Liedzeit (Author of Kontingente Korrespondenz)

Liedzeit Liedzeit rated a book liked it The Ultimate Hidden Truth of the World by David Graeber	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
First of all I feel that I have to apologize for reviewing (and for having bought) a book with a title like this. What kind of an idiot one has to be to fall for something as obviously absurd as this. As if Truth of the World would not be silly enoug ...more
13 hours, 44 min ago · 3 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Ultimate Hidden Truth of the World by David Graeber. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Ultimate Hidden Truth of the World by David Graeber <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Liedzeit Liedzeit and 49 other people liked Gaurav Sagar's review of 2BR02B: " The narrator suggests that 2BR02B is to be read as ‘to be or not to be’, which brings to mind the famous soliloquy from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It ponders upon the grand choice whether it is better to suffer in life, endure its hardships or to " Read more of this review »
13 hours, 53 min ago · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of 2BR02B by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — 2BR02B by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Liedzeit Liedzeit rated a book liked it The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This is a huge and important book, but also one that is very difficult to read. Not because of the subject matter, but because the authors seem incapable of telling a straight story. They jump back and forth through millennia and dozens of regions of ...more
13 hours, 54 min ago · 9 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Liedzeit Liedzeit and 15 other people liked béla malina 's review of Korrektur: "Die Auslöschung ist die beste Korrektur. Diese Aussage stimmt wie ich finde nicht nur im Kontext des Buches selbst, sondern auch in Anbetracht Bernhard‘s gesamten Œuvre. Sein letzter Roman „Auslöschung“ nimmt viele der Motive der Korrektur wieder auf," Read more of this review »
Apr 19, 2026 11:43PM · see review
Liedzeit Liedzeit and 4 other people liked Dan's review of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (George Smiley, #5; Karla Trilogy, #1): "I started to read this series just to get at this 5th book and to appreciate it in its context; this book and the series so far did not disappoint. The story is gripping, the characters are credible and uncommon, the background is very dark, the spy " Read more of this review »
Apr 19, 2026 11:42PM · see review
Liedzeit Liedzeit is on page 10 of 388 of Der Ring schließt sich Der Ring schließt sich (German Edition) by Knut Hamsun progress:	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Apr 18, 2026 08:00AM · 1 like · like · see status
Liedzeit Liedzeit started reading Der Ring schließt sich (German Edition) by Knut Hamsun	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Apr 18, 2026 08:00AM · like
Liedzeit Liedzeit rated a book liked it The Rival Rigelians (United Planets, #3) by Mack Reynolds	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
In Science Fiction, I believe, original ideas are more important than plot and character development. But in this case the lack of story is quite frustrating. The basic premise in the United Planet series is that Earthmen colonized planets and that on ...more
Apr 17, 2026 02:13AM · 3 likes · like · see review
Liedzeit Liedzeit rated a book it was ok Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I like to see myself as a guy who is fond of reading Victorian novels. The problem with this is, of course, that you have to read a Victorian novel from time to time. And it should not always be a Trollope. So Gaskell. What is it about? We have a youn ...more
Apr 16, 2026 03:54AM · 7 likes · like · see review
Liedzeit Liedzeit rated a book it was ok Nieten in Nadelstreifen. Deutschlands Manager im Zwielicht. by Günter Ogger	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Das Buch war in den Neunzigern ein Bestseller. Und man kann verstehen, warum. Schnelle faktenreiche Abrechnung mit den Jungs da oben. Wer liest nicht gern, dass die, die es geschafft haben, die bestimmen, wo es lang geht, in Wirklichkeit auch nichts ...more
Apr 15, 2026 05:25AM · 1 like · like · see review

Liedzeit Liedzeit rated a book liked it

The Ultimate Hidden Truth of the World
by David Graeber

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1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

First of all I feel that I have to apologize for reviewing (and for having bought) a book with a title like this. What kind of an idiot one has to be to fall for something as obviously absurd as this. As if Truth of the World would not be silly enoug ...more

Liedzeit Liedzeit and 49 other people liked Gaurav Sagar's review of 2BR02B:

"

The narrator suggests that 2BR02B is to be read as ‘to be or not to be’, which brings to mind the famous soliloquy from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It ponders upon the grand choice whether it is better to suffer in life, endure its hardships or to " Read more of this review »

Liedzeit Liedzeit rated a book liked it

The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity
by David Graeber

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1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

This is a huge and important book, but also one that is very difficult to read. Not because of the subject matter, but because the authors seem incapable of telling a straight story. They jump back and forth through millennia and dozens of regions of ...more

Liedzeit Liedzeit and 15 other people liked béla malina 's review of Korrektur:

"Die Auslöschung ist die beste Korrektur.

Diese Aussage stimmt wie ich finde nicht nur im Kontext des Buches selbst, sondern auch in Anbetracht Bernhard‘s gesamten Œuvre.

Sein letzter Roman „Auslöschung“ nimmt viele der Motive der Korrektur wieder auf," Read more of this review »

Liedzeit Liedzeit and 4 other people liked Dan's review of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (George Smiley, #5; Karla Trilogy, #1):

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré

"I started to read this series just to get at this 5th book and to appreciate it in its context; this book and the series so far did not disappoint. The story is gripping, the characters are credible and uncommon, the background is very dark, the spy " Read more of this review »

Liedzeit Liedzeit is on page 10 of 388 of Der Ring schließt sich

Der Ring schließt sich (German Edition)
by Knut Hamsun

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Der Ring schließt sich (German Edition)
by Knut Hamsun

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Liedzeit Liedzeit rated a book liked it

The Rival Rigelians (United Planets, #3)
by Mack Reynolds

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In Science Fiction, I believe, original ideas are more important than plot and character development. But in this case the lack of story is quite frustrating.

The basic premise in the United Planet series is that Earthmen colonized planets and that on In Science Fiction, I believe, original ideas are more important than plot and character development. But in this case the lack of story is quite frustrating.

The basic premise in the United Planet series is that Earthmen colonized planets and that on these planets societies emerge that somehow resemble societies that have existed on Earth in the past.

In this case we are on two planets of the Rigel system and on the one there exists a culture similar to the one of the Aztecs (including human sacrifice) and on the other there is a kind of Renaissance civilisation. Now Earth sends a team of development aid workers to these planets with the object to turn them into industrial societies. This is a second premise in the Reynolds books: progress is a value in itself. (Well, there is the threat of an alien invasion, but that is only mentioned in the other books of the series. And I think that this book was not even intended to be part of the United Planets series.)

Interestingly the team on the Aztecs planet tries to accomplish the goal by establishing communes (read Communism) whereas the other team counts on the power of Capitalism. The goal is to establish the turn to a modern society within fifty years. Every ten years the teams meet and compare notes.

The people on both planets are at the same time thankful for the changes and deeply against them. And some of the Earthmen get killed in the process (burned as witches for example). Or so it seems.

I love the premises (mainly because I grew up with them, I am sure). But actually, they are quite silly. We are led to believe that a thousand colonists can degenerate (if that is the word) to barbarism in a thousand years and then slowly crawl back to civilisation again, and at the same time go to a population of a billion people. Surely that is impossible, if you have wars and famines and no medical knowledge there is no way. Also, while they forgot everything they brought with them (including the use of wheels) the language itself stays unchanged. Think about it, can you forget what a wheel is when it is part of language? Look what happened to Latin in a thousand years.

Now, to be exposed to the idea of development of pre-industry societies is thrilling, but a bit of an actual story would have been helpful to create a real novel.

7/10 ...more

Liedzeit Liedzeit rated a book it was ok

Wives and Daughters
by Elizabeth Gaskell

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I like to see myself as a guy who is fond of reading Victorian novels. The problem with this is, of course, that you have to read a Victorian novel from time to time. And it should not always be a Trollope.

So Gaskell. What is it about? We have a youn I like to see myself as a guy who is fond of reading Victorian novels. The problem with this is, of course, that you have to read a Victorian novel from time to time. And it should not always be a Trollope.

So Gaskell. What is it about? We have a young woman, Molly Gibson, who is the only daughter of a widowed doctor. When she is about seventeen people persuade her father to marry again in order to have someone to give the girl some womanly advice. He marries a former governess who lives in the household of a friend, a Squire Hamley. Young Molly does not like it and in fact she is not only unhappy she even expresses her concern. But this will be the only act of rebellion of hers in the entire novel.

The good side of the marriage is that she not only gets a stepmother but also a stepsister, called Cynthia, who is of the same age, but has been raised in France, a fact that will explain a certain flippancy of hers. Conveniently the Squire has two sons, Osborne and Roger. Who will marry whom? Osborne will be the heir but everyone seems to prefer Roger, except for the doctor’s new wife who wishes her daughter to go for Osborne, for obvious reasons.

Molly loves Roger but Roger, the poor sap, falls in love with Cynthia. He goes to some scientific adventure to Africa but not until he has made her promise him to become his wife. They both do not want to call it an engagement though. As it soon turns out Cynthia is already engaged. To a man who has once lend her 20 pounds. This guy is in possession of certain letters that he is ready to use to make her stick to her promise. Molly offers to ask him to return the letters. And she succeeds. But unfortunately is now the victim of some gossip. What is she doing with a man like him?

Right here we have the biggest drama of the book. Molly cannot reveal the true story since the whole affair is, of course, a secret. Speaking of secrets, Osborne is secretly married to a French, Catholic woman who once was a servant. She lacks class. Molly knows about it, but only talks about it, when Osborne suddenly dies. And since there is a child Roger will remain poor.

But we are already approaching the end. Cynthia breaks off the engagement that never was an engagement and after having first refused a third suitor she decides to marry him anyway. And why, you ask? Because Roger was too good for her and the other guy too bad. Will Roger now come to the conclusion that Molly is the better woman? Maybe. First he returns to Africa.

And then there is a conclusion. And in the conclusion we learn what will probably happen now. I found the way of storytelling very strange but also appealing until I realised that it was written by someone else. Gaskell died before she could finish this novel.

What is the final verdict? I must say that I somehow missed the point where I could put the novel down. I kept reading, very bored and not caring at all for young Molly. Until suddenly in chapter 35 (at page 400 or so) it gets interesting. At this point the doctor discovers that his wife had been eavesdropping and found that Osborne was seriously ill. And this, the doctor learns, was the reason why she was all of a sudden not against a marriage with Roger anymore. Maybe it was not such a wise step to marry her in the first place? For the next 200 pages I really liked reading the book and then it got boring again. I had the suspicion that Gaskell had no idea how to end this.

All of the characters are rather pale except for Cynthia and her mother. Why did Cynthia agree to marry Roger when she did not care for him at all? Not because she wanted to hurt Molly. Human nature is strange. There must be some reason, that is just very hard to explain, right? I am afraid, the answer is no. It could just be poor storytelling. And because of that...

5/10 ...more

Liedzeit Liedzeit rated a book it was ok

Nieten in Nadelstreifen. Deutschlands Manager im Zwielicht.
by Günter Ogger

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Das Buch war in den Neunzigern ein Bestseller. Und man kann verstehen, warum. Schnelle faktenreiche Abrechnung mit den Jungs da oben. Wer liest nicht gern, dass die, die es geschafft haben, die bestimmen, wo es lang geht, in Wirklichkeit auch nichts ...more

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