gilliam, and my favorite screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. I have seen almost all films by both of them, and I thought those were all fantastically beautiful. I record many movies from television onto a harddisk-recorder, and afterwards cut out the commercials and burn them on DVD. The most beaufitul movies I buy on dvd.
Apart from the movies by Gilliam and Kaufman I also very much like the following movies: Crash (Paul Haggis, 2004), American Beauty (Sam Mendes, 1999), Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994), Happiness (Todd Solondz, 1998), Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999), Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000), The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966), Fargo (Joel and Ethan Coen, 1996), Identity (James Mangold, 2003) and Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin, 1936).
And nonsense like Monty Python And The Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones, 1975), Lucky Numbers (Nora Ephron, 2000) and Ice Age (Carlos Saldanha and Chris Wedge, 2002) deserves to be mentioned too.

Some of the movies I like.

My own stories

The following links to stories I wrote (not all of them are translated into English) are short stories, descriptions of (actual) dreams and holiday-accounts. Sadly most of these cannot be translated (the short stories because of their more or less poetic nature, the holiday accounts because of their length). The links therefore will mostly take you to the Dutch versions of the texts.
Out of respect for privacy many of the people that play a part in these stories have been renamed, especially so in the holiday accounts. I renamed Mark into Bo.

Short stories (all in Dutch only):

	Lauwerecht
	Kristal
	IJs
	Theater
	Nevel
	Banen
	Droom negen

Dreams:

	Teaspoon
	The king
	Mother tongue
	Oil
	Raft
	Birth
	Priest
	Bicycle mechanic
	Suit

Holiday accounts:

	Egypte 1984 (only in Dutch)
	Lissabon 1986 (only in Dutch)
	Roemenië en Turkije 1992 (only in Dutch)
	Marokko 2004 (this is also on the website Huize LaMa, along with an account of the same holiday, written by Laura, all in Dutch only)
	Iens 2006
	Luxembourg and Val Sinestra 2007
	Vakantie 2007 (only in Dutch)
	Enkirch 2008
	England 2008
	Meppen 2008
	Ireland 2009
	Bergen 2009
	Holiday 2009
	Bruges 2009
	Zeeland 2010