World Book Day - Literature Recommendations

しびれるね、文学。                 Artist: Suou

397 years after the death of Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, we celebrate - at least those who actually read books - the World Book Day, which is also called World Book and Copyright Day, but for some reason the first name is generally preferred. This day is or ought to be to book sellers what Valentine's Day is to the chocolate industry. Either way, without further delay I will present to you 5 pieces of literature I highly recommend, beginning with...

Demons (Бесы) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

This is one of the lesser known books among Dostoyevsky's big five or '5 Elephants' (from Crime and Punishment to The Brothers Karamazov), but it is by far the most radical and devilish of them. Apart from that, there is a lot of humour in it, espescially when it comes to poetry, though I had to read it twice to realize. And for those of you who want to become God and don't have a Death Note at hand, Kirillov's philosophy might be very intriguing.

Haruki Murakami: 1Q84 "It’s Only a PaperMoon"

Zur englischen Gesamtausgabe von Vintage Books

In seiner ‚Laufbiographie’ „Wovon ich rede, wenn ich vom Laufen Rede“ äußert sich Murakami voller Bewunderung über sein literarisches Vorbild Dostojewskij wie folgt:

„Die meisten Schriftsteller werden im Alter schwächer und schwächer. Aber nicht Dostojewski. Er wurde immer größer und besser.“

Vielleicht war gerade das der Anlass für den japanischen Popliteraten, der mit Bestsellern wie „Kafka am Strand“ oder „Naokos Lächeln“ auf der ganzen Welt gefeiert wird,  noch einmal alles bisher Geschriebene übertrumpfen zu wollen. Ergebnis ist der etwas über 1300 Seiten lange Roman „1Q84“: eine Tour de Force, sowohl für den Autoren, der es im Jahr 2009 zu schreiben begann, als auch für den Leser, ein surreales Mammutwerk und womöglich das Magnum Opus Murakamis?

いらしゃい！

Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen! No, this is not the hospital of a rather infamous fictional Japanese psychiatrist, but, if you understood the allusion, you deserve some credit.

Either way, this blog will be mainly about Manga, Anime, Literature and some things in between.

The first planned entries will be written in German, later ones in English, and someday perhaps in Japanese (if I master that dreadful language before I'm dead、that is 笑).

What's more to say? Yes, it would be nice to discuss and talk about the previous mentioned topics or whatever, because, as everyone knows, "it's ridiculous to leave all the conversation to the pudding!"

With this in mind, so long!