Boekenfestijn

A few times a year the biggest Dutch book wholesaler arranges a 'Boekenfestijn'; a book fair. This week the book fair is in Utrecht. Yesterday I went to the fair with my wife. It was quite a sight. Imagine a hangar filled with bookfilled tables and you'll get the impression. My first stop is always - quite naturally - the table with the history books.

Well, I'm not always lucky at the bookfair, mind you, but yesterday I was! I found Ken Burns' companion book to the television series The War for about nine Euros.

The main attraction of this companion volume to the blockbuster TV series is that it allows its readers time to linger over the photographs it displays, and thereby gives them time to discover details that might have eluded the eye on the televised version. By reading over the accompanying text you will find this book to be much more than a picture book or a re-hashing of the Burns' broadcast. Included are many harrowing and heartfelt first-hand accounts given by those who stand as living links to the most catastrophic and world-changing event of the millennium just past. Defintitely a recommended read!