On the couch at Hoogstins: Frida Boeke, writer and podcast host – Contributions from partners

My first reading memory.
I had a reading nook in my room, a crate with children’s books and next to it a large pillow that could fit at least three small children. My best friend lived a stone’s throw away and regularly dropped in to play. Nice, but this time, for the first time ever, I was so hooked on a book that I couldn’t stop reading. A sensation that most readers are familiar with; wanting to get home quickly from an appointment because a story is waiting for you at home or feeling your book burning in your bag while you are sitting with your loved one on a sunny holiday terrace. I haven’t been able to find the title of the first book where it happened to me. It was about a bear who experienced all kinds of things. So I pulled my girlfriend into the reading corner, here, pick something out and come sit next to me. She did, darling. But when I read I still often get into hyperfocus. Nice for me, but it sometimes drives others crazy. My girlfriend also didn’t like reading at all. After twenty minutes she left and I didn’t notice.

My favorite childhood book.
As a child, like all other children of the 90s, I re-devoured the Harry Potter books many times, often after bedtime with a flashlight under the covers. The next day I was nodding in class, which I already gave for the written word.

The writer who changed my way of thinking.
Years ago, when I lived in Congo for work, the book of the same name by David Van Reybrouck made a great impression and gave depth to my experiences there, the same applies to All the problems started with van Riebeeck by Niels Posthumus about South Africa. Alaa al Aswani made me think about the stories from my mother’s country. Adriaan van Dis recently talked about how to turn a small world of experience into a big story.

The book that made me want to become a writer
What an existential question, can I pass?

The book I reread (and reread).
I don’t reread much, maybe that will come later. There is still so much news to read. What I do do is take pictures of passages that I like. I have a special folder on my phone for those photos that I occasionally reach for when I’m talking to someone who doesn’t ask questions. The last photos are coming out Homework from Marja Pruiis, Animal by Lisa Taddeo and From the Life of a Dog by Sander Kollaard. Sometimes I also photograph bad passages, purely as encouragement for myself and occasionally as gloating to send to my sister.

The book I’m reading now.
On my bedside table now The Nakba from Ilan Pappe, Alone and a thousand people from Milou Holshuisen, You are young and you want some future by Jantijn Anema and Hannah Prins and The theater, the letter and the truth, the Book Week gift from Harry Mulisch from 2000 that I recently fished from a street bookcase. On holiday I manage to finish one book before starting the next, but not at home.

The kind of book I prefer to read.
Historical family novels set elsewhere do well for me, such as Intersection by Jonathan Frantzen orThe eighth life by Nino Haritschili. I think all of Ngozi Adichie’s books are fantastic. I’ve been enjoying it lately too Man’s deepest hidden memory, To softness and a warm embrace, The guest, And then there’s coffee and Listen.