1947 young writer Truman Capote had the opportunity to visit one of his admired idols, the legendary French author Colette:

Shyness, nerves, I don’t know what it was, but after the first quick study I couldn’t really look at Colette, and was somewhat tongue-tied to boot. Instead, I concentrated on what seemed to me a magical exhibition, some ( Read more... )

"A slow sadness took hold of us. Our lot was exile. Our city was far away, our books, our friends, the shifting ups and downs of a real existence, all far away. [...]

I told the children about our city. They were very small when we left, and had no memories of it. I told them how the houses had many floors and there were lots of streets and ( Read more... )

Holly stepped out of the car; she took the cat with her. Cradling him, she scratched his head and asked, What do you think? This ought to be the right kind of place for a tough guy like you. Garbage cans. Rats galore. Plenty of cat-bums to gang around with. So scram, she said, dropping him; and when he did not move away, instead raised his thug- ( Read more... )

Waz wirret dier?
Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival

Parzival...

... who lost everything and was cursed to errantry.
... because he didn't dare to ask the most important question.
... the question, that would have led him to his fate and fortune.
... the question, that would have released Anfortas, the Fisher King, from his suffering:

What ails ( Read more... )

If you open this book you'll DIE ( Read more... )

For me, one of the most disturbing poems of Christian Morgenstern's Gallows Songs is The Wallpaper Flower:

Tapetenblume
Tapetenblume bin ich fein,
kehr wieder ohne Ende,
doch, statt im Mai'n und Mondenschein,
auf jeder der vier Wände.
Du siehst mich nimmerdar genung ( Read more... )

The Táin Bó Cúalnge or The Cattle Raid of Cooley is the central text of the old Irish Ulster Cycle. The tale has survived in two versions from the Middle Ages, the story is set in a pre-christian, heroic Ireland.

One of the central figures is queen Medb. A legendary queen, maybe a former goddess. And for sure a woman with a strong will. Parts of the ( Read more... )

...and so I am, without doubt, following the old call, back to the old life, the life which is mine and which will not let me go.


( Read more... )

In 1955 Borges was appointed Director of the National Library.
Borges, who had long suffered from eye problems, became totally blind in his last decades.


( Read more... )

In Carlos Ruiz Zafón's "The Shadow of the Wind" a black-dressed angel named Zacharias accompanies the dreams of a plain woman, María Jacinta Coronado. He makes prophecies and because they come true, he seems reliable to her, a true companion. In the course of her life Zacharias changes his form and it becomes more and more certain what the reader ( Read more... )