My SUB

Do you know that: You have still plenty of stuff to read at home, but for any reason you end up in your local bookstore and before you become aware of yourself you have left it with a little less money in your pocket and a little more mass in your bag.

Today I had one of those situations. My laptop was out of charge, I forgot to bring along my current book and was near the store for some other reason (i.e. maize meal, taccos and tortillias) and the next moment I had THREE of Pratchett's masterpieces. (all of his works are, as far as I encountered them) They answer to the names "I Shall Wear Midnight", "Thud!" and "Thief of Time".

But I sill have plenty of Books, some even I had begun, but not finished before putting it back into my bookshelf. E.g. "Hamlet" and "The Picture of Dorian Grey". At this very Moment I read the Bartimaeus book series by Jonathan Stroud. Of which the first book has remained unfinished the longest of all of my books. I'm currently at the exact mid of the 3rd and as such last book of the trilogy. I bought them a looong time ago (like 3 years) and since then I pretty much lost interest in the genre of fantasy. But I can endure this series pretty good as they're written well.

The following is my remaining SUB (Stapel ungelesener Bücher - staple of unread books) in the currently most probable reading order - which is shortened at least by the half:

• Hamlet - Shakespeare (stuck at IV,2)
• The Picture of Dorian Grey (stuck in Chapter XI - so pretty much in the mid)
• A lovely book called "Französisch für Büffelmuffel" (Büffelmuffel is someone unwilling to learn due to idleness)
• Measuring the World - Daniel Kehlmann (I acquired it at the state (like one of the sixteen German states) Maths Olympiad) - (read my fellow-blogger's site)
• Ringu - Kouji Suzuki (the original book of the original Japanese horror film of the famous American remake "the Ring")
• Thief of Time - Pratchett (It's to awesome to let that wait longer)
• Thud! - Pratchett (This too)
• I Shall - Pratchett (again)
• Selected Stories - Edgar Allan Poe
• Startdust - Neil Gaiman (I own a German volume)

But there are also some books which I will probably never gonna read, as I totally lost interest in them. Most notable are are series of books under the name "BILD fantasy" (BILD is the biggest German Paper . pretty equivalent to the SUN) Most of these books are just the first volumes of typical unending Fantasy series.

for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning

I had to read the book "The Trial" from Franz Kafka for my German lessons. Here I want to present some of my thoughts concerning this work.

Kafka was a German speaking Jew in Prague, who has had a difficult relationship to women, and he did not get along with his father at all. His novels are really special, to that extent that he has his own literary term "Kafkaesque".

This book is a exemplar of this Kafkaesque writing style; centring on a person named simply K., it throws the reader into his bedroom, with two strangers disturbing his sleep and declare him arrested. Apart from this abrupt beginning, which may not be that special, the strangeness of all events combined with their inescapabillity and the characters natural reaction on those makes this writing style unique. E.g. the very first scene K. is very often changing his mind from insecurity over weariness and acceptance to protest against the intruders and asking for their permissions. Apart from the protagonist the characters are astonishingly set: while the employees of the court are convinced of their eligibility, other characters are just accepting the situation immediately while K. is still struggling and trying to understand.

So in general you could say: If you are looking for a book with an unique plot, definitely skip this book; it hasn't got any. But if you like alternative books, and are e.g. interested in the psychology of characters, it could be a nice book for you. But even if so I would only say "try to read it" instead of "I recommend it", because apart from the "Kafkaesque" part it is still quite special in its writing style. Simply said, Kafka tends to give an explanation to explanations which explain an relative unimportant observation or side effect. Another good tip is not to look for any sense in the novel. It could be said to be senseless, but it is not pointless in my opinion. Instead you should try to engage yourself with it.

When I'm considering everything I am not sure, whether or not it is really worth reading, but I'd tend to say that I like it.