FALL DER MAUER 9. NOVEMBER 1989

Kafka's 'Metamorphosis' turns 100

Franz Kafka's 'The Metamorphosis' turns 100 this year.

Read about it in The Guardian.

You can hear Benedict Cumberbatch read the novella for the BBC.

You can also download it in different ebook formats from Project Gutenberg.

Happy centennial!

Shakespeare & Company Bookstore in Paris

With a cameo appearance in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris and Richard Linklater's Before Sunset, Shakespeare and Company is arguably the most iconic bookshop in the French capital. The building, a 17th century ex-monastery has become a landmark in the 5th arrondissement. Apart from being a bookstore, it also serves as a haven where aspiring writers can stay for free - Allen Ginsberg and Anaïs Nin have both been guests in the past. Originally established in 1919 by an American called Sylvia Beach, fellow expatriate George Whitman took over Shakespeare and Company after Beach's death in 1951. Crane.tv meets with Whitman's daughter, Sylvia to hear about the future of this historical, literary gem. 
[from the YouTube info on the video]

Am 5. Oktober ist Schulanfang

Tod von Günter Grass

Der Schriftsteller Günter Grass ist im Alter von 87 Jahren gestorben.

Fans of 'Song of Ice and Fire' rejoice!

Fans of George RR Martin's 'Song of Ice and  Fire' will be over the moon. Not only is the new season of 'Game of Thrones' about to start on TV, but the author has just published an excerpt from the new volume of the saga, entitled 'The Winds of Winter'. It seems after all that he'll live long enough to conclude to complete the story!

Follow this link to read the excerpt.

This link takes you to a related short piece in The Guardian.

World Poetry Day

For World Poetry Day on March 21, a poem about the beginning of spring, and a curious link.

The Thrush

BY EDWARD THOMAS (1878-1917)

When Winter's ahead,

What can you read in November

That you read in April

When Winter's dead?

I hear the thrush, and I see

Him alone at the end of the lane

Near the bare poplar's tip,

Singing continuously.

Is it more that you know

Than that, even as in April,

So in November,

Winter is gone that must go?

Or is all your lore

Not to call November November,

And April April,

And Winter Winter—no more?

But I know the months all,

And their sweet names, April,

May and June and October,

As you call and call

I must remember

What died into April

And consider what will be born

Of a fair November;

And April I love for what

It was born of, and November

For what it will die in,

What they are and what they are not,

While you love what is kind,

What you can sing in

And love and forget in

All that's ahead and behind.

On World Poetry Day, pay for your coffee with a poem