Reading List: Timeline

I think there is a social bias: we hold people in particularly high regard who create, invent, found and develop things. And to a certain extent, that’s right. These people bring …

In my piece on the Three-Body trilogy, I mentioned that my reading map has some sizeable blank spots when it comes to Asia and Africa. So I simply googled what you absolutely have …

We all live in our own bubble, somehow. As far as I know, there’s nobody among my acquaintances who sympathises with the AfD (Alternative for Germany). At least nobody shows it …

When Stephen King gets really good, he usually ends up in prison. The novella “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption”, on which “The Shawshank Redemption” is based, is really …

I admit it: I am a Grundgesetz ultra – a die-hard fan of the Basic Law, Germany’s constitution. Unreservedly. No, I don’t constantly insist on my fundamental rights, and I don’t …

The newest book of Robert Habeck. Former Vice Chancellor of Germany. Member of the Green Party. Well, for a long time I was an SPD voter. Although I certainly had a certain …

No, this book was certainly not light Sunday-evening-tea-on-the-sofa fare. I recently picked it up as part of a stack of the Reclam books I mentioned before. These are often 200 …

Really, there is only one important question in life for judging people: chocolate scoop or vanilla scoop on top?

A few days ago, I watched The Life of Chuck. It’s a truly unusual film, especially considering it’s based on a Stephen King story. Tom Hiddleston’s dance scene may be what sticks …

Konrad Zuse is one of the many giants on whose shoulders my industry stands. I still remember being a know-it-all teenager and pointing out to my English teacher, Mrs. W. (yes, …

Some days, you start to lose faith in humanity. On days like that, I’d recommend this book. It tells the story of how a small Canadian town opened its doors to the people stranded …

When you sit in a doctor’s waiting room with a book, you almost feel like a snob already, while everyone around you stares into their phone, completely entangled in the net. If on …

Strictly speaking, I should hardly have any memories of Helmut Schmidt as chancellor – and I don’t really have any significant memories of my own, apart from snippets of the …

I don’t think many people really understand how LLMs work. Why they manage to come across as if they “know” things, even though they’re “just” a model of language, not of …

At some point, I was standing in a bookshop looking for a present for my niece. And then I found it: a story I’ve known since childhood. It was in my reader back in primary …

Reclam publishes a small but, in my opinion, very fine series of little books. The series is called “Was bedeutet das alles?” (“What does it all mean?”). The books are roughly the …

I recently wrote in a text about a book on the Basic Law, Germany’s constitution , that I am a Basic Law ultra. Despite the weaknesses of our state, I allow myself to be very glad …

I want to get around to some heavier literature on my reading list. What a doorstopper. It’s the Three-Body trilogy – “Trisolaris” in German – in a single volume: 1,740 pages. The …

It was one of the books I took with me to hospital last year. I didn’t actually get round to reading it until after rehab, though: Project Hail Mary. The film does the book …

Whenever I hear about Neil deGrasse Tyson, I immediately think of Carl Sagan. And yet the two differ greatly, at least in public. Both are – or were – great science communicators. …

The news caught me at a bad moment last week. On 24 October I had to let Henry go, and I was pretty off the rails all week. I still am. Then, on 28 October, Patrick Stewart died. …

ta’ puq mach? Huh? Emperor-child-small? Why do I actually own this book? To be honest, I don’t really know. I like the story. Well … that’s probably a non-statement … I think …

In 2023 I gave away this book-shaped blend of candy floss, halva and the entire display case of a Turkish bakery as a gift. Fortune-cookie wisdom on every page. But sometimes …

At some point, you burn your last CD without knowing it’s the last time. At some point, you buy your last DVD without knowing your collection will never grow again. I bought this …

If astrophysics weren’t – as the name suggests – part of physics, and therefore full of formulas with letters and strange symbols, this science would have a clear advantage over …

If you read a lot, you always get the feeling that you have basically never had a new thought in your entire life. A truly fresh thought, I mean. Somebody has always had that …

I’ll admit it right away: I bought this book for one reason only. I had seen the film Arrival and liked it immediately. The film is based on Ted Chiang’s novella “Story of Your …

There is science fiction like “Armageddon” or, if you insist, “The Core”, which is occasionally somewhat entertaining but has about as much to do with science as the Pope has to …

I have several books by or about Helmut Schmidt. I think this is the third one I bought. I got it second-hand, which is why it has that wonderful smell of books that have spent …

You know that picture that keeps circulating on social media, showing the bullet holes in fighter planes that returned home during the Second World War? It’s meant to illustrate …

There are images of events that have burned themselves indelibly into my memory: the falling towers on September 11, the crumpled ICE train at Eschede. And that image of the …

I don’t really like audiobooks. I read faster than the narrator speaks. And when I’m driving, I dislike that strange effect where you’ve covered 100 kilometres and somehow don’t …

“Failure Is Not an Option” is a book by Gene Kranz. Most people will know the name from his role as Flight Director on Apollo 13, but his career extends far beyond that – both …

Recently, while working on another text about a book by Carl Sagan, I was looking for a video on YouTube. I really liked one of the comments there: “Every disaster begins with a …

I love the film “Apollo 13”. It’s one of those films I like to watch when I’m in the mood for a film, but not for a new one. I think I could recite parts of it by heart. After …

I’ve mentioned this book before: anyone who has read my piece about how I “lost” my fear of flying will already know it. It’s an important book to me. Not because it’s good – for …

I can’t say exactly when I bought this book. My edition came out in 1999, and the price on the back is still in Deutschmarks. I think it was 2001. I do remember where I bought it: …

This book is a bit problematic. It’s one I only read after I had seen the film adaptation: Robert Heinlein’s “Starship Troopers”. The book is often counted among the important …

Neil deGrasse Tyson called it “The Book of Carl”: “Pale Blue Dot” (in German: “Blauer Punkt im All”). The name refers to the small blue dot in one of the most famous images taken …

You’re up to your neck in it! In myth? No – in religion. That was the first thing that struck me when I held this book in my hands. The battle of good versus evil, built on a …

I still remember exactly where I bought this book: Münster. In a bookshop in town. The Bundeswehr had sent me there, and the barracks were fairly close to the city centre. So, …

Well, what can I say? No – strictly speaking, the question should be: what should I say? And to that, there’s a clear answer: nothing, really. This book is my final boss. I’ve …

This book was another Christmas present – though one I picked out myself. I think it was 1993, though it may have been a year earlier. I was out Christmas shopping with my …

It is the Stephen King book I’ve owned the longest: “It”. Hmm. That sounds kind of strange. “It” – that works twice over here as well – is also the book that, when I picked it up …

In my bubble back then, it was the reading recommendation: you absolutely had to read “Cuckoo’s Egg” by Clifford Stoll. Stoll is quite an interesting figure. To this day, he owes …

It was the first book I ever read in English, out of necessity: for a long time, it simply wasn’t available in German (the translation, “Im Sturm,” only came out much later). A …

As a teenager and young adult, I loved reading Tom Clancy. I lost interest at some point, but I really enjoyed his early books. Yes, his writing was very pro-American, to put it …

As a fourth-grader, staying up late isn’t exactly easy. I had to promise not to be grumpy the next morning, however tired I was. I kept that promise, and so I was actually allowed …

My paternal grandparents had a guest room. It was a somewhat strange room. It was lower than all the other – in themselves rather high-ceilinged – rooms in the house. Three steps …