Thursday 22 April 2010

Reading in Bed

A British coffee brand is marketing its product to women by means of videos of sexy men reading out loud. Apparently you're supposed to make yourself a coffee and enjoy some classic or modern literature brought out by a certain publisher. Funnily enough, although there are actually a good few translations on offer, they're all out of French or Russian. Presumably German books are too turgid and unsexy to sell hot beverages.

Meanwhile, as a paper I wouldn't normally read reports, the coffee-makers have commissioned a survey and found out that people lie when asked what they do in bed. Seven out of ten men, we're told, regularly read to their wives and girlfriends to help them relax before going to sleep. Yeah, right.

Anyway, if you're feeling communicative, why not suggest a nice German book for reading aloud to help wives and girlfriends relax before going to sleep. My suggestion would be Ralf Rothmann's Feuer brennt nicht, which I didn't dare review here because it's so downright chock-a-block with sex.

8 comments:

isabo said...

Sorry, I didn't quite get what it's all about: relaxation or arousal? For reading man or woman into sleep I'd recommend the book I just finished: Jakob Hein, "Herr Jensen steigt aus". It is so utterly boring, it'll put anyone to sleep immediately.

kjd said...

I suspect, Isabo, that "helping wives or girlfriends relax" is code for getting them hot under the pyjama collar.

But sleep-inducing is good too. Jakob Hein has some good books as well though.

isabo said...

I know. They call it British understatement.

isabo said...

*zieht Ralf Rothmann aus dem Regal*

kjd said...

They're not all like that, but there was some speculation over whether that most recent one was a roman à clef...

Kerstin Klein said...

My husband would love to read to me in bed. But I falls asleep as soon as I hit the bed. Same story when we are sitting on the couch.
I´ve heard quite a few complaints from him about that. :) It is just that his voice is so soothing that I relax and falls asleep. My husband thinks I´m bored by it. ;)
That is also the reason why I can´t listen to audio books. If I do not like the voice, I do not like to listen. And if I like the voice I fall asleep.

kjd said...

Are you coming with him to Berlin on Monday? I hope he doesn't send me to sleep.

Ben said...

*growl*
I'd love to read to my girlfriend - the problem is that she just hates german books and when I try to read english books to her she gets impatient because of my not always pronunciating correctly (and my accent as well which is not british at all).

If you want to fall asleep very quickly while reading a book I recommend Günther Grass (don't know why he won a nobel prize).