| | What I'm reading *
I've always read. While growing up, reading was a refuge when I found life too unpleasant or stressful. Consequently I've bought a lot of books over time as well.
Now that I'm no longer in the rich corporate phase of my life I've rediscovered the library. Dayton's library may be maligned by some but is still a great resource. One type of book I like to read is gay fiction and I was surprised to see a lot of it in the Dayton library's catalog. Plus you can even ask them to buy particular titles, and they will!
Below you can see the five most recent books either that I'm reading or that I've acquired. You can search my books, or you can see all my books. Also my classes page has links back to this page for the books for each class.
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Class: L?neburg2
| 2004-07-10 | 3257229534 | Der Vorleser | Schlink, Bernhard | L?neburg2 | | | Der Vorleser (The Reader) is the second book we read in my German literature class at Universit?t L?neburg, sharing some parallels with the first book we read, Die Entdeckung der Currywurst, in that both feature relationships between an older woman and a younger man and, perhaps more importantly, both show how members of younger generations in Germany reflect on the deeds of their elders during the Second World War.
For me this book was easier to read, perhaps because there wasn't much dialect in it and perhaps because I'm just getting better at reading in German the more I practice. I did miss some details in it but caught the overall themes I think. Without giving away too much of the plot, suffice it to say that Hanna, the lead female character in the book, is ashamed of something and spends a great deal of time trying to hide it, but you might be surprised at exactly what she's ashamed of.
As with Die Entdeckung der Currywurst, Der Vorleser too has been translated to English if that's your preferred reading language. | | 2004-06-25 | 3423128399 | Die Entdeckung der Currywurst | Timm, Uwe | L?neburg2 | | | This is the first book we read in our literature class this summer at Universit?t L?neburg. There is an English translation if you can't read German (The Invention of Curried Sausage.
If you don't know, currywurst is bratwurst served with a tomato curry sauce, very popular in Germany. Berlin and Hamburg both lay claim to having invented currywurst, and in this novel, Uwe Timm, who comes from Hamburg, puts forth a story explaining how currywurst originated in his hometown. My class took a trip to Hamburg to see the places mentioned in the book and of course to try currywurst.
How and where currywurst was developed is however only part of what this book is about. Alternating between present time and Hamburg in the last days of the Second World War, this book is one of many that help to tell how younger Germans, growing up after the war, have tried to digest just what went on and what roles their parents and other older Germans took in the war.
This class was the first German literature class I'd ever taken, and this book was the first full-length (despite this book being billed as a novella and having only 7 chapters, it was a very long 186 pages) one that I'd ever attempted in German. Add in the Hamburg dialect that Timm uses in parts of the book, and it was a bit of a challenge for me to read, although a worthwhile one of course. | |
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