Welcome! This website is dedicated to the love of books. This love applies to both the content and the physical artefact of books. I am both a reader and a bibliophile. Most of the articles are written in Dutch language. In future I will include articles in English. On this page I would like to introduce myself and the contents of this website.
About me
My name is Danny Habets. I was born and raised in Maastricht, the oldest and southernmost city in the Netherlands.
I studied Dutch linguistics and literature at Radboud University Nijmegen, where I also obtained my master’s degree. My specialization is European literature from the period 1880-1940, but my interests extend from historical linguistics to history and philosophy. I am a passionate lover of books, both their form and content. For many years I have been blogging on this website about books, writers and poets that I find interesting and about book collecting, book hunting, bibliophilia and bibliomania.
About my collection – part 1
My collection consists of five main areas, all belonging to the humanities.
Literature
Novels, stories, poetry and essays, in Dutch or translated into Dutch, in addition to some English, French, German and Italian works in their original languages.
Prose makes up the majority, but poetry also fills a whole bookcase:
Literary history and literary criticism
Books on literature: literary history, periods, movements, journals, authors (life and work), literary theory, books on books (printing, typography, collections, libraries).
Philosophy
Books by and about (western) philosophers, some overviews and systematic monographs.
General and cultural history
Convering all possible history subjects, from prehistory to the 21st century, with a focus on: European and Dutch history, the early modern period (Renaissance, Enlightenment), voyages of discovery and the Dutch Golden Age.
Linguistics
Books ranging from all kinds of dictionaries to theoretical and historical studies in the field of language and linguistics.
About my collection – part 2
Books are not only content carriers but also physical objects with specific, most interesting qualities which make them highly collectible.
Series and collected works
An important part of my collection consists of the “collected works” of well-known writers and philosophers (Dutch and international), and (more or less uniform) series with highlights from literature and philosophy. I really like the unity in diversity.
Old prints
Part of my collection consists of “old prints”, by which I mean: books published before 1945, mostly from the period 1880-1945, but also a few copies from the 17th and 18th centuries.
About this website
The articles on this website are divided into the following main categories, accessible via the menu at the top of the screen:
| Literatuur | About literary works and their writers, both narrative and essayist prose. Focuses on the content of books. |
| Poëzie | About poets and poems. Focuses on the special characteristics of poetry. |
| Filosofie | About philosophers and their works. Focuses on ideas expressed in books. |
| Bibliofilie | About old & rare books, special editions. Focuses on the artefact: binding, typography, cover design and illustrations. |
| Bibliografie | Provides bibliographies and lists, based wholly or partly on our private collection. Focuses on series, collections and themes. |
| Bibliotheca Habetsiana | About my own Private Library, mainly pictures, impressions. |
| Jagen & Verzamelen | About hunting and gathering. Focuses on the hunt for books, the pleasure of finding. |
Of course you can also use the search function of the website to search on specific topics. Wish you lots of fun reading and viewing!