It might be handy to explain the abbreviations — or even some of the terms I use on this weblog. They are ordered alphabetically. Feel free to contact me if you miss anything!

| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N |
| O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0-9

B

BAFAB = Buy A Friend A Book : it is a nice idea to buy a book for a friend in the first week of January, April, July and October. Just for the fun of it, to surprise someone. Although four times a year may be a bit much ;) top

BBW = Banned Books Week : a yearly American event celebrating the freedom to read. It is also spreading outside the US through the book blogging community. top

BC (or BX) : short for bookcrossing. top

Bentō : ‘boxed lunch’; a carefully prepared and packed meal (often lunch), which should both be balanced and appealing to the eye (usually done by using different colours, cutting techniques and accessories). It is believed that using at least 5 different colours guarantees your necessary variety in food. A healthy bentō is considered to contain carbohydrates (koolhydraten), proteins (eiwitten), vegetables (groente), and a side dish or dessert (bijgerecht, toetje of iets te snoepen) in the ratio 4 : 3 : 2 : 1. A visual ‘howto’ for packing your lunch this way can be found on Lunchinabox. Another favourite website is Justbento. Not only should a bentō contain a variety of colours and nutritional value, but it should also vary in type of taste and texture.

Bentō originates in Japan but is conquering the world (thanks to the internet), being adjusted to local foods and habits. It can be taken in any lunch box but most bentōers, like me, prefer special bentō boxes. top

BIP = Blog Improvement Project : a year-long blogging challenge consisting of twice-monthly activities to improve your blog. Every first and third Monday of the month there will be an activity posted on the BIP 2010 weblog that will related in some way to making your blog better. Each participant should spend the next two weeks focusing on that aspect of their blog. In my case I don’t mean to attract more readers, I just want to use the BIP as a means to do some regular housekeeping on Graasland. top

Bookcrossing : the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise, writing journal entries about the book along the way. To do so a book must be given an unique identification number (called BCID) by registering it on bookcrossing.com. top

BTT = Booking Through Thursday : a bookrelated question appearing each Thursday on the Booking Through Thursday website, encouraging book bloggers to post about this theme. I only participate in btt when it really triggers me. top

BTW = By The Way… top

BX (or BC) : short for bookcrossing. top

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C

CSA = Community-Supported Agriculture : a system in which a community of individuals involve to support a farm operation so that the growers and consumers share risks and benefits of food production. CSAs usually consist of a system of weekly delivery or pick-up of vegetables and fruit in a vegetable box scheme. The term CSA is mostly used in the USA, but a variety of similar production and economic sub-systems are in use worldwide.

Each year we buy a share in the harvest of the organic/biodynamic Amelis’hof garden (formerly De Aardvlo and I usually just type Amelishof without the apostrophe although I know that’s incorrect ;) on Amelisweerd estate, about 6 km (3.2 miles) from where we live. The common Dutch term is Pergola system. top

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E

ETA = Edited To Add : the post was edited with the following comment after publishing. top

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G

GLBT = Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transsexual literature. top

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I

IFFR = International Film Festival Rotterdam : one of the 5 big annual film festivals in Europe, held in Rotterdam (Holland) at the end of January. top

IMDb = Internet Movie Database : THE place to look up anything related to movies, directors, actors etc. top

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M

MIA = Missing In Action : what’s lacking/missing. top

Mt. TBR / Mount TBR = Mount To Be Read : my pile of books waiting to be read. top

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O

Ôbentō : the Japanese, more respectful name for bentō. top

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R

RABCK = Random Act of BookCrossing Kindness : this can take several forms, but the most common is when a bookcrosser sends a book to someone without asking for a trade or postage reimbursement. It’s just the act of doing something nice for another bookcrosser. top

Readalong (or read-along) : a project in which people read a bulky book (often classics) together, reporting about (in advance defined) parts along the way. top

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T

TBR = To Be Read : book(s) waiting to be read. top

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V

Vegetarian : I am a lact-ovo vegetarian which means I do eat eggs and dairy. So everything called vegetarian on Graasland may contain these products and can therefor not be considered vegetarian in the strict sense! Go to Wikipedia for more information. top

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