Posted 17 Oct 2022 I finished Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann at last 😃 Might be one of the "best" novels in German but it is a bit long. Quite a lot of humor too. Easier to understand if you know Luebeck, I guess. Someone from there told me that she reads it again every ten years or so. W G Sebald wrote "Die Ringe des Saturn" about his travels in East Anglia, read that in English too (cheating?) Which are your favorites? 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 17 Oct 2022 For me that would be "Briefe in die Chinesische Vergangenheit" Really worth the read. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Briefe_in_die_chinesische_Vergangenheit 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 18 Oct 2022 Momo, of Michael Ende. Not many German authors get a literature Nobel prize. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 18 Oct 2022 No, just about ten or so, plus a few more writing in german. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 18 Oct 2022 I have been reading Krimis in German because they are a bit easier to follow. Bannalec/Bretonisch krimis, kind of an escape. Example: Bretonische Nächte: Kommissar Dupins elfter Fall Never read any of detective books before I lived here but then I started finding great stuff on Gutenberg.org (in english, Raymond Chandler, Philip K Dick). I am impressed with Buddenbooks. The classics will have to wait. I do have a well worn copy of Im Westen Nichts Neues which was a favorite of mine growing up. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 19 Oct 2022 I just ordered the new edition of an interesting book: Schwarzbuch, Bund der Steuerzahler (free!) It describes many different ways our tax money is wasted. For example, the Bundeskanzleramt in Berlin is being extended, the planned cost was €600,000,000, that has gone up to €777m and is expected to nudge a billion (1 000 000 000 I think)😕 Can anyone relate to those figures? 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 19 Oct 2022 Crikey. In the days of home-office, too. How does one even spend that much an office block/work space. Gobsmacking. Slightly hoping you have accidentally added some naughts. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 20 Oct 2022 On 19.10.2022, 17:37:05, Fietsrad said: I just ordered the new edition of an interesting book: Schwarzbuch, Bund der Steuerzahler (free!) It describes many different ways our tax money is wasted. Does giving books away count as wasting money? Usually those who benefit see the 'waste' as important. They are renovating the Munich central library in our neighborhood (with attached concert hall, etc) and the first estimates were 500mil. A lot of building price increases are due to the fact a lot of steel came from Mariupol. But back to books. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 21 Oct 2022 On October 17, 2022 at 11:34:45 AM, Fietsrad said: I finished Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann at last 😃 Might be one of the "best" novels in German but it is a bit long. Quite a lot of humor too. Easier to understand if you know Luebeck, I guess. Someone from there told me that she reads it again every ten years or so. W G Sebald wrote "Die Ringe des Saturn" about his travels in East Anglia, read that in English too (cheating?) Which are your favorites? I remember watching a TV series of Buddenbrooks- easier than reading the book! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 21 Oct 2022 23 hours ago, mako1 said: Does giving books away count as wasting money? Usually those who benefit see the 'waste' as important. They are renovating the Munich central library in our neighborhood (with attached concert hall, etc) and the first estimates were 500mil. A lot of building price increases are due to the fact a lot of steel came from Mariupol. But back to books. My decluttering always stops at the bookshelves. It is so hard to get rid of books- so I skip this step. Sorry Mari Kondo! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 21 Oct 2022 I was reading Magic Cleaning (should it be called Magic Tidying?) by Marie Kondo, in German of course, in the bath. She urges you to downsize your book collection, even to put her book in the waste paper container if you do not want to keep it😉 I like poetry, Matthias Claudius is very good. I was reading poems by Wislawa Szymborska, someone asked if I read them in English or German? The latter of course, (not Polish unfortunately) but I translated one of her poems into English, processing it through my brain and writing it on paper excersizes the brain a bit. Deutschland, ein Winterreise, by Heinrich Heine is good, entertaining and easy to read, I found. .. Das wohlfeile Mittagessen by Johann Peter Hebel is very good, Kalendergeschichten, short stories with morals or lessons, you need to read some of them twice. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 25 Oct 2022 I read many biographies and autobiographies. Many people write an autobiography and can not get a conventional publisher interested interested so they pay a publisher specialising in such works. The author could lose money and have lots of unsold books in the cellar, but many such books are worthwhile. I am reading one now, by someone who lives near me. Asked one of my friends about her: "yes, I know her!" she said😃 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 15 Nov 2022 I read the Spiegel weekly news magazine. "Makes complicated things simple. And simple things complicated. Recommended by schlechtgelaunte Besserwisser/bad-tempered know-alls"😉 .. I read Mittagsstunde by Doerte Hansen, just seen the film of the book, quite good but one might not have understood it so well if one had not read the book. Even in cinema in Tinytown the OmU version was shown (Plattdeutsch with German subtitles), *1! 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
