Tag Archives: book-week

The Weekend Guess #45

As the last part of this  Book-Week I  present to you the forty fifth instalment of the Weekend Guess.

Eine Gedankenblase mit dem Schriftzug "The Weekend Guess" auf blauem Grund und in einem braunen Rahmen

What is the Weekend Guess?

Up to three riddles formulated by me that are puns and wordplays on the answer itself I put on here for my readers to answer.

Why am I doing this?

For no apparent reason, just because I consider the idea to be funny.

What are the questions about?

Everything I can think of I guess, so far it has been song titles and bands that you have to figure out, but now I’ve changed it to movies.

What is your part in this?

You can try to figure out my riddles and see if you can manage to get behind them and understand what I am describing.

What is in it for you?

So far: Nothing, but the knowledge that you managed to unlock one of my silly riddles.

Let’s start with the forty fourth set of questions

I am looking for the title of this movie:

The boy with the lightning-shaped scar learning the truth about his parents death from an escapee and a werewolf.

Leave your guesses in the comments below and I can see if my questions are too easy or to hard to figure out. I will give the correct answer with the next instalment.
Have fun figuring it out! 🙂

Solution for last weeks Weekend Guess:

Going Postal (Terry Pratchett)

No one tried guessing, so I can’t congratulate anyone.

PoiSonPaiNter

Joanne K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Today you get a review for one of my childhood favourites for BiblioSmiles Summer Book Challenge. Especially as today I am at the Harry Potter Exhibition in Cologne with Unmei.

What is it about?

4 of 5 stars


The young orphan Harry Potter leads a normal life with the Dursleys: his aunt Petunia, his uncle Vernon and cousin Dudley. That is until a strange letter arrives that is accurately addressed at Harry, regardless of where he currently is.
On his eleventh birthday Rubeus Hagrid finally hands him the letter telling Harry that he is, in fact, a wizard. Confronted with the truth about his parents and himself, he soon learns about his fame as The Boy Who Lived and sets off to his first school year in the Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft. There, for the first time, he gains friends (Ron Weasley, Hermoine Granger)- and foes (Draco Malfoy, Severus Snape) alike – and together they uncover a secret hidden within the school.

The reading experience

When I was about the same age as Harry and the others I read this book several times, I do believe at least seven times. Re-reading it after all these years I looked a bit different at the writing itself though.
I still knew what happened in each chapter by simply reading the title, still I didn’t remember the exact words that were used. This kept the whole thing exciting and still captivating whenever it was interesting.
The writing style did, however, feel like it was indeed intended for young people. It didn’t bother me much though (it was a nice and welcome change from the complexity of A Game of Thrones). I do believe the later books are written a bit differently, but as a series continues, so does an author improve and I wouldn’t be surprised if there really is a change. Like always I can only make my assumptions from the German versions of the book(s).

The characters

I grew up with Harry, Ron, Hermoine (though the latter was spelled Hermine) and Neville and have lived through their trials. Even after all this time I think Harry can be quite a brat sometimes, just as Ron can be quite idiotic, Neville was always quite underrated and Hermoine was – and still is – my hero.
As I have mentioned before am I not a fan of „you/I-have-to-do-this-because-you’re/I’m-the-main-character“- story lines and each book pretty much follows the same principle. The highlight is when the others get involved. Here they are still getting to know each other and the exploring-together part is quite left out and instead we see them butt heads. I never liked it when the boys talked down Hermoine or rid themselves of Neville. I like(d) those two and wanted to see more of them. Ron’s sometimes unwanted stupidity still made him likeable.
When I first read the book I think I was as shocked by the twist at the end, as the characters themselves, but when I re-read it with that knowledge, I saw the hints that are already there and that’s what keeps a story interesting.
Some characters feel like stereotypes, many are named, but not explored, but still, no two characters are the same – well, maybe with the exception of the Weasley-twins. 😀 I never understood why anyone would badmouth the Weasley’s, they are an awesome family…
Regardless of that am I just time and again surprised how soon Muggle-born or Halfbloods forget the technological advantages of their home. Sure Computers weren’t nearly as good back in the early 90s as they are nowadays and many things couldn’t be found with the help of the Internet, but still it’s weird that the Magical community does not show any kind of interest in it…

General Opinion

I don’t know what I can say here.
I really liked the book when I grew up, I desperately waited for my letter for Hogwarts and I still enjoy exploring the world after all these years.
The book might not be a masterpiece – some story lines jump quite a bit, some things could have been covered more, stereotypical characters – but it is one of those books that I will probably always enjoy reading. It makes you want to join this magical world, just like Harry – without the whole Boy Who Lived baggage though – who was allowed to part from a mundane life and experience all that.
Every kid should have the chance to read this book while growing up.

Stuff I’d like to add

If some of the things above sounded familiar than that’s because I mentioned some of it already in these Reading Together: #6 and #7
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the cover belongs to its rightful owner

George R.R. Martin: A Game of Thrones

After so many people have told me to try it and I got more and more curious about it, I finally decided to read it as part of BiblioSmiles Summer Book Challenge 2014 as the book someone else picked for me. And you now get the review as fifth part of this Book-Week.

What is it about?

4 of 5 stars


Life in the North, in Winterfell, is harsh, cold and simple, but when Eddard Stark and his kin are visited by the King of the Seven Kingdoms everything changes.
Ned becomes Hand of the King (most important advisor) and he is to accompany him to Kings Landing, the seat of the king. Taking his daughters Arya and Sansa with him he strives to uncover the truth about his predecessors death; leaving behind his wife Catelyn and their son’s Robb, Rickon and Bran, with the latter heavily injured after a fall from a high tower.
Ned’s bastard son Jon Snow uses his father’s departure and leaves with his uncle to join the Night’s Watch, a fading brotherhood that guards an ice Wall at the northern border of the realm. He is accompanied by the Queens dwarf brother Tyrion Lannister, who simply wants to see the wall for himself, but unlike Jon returns to re-join his family again, when he is accused for a crime and taken prisoner.
Meanwhile across the Narrow Sea the last descendants of the house Targaryen join with the Dothraki (horse riding warriors) to regain their rightful place on the Iron Throne.

The reading experience

I read this book in English and somehow expected it to be more complicated, but I understood it quite well. (Except that in my mind „after a fortnight“ was on the day after tomorrow and not in two weeks…)
With relatively short chapters it was nicely split and I could read at least one during a bus trip.
At first I thought – as many have warned me about this – it would be confusing to read about all these different characters, from all these different angles, but it wasn’t. As written before did I think the book would be written in I-perspective from each character that got a chapter, but I soon learned it wasn’t that easy.
While it is a partly omniscient narrator and it doesn’t feel like a complete personal narrator either, does it mainly focus on what the current character knows and experiences, yet it is no I-perspective, as the character is still referred to in the third person.
It is an interesting perspective to say the least.
For reference‘ sake was the focus of this book on: Eddard, Catelyn, Bran, Arya, Sansa, Jon, Daenarys Targayen and Tyrion.
As I said before was I quite captivated by the story and barely wanted to put the book away and I probably would have finished the book far sooner if I had given into that urge.
The only thing that bugged me about the reading was that there were barely any – if at all – paragraphs and a chapter was a complete block of writing and all this with a rather small font.

The characters

Martin is praised for his portrayal of strong female characters (read actual women) and I agree with this. His cast is that varied that you have all kind of different personalities and amongst them those highly praised strong women, but his men are just as diverse. I really enjoy the portrayal of the characters in the book so far, especially Arya and Daenarys. I really liked how Ned handled the whole thing with Needle (or generally interacted with his family) and I grinned while Dany gave her brother a piece of her mind upon their arrival in Vaes Dothrak (Home of the Horselords).
On the other hand was I just as shocked as Catelyn when she met her sister again. Sansa though is a different leaf altogether. As much as I didn’t like the slapping she got towards the end of the book, as much would I have liked to do it myself a couple of times earlier… I really hope it’s true and she’ll finally grow as a character with the next book.
As for the men, I don’t know what to make of Tyrion.
He’s an interesting character, with good advise and clever lines, but he still seems a bit too superior to me at times. Even with his physical restraints he can do a lot of things with seemingly little effort (- and just to be on the save side: This is not intended to be a pun.). Of course his pain is mentioned, but it still feels a bit too much like “look at this character, he is an imp, but look how awesome he is”. Kind of like one of those imba-characters in games or role plays. I still enjoy the scenes he’s in though.
Jon on the other hand is one of those characters that I don’t want to like, due to a possible death, but still do. It’s great how he changed from lordling to tutor and protector of his Black Brothers.
The others have so far had only little screen time and I don’t really know what to say for them. Some of them surprised me with their actions (the Hound/Sandor Clegane), others were pretty constant in their doings (most Lannisters), again others leave me pretty confused (Tyrion, Varys) and then there are those that are nice to have around in a scene (Bronn, Samwell Tarly, Ser Jorah Mormont).
I know I should not get too attached to the characters, but I already have a couple of favourites. With my luck in these kind of things will pretty much all of them die…
A side note for all interested in translations: From what I read so far are some names very strange and sometimes literally translated. The Lannisters e.g. became the Lennisters, Jon Snow is Jon Schnee (German word for snow) and Theon Greyjoy is Theon Graufreud (grau means grey and freud is an abbreviated form of Freude/joy), Kings Landing is Kings Mouth (Königsmund) and probably some other things as well…

General Opinion

I did not expect to like the book as much as I did, but it became the highlight of the books I read last year. I’m really curious how this story will continue and if those characters that I now know will even make it the the currently last book.
For everyone still considering if starting with this series is worth it, let me tell you: It is.
It is incredibly written, very interesting and captivating and has such a refreshing variety of characters that all those pages the book has are sooner behind you than you think.
I also noticed that the characters have a different view on peoples ages, but when I read Sansa‘s comment on how old someone was, who was closing in on twenty two I certainly had to take a moment to let this sink…
Sure she is eleven and a brat (if you haven’t noticed already, she’s also my least favourite of the Stark-bunch), but people can’t have high life expectancies if mid-thirties are considered close to death and mid-twenties regarded as old, but it does fit the context.

Stuff I’d like to add

I made the mistake of watching most of the episodes directly after I’ve read the portrayed chapters and they aren’t really as according to book as I’d have liked.
There are several things that bugged me quite a bit while watching, but I think the worst was that the females got toned down and males got their lines.
As a writer myself, I would also be quite interested in learning how Martin decides to end his characters (does he create them to be killed or does he decide it along the way?). Does anyone happen to know an interview where he talked about this?
Some of the stuff above was by the way already used/mentioned in these Reading Together: #2, #3 and #4 and in a comment over at Geekritiques Review of the book, just so you know, why it may sound familiar. 😉
On a side note: I think it’s funny how his name shortens to GRR…maybe that was the reason why the first family he introduces have their Direwolves… 😀
On a completely different note: I’m on my way to Cologne to visit the  Harry Potter Exhibition with Unmei tomorrow.
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the cover belongs to its rightful owner

J.R.R. Tolkien: The Hobbit

Back in October I spent a weekend with Anice in Berlin. As I knew she’d be sleeping in and I would wake up early I had brought two books with me: A Graveyard for Lunatics that I was close to finishing and Earthsea for when I finished. But Anice had a book with her as well: The Hobbit, so when we showed each other what the other had brought we decided to switch books. I got the Hobbit and she the Earthsea book. So thus I was able to read one of the fantasy classics for the first time.

What is it about?

4 of 5 stars


The Hobbit Bilbo Beutlin leads a quiet life in his Hobbit hole until twelve dwarves knock at his door one after the other and occupy his living room, eat all his food and drink all his beverages.
The sorcerer Gandalf has let them there to turn Bilbo into the thieve they needed to reclaim the Lonely Mountain as home of the dwarves and crown Thorin Oakenshield as King under the Mountain.
But before they even reach their destination they have to travel through Middle Earth and face foes and friends alike, not to mention Smaug the dragon who is guarding the dwarven gold and cast out the dwarves in the first place.

The reading experience

Before I started reading I expected the writing style to be completely different. It was a translated version, but I still didn’t think it would have been written like a children’s tale, as the narrator explained things quite easily. It was a nice surprise though.
Besides the Fairytale-like narration the book was also filled with sketches. You could see the dwarves, Gollum, trolls and of course Smaug, who looks a bit different than in the movie adaptation. 😀 Additionally, some of the books characters also fell into song on one or the other occasion.
It was a nice and fluent read and even in German you could see Tolkiens love for language.

The characters

Bilbo was a quite interesting character. A no-one that grows with his tasks and experiences, who is smart enough to know what is the right thing to do.
The dwarves on the other hand were kind of walking on the thin line between like and dislike, while swaying from one direction to the other. Whenever Bilbo did something good they praised him and called him their best friend, but if he, however, had a strange idea or did something that seemed wrong at first they talked him down and even insulted him. I have no idea how Bilbo managed to stay as calm as he did when they were like that and even how he could stay.
Most prominent with this behaviour was Thorin, whom I didn’t like for most parts of the story. His opinion and moods were ever changing and he was basically just an ass. Still, the finale caught me off guard and I didn’t like what happened to him.
The dwarves I sympathised most with were incidentally also the once that treated the Hobbit best: Balin, Bombur, Kili and Fili. Balin the eldest and most reasonable, Bombur, with his good nature and a heart that seemed to be about the same size as his appetite and the youngest brothers that were still less stubborn than the other dwarves. Needless to say I again questioned my luck with character-choices at the end of the book…
The side character were also quite interesting even though they had very little screen time. Still, an enjoyable contrast to the stubborn dwarves. Though „you-thought-I’d-be-accompanying-you-all-the-way?“-Gandalf,  didn’t really earn many sympathy points from me either.

General Opinion

I liked reading this book. There are some things that didn’t go well with me (annoying Thorin, some conclusions and characterizations,..), but they don’t really matter as the bigger picture leaves you quite content in the end.
The story was fun, exciting, interesting, sad and all those things that I can’t name. The end could have been a bit longer, as it felt a bit rushed, but every journey comes to an end at some point.
It’s really a story I wouldn’t mind reading again one day and I’m not sure if I’m disappointed in myself that I haven’t read it sooner or if it is all right that I can now appreciate it more.

Stuff I’d like to add

As I said before is the spelling dwarves based on Tolkiens writing and I still think that is pretty cool.
By now I’ve also seen the movies, which I didn’t want to see before reading the books, but I don’t know if and when I’ll be writing a review about them.
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the cover belongs to its rightful owner

Lisa J. Smith: The Struggle

When I read the first book of the Vampire Diaries series, I already decided to continue with the it, simply because I already have the books. Besides that had I chosen it as bonus book (book you haven’t read that was adapted to a movie/TV show) for BiblioSmiles Summer Book Challenge.

What is it about?

2 of 5 stars

The story picks up right where it had left off and Elena, now aware of Stefanos secret, confronts his brother Damon in search for the other. With the help of friends Bonny and Meredith she manages to find him.

With Stefano more or less safely returned to her, they now have to face a different trial: Someone has stolen Elenas diary and the entries seem all but to prove that Stefano is the killer that prowled around their little town.

Will they be able to prove his innocence?

The reading experience

I honestly felt embarrassed while I read and more than once I wondered why I was even reading this book.

The book has somewhat around 200 pages and throughout all of them I was looking for the actual plot. When I was finished I wasn’t even sure what the purpose of the book was. Stuff happened, people talked, but nothing of importance.  What you can read above is pretty much the entire story line of the book.

Other than that was it reading wise not much different then the first part.

The characters

I still don’t like Elena and Stefano and so far I doubt this will change much.

Where I found the sinister side of Damon interesting in the first book, was I disappointed that it wasn’t really featured this time. He was still portrayed as the bad guy, but already showed signs (quite large and blinking) of become just another love-struck vampire. Though he is the creepy type that forcefully takes what he wants, which is also why I don’t understand the growing interest Elena has in him….
Interesting contrast to the main characters? Yes. Healthy people skills? Hell no.

Meredith and Bonny get a bit more screen time and they are a nice – read with more common sense – change from Elena, but it is still too little to get an actual feel of them. Though one of them seems quite dumb, but I don’t remember which one…

All in all do the characters feel kind of dull and sketchy and I didn’t really develop any kind of connection to either of them so far.

General Opinion

So far the story is far too cheesy for my taste and the characters aren’t really memorable. The fluent writing makes up a bit for this, but the missing plot is still kind of weird.
I was shortly considering to rate it even lower, but even with all the complaining above it still doesn’t feel like a one star book…

I’ll still continue, even if it is only to see if there will be plot one day. 😀

Stuff I’d like to add

As I said for part one was this books‘ title also changed during the Twilight hype. Originally it was called: Der Kampf (The Fight/Struggle), but was changed to Bei Dämmerung (At Dawn/Twilight – I’m not entirely sure which one they mean, though I suppose the later) in 2008.
This name-change subsequently causes the connection from title to content to be very, very thin and technically not existent.

PoiSonPaiNter

© For the cover belongs to its rightful owner

Stephen Baxter: Doctor Who – The Wheel of Ice

Part two of this Book-Week is a book that our local library added when I asked them about it, back when I „hid“ my papers for the Back Wolf Day 2013. It’s one of many Doctor Who novels out there and the first I read so far.

What is it about?

3 of 5 stars


The TARDIS catches a signal that is not supposed to come from the rings of Saturn. Stubborn as she is, she leaves The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe no choice but to investigate.
Strange sightings of Blue Dolls and sabotages meanwhile busy the inhabitants of the make-shift houses within the Wheel of Ice.
Unwelcome at first the time travellers have to team up with the locals to end this predicament.

The reading experience

As I said before was reading this book quite uncomfortable.
To quote myself:

What bugs me most about reading this book is, however, its layout. It’s a Hardcover version and therefore quite large as it is. Still, the pages have a lot of space around what is written in a rather large font, thus creating rather short pages.
So you have this giant book, with little content to actually read on one page.
This feels especially weird when you’re sitting in the bus and to everyone else it looks like you’re reading a children’s book…

It also had a quite interesting chapter outline.
Between the main chapters there were Intermezzo that told stories that had only been mentioned in the main story line. I’m not sure if I encountered something like this before, but it was quite interesting.

The characters

With each more adventure I share with this TARDIS trio I like them more.
The Second Doctor is more of a father/mentor figure towards them and the other characters. He leads them to make the discoveries on their own and follows new leads with a childlike enthusiasm, but is still serious if need be.
Zoe’s tendency to arrogance showed quite a bit in this story, but it is the understandable kind, someone of great intelligence has towards people who just don’t get them. It is toned down a bit when she opens herself to care for her friends and the people of the ring.
In contrast to her is Jamie quite, well, dumb. His knowledge and wisdom is nowhere near hers or The Doctors. Yet, he proves time and again that his compassion is the key to getting the people on their side. And even a simple mind can come to the right conclusions. 😉
The other characters were less defined. We barely know anything about the council members and their reasons for participating – other than this-and-this organisation send me. The most we know and learn about are the the Laws with the siblings Phee and Sam being quite essential to the plot.
In a way they are portrayed as normal teenager, yet, different. The reasoning why the children do what they do is still understandable. At some points I thought the language of the children to be too colloquial, then again, I read the German version and the original could have been different.
The main antagonist Florian Hart was something entirely different. I liked the nod they made to the serial The Seeds of Death with claiming that the company that built the T-Mats used, belonged to her father and the Doctors interference resulted in her life choices. On the other hand have I never before encountered a woman named Florian, so this had me highly confused every time I read it. She was all in all not a very likeable character and a bit over the top, but to some extent still believable.
Also interesting was the way Baxter described the semi-sentient/robot-like beings MMAC, Arkive and the Blue Doll First and their thinkings and actions in the Intermezzo.

General Opinion

Like most Doctor Who stories didn’t this get into too much details either and many things about the background’s and going ons are left untold. As someone used to read about the different worlds in Fantasy novels, was this one of the down points. I understand the lack of information in the TV series, but in a book there is a bit more time to spent on background information (Like how they came up with the ranks and so forth).
Still, it was a nice adventure with what might become one of my favourite TARDIS teams.

Stuff I’d like to add

I’m not sure if I’ll manage to get my hands on another Doctor Who novel, but I wouldn’t mind reading another one.
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the cover belongs to its rightful owner

Terry Pratchett: Reaper Man

We meet again for another Book-Week and I have a slight feeling that it won’t be the last this year.
The first book I’ve chosen to review is Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett. I have read this book some years ago during my last school years and as I said before:

When Fairy posted her review on Reaper Man for her Alphabet-Challenge I couldn’t help myself but to follow DEATH on his journey to understand mortality again, either.

What is it about?

4 of 5 stars


In the Discworld everyone and everything gets an hourglass that symbolizes their lives‘ time and that tells DEATH when it is time to pick them up. Some sand grains run faster, others slower and some don’t run at all. Until they do. When DEATH is confronted with his own mortality he decides to live the life he now gained by leaving his realm and offering his help on a farm as Bill Door.
With DEATH out of duty the dead people of the Discworld – amongst them former wizard Windle Poons – now have the slight problem of being un-dead or unable to pass on. While every other species creates their own version of DEATH quite fast, humans take longer and the life force that accumulates in the meantime causes quite a lot of trouble for the people of Ankh-Morpork, Windle, his fellow un-dead friends and the other wizards of the Unseen University.

The reading experience

I remember that when I first read it, I was quite captivated by it and didn’t want to stop. When I now read it again it wasn’t like that. I still enjoyed it greatly, but with some knowledge of what was going to happen still in mind and a different look on writing itself, some passages felt different to what I remember. I do believe I also laughed less at some of the jokes, but I’m not entirely sure whom to blame for that.
Pratchett has obviously his own way of writing – especially his Discworld novels – but some sentences bugged me quite a bit, though this might as well have been due to some translation mishaps.
The ideas, however, were quite interesting:

  • DEATH leaves and everything that is dying leaves behind its life force that creates new things that shouldn’t actually be there.
  • Unusual un-dead unite to fight for their rights.
  • Trolleys hatching from Snow Globes gathering to become a Shopping Mall.
  • Different versions of DEATH around the Discworld.

But so far I haven’t come across a Discworld book that wasn’t interesting to read.

The characters

DEATH is one of my favourite characters, both in the Discworld and across literature. His way of (mis)understanding the human nature and exploring it is just brilliant and at times quite hilarious. Seeing him face the weirdness of a mortal life as Bill Door (or Bill Tür as he is called in German) is also quite interesting, because he sees so many things quite different.
The Wizards are always a source for laughter and rolling of eyes, their just so quirky and weird. Their whole attitude stands quite in contrast to the second protagonist Windle Poons, who is rather reasonable for a(n un-dead) wizard. He brought a nice contrast into the chaos caused by the life force.
Though they get little screen time are all the side characters still interesting in their own way, with their own quirky stories. The shy Bogeyman Schleppel was quite great, just as the opposite werewolves Ludmilla and Lupine and the (fake) vampire couple the Winkings. As were the semi-self-conscious Troleys, who toyed with the wizards.
Pratchett just has a great way of creating rather unique characters that are quite likable soon.

General Opinion

Even though I roughly remembered what was going to happen, I still enjoyed this re-read.
With DEATH as main character, I cannot not like this story.
Besides that was it just interesting to read how all of them coped with their different situation (being mortal, being un-dead, being surrounded by Snow Globes, being chased by Trolleys,…).
The only down point I could see, is that at some points the story tried too much to be original, like with the crude writing on the Globes.
It also didn’t become entirely clear to me what the endgame of the Mall was and why the life force was turned into it in the first place (I know it had to go somewhere, but still…).
But it was still a fun read and I’ll probably read it again one day. 🙂

Stuff I’d like to add

If I ever get around to actually do it, I’d like to have a look at this book, Supernatural’s Death takes a Holiday and Torchwood: Miracle Day to look at how differently they handle the concept of Death’s absence.
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the cover belongs to its rightful owner

A special place for book lovers…

is located in the Mecklenburger Schweiz (Mecklenburg Switzerland).

As I mentioned in the beginning of and throughout the Book-Week had I planned a trip with my Mum to a Book Hotel or more precisely the Gutshotel Groß Breesen that claims to be the first Book Hotel in Germany.

We had discussed a trip to this place for quite some time now, but this year my Mum got it from me for her birthday and in the end of July it was finally time to go there.

Getting there and the first impression

Their logo

As we aren’t familiar with the region the hotel is located in, we used a satnav to find our way. Yet, even though mine has current map material, we struggled a bit towards the end.
The address of the hotel claims to be „near Zehna“ in a „Dorfstraße“ (Village Road) and my satnav was clever enough to send us into the Dorfstraße of Zehna…
Luckily it isn’t too far to Groß Breesen from there and we just needed a look at a printed map and were back on track.

Already when we entered the entrance hall we were met with the sight of up to twenty boxes, completely filled with books of all kinds. A sight that already let a grin spread across my face in anticipation of what lay ahead for us.

After we picked up our key card and found our room we had a look around, before settling in.

The Hotel

The room we had was a nice double-room that had already two books lying on the window sills. One by two pastors telling stories from their sheep and the another describing funny situations. I didn’t read either, but my Mum picked the comedic one.

You could get jealous of all these owls..

You could get jealous of all these owls in the hotel…

Just beside our room was the first library, but also three more shelves in the different hallways. In the library you had a couch and two armchairs to get comfortable in and if you wanted, you had also the possibility to listen to music from a player in the corner. Alternatively you could sit on the terrace right outside the room. We used the chance to sit there a couple of times in the evening and in the morning, before it got too warm/too cold out there and we moved to the garden or the arm chairs/our room respectively.

Next during our exploration we looked through the book boxes on our way to the vaulted cellar with the restaurant and already picked up a couple of interesting looking ones. We also discovered that there seem to be two more buildings containing the guest rooms and another, a bit larger, library in the cellar of one of them. Outside you had chairs and tables from the restaurant, but also many more possibilities to sit in the garden.

Catering

During our stay we enjoyed the awesomeness that was the restaurants food. It was always delicious, always an enormous amount of food and did I mention delicious?

Aside from that were there three things that stuck with me like the taste of the food:

During our first breakfast I had an encounter that I would have not expected to have. When I turned around from picking up a role (Brötchen 😉 ) I saw a man standing there that looked awfully familiar and he recognized me as well.
A hotel in the middle of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern isn’t really a place you expect to – or rather want to – meet a former professor/student…
At least my Mum was highly amused by this and I was surprised how much he remembered about me…

On our second evening we sat outside to have dinner and my Mum had ordered a bread-plate and as it was still warm the insects still flew around or more precisely: The wasps. They were pretty annoying, but it was really interesting to see one of them slowly cutting off a slice of meat from Mums cold cuts and fly off with it…

When we sat outside on Saturday the waitress came up to us, asking whether we knew English and were good at it, which I replied to with „I like to think so“. When she next asked if I’d be able to translate the menu, I told her that I’d try, but wouldn’t promise anything. Not long after this she brought me a tiny Langenscheidt dictionary, a pen and scribbling paper alongside the menu and I started working. With my own vocabulary, the dictionary and the waitresses mobile phone (aka Leo.org) we managed to translate the meals. If it hasn’t been changed then the translation of the menu is still by me. 🙂

Read where ever and when ever you want!

The best thing, however, was that no one judged the place you chose for reading. Or the time.
The hotel provides you with a variety of different chairs, benches and couches to get comfortable in/on, both in- and outside. Even when food or drinks were served they would make sure to place them were you could still read your book. Everyone passing by just gave you a smile, instead of the scowl you occasionally get elsewhere. The overall lovely and welcoming atmosphere was even more heightened by this. And just look at some of the places outside:

A couple of sitting/reading places outside

Benches, canvas chairs and many more

Luckily I'm not afraid of angels ;)

Luckily I’m not afraid of angel statues 😉

Who wouldn’t want to spent time with a good book there?

Everything in this hotel simply allows you to enjoy your reading experience just the way you want/like it.

Except, for example, a Mum that teases you with a „Still not finished?“ when she is done with her first book, while you’re still stuck with yours….thanks Mum…
To be fair did I pick a rather heavy piece with Jack London’s John Barleycorn and she had the comedic one I mentioned before.

Books as far as the eye can see

Even more impressive than the vast collection of sitting possibilities were the numbers of books you saw wherever you looked.

They lie in piles, in boxes or suitcases, on shelves in the different hallways, in the library room with the terrace or in the two rooms of the cellar library and a huge barn containing about 250.000 books alone…
Even though we had planned to take a look at the latter we were soon overwhelmed by the books we already had at our disposal, so we shelved (pun intended) that experience for our next visit.

This huge collection was brought there by the guests and other donors and will probably continue to grow and change as besides providing a place to stay and read, they also offer you this trade:

Leave two books with us and take one with you in return.

We have by the way left a couple of my Mums book just as well as Tiger Tiger and The Haunted Glass from the four that were initially intended to go there.

The thing I was wondering about most regarding the books I saw, was that there were barely any of the Fantasy genre, but I guess we Fantasy readers are simply too much like dragons and hoard our preciouses unwilling to give away any of our treasures (The Hobbit sends its regards for this metaphor…).
The book I did find was Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin where up until now I only knew its story from the movie version and I managed to read the first book (A Wizard of Earthsea) during our stay and picked this one to take with me when we left.

And even though there is now an English menu have I not seen that many English books, but a few are there. You just have to look a little longer or you bring your own and leave them there to enlarge their collection. Alternatively there might me more in the barn, but you’ll have to explore that one yourself. 😉

Simply put: This trip was an incredibly relaxing experience and both of us really enjoyed it. We already are looking forward to staying there or visiting again one day and I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in books. You won’t regret it. 🙂

PoiSonPaiNter

© I obviously don’t own the rights to the logo.

The Weekend Guess #20

As finale of the Book-Week, I present to you the twentieth instalment of: The Weekend Guess with book-themed songs.

Eine Gedankenblase mit dem Schriftzug "The Weekend Guess" auf blauem Grund und in einem braunen Rahmen

What is the Weekend Guess?

Three riddles formulated by me that are puns and wordplays on the answer itself I put on here for my readers to answer.

Why am I doing this?

For no apparent reason, just because I consider the idea to be funny.

What are the questions about?

Everything I can think of I guess, but mostly song titles and bands that you have to figure out.

What is your part in this?

You can try to figure out my riddles and see if you can manage to get behind them and understand what I am describing.

What is in it for you?

So far: Nothing, but the knowledge that you managed to unlock one of my silly riddles.

Let’s start with the twentieth set of questions

With all three I am looking for a song of the Eyeless Protector. As the topic this week were books each of them is about one.

#1
Someone talking in the absence of light.

#2
A mystery in historic and coming times.

#3
Different country.

Leave your guesses in the comments below and I can see if my questions are too easy or to hard to figure out. I will give the correct answer with the next instalment.
Have fun figuring them out! 🙂

Solution for last weeks Weekend Guess:

#1 Helloween – Dr. Stein
#2 Korpiklaani  – Vodka
#3 Rhapsody of Fire – I belong to the Stars

This time no one really tried guessing them, so I can’t congratulate anyone.

PoiSonPaiNter

One Hundred

In regards to the Book-Week I put a few touches to the list of books I’ve read over at Goodreads.When I started adding the books a nagging feeling rose from the back of my mind: ‚No, it can’t be that you haven’t read a hundred books, yet…‚  With this thought in mind I sat down and thought of the books that were missing in the list and indeed: I have already read more than a hundred books in my life.

From a mathematical stand point this means that I’ve read 6,25 books a year (assuming I’ve started reading on my own with eight), which isn’t really true as I had years were I haven’t read a thing or barely any books and years where I’ve read more then ten.

Anyway, if you’re interested what I did read, have a look the the shelf below, maybe you find something interesting too. (Note: As I can’t remember the names of a few books they are still missing, but there are at least six, so even without the displayed Manga would it be a hundred)

And even though I tried paying attention to it when I was around 94, did I only notice that the re-blog of my Extremis article became my hundredth post afterwards…
I’m also close to having a hundred people following me via WordPress, which is pretty cool in a way and would be way more awesome if you guys would participate a bit more. 😉 (I do unfortunately believe that a couple of my followers aren’t really interested in what I am writing, but instead of me having interest in the stuff they have to sell on their Blogs – feel free to prove me wrong on this.)

With a word count similar to the three hundreds I now leave you to the books below. 🙂

PoiSonPaiNter

© For the covers belong to their respective owners. I just read the books.