Books are my best friends. Ever since my early childhood I loved to retire into another world by reading a book. I spent hours and hours reading my favorite books again and again. And still today, I have the feeling to go on a long journey when I start to read a new book. I may prefer crime stories, mysterious and full of suspense, but usually I do not care much what a book is about, as long as I like what I read, and as long as it is written in a halfway intelligent way. So going blind would definitely be an almost unbearable fate for me.

Many books got me interested in things that I knew nothing or very little about before. Years ago, I read a book from the city library that told the fictional story of a Knight Templar. I cannot remember the name of the writer, but I remember how I started to find out more about the Christian military order of the Knight Templars. It was probably around that time that my huge interest in the Middle Ages was awakened. And it never fell asleep since then. Novels about historical or fictional medieval characters constitute a big part of my own little library.

Now it is impossible to study the history of the Knight Templars without meeting Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, the charismatic founder of the Cistercian order. And reading about Saint Bernard directed me towards all the other Saints. Although I live in a country were the Roman Catholic religion is dominant, I don’t think that I am very religious myself. But the history of the Catholic church is without any doubt extremely interesting. Although probably not more interesting than the history of any other religion, or druids, magicians, witches, vampires, alchemy, the quest for the Holy Grail and so on. I may be to sceptic to believe in everything, but that does not restrict my pleasure of reading about it in any way.

I read and possess so many books that it does not make much sense to publish a long list here. So I prefer to present just a couple of novels that impressed me quite a lot lately. I used to read most books in German, which is a lot easier for me to understand than French or English. That is why you see some German covers of my books here. But lately I started to read more books in English, and this has now become my favorite language.

Let me start with “The Shadow of the Wind” by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, a Spanish author, who describes how a young boy from Barcelona is taken to a secret, maze-like library called the “cemetery of fortotten books” by his father, an antiquarian book dealer, where he has to choose one of the many books who seem to be forgotten by the world. This one book is supposed to have a special meaning for him and an impact on his life. The boy, Daniel, chooses “The Shadow of the Wind” by Julian Carax. After having read the book, he decides to find more of Carax’ work, and finally the author himself. But this quest seems impossible, as someone seems to have destroyed everything Carax ever wrote. I will not tell anything more, but this book has in my opinion everything that a good novel needs. It is sad and funny, about politics, murder and love. I couldn’t stop reading and really loved it.

“The Historian” by Elizabeth Kostowa is an amazing book about a girl who discovers a very old book in her fathers library, together with mysterious letters and maps. Her father, who is a historian, reluctantly starts to tell the secret story behind these documents. The story is in a way about Dracula, but it is definitely not a blood filled horror novel. You are allowed to join the protagonists on their journey to countries like Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey and Hungary. And you learn a lot about ancient as well as present times in those regions in Europe, about superstition, vampirism and love. One of my favorite books, which I really would like to recommend to everyone who appreciates intelligent story telling combined with accurate research.

I do prefer thick books with at least 1,000 pages. That is mainly because I usually get used to the protagonists and do not like to let them go. “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell” by the British writer Susanna Clarke is a very thick book, and very pleasant to read too. The story starts in the early 19th century and is about magicians in England. That sounds a bit weird, but you can trust me when I say that some of you will probably love the book as much as I do. It is a little bit special in more than one way. There are for example plenty of footnotes that make you believe that everything is very serious - which it of course is not. Then the books seems to be published in a black as well as in a white version. I have the black one. The story of Jonathan Strange, Mr. Norrell, John Uskglass etc. seems to attract many people, as you can see on the following site.

One of the most pleasant books that I have read recently must be the “Gormenghast” trilogy by Mervin Peake. I actually did not like the last part “Titus Alone” so much, but the first two parts make more than up for that. It is difficult to describe what kind of literature Gormenghast is. Some would probably call it fantasy. But there are no supernatural creatures of any kind. The writer actually describes the lifes of the citizens of a huge castle named Gormenghast, and not much happens outside of the castle walls. The citizens are all more or less mad, or most strange at least. But they are painted with so much imagination that the actual events are in my opinion not really what this book is about. Some information on the trilogy can be found here. And of course on the official BBC site for the television adaptation. I had a lot of fun watching the dvd’s, but even 4 hours are not nearly enough time to bring alive Mervin Peake’s vision of Gormenghast.

Very fascinating, although in a very different way, are the novels written by Dan Brown. Yes, Mr. Brown is extremely popular for the moment, but that does not mean that his books are bad in any way. You cannot start reading “Angels and Demons” (Illuminati) or “The DaVinci Code” (Sakrileg) and stop before you are done. Suspense and even more suspense is what Dan Brown’s novels are made of. And you can furthermore find some highly interesting historical or scientific information. The two novels mentioned before are based in the near surroundings of the Vatican and the Catholic church in general. Another one that I read, “Deception Point” (Meteor), is about the NASA and the upcoming election of a new president in the United States, so pretty much different. If you want to know more about Dan Brown and his books, you should check out the official homepage of the author himself. Unfortunately, I have to admit that I was very disappointed by the movie adaptation of “The DaVinci Code”.

I have become an addict of a fantasy series written by George R.R. Martin, called “A Song of Ice and Fire”. Four books have been published so far, and it was an utter pleasure to read all of them : “A Game of Thrones”, “A Clash of Kings”, “A Storm of Swords” and “A Feast for Crows”. Actually, those books are written in a way that you could easily think you are reading a medieval novel, apart of the fact that neither the place nor the characters really existed. And the dragons of course, but they do not appear very often in the first four books. Martin’s story is full of interesting characters, who are very well described and developed. Although you should not get too used to them, because many have to die during the long wars and the conspiracies. With George R.R. Martin you can never be sure if your favourite hero is going to make it until the end of the series, or even the book you are currently reading. In my opinion, this is one of the best fantasy series ever written, and once you enter the Seven Kingdoms, you do not want to leave them anymore. I am desperately waiting for the fifth book to be published. And I sincerely hope that nobody is ever going to try to make a movie of this series. Because that would be even much more difficult than what Peter Jackson did with “The Lord of the Ring”. You can take a look at George R.R. Martin’s site here.

As I said before, I does not make sense to talk about all I ever read and hopefully will read in the future. There are just too many books. But I pity everybody who does not want to read. You miss so much in your life. Spending a day in a book store is pure pleasure for me - and quite expensive!

[Home] [Books] [Music] [Movies] [Pets] [Middle Ages] [Cemeteries] [Nature]