German Literature Month has started. It is hosted by Lizzy Siddal. Here's a list of the rules, which I think I forgot last time.
Reading schedule
Nov 1-7 Read as you please Nov 8-14 Poetry
Nov 15-21 Read as you please
Nov 22-28 Rulebreakers
Nov 29-30 Read as you please
The extension into the first week of December to catchup on reviewing will be maintained.
My reading
It seems I am behind with everything this November. Probably due to a long absence due to travelling, and all there is to catch up on when you arrive home. Furthermore, I enrolled in three challenges this month; Nonfiction, Novellas and German Literature. This post covers week one and two.
Week one - read as you please
I started the week by reading Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke. This is quite a fantastic novella, or letters. Rilke received a number of letters from a poet he did not know. Kindly he answered the letters, but they are not only letters, more like short essays, where Rilke discuss the man's efforts to write poetry, but also overall questions on life in general. It seems Rilke did write extensive letters to people who contacted him, which must be considered very generous. It was nice to read these letters in preparation for his poetry.
Week two - poetry
While being in Innsbruck recently, we had a dinner guest who cited a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke by heart. It sounded so beautiful, so I decided to by his poems and read them in German. I found Gedichte, which I have already started. There are quite a lot of poems, and longer ones as well, so I am not sure I will be able to finish it this month. I read very slowly in German. Will do my best though.
Week three - looking forward
The World of Yesterday, Memoirs of a European by Stefan Zweig is one of his master pieces. Looking forward to reading this one for German Literature Month and for Nonfiction in November.