German mitlesen?

[rtickner]

I'm definitely in - have we decided on a title and a starting date yet?

I haven't read Tintenherz, have read Die Verwandlung by Kafka, Harry Potter series, some of the Wheel of Time series, and quite a few others which I have now forgotten.

[tiia]

Der Richter und sein Henker

"Together with Dürrenmatt's The Pledge: Requiem for the Detective Novel, these stories are considered classics of crime fiction, fusing existential philosophy and the detective genre."

I read that one in school as it really is a classic. Interesting is, that the book was not finished, when they started publishing it in a newspaper. (If I remember correctly even Dürrenmatt himself didn't know how the story will end.)

Felidae - Der Katzenkrimi Taschenbuch – 1989
von Akif Pirinçci 280p

You might not know this, but the author has been found guilty of incitement of hatred ("Volksverhetzung") just recently, because of a speech in 2015. There's also a boycott of the author's works by book shops and the publishing house since 2015. As far as I know the author's political views are not visible in the Felidae-books, which is also the reason, why the boycott has been subject to critism as well. However, in my opinion it would be a weird/unsuitable choice for a read-along in an international forum, where everyone should feel welcome and free to join.
(This is just meant for your information, I don't want to start a political discussion here. If you want to know more about the case, just use Wikipedia or Google.)

[reineke]

Der Richter und sein Henker

"Together with Dürrenmatt's The Pledge: Requiem for the Detective Novel, these stories are considered classics of crime fiction, fusing existential philosophy and the detective genre."

I read that one in school as it really is a classic. Interesting is, that the book was not finished, when they started publishing it in a newspaper. (If I remember correctly even Dürrenmatt himself didn't know how the story will end.)

Felidae - Der Katzenkrimi Taschenbuch – 1989
von Akif Pirinçci 280p

You might not know this, but the author has been found guilty of incitement of hatred ("Volksverhetzung") just recently, because of a speech in 2015. There's also a boycott of the author's works by book shops and the publishing house since 2015. As far as I know the author's political views are not visible in the Felidae-books, which is also the reason, why the boycott has been subject to critism as well. However, in my opinion it would be a weird/unsuitable choice for a read-along in an international forum, where everyone should feel welcome and free to join.
(This is just meant for your information, I don't want to start a political discussion here. If you want to know more about the case, just use Wikipedia or Google.)

Thanks Tiia. I saw some headlines.

"Akif Pirinçci, the best-selling novelist behind the '90s cat crime series "Felidae," has been found guilty of anti-immigrant extremist commentary again, despite having emigrated to Germany from Turkey himself." He has been fined €5,100, or $5,416, for an inflammatory post on his website.

Ehh... Felidae is great language material and the boycott might have turned his books into Schnäppchen. I don't think the suggestion was inappropriate but there are plenty of other books to choose from.

[MorkTheFiddle]

This morning I discovered a page called "5 German Novels For Beginners and Intermediate German Learners". There are brief descriptions of the following five short* works:

"Die Verwandlung" – “Metamorphosis”, by Franz Kafka
"Homo Faber. Ein Bericht," by Max Frisch
"Die Schachnovelle" – “The Royal Game”, by Stefan Zweig
Der Richter und sein Henker – The Judge and His Hangman, by Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Das Parfum. Die Geschichte eines Mörders – Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, by Patrick Süskind

There are also at least parts of audiobooks for each work, and links to sources for each.
Much to my surprise, my local library has a copy in German (and only in German) of "Homo Faber. Ein Bericht," so I reserved it.

* Der Richter und sein Henker is rather short for a novel, taking up only 93 pages of Die Kriminalromane. According to Amazon, the English translation of Das Parfum. Die Geschichte eines Mörders is 255 pages long.

[Stefan]

Bumping this. It's been 11 weeks since the thread was created. Shall we just go with Der Richter und sein Henker to get going? It should be a really quick read to ease us in but give enough time to figure out the next book.