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Recent Book Activity

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If you think I might not have received your PM, please try apoloniax at web dot de.

“Even when reading is impossible, the presence of books acquired
produces such an ecstasy that the buying of more books
than one can read is nothing less than the soul reaching towards infinity...
We cherish books even if unread, their mere presence exudes comfort,
their ready access reassurance.”
A. E. Newton

Would you like to try out Kiva? There are Free Trials






   

             
I'm very interested in Asian literature, south and south-east Asian mostly. And I often read '1001 books you must read before you die' - classics and contemporary books alike - and Booker Prize / Commonwealth Writers Prize nominations etc. Literary novels. No chicklit. No romance. No easy reading. Mystery/thrillers/spy fiction only occasionally (1001 level). But actually Mt. TBR is big enough these days... ;-)
The fact that I registered a book may indicate that that book reflects my taste - or not (I often pick up books on sales or register books given to me by friends or buy wishlist books for other BCers). All books I receive through BookCrossing will sooner or later travel again: by wild release, RABCK, trade, bookring or bookray.
Despite all those German books on my shelves here I don't read much in German, I prefer English. (But I like to pick up books in thrift stores - and German books are what's mainly on offer in Germany...)

What I like: besides wishlist books... CHOCOLATE (pref. organic and/or fair trade; any kind, milk, white, dark (in this order), with nuts or ginger or chili or lemon or Marmite or cherries or whatever, I like to try out new, crazy sorts, but no bacon chocolate - I'm vegetarian) (...and chocolate from elsewhere always tastes so much better than what I can get here...); nothing that contains gelatine; black or green tea (unflavoured, pref. organic and/or fair trade); woollen socks in bright or dark colours (European size 37; UK 4/4.5; US 6/6.5); audiobooks (no chicklit or romance, anything else); sorry, I don't like Christmas (or Easter) ornaments, X-mas-themed books and such things (except Christmas chocolate of course).

“I think we ought to read only books that bite and sting us.
If the book does not shake us awake like a blow to the skull,
why bother reading it in the first place?”
"Ich glaube, man sollte überhaupt nur noch solche Bücher lesen,
die einen beißen und stechen.
Wenn das Buch, das wir lesen,
uns nicht mit einem Faustschlag auf den Schädel weckt,
wozu lesen wir dann das Buch?”
Franz Kafka, Brief an Oskar Pollak, 27. Januar 1904

RABCK requests ? I prefer to initiate RABCKs by myself.
And I don't like those PMs requesting me to send one of my AVL books. Please read this first.

My birthday buddies are redfox5, prachitulshan and lizzyblack.


Are you also fond of embellishing your JEs with pics? Feel free to use mine
The famous Seattle Airport Release
Bookcrossing wild release photos
BC Anniversary Convention in Dublin 2012: photos
BC UK Unconvention in Swindon 2010: photos
BC UK Unconvention in Nottingham 2011: photos
Short German BC spot on youtube

Rings & rays I'm hosting:

Traditional Designs from India Colouring Book Ring
Liao Yiwu: The Corpse Walker. Real Life Stories. China from the Bottom Up lost in the mail or stalled by wendyv
David Mitchell: Cloud Atlas stalled by contraforsa, new copy lost in the mail or stalled by wendyv
Steven Galloway: The Cellist of Sarajevo replacement for another ray that is stalled by ladyofunicorns completed
Christopher Priest: The Prestige seems to be lost in the mail, after being stalled by Bookworm-lady for ten months
Sara Gruen: Water for Elephants gone missing, kindly replaced by mssaver with this copy which is stalled now by tracy920
Salman Rushdie: The Enchantress of Florence
Tony Hawks: Round Ireland with a Fridge completed
Kamila Shamsie: Burnt Shadows completed
Aleksandar Hemon: Nowhere Man completed
Chocoholic ring completed
Wreck this Journal completed
Jack Weatherford: Indian Givers completed
Morton Rhue: The Wave completed
David Mitchell: Black Swan Green completed
David Mitchell: Ghostwritten completed
David Mitchell: Ghostwritten completed
Judith Kerr: When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit stalled by nediamnori87, new copy, completed
Judith Kerr: Bombs on Aunt Dainty completed
Judith Kerr: A Small Person Far Away completed
Mohammed Hanif: A Case of Exploding Mangoes stalled by molekilby, new copy, completed
Haruki Murakami: The Wind-up Bird Chronicle stalled by jneni, new copy, completed
John Boyne: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas completed
Robert Ludlum: The Janson Directive (Audiobook) completed
William Boyd: Restless (Audiobook) completed
Jhumpa Lahiri: Unaccustomed Earth (Audiobook) completed
Tove Jansson: Comet in Moominland completed
Tove Jansson: Moominpappa's Memoirs completed
Matthew Kneale: English Passengers completed
Manil Suri: The Death of Vishnu completed
Mary Ann Shaffer, A. Barrows: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society completed
Wladyslaw Szpilman: The Pianist completed
Jonathan Franzen: The Corrections completed, book died
Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin: Three Cups of Tea completed
John Banville: The Sea completed
César Aira: When I Became a Nun completed

My Rings & Rays in German:

Khaled Hosseini: A Thousand Splendid Suns (Audiobook) schon lang bei Sheepseeker
Salman Rushdie: Harun und das Meer der Geschichten seit Mai 2010 bei tinajaxie!
Reto U. Schneider: Das Buch der verrückten Experimente verschollen
Henning Mankell: Tiefe (Audiobook) tja, PMs helfen nicht
Chevy Stevens: Still Missing. Kein Entkommen beendet
Salman Rushdie: Die satanischen Verse beendet
Preeta Samarasan: Abend ist der ganze Tag beendet
Herta Müller: Atemschaukel (Audiobook) beendet
Bruce Chatwin: Traumpfade beendet
Yasar Kemal: Memed, mein Falke beendet
Stanislaw Lem: Solaris beendet
Ian McEwan: Der Zementgarten beendet
Andrew X. Pham: Mond über den Reisfeldern beendet
George Orwell: 1984 beendet
Sally Morgan: Ich hörte den Vogel rufen beendet
Gabriel García Márquez: Die Liebe in den Zeiten der Cholera beendet
Philippe Djian: Betty Blue beendet
Arto Paasilinna: Das Jahr des Hasen beendet
Salman Rushdie: Scham und Schande beendet
Gustav Meyrink: Der Golem beendet
Gabriel García Márquez: Hundert Jahre Einsamkeit beendet
Toni Morrison: Menschenkind beendet
Stefan Heym: Der bittere Lorbeer beendet
Amy Tan: Töchter des Himmels beendet
Haruki Murakami: Kafka am Strand beendet
Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita beendet
David Mitchell: Wolkenatlas beendet
Daniel Kehlmann: Die Vermessung der Welt beendet
Keri Hulme: Unter dem Tagmond beendet
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni: Die Hüterin der Gewürze beendet
Hubert Selby: Letzte Ausfahrt Brooklyn beendet
Harry Mulisch: Das Attentat beendet
Monique Truong: Das Buch vom Salz beendet
Ulrich Plenzdorf: Die neuen Leiden des jungen W. beendet
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa: Der Leopard beendet
Jane Smiley: Tausend Morgen beendet
Umberto Eco: Der Name der Rose beendet
Angela Savage: Nachtmarkt beendet
J. D. Salinger: Der Fänger im Roggen beendet
Milan Kundera: Die unerträgliche Leichtigkeit des Seins beendet
Margaret Atwood: Der Report der Magd beendet
Doris Lessing: Das goldene Notizbuch beendet

Rings/rays I have passed on:

Lewis Buzbee: The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop
Frank Schätzing: Der Schwarm
Smurphie's Thank You postcard ring
Alfred Döblin: Berlin Alexanderplatz
Art Spiegelman: Maus
Martin Suter: Lila, Lila
Natascha Kampusch: 3096 Tage
Sebastian Barry: The Secret Scripture
Anne C. Voorhoeve: Liverpool Street
Axel Hacke: Wumbaba I, II, III
Henry Corkill: The Journal of Fletcher Christian
nediamnori87's postcard ray
Stieg Larsson trilogy
Banana Yoshimoto: Dornröschenschlaf
Cheeta: Me Cheeta – the Autobiography
Klaus Störtebecker, ein norddeutscher Pirat
Berndt List: Das Gold von Gotland
Henry Miller: Stille Tage in Clichy
Claudia Schreiber: Heimische Männerarten - Ein Bestimmungsbuch
Axolotl Roadkill: Helene Hegemann
Shoba Narayan: Monsoon Diary
Tom Rob Smith: Kind 44
Tom Rob Smith: Kolyma
Richard David Precht: Wer bin ich – und wenn ja wie viele?
John Wood: Leaving Microsoft to Change the World
Samrat Udadyay: The Royal Ghosts
Thomas Hardy: The Return of the Native
Neil Gaiman: The Graveyard Book
Robin Jenkins: The Changeling
Lloyd Jones: Mister Pip
Daniel Kehlmann: Die Vermessung der Welt
Gazmend Kapllani: A Short Border Handbook

Rings/rays I’m waiting for:

Smurphie's Scotland postcard ring Stalled by LaRue

RABCK Exchanges I organised:

Halloween Book & Treat RABCK Exchange
WEIRD Surprise RABCK Exchange Vol. 2
Chocolate Exchange
International Anonymous Generosity Surprise RABCK with prachitulshan
Fridge Magnet & Book Exchange
Weird Surprise RABCK Exchange
INTER-NATIONAL Surprise RABCK Exchange

Some of my favourite books (which deserve eight or nine stars, I'm still waiting to read a ten-star-book):

- in no order -
Haruki Murakami: Hard-boiled Wonderland or the End of the World
David Mitchell: Cloud Atlas
Salman Rushdie: The Moor's Last Sigh
Salman Rushdie: Midnight's Children
Salman Rushdie: The Enchantress of Florence
Salman Rushdie: Shame
Haruki Murakami: The Wind-up Bird Chronicle
Yiyun Li: The Vagrants
Gabriel Garcìa Márquez: One Hundred Years of Solitude
Audrey Niffenegger: The Time Traveller's Wife
David Mitchell: Ghostwritten
David Mitchell: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
Ian McEwan: Atonement
Orhan Pamuk: Snow
Dan Sleigh: Islands
Carsten Jensen: We,the Drowned
Michelle de Kretser: The Lost Dog
Rohinton Mistry: A Fine Balance
Rani Manicka: The Rice Mother
Tan Twan Eng: The Gift of Rain
Roma Tearne: Brixton Beach
Kamila Shamsie: Burnt Shadows
Markus Zusak: The Book Thief
Keith Donohue: The Stolen Child
Steve Toltz: A Fraction of the Whole
T.C. Boyle: Water Music
Indra Sinha: Animal's People
Amitabh Ghosh: The Glass Palace
Suketu Mehta: Maximum City
... and many more ....
Short Stories: (I'm no big fan of short stories, but some just stand out)
Rana Dasgupta: Tokyo Cancelled
Nam Le: The Boat
Jhumpa Lahiri: Interpreter of Maladies
Murzban F. Shroff: Breathless in Bombay.
Among my favourite authors are: Salman Rushdie, Haruki Murakami, David Mitchell

My release map (48 states):

Create your own release map of the world

Apolonia Xander (23 April 1625 - 16 September 1678) was my great-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-grandmother.
She lived in a wine-growing region in the south-west of Germany.
Here's her marriage entry from 1643:

Georg Schmid, Michael Schmiden Gerichtsverwannten Ehelicher Sohn von G.Heppach, vnnd Apolonia, Georg Xanders S. nachgelassne Eheliche Tochter von Grunbach.