"Here is a small fact. You are going to die.
1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier.
Liesel, a nine-year-old girl, is living with a foster family on Himmel Street. Her parents have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This is her story of the inhabitants of her street when the bombs begin to fall.
Some important information. This novel is narrated by Death.
It's a small story, about: a girl, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist fighter and quite a lot of thievery.
Another thing you should know. Death will visit the book thief three times."

Doubleday, Paperback, 584 pages

I've read three really good books this year, The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett and Just One Look by Harlan Coben, the rest has been lukewarm or just plain bad. I seem to be having a bad year when it comes to books, even when they're as recommended as The Book Thief was, but I should have learned by now not to trust the American hype.
This is a big book, 584 pages long, but judging by the reviews it should be a quick and pleasant read, maybe it is for everyone else but me. It took me three weeks to finish it and when I got to the middle, I was sick and tired of the authors writing. Death is an annoying narrator, it tells you everything that is going to happen beforehand and it's jokes get old fast, believe me. So we have the story of a nine year old girl, Liesel, her brother dies and her parents are sent away to a concentration camp (at least that's what you can infer as it's never mentioned) and she's taken in by a foster family. After a couple of days her foster father discovers her interest in books and decides to teach her how to read. And that's how the story begins, 584 pages later not much has changed, Liesel has stolen a couple of books, her foster father has gone to war and come back, she still hasn't decided to kiss her next door neighbour, the Jew they harbored in the basement has miraculously survived Dachau and she's the only survivor in her street after an air raid. And don't worry, I'm not spoiling anything, Death tells you the end even before the real story begins!
Maybe I'm heartless but I couldn't empathize with Liesel, I didn't even cry at the end, I was just relieved the book had ended. All those metaphors Death uses are really not my style and in the end I found the book plain boring.

This book is now going to travel to Germany, directly to samulli, who mooched it from me. Enjoy! :-)

Received this one a few days ago. Sorry for not journalling earlier.
I will try to read it as soon as I can. Just have to get a couple of bookrings out of the way first.
Thank you for sending it to me, Virgulina!

It took me a long while to get to this book, but it was certainly worth the wait. This one is a keeper for sure.
I tend to have problems with overhyped books, and what's more I am usually really really bored by stories about Nazi Germany, so I shied away from actually picking this one up for the longest time. But in the end the idea of a story narrated by Death himself was just too tempting and besides I couldn't even remember what all the hype was about anymore, so I finally gave it a try.
And what can I say, I am absolutely blown away. I seriously love this book and I think it might end up among my top ten books this year, which isn't an easy feat (especially since it's only March).
I rarely keep books nowadays since I seldom re-read them anymore, but this has earned a place in my small library.