User:Katie1971

Nooo !! I said ' no rules ', not "anything goes"!


 * Somebody nicked my Gosford Park userbox!! If you nicked it - please put it back!
 * Please DO NOT nick anything from my userpage, or make any changes on here!
 * This is MY page and I'd like to keep it that way. Thanks.

About me
I am fairly new to Wikipedia. I have read many articles on both the German and the English sites, and have made a few minor changes here and there. But I have never written an article of my own. I'd be glad for any help! My job is civil and pedestrian. Nothing exciting at all but I hope to change that sometime soon.

My Readinglist
I love to read. I was taught to read from an early age and have always enjoyed it more than other things. (Though that is not to say that I am boring, or have no other hobbies!) I am a member of Bookmooch and can only recommend it as a way of getting rid of unwanted books (and finding new ones that you do want). I also believe that books make great presents and would like to be able to buy all the books that I see! (And store them, and find the time to read them too.)

May I share with you here my current reading list:

Dec 2007 / Jan 2008
 * Rebecca (novel) by Daphne du Maurier

Jan 2008
 * Rebecca's Tale by Sally Beauman
 * Carry on, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse

Feb 2008
 * Survivor by Christina Crawford
 * 1979 by Rhona Cameron
 * In-Flight Entertainment by Elliott Hester
 * The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby

Mar 2008
 * The Sewing Circle by Axel Madsen
 * Mommie Dearest by Christina Crawford
 * Das Käthchen von Heilbronn by Heinrich von Kleist

April 2008
 * Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
 * Britannica & ich (German version of The Know-It-All) by A. J. Jacobs

-- I haven't managed to read anywhere near as many books as I would have liked to this year, yet. There just never seems to be enough time... "work" and "life" seem to always get in the way.

May 2008
 * Still stuck on P&P.....
 * Happy Aua by Bastian Sick
 * Götz George - Mit dem Leben gespielt by Torsten Körner
 * Brecht - Stücke 2 by Bertolt Brecht

-- I am having the hardest time with P&P. I have never spent this much time on any paperback, ever. But I am nearing the end of it now and as I don't like leaving books unfinished or half-read, I will knuckle down now and finish this.....

June 2008

-- Started and put away a couple of books. Can't seem to concentrate on anything properly. My life is a bit of a mess right now and even though reading has always offered a certain amount of escapism for me, I can't seem to get stuck into one particular book at the moment.

July 2008

-- I finally gave up on P&P. It's too much, I can't take it anymore!! I have instead started on
 * The Mind Readers by Margery Allingham. Much better...
 * No Room For Secrets by Joanna Lumley
 * Liebe in den Zeiten der Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

August 2008

-- Haven't had a whole lot of time to do any reading recently. I have a wedding to organise and some cross stitch to do for that!

September 2009

Finally finished 'Liebe in den Zeiten der Cholera' yesterday. Jeez, that was a long-winded book if ever I read one! Could have done with about 1/3 less text. Started on is a lovely children's book that I read and re-read as a child, many times over. I recently thought back to it but could not remember the title nor the author's name! All I could remember were bits from the story. I found a different book by the author in a street sale a few weeks ago and looked her up on the internet, only to discover that it was she who had written my much-loved book which I couldn't remember the title of. I bought it second-hand and read it in one go.
 * Our Street by Gilda O'Neill straight away.
 * Hinterm Haus der Wassermann by Gudrun Pausewang
 * The Birds (story by Daphne du Maurier)
 * Silent In The Grave by Deanna Raybourn. Laughable attempt by an American author to write a story set in Victorian London. She even gets her AE and BE spelling mixed up.

October 2008
 * What To Do When Someone Dies by Nicci French. Fabulous as all of their books.
 * Frag Mutti - Das Sparbuch by Bernhard Finkbeiner and Hans-Jörg Brekle
 * Madame Tussauds - 200 years of Chamber of Horrors by Pauline Chapman
 * The British Museum is Falling Down by David Lodge

Other hobbies
of mine include travelling, my two cats, doing cross stitch, surfing the net, and lots more. Having said that and just to get back to the original theme, I want to dedicate more time this year to reading and re-organising my book collection.

I am also an active member of an amateur dramatics group. Within the group, I have done several jobs on various productions - acting, stage management, publicity, set building / painting, and Front of House.

One of my favourite playwrights is Bertolt Brecht.

As I said above, I enjoy travelling. I have been to most Western European countries and a couple Eastern ones, too. Here's a selection, from memory, of places I've been to: Andorra, Austria, Belgium, France, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, UK ... and I once spent a day in Northern Africa, and three months in Australia.

I got married last year and we spent our honeymoon in Madeira.