Following on from that very ridiculous list of the allegedly most important German-language writers in FOCUS on Monday and from Richard Kämmerlings' top ten since 1989, a few people have started mumbling about lists of their own.
Do you happen to have a list of your personal best-beloved German books? If you'd do and you'd like to share it, drop me a line or post it in the comments section below. And although I mouthed off on Facebook about how dumb it is to rank writers, I did once list my top three German books since the year 2000 - still up there at Podularity. And guess what? I've since translated two of them.
3 comments:
What was Richard Kämmerlings' top ten list? I saw the post about his new book, but which ones did he choose as his top 10 since 1989.
Also, on the subject of lists... El Pais did a survey where they asked 100 prominent Spanish-language authors for their favorite 10 books ever and posted all the individual lists. If you missed it, it was great, the writers who gave their top 10s included Atxaga, Bellatin, Castellanos Moya, Cercas, Fuentes, Janes, Loriga, Manguel, Marias, Marse, Eloy Martinez, Munoz Molina, Ospina, Paz-SOldan, Roncagliolo, Savater, Vargas Llosa, Vila-Matas, Villoro, Volpi. See http://www.elpais.com/elpaismedia/ep..._1_Pes_PDF.pdf.
They did this in French, too, asking writers like Senges, Enard, Littell, etc. - http://www.telerama.fr/tag/bibliotheque-ideale/
SO- aren't there any lists like this compiled from votes of German-language authors or critics in the last few years? Or -- what would be even cooler -- a German-language equivalent of the author-by-author top 10?
Which books have you translated and how do I buy them?
thanks!
Jeremy
@Anonymous: Thanks very much for the lists. I'll post Kämmerlings' top ten separately. I'm not aware of any equivalent favourites lists for German writing. But I'll have a look around.
@Jeremy: I'm not sure where you're based but if you put my name into Amazon you should get a short list. You could then order them online or go to a bookstore of your choice and order them there. Some of the books I've translated and mentioned here aren't out yet, but patience is a virtue, I'm told.
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