In 1995, the UNESCO declared the 23rd of April as the International Day of the Book. In order to promote that day and to promote reading, the initiative “Blogger schenken Lesefreude” (Bloggers passing on the joy of reading…rough translation) calls for bloggers to raffle off books they enjoyed. We are raffling off “Winnie the Pooh” in English as it is one of our all-time favourite children books.
Here is the deal! For you to take part in the raffle, you have to leave a comment until the end of this month and tell me one of your all-time favourite books. One that you read again every now and then and that you don’t get tired of. One that has touched you somehow.
(And don’t worry: you don’t have to be registered to write comments. All you need is your email address).
We are looking forward to your recommendations!!
familial entropy 
Because your blog is in english I figured I’ll reply in english too (although I am from Germany).
The initiative is such a wonderful idea and I’m glad I’m able to participate! 🙂
I always wanted to read the Winnie the Pooh books because I loved the TV series so much as a child but I never got around to do so.
When I read the question, the first book that came to mind was Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J. K. Rowling. I love this book so much and the series is my favorite series of all time. I can’t get enough of the books and the movies. But another book I want to mention is The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. I just read this a couple of month ago and absolutely loved this book. It’s such a wonderful coming of age story that everyone should read. I haven’t reread it yet but I plan to do so sooner than later 🙂
I hope you have a wonderful World Book Day!
Roy
Hi Roy, thank you very much for your recommendations! While Karsten is not much into phantasy books, I really like the Harry Potter books as well (I do think, though, that the first 4 books are much better than the last ones). I remember that I started reading them when I was about 15 years old and I really enjoyed immerging into the world Rowling created. I haven’t read The Perks of Being a Wallflower, but I will definitely see that I’ll do so soon!
My favorite books are those from Stefan Zweig and for my little one Paul Maar’s. 🙂
Hi Becky, thanks for participating! So far, I have only read Maria Stuart by Stefan Zweig, but The Royal Game has been on my reading list for a while now. Paul Maar is great – of course the Sams, but as a kid I also enjoyed Lippels Dream a lot 🙂 And since I like cooking and baking, I will definitely browse through your blog during the next days!!
You’re very welcome on my blog and I’m looking forward of seeing you there. 🙂 I loved both books from Zweig, but my favorite is the Letter of an unknown woman, yo really have to read this.
I really think it’s difficult to say which of my favourite books is “the one”. a few weeks ago, I finished “me before you” by jojo moyes and even though, I haven’t reread it, I can imagine it without getting bored. The story is so heart-touching and I cried so much.
Winnie the Pooh was one of my heros during my childhood and I would love to read it.
Thanks for attending Blogger schenken Lesefreude 🙂
Hi Lina, thanks for your recommendation! Me before you sounds like the right love-story to have at hand for a relaxing evening! 🙂
I will follow my preposter and also write in English despite being German… 😉 I like the idea of sharing books, there’s also this movement that leaves books at random places to swap and thus serves as some kind of public library/flea market… “Winnie the Pooh” is something I want to read since Sonya once brought home a CD from the library and found out that it’s not about nice, sweet little toy animals but rather one of the first child-adapted studies of social disorders, and a very charming one indeed 😉
The book I’ve definitely read through most often from start to end is the bible (which is not so noteworthy anymore if I also mention that I’ve now had fifteen to twenty years of mostly daily lecture to do so and still find things I never noticed before) 😉
Besides that, I simply LOVE Stanislav Lem’s “Pilot Pirx” about a shy, dreamy spaceship pilot living through various adventures, often solving complicated problems without realizing that it’s actually his personality and practical intellect that helps him doing this and not sheer luck. One of the less mainstream-like SciFi books, rather psychologically challenging than technologically and definitely not like “Starship Enterprise” or “Star Wars”, but very intriguing reading. His “Sterntagebücher” are also very much worth reading. Lem’s pacifistic thinking and wise perception of human weaknesses and their causes paired with Lem’s often hidden humour never cease to fascinate and amuse me.
Then there’s the whole Lord Peter Whimsey series from Dorothy L. Sayers, of course, which I’ve loved as a teenager and of which I still have almost all the books. Fantastic criminal literature, much more rewarding than the often lifeless Agatha Christie books where the participants seem psychologically detailed but otherwise cold and inhumane. I always used to relate to Lord Peter as he has some strange habits, too 🙂
And last but not least there’s the Hornblower series from C. S. Forester, a thoroughly researched story (concerning the facts and background) about the life of fictitious naval officer Horatio Hornblower who slowly makes his way from a flimsy, timid ensign to counter admiral in the English navy before, during and after the Napoleonic war. If ever a book stirred my interest for sailing, this is it. The extremely detailed descriptions of maneuvers and battles on these old oak ships go together with a very clever storyline, a little bit of romance which evolves gradually over several books and the realistic personalities of the persons involved.
I should probably stop here after “only” about 20 books and will not go into detail about Heydecker’s “The Great War 1914-18”, Douglas Adams’ five “Hitchhiker” books, Bonhoeffer’s “Gemeinsames Leben” and “Bergpredigt”… Sonya once asked me why I wanted to keep all my books. The answer was: I only keep all the books which I liked and which I want to read again…
So many books, wow 🙂 I know some of them – the bible of course, though I admit I never read all of it, and the Hornblower books which are an all-time favourite in our family as well (the BBC series is great too). I haven’t read Lord Peter Whimsey or anything by Stanislaw Lem, but I guess I can always borrow from you, right? They do sound good!!
Yes, of course, you can always borrow them, that’s another reason why I keep them 🙂 and I will probably come and borrow some from you in return as you two also have quite a library with lots of books I don’t know…
Hello,
books that you can read always again? Well thats hard, there are few stories that will follow me till the rest of my life.
1st one is The Hobbit, till now i finished it 23 times.
2nd are the books of Kathrin Slaughter, the serie about Grant County. (finished complete serie 12 times)
3rd is the complete collection of the fairy tales of Hans-Christian Andersen. (finished 10 times)
Winnie the Pooh was one of my fav tv series, it would be interesting to read it for my daughter and my niece (she cant speak german), if she visit us the next time.
Hi Thiemo, well that’s an interesting selection of favourite books 🙂 The Hobbit is one of my all time favourites too, my father used to read it to me as a good-night story and I can’t still recite small parts by heart 🙂
The fairy tales by Andersen are beautiful too, though always slightly melancholic I think. I haven’t read anything by Kathrin Slaughter yet, but I will put her on my thriller-list. I used to love thrillers but somehow I can’t handle nerve-wracking stories as good as I used too (maybe a result of being a mother, who knows).
Thank you for the recommendations!
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