Hello from Poland!

[Vilian]

Hi all! It's great to find a place where fans of LRK novels meet :)
Short info on me: I'm 26 years old, born and living in Poland, huge fan of mystery novels, completely crazy over Mary Russell stories since last Christmas. By accident I've run onto Beekeeper's Apprentice in local library and before New Year read it at least 50 times :D Sadly, it's the only LRK novel ever translated to Polish... During past 5 months I managed to get somehow Beekeeper's Apprentice in Polish, and Monstrous Regiment of Women, A Letter of Mary and Locked Rooms in English (haven't read that one yet, have to get missing parts of plot first ;) ). Just can't wait to read more of Holmes-Russell novels, even though getting them to Poland is hard, expensive and takes a lot of time, like if it was different planet, not just a country in Middle Europe :(
Anyway, I hope to enjoy time spent here. Nice to meet you all!

[vicki]

Hi, Vilian! I think you're our first VBC member from Poland. It's great to see faces from around the world! I'm glad you found The Beekeeper's Apprentice and some of the other Russell books. Do you read a lot of English-language books? Your written English is excellent, by the way.

That must be so frustrating to not be able to find all the Russells. I would have been a mess if I hadn't been able to read them all at one go. Maybe you can find a bookshop in another Polish town that could send you the other Russells at a low cost. I think we'll soon see more downloadable books for hand-held readers. I think we'll also see more print-on-demand books that you can download and have printed anywhere there is a POD machine. That will come in handy for people who want out-of-print or otherwise hard-to-get books

If you can't find the other Russells, maybe I can think of something I'd like from Poland so I could trade you some LRK books for something from there.

If you get a chance, come by the Hospitality Suite thread (http://laurierking.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=12) and say hi there, as well. If you want to talk about the Russells or anything related to LRK, come by the LRK Reading Room (http://laurierking.com/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=4). And let us know about your favorite books and movies (or anything else unrelated to LRK) in the Great Room (http://laurierking.com/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=8) area of the forum!

[Vilian]

Hi Vicki! Thank you for such a warm welcome. Also, thank you for the compliment on my language skills - it's something that evolved thanks to forums of slightly different nature (mostly on 3D apps such as Poser and Bryce - the avatar of mine is one of my favourite Poser models, Furrette2). While I never had problems with understanding written things, writing and keeping grammar errors and typos out of text is much more difficult, so I'm glad my writing manner is an understable one :D No, I don't read many novels in English, short stories rather and mostly online (for example, I finally read all the original Holmes stuff online - at the Camden House site, since Polish publishing companies never managed to publish everything). Russell books are the only English books I own and they're my precious treasures. I ordered missing ones (apart of O Jerusalem which may or may not come, as it's ordered at different, less reliable bookstore), but I don't know when they exactly will be here, probably somewhere next month (that's the price for lack of shipping costs: one has to wait really long for the order to complete). I feel like Locked Rooms, hidden behind row of various books, is burning hole in the shelf - but I'm stubborn and want to read previous books first. Can't wait to get them and have a great read in summer garden, under a cherry tree :) Thank for the trade offer - if you want to try yourself at reading anything in Polish, feel free to drop me a message, I'm sure we can talk things out :) There's always Martinelli series to get, with one novel connected with Russel stories. Someday have to grab them too...
Now off to check rest of forums and leave a post or two. This feels like heaven - finally a place where people understand my love for these particular novels and characters :cool:

[vicki]

the avatar of mine is one of my favourite Poser models, Furrette2).

Cute! Love that earring.

I went to that Camden House site and I love how they have their books formatted. Much better than most online books. I love the online books page (http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/), but so many of the works are in raw text and it's such a nightmare to read.


Thank for the trade offer - if you want to try yourself at reading anything in Polish, feel free to drop me a message, I'm sure we can talk things out


I'll look around the internet at some products from Poland I might like and I'll let you know if I find something. I look forward to seeing you all around the VBC!