Reading German Books in 2020 discussion

Hallo und Guten Tag!

Add your introduction here!

Hi! I'm in the Pacific Northwest of the USA and I'm interested in German literature because of my German grandfather.

Hi! Very much looking forward to reading with you, I love both Melanies and Brittas Channels. Though I will be skipping Am Fluß. I live in Bendorf-Sayn near Koblenz, Germany. I've been living in Germany for 35 years, though I was born in the US.
Erst mal Guten Rutsch und happy reading

Welcome everyone,

I am Melanie, one of the hosts. German native, now living in the UK. I am looking forward to seeing what everyone is reading.

And hello from me as well,

I am Britta, one of the hosts. Like Mel, I am a German native. After having lived abroad for the last two decades (mostly in the US and in Amsterdam), I now live in Cologne.

Looking forward to talking German books with you all!

Hi, I live in Italy and I’m very glad that two of my favourite booktubers decided to create this group! I graduated in English and German at the Uni some years ago, but since then I only had the chance to practice and to read more English related stuff. I stil feel very nostalgic about the German/Austrian literature and I hope to get the most out of this group! Happy to be here!☺️

Tach auch. Anja here. German native, living in Bielefeld. In 2020 my plan is to read lots of German classics, so this group came right on time. :-)

Hi I am Ros from Brighton, the sunny end of the UK instead of the sunny part of Germany. I read a fair number of books in translation but not many originally written in German so hope to be inspired. I know the Lea Valley and look forward to The River.

Hello, everyone. I am Donna from Arizona USA and Peridona Palimpsest on YouTube. I have enjoyed watching Britta for some time now and have just recently found Mel and loved her advent videos on mystery. I hope to broaden my experience with German writers as I have been fairly limited to Hermann Hesse, some Thomas Mann and Nietzsche in the past. Thank you both again for doing this. The other year-long reading challenges I will be participating in are Reading Women 2020, Reading Toni Morrison in 2020 with Hannah, and the Curious Reader's 2020 Non-fiction challenge with Natalie. A nice full year. The best. D

Hey everyone! I'm Veer. I've been watching Britta's as well Mel's channel for quite some time now and really found this idea of a readathon quite exciting. It's going to be great.
Guten tag!

Hello- I am Sarah (Hardcover Hearts on YouTube) and I am devotees of Britta and Mel so count me in. ; ) .

I do feel as though I have a deficit of understanding of German Lit and look forward to the opportunity to rectify this next year with this lovely group.

Thanks, Mel and Britta for kicking this off.

Hi all, I'm an American living in Berlin and still woefully under-read in German authors, so I'm super glad to have this challenge to shepherd me along. I'm starting with the 1 -5 challenge, and hope to read one 'easyish' book in German this year. I tried reading some Peter Stamm stories, and they seemed a bit dull style-wise? I'm not sure my German is advanced enough to make such an observation! But I am looking for something doable to read, slowly!, in German. I'm definitely interested in the Kinsky title. Cheers.

Hello! I'm from Huntington Beach, California. This challenge is the perfect way to honor my German great grandfather, and read some of those long neglected German authors. I've been focusing on Swedish authors since most of my ancestors are Swedes...time to change that! I'm excited! I'll have to read in English, though, as my German is pretty awful.

Marian wrote: "Hi all, I'm an American living in Berlin and still woefully under-read in German authors, so I'm super glad to have this challenge to shepherd me along. I'm starting with the 1 -5 challenge, and ho..."

I find Stamm quite dull. And my German is very good ;)

Hi! I’m Jennifer from Florida. I was already committed to reading The Magic Mountain in January as a part of a group read, so I thought I might as well keep going. I have some Kafka works and The Sorrows of Young Werther to read and I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone else is reading.

Hi I'm Wiebke, I'm German but rarely read German books. I'd been meaning to change that again in 2020, so this fits right in. I don't have any concrete plans yet.

Melanie wrote: "Marian wrote: "Hi all, I'm an American living in Berlin and still woefully under-read in German authors, so I'm super glad to have this challenge to shepherd me along. I'm starting with the 1 -5 ch..."

I concur with Mel, I find Stamm incredibly dull.

Barbie wrote: "Hello! I'm from Huntington Beach, California. This challenge is the perfect way to honor my German great grandfather, and read some of those long neglected German authors. I've been focusing on Swe..."

Melanie wrote: "Marian wrote: "Hi all, I'm an American living in Berlin and still woefully under-read in German authors, so I'm super glad to have this challenge to shepherd me along. I'm starting with the 1 -5 ch..."

Hi I'm Mary in the US, and l enjoy both hosts channels.
I have no connection with Germany but I did take two years of the language in high school and went completely blank on the final, could not answer anything, terrifying at the time but makes me laugh looking back.

I have many German books on my TBR including The River so I'm going to shoot for level 2.

Hi Everyone! I'm Chris in Connecticut. My Mom is from Germany and I've been fortunate to spend a lot of time in Germany visiting family and various sites. My German is very rusty so I'll be reading German books in translation. I'm going to aim for the first level, 1-5 books. I look forward to seeing what everyone is reading!

Hi everyone my name is Eva and I reside in Canada. My mother is German, she had been a wartime bride, immigrating first to England and then Canada. I am very very interested in learning more about German culture and since I am an avid reader this seems to be a brilliant opportunity.

Hi everyone! I live in Texas and I would like to learn more about German literature. Seeing so many international members is exciting! I'm sure I will learn a lot from everyone.

The next book I plan to read is The Artificial Silk Girl.

Hello! My name is Valerie and I live in the US (California). I learned about this group and challenge from Britta's YouTube video about it, and I'm really excited to get started!

I've had a strong interest in German literature for many years, mostly in fiction, and almost all read in English. I studied German in school, but I'm far from being fluent.

I'm going to aim for at least Level 1: Neuendorf-Sachsenbande, but can hopefully manage more as I go. I just started reading Berlin Finale by Heinz Rein, so it will likely be my first finish for 2020.

Hello! I’m Regina from New Orleans. I had already decided to read more classics in translation in 2020, including some originally written in German, so this challenge comes at just the right time for me. I plan to read some Mann, Stefan Zweig, Christa Wolf, and Irmgard Keun, among others.

hi everyone! I love reading about all your goals for next year!

I'm Sanne from the Netherlands, and I'd love to familiarize myself more with interesting new authors from the eastern neighbors :)

My goal is to find more authors that interest me and try out their books. Also, I really hope Saša Stanišić's book Herkunft will get a translation next year. I loved his Before the Feast and I can't wait to get my hands on his latest one!

Hello, My name is Majdouline I am french born tunisian and I have grown up in France next to the german border. My native french region still have a strong german influence, when I was a child all the adults in my village was speaking a german dialect. I studied in Germany for 2 years at uni and I am now working in the UK for more than a decade. I am facinating by the german litterature from last century from ( Thomas Mann to Boell or Uhlman) and my favorite author is a german speaker one ( Stefan Zweig).
So I am delighted to get to discuss with all of you about german books :) .

Hi, I'm Isa. I'm a Portuguese living in Hamburg. Since I follow booktube channels, most of them in English, I'm reading mainly in English. So in 2020 I was thinking about reading at least a German book a month (as well as a Portuguese). This group came just on time. Otherwise my language silks will rust.

Thanks, Mel and Britta for this great idea and organisation.

Thanks for setting up this reading group. Looking forward to recommendations. Read Heinrich Boll, The Capital by Menasse and the Grand Hotel this last year and really enjoyed. But now it’s time to pull The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann from the shelf and read it, an intention I have had for decades. Family second and third generation Swiss and German, father fluent in the language but,alas, I never learned so, will be reading in translation. Good reading year coming up!

Hi, I am Elke, a german native living in Frankfurt am Main. I warnt to read and reread more german classics in 2020, so this group is right for me. Thank you for having me.

Hi, I am Stephan, a German native. I live near the Dutch/Belgian/German border, an area called "Dreiländereck". I guess Britta will know this part of Europe. :)

I am not an avid reader of contemporary literature, rather a "genre"/history reader, but I am interested in the discussions and will also try to read more German books apart from non-fiction.

Hi! I'm Agnese from Latvia and I'm an avid reader of translated literature so this challenge is right up my alley! :)

Looking forward to discovering some new books and authors through this group.

Hey everyone! I'm Lukas and I live in central Iowa (not that anyone ever asks which part of Iowa you're from). I have a channel, Totally Pretentious, where I like to talk about classics, plays, nonfiction, and biography/memoir, with an occasional sprinkling of more "modern" fiction. I've gotten more interested in German literature since reading Goethe's Faust and finding it fascinating if a bit puzzling. I'd say that my knowledge is rudimentary at best, so I'm excited to learn more about this area of literature. I have a collection of Kafka's letters, several books by Thomas Mann, Herta Muller's The Land of Green Plums, a selection of Rainer Maria Rilke's poems, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, by Jacomb Burckhardt, and some books by Friedrich Nietzsche, all of which I'm pumped to read. Probably the ones from that list that I'm most excited to read are Doctor Faustus, by Thomas Mann, the letters of Kafka, the Jacob Burckhardt, Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy, and Rilke's poetry. I'm excited to learn from all of you!

Hi. I’m Lizzy. British but Germanophile to my core. I’ve co-hosted German Literature Month for the last 9 Novembers, and am beyond excited at the thought of a German Literature YEAR!!!!! 😍😍😍

I'm Rosie; Britta and Mel are two of my favorites too. I'm from the Chicago area, lived in Ulm 40 years ago and just visited again this September. I will be reading River, and also The Artificial Silk Girl which I just bought on my trip. Looking forward to learning and discussing with everyone!

Hi, I’m Kirsten in NYC. I’m new to BookTube but have really enjoyed both Britta’s and Melanie’s channels. I'm embarrassingly poorly read in German literature (Stefan Zweig’s Chess Story most recently) so am really glad for this opportunity to read more. This is also my very first Goodreads group so I’m very excited to see how it all works.

Hi there! I'm Ester and I'm from the Czech Republic, currently residing in the capital - Prague. I'm awful in keeping up with reading challenges but I figured since German-speaking countries literally surround Czech Republic from two sides, so much of our history is intertwined and we have awful lot of great translations of both classic and modern literature originally written in German, I might actually try this challenge. I speak no German (those high school classes left no impression on me) so I'll be reading everything in translation.

I am a Canadian living in the central Prairie region on a 15 acre farm living with my animals and myself. Books are my passion and my best friends. Booktube has been my new discovery this year which has doubled my Goodreads challenge. Britta and Mel are 2 of my favorite Booktubers. I want to read more translated books and so when I heard about this challenge I jumped on it.
Apart from books, I do adult colouring and diamond painting. once the snow goes I spend more time outdoors with my horses and poultry. I have 5 redbone coonhounds who live in the house with me so are my family.

Frohes neues Jahr ! I’m Linda, a retired languages teacher, sporadic reader in German. I thought the challenge was timely and will give me a focus for some of my 2020 reading. Thanks Mel and Britta. I don’t believe in putting pressure on myself for no particularly good reason so have no fixed TBR. I will take all your interesting selections on board and read as many as I can. I have quite a few German books on my bookshelves already so will aim to read and pass them on to friends to enjoy. I will be reading some more Ulli Olvedi. She writes books with a Buddhist theme, full of heart and wisdom.

Hello, I'm Arenda from The Netherlands. I mostly read translated contemporary fiction and I love discovering new authors. There are enough books on my TBR-list to choose from, and I'm considering to read a book in German.

Hi,

I'm Katka :) I would like to read more German books than last year in which I've read ZERO German books. Anything above this level will be a victory!

Wishing you all an amazing 2020 and awesome german reads!

Hallöchen,
I’m third generation German and I usually read German classics.
I joined because I’m excited to see everyone’s opinion (especially when coming from a different point of view) and moreover discuss the books, the authors and the time.
I especially enjoy the work of Max Frisch and Stefan Zweig.
Happy Reading and einen guten Start ins neue Jahr! 🙆‍♀️👯‍♀️🕺

Hi, everyone!

I'm Ulya. I'm from Crimea. I can't say that German literature is a complete blank for me. Thinking of it I probably read a fair amount of books originally written in german (in translation, obviously) during my reading life, but it was rather accidental. So I'm very excited and grateful to all involved for the invitation to read works of German literature more purposefully and thoughtfully this year.

I start 2020, unoriginally, with Remarque (he, probably, the most beloved foreign writer in Russia). In my defense, he did make a big impression on me years ago in my school days and I want to read more of his works. Also, I already saw quite a number of interesting suggestions here which promise quite a colorful reading year for me. Ура!

My best wishes! Have a wonderful year!

Hi everyone,

I just joined this group, danke Britta & Mel for creating it!

I'm a German native, living 20 mins away from Bonn. There are a lot of English books on my tbr, classics mostly, but I'll try to read some books by German-speaking authors as well this year, esp. historical fiction.
I'm looking forward to see what everyone reads.

Hello, I am Babette, I live in Dresden / Germany and I'm a native German speaker. In 2019 I read more than 20 books those were first published in German, I hope to achieve a similar number this year too. The bigger challenge for me will be to comment in English, since I grew up in East Germany and had to learn Russian at school. (English only a little bit.) But it is my wish to improve the language and I will practice it here.
I won't create a TBR list, because usually borrow from the library and decide according to mood.

Hi. My name is Angela and I live in Nova Scotia on the east coast of Canada. I am a fan of Mel and Britta's channels so I thought this would be a great motivation to get me to read several authors already on my shelves, especially Stefan Zweig, Herta Muller, Thomas Mann, and Jenny Erpenbeck. I have already put a hold on the first group read at my library.

Greetings! This is Donna from the state of Georgia in the southern United States. I have read many translations but for some reason none from Germany. Thus I will have to depend on the group for book suggestions.

Hello everyone. My husband and I live in northern New Jersey, just outside of New York City. I follow both Britta and Mel on Booktube as "theaelizabet."

As I mentioned elsewhere, I long, long ago studied a bit of German in high school and college, but I've forgotten more than I ever knew. I was a theater major in college and it was always my desire to read Bertolt Brecht untranslated, a goal which I never achieved.

Hello everyone. My husband and I live in the US, in northern New Jersey, just outside of New York City. I follow both Britta and Mel on Booktube as "theaelizabet."

As I mentioned elsewhere, I long, long ago studied a bit of German in high school and college, but have forgotten more than I ever knew. I was a theater major and had hoped to read Bertolt Brecht untranslated, something which I never accomplished. I look forward to hearing about everyone's reading.

Marc Nash, author & booktuber.

German represents my favourite author (Kafka) and two hugely influential artists in my own 'experimental' style of writing - Bertolt Brecht and his Verfremdungseffekt (alienation or estrangement theory) and the lyrics of Blixa Bargeld, lead singer with German industrial band Einsturzende Neubauten.

My 2020 German lit list contains a lot of modern classics, but I seem to be lacking for contemporary titles, so hoping I can pick up a few recommendations here.

Sanne wrote: "hi everyone! I love reading about all your goals for next year!

I'm Sanne from the Netherlands, and I'd love to familiarize myself more with interesting new authors from the eastern neighbors :)
..."

Ah yes forgot that though he is from Bosnia, he writes in German. I loved How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone, so like you, hope his other books get translated in English and can add them to this challenge. Thanks for reminding me