Monday, January 09, 2012

reading diary

finished

W.G. Sebald: Die Ringe des Saturn. 11. Aufl. Fischer Taschenbuch 2011 [1995] - I enjoyed reading this and have already borrowed two other Sebald books. My problem with this book: the sections that I liked most are those where Sebald summarises and/or translates writings of other people. So how much of it is Sebald and how much of it is the original author?

work in progress

Michail Bulgakow: Der Meister und Margarita. 12. Aufl. Sammlung Luchterhand 1994 (status: page 413 of 511) [Master i Margarita, 1928-1940] - I love the book since having started with the second part where Margarita is finally introduced. The chapter about Satan's ball is breathtaking.

Umberto Eco: Bekenntnisse eines jungen Schriftstellers. Richard Ellmann Lectures in Modern Literature. Hanser 2011 (status: page 43 of 204) [Confessions of a young novelist]

Paul Kaufmann: ...beschloß ich Politiker zu werden. Goldmann 1974 (status: page 126 of 188) - a funny, yet probably realistic satire about Austrian politics I discovered by chance in the bargain bin of my favourite bookstore. First sentence: "Obwohl ich weder besonders intelligent noch besonders begabt war, hatte ich es in meinem Vaterland noch zu nichts gebracht" ;-) Kaufmann worked as a journalist and publisher, but was also a conservative member of parliament in the national and the federal council. So he probably knows what he is writing about from a first-hand experience. Which doesn't really make it better.

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