Man Booker Prize 2009

It’s Booker Prize time again. The short list has already been published some time ago, at the beginning of September. I’m not really much into contemporary fiction but last year, I decided to read one of the short listed books. I settled on Linda Grant’s “The Clothes on Their Backs”, because it sounded interesting and [...]

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Quoting: Tallis on the question of the murderer

‘There were also traces of cloth, tiny crystals of  a substance that I suspect is glue, and minute particles of leather. Some of the latter were very old indeed.’
    ‘I see,’ said Rheinhardt. ‘Most, erm, puzzling.’
    ‘Not that puzzling, Inspector!’
    ‘I don’t understand,’ Rheinhardt said. ‘Are you saying, Miss Lydgate, that these particular substances are [...]

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Lesesommer in Davos

Diesen Sommer findet in Davos und Klosters eine  besondere Leseförderungskampagne statt. An verschiedenen Wander- und Spazierwegen in und um Davos und Klosters wurden einige Bänke zu “Lesebänken” umfunktioniert.
Die Lesebänke sind mit einer wetterfesten Kiste ausgestattet, in der sich eine Auswahl an Bibliotheksbüchern befindet. Hier lässt sich gemütlich in Romanen, Sachbüchern, Kinderbüchern und natürlich auch dem einen [...]

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Quoting: Woolf re. the moderns

The Hilberys subscribed to a library, whcih delivered books on Tuesdays and Fridays, and Katharine did her best to interest her parents in the works of living and highly respectable authors; but Mrs. Hilbery was perturbed by the very look of the light, gold-wreathed volumes, and would make little faces as if she tasted something [...]

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Quoting: Woolf re. booklover

    “The Baskerville Congreve,” said Rodney, offering it to his guest. ” I couldn’t read him in a cheap edition.”
     When he was seen thus among his books and his valuables, amiably anxious to make his visitor comfortable, and moving about with something of the dexterity and grace of a Persian cat, Denham relaxed his [...]

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Quoting: Coxe on the Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen

The library belonging to the abbey is very numerous and well arranged ; and, among a number of monkish manuscripts contains several of the classic writers, which enganged my chief attention. To this library we owe Petronius Arbiter, Silius Italicus, Valerius Flaccus, and Quintilian, copies of which were found in 1413 : it was formerly [...]

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Quoting: Coxe on the Swiss people

I feel great delight in breathing the air of liberty ; every person here has apparently the mien of content and satisfaction. The cleanliness of the houses, and of the people, is peculiarly striking ; and I can trace in all their manners, behaviour, and dress, some strong outlines, which distinguish this happy people from [...]

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Quoting: Renault on Byron and Shelley

‘Take Byron,’ she pursued. ‘Mad, bad and dangerous to know. He swept Europe with that line; and they still fall for it, believe me. And then look at Shelley. He did good like blazes to every woman he took up with, and what happened? They got madder than hornets, or threw themselves in ponds. None [...]

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Quoting: Renault on Milton

‘Damn Milton, and his father before him.’
   ‘What did his father do?’
   ‘Most of the damage, probably. Gave him a classical education and brought him up respectable. God, to think what he might have produced if he’d knocked around like Shakespeare did, instead of sitting indoors ruining his eyesight and thinking up filthy words like [...]

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Quoting: Birkegaard on Literature

‘Literature has acquired a much too romantic glow these days. Reading has become a kind of distinguished pastime for intellectuals. But it really is nothing more than a means of distributing information, or even a form of entertainment, but first and foremost the transmission of knowledge, attitudes and opinions.’
Birkegaard, Mikkel. The Library of Shadows. London: [...]

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