2020: Paul S and his books - 2

a rose, how a corpse would see it from its (her/his?) grave


the angel of the gravestone covers his face when looking down on that grave ....

I am Paul from Switzerland, widower and father of three (30, 32, 34 years old) and grandfather of one.

I work part time as a librarian and part time in a Caritas shop, selling food and stuff to refugees and low-income-people. And I work in different functions in a free church.

Hobbies are reading, photography and hiking. I also do some proofreading for wikisource, and occasionally load up a picture to wikipedia (especially photos of free book places I find, which are also to find here in LT local).

My wife Suki was a Korean from Kwangju, Cheollanamdo. She was working as a nurse in Switzerland. So I do know a little bit Korean and love Korean food. She died two years ago of cancer.

pictures Suki made in 2014


sun set in the Suncheon Bay, South Korea


different fishes and sea foods - yumyummy

Book Meme

Describe yourself: Ein Mensch mit Zukunft (a man with future)

Describe how you feel:

Describe where you currently live:

Your favourite time of day is:

If you could go anywhere, where would you go:

Your favorite form of transportation:

Your best friend is: Bruder Cadfael und der Ketzerlehrling (brother Cadfael and the heretic apprentice)

You and your friends are: Käpt'n Kaos und die Schoko-Aliens (Captain Chaos and the chocolate aliens)

Your worst enemy: Das Monster vom blauen Planeten (the monster from the blue planet)

What’s the weather like:

You fear:

What is the best advice you have to give:

Thought for the day:

How you would like to die:

Your soul’s present condition:

What is life for you: Leben ohne Alltag (a life, which is not only everday life

Your favorite pet: Kleiner Frosch ganz gross (little frog, so big)

Your favorite food: Heilige Wasser (holy waters)

A slogan to remember:

Favorite hobby: Mord nach Muster (murder by pattern)

A good place you like reading books:

Something you carry always with you:

A last word: Shhh!

books read so far

1) Leben ohne Alltag : kleine Erzählungen by Wilhelm Busch
2) Das Monster vom blauen Planeten by Cornelia Funke
3) Spuren im Schnee by Patricia M. Saint John
4) Sonnenvogel : Toms abenteuerliche Reise um die Welt by Detlef Eigenbrodt
5) The tale of Timmy Tiptoes by Beatrix Potter
6) Den hingeschlachteten Völkern! by Romain Rolland
7) Tom auf der Flucht by Detlef Eigenbrodt
8) Die weinende Susannah : Roman by Alona Kimhi
9) Kleiner Frosch ganz gross by Michael Schober
10) Der kleine Mock : aus dem Leben eines Stadtbübleins by Olga Meyer
11) Die zwölf kleinen Propheten und ihre endgeschichtlichen Weissagungen by Samuel Limbach
12) Ein Mensch mit Zukunft : im Gespräch mit Abraham und Mose by Peter Rüesch
13) Das Attentat : Roman by Graham Greene
14) Findus zieht um by Sven Nordqvist
15) Didache = Zwölf-Apostel-Lehre. Tradition apostolica = apostolische Überlieferung ed. by Georg Schöllgen
16) Käpt'n Kaos und die Schoko-Aliens by Thomas Klischke
17) Zwölf jüdische Erzählungen by Adam Zieliński
18) Shhh! : Lift the flaps. Peep through the holes by Sally Grindley
19) Bruder Cadfael und der Ketzerlehrling : ein mittelalterlicher Kriminalroman by Ellis Peters
20) Heilige Wasser by Ignace Mariétan
21) Liluli : mit 32 Holzschnitten by Romain Rolland
22) Die Tadschiken im Spiegel der Geschichte : Band 1 Von den Ariern zu den Samaniden by Ėmomalī Raḩmon
23) Mord nach Muster : Kriminalfälle des Richters Di, alten chinesischen Originalquellen entnommen by Robert Hans Gulik

authors' nationality


Create Your Own Visited Countries Map

things I read happened in these countries


Create Your Own Visited Countries Map

welcome

Happy new one!

Happy new thread, Paul.

Have a great weekend.

>9 figsfromthistle: thanks, Anita

>10 PaulCranswick: thanks, Paul, I wish you a good weekend, too

Happy weekend, Paul! Happy New Thread! I hope those books are treating you fine!

>12 msf59: Thanks, Mark. The books treat me fine, alright, they call me from every public bookshelve and want to be taken home :)

the alphabet according to my own books

A: Das Attentat : Roman by Graham Greene
B: Bruder Cadfael und der Ketzerlehrling : ein mittelalterlicher Kriminalroman by Ellis Peters
C:
D:
E:
F: Findus zieht um by Sven Nordqvist
G:
H:
I:
J:
K: Kleiner Frosch ganz gross by Michael Schober
L: Leben ohne Alltag by Wilhelm Busch
M: Ein Mensch mit Zukunft by Peter Rüesch
N:
O:
P:
Q:
R:
S: Spuren im Schnee by Patricia M. Saint John
T: The tale of Timmy Tiptoes by Beatrix Potter
U:
V:
W: Die weinende Susannah by Alona Kimhi
X:
Y:
Z:

the alphabet according to library books

A:
B:
C:
D: Didache = Zwölf-Apostel-Lehre. Tradition apostolica = apostolische Überlieferung
E:
F:
G:
H: Heilige Wasser by Ignace Mariétan
I:
J:
K: Der kleine Mock by Olga Meyer
L: Liluli by Romain Rolland
M: Das Monster vom blauen Planeten by Cornelia Funke
N:
O:
P:
Q:
R:
S:
T: Die Tadschiken im Spiegel der Geschichte by Ėmomalī Raḩmon
U:
V:
W:
X:
Y:
Z: Die zwölf kleinen Propheten und ihre endgeschichtlichen Weissagungen by Samuel Limbach

24) Oben in der Villa : Roman by William Somerset Maugham. Mary, a young widow, is taking some days off in Florence just after the Anschluss of Austria to Nazi Germany. Two men want to marry her, and she gives herself out of pity to a refugee from Austria, and so she finds herself in quite a complicated spot ... a nice, short read



first published 1941 in English

Happy new thread, Paul!

>14 paulstalder: >15 paulstalder: I like those alphabets :-)

my daughter showed me another public book-cabin :)
I couldn't resist to take a few books home

>17 FAMeulstee: thanks, Anita. I hope I can fill the whole alphabets till the end of the year

oh, that gives me the idea of an author's alphabet :)

the alphabet according to authors read

A:
B: Wilhelm Busch
C:
D:
E: Detlef Eigenbrodt
F: Cornelia Funke
G: Graham Greene
H:
I:
J:
K: Alona Kimhi
L: Samuel Limbach
M: Olga Meyer
N: Sven Nordqvist
O:
P: Beatrix Potter
Q:
R: Romain Rolland
S: Patricia M. Saint John
T:
U:
V:
W:
X:
Y:
Z: Adam Zieliński

Happy new thread!

>21 quondame: thanks for coming by, Susan

Happy new thread!!! Good luck with all the alphabet challenges and I love the book cabin photo.

That's a big free book cabin! I'm sure there is a great variety.

Happy new thread!

>16 paulstalder: I like Maugham's work, but I am not sure that I have ever read that one. I will have to see if my local library has a copy of it.

Happy new thread, Paul!

Happy new thread, Paul - thank you again for sharing the wonderful pictures.
>14 paulstalder: >15 paulstalder: A fantastic idea, I have to think about it.
>18 paulstalder: like - These public bookcases are dangerous for your own shelves, whenever I want to give some books away, I come back with more.
I wish you a wonderful sunday!

>23 Berly: thanks, Kim. This alphabet thing just came to my mind, I am not sure I will be able to fill all the gaps.

>24 figsfromthistle: It's full of books, I found Faye Kellerman, Christa Wolf and Julio Cortázar and others I haven't catalogued yet.

>25 drneutron: thanks, Jim

>26 alcottacre: hej Stasia. I took that book home from the book-railway-station (an old railway station full of second hand books for free) in 2013 :)


https://www.librarything.de/venue/90104/Buchschachtel-Haagen

>27 SirThomas: Hej Thomas, let's see how this alphabet-idea works

Yes, these public book cases (from the size of a bird house up to a whole railway station) all over the place here have become a threat to my free space at homes :)

a nice, warm day, today


a couple walking around the pond


pairing frogs


productive frogs ....

Happy new thread Paul.

Because of the Coronavirus, the Basler Fasnacht (carneval) was canceled. Every year, different individuals and groups compose short Schnitzelbängg (schnitzelbank). This year they were not allowed to produce them in public, but most of 2020 Schnitzelbängg can be found in the internet.

Here is one by the emigrants (D Emigrante):
D WC-Brülle tämperiert
Damit dr s Füdle nit draa gfriert
Mir springe vo dr Wettsteibrugg
Dr Donald Trump tritt sofort zrugg
Loset Lyt das sin oo Gruus
Numme Byschpiel für Fake News!

(The toilet seat is well warmed
So the ass won't freeze to it
We jump down from the Wettsteinbridge (it is forbidden to jump from this bridge into the river Rhine)
Donald Trump resigns immediately
Listen, people, these, we are so sorry,
Are but examples of fake news)

Das Chinavirus wottsch nit haa,
Das nimmt eim schiints scho gryyslig draa!
S macht kai Halt vor Mensch und Tier –
„Corona“ isch nit „unser Bier“!

(This China virus we do not want
That makes you severely sick
It won't spare no human or animal -
'Corona' is not 'Our Beer'!) (Corona: a Spanish beer; Unser Bier: a local brewery)

Happy new thread, Paul!

Frau Länzli (Mrs Laenzli)

Mi Maa het sich e Tesla kauft, das sagi unumwunde
Dä faart vo 0 uf 100 uffe, nur in drei Sekunde.
Die Gschwindigkait isch mir net ney, das isch doch gar kai Froog
S gliiche macht dr Zaiger au, dehaim uf miner Woog

(My husband bought a Tesla, I tell you frankly,
It accelerates from 0 to 100 in 3 seconds.
This speed is nothing new to me, that's for sure,
It is same speed as the pointer of my scales at home.)

Mi Wöschmaschine spinnt e bitz, i sagene das liis
Die het en Aigeläbe und isch mängmol zimmlig fiis.
Die helle Wöschdail färbt si jetzt, das isch e Fingerzaigg
Alli total violett, nur wäg däm Frauestraigg

(My washing machine behaves a little crazy, I confess,
It has a life of its own and sometimes it's outright nasty.
It colors the light laundry pink, that's a clue,
only because of the women's strike.)

>32 johnsimpson: >34 banjo123: thanks John and Rhonda. Pleased to see you here

Giftspritzi (poison syringe)

Z‘Nacht am Ains – ych bi verschrogge
Duet en Yybrächer näb‘ mim Bettli hogge
„Please help me Sir“, heer ych ihn huuche
Är haig alles gnoo, was är wuurd bruuche
Numme fändi är und das syg „shit“
Als Ängländer wieder emool dr Ussdritt nit

(In the night at one - I am scared,
A burglar sits on my bed,
„Please help me Sir“, he asks softly,
He took everything he wanted,
But now, and that is really „shit“,
As an Englishman, he can't find the exit)

D Laggaffe (Lackaffe, flash harry?)

As US-Präsident, bi de Demokrate,
Gits numme Dattergreis, und senili Kandidate,
Für d Partei, isch d Froog drum ganz zentral,
Wär vo dääne läbt, äggscht no bis zur Wahl.

(For USA Presidents among the Democrats,
there are only dodderers or senile candidates,
Therefore, the crucial question for the Party is,
Who of these will live long enough for the election)

Die Haiggle (the fussy ones)

Wäg dr zuenäämend Hitz sinn miir zum Klimatoloog
Dä Klimawandel beschäftigt ys, mir hänn do e Froog
«Kai Angscht», sait dää, «mir blatze sicher nid wie haissi Gschwellti»
«Denn vorhär stärbe mir an sozialer Kelti»

(Because of the increasing heat we went to a climatologist,
The climate change concerns us, this is our question.
'No fear', he says 'we will not burst like hot potatoes,
first we will freeze of social coldness'.)

Basel uff Elektroautozuekumpft baue duet
Das finde räschtlos alli Elektroautobauer guet
Nur bi VW mache sy schambar ain uff Phaanig
Wie sy bim Abgas bschisse solle hänn sy no kai Aanig

(Basel builds on the future of the electric car,
This pleases all the electric car builders,
VW only is panicking,
because, 'how to cheat on the emission test here?')

>35 paulstalder: - >38 paulstalder: I rather like the humor.

Anybody any idea what 'A vibrator-powered meter' is?

I can't decide if I like the Brexit or the epidemic poem best- all very clever. At least the poems are still available even though the public event was cancelled.

Happy new thread!

>39 quondame: yes, some are pretty good. I will see if I can find more

>41 charl08: It's nice to read some of these verses - they are a highlight every year. And teh event being cancelled brought some distress to people here.
Some people invested 300-600 CHF into their costumes, and they plan to wear them next year

s Kuchi Daaberettli (the kitchen stool)

Y ha mit Luscht am 1. Auguscht welle Fyywärgg loh krache.
Doch Klima-Kids dien riefe: „Stopp, due das jo nid mache!“
„Wägem Wältklimaschutz sottsch kaini Rakete meh zinde!“
Okay, aber bitte diend das au däm Kim Jong-un verkinde!

(With great pleasure I wanted to light fireworks on the 1st August (->that's our national holiday)
But these climate kids shouted: 'Stop, you can't do that!
Because of the climate protection you should not fire rockets!'
Well, but do tell that this Kim Jong-un, too!)

D Rätschbääse (the chat brooms, taddle-tails)

Mir käffele im Huguenin. Denn miemer no go boschte.
Denn no schnäll zem Augenarzt. Denn Jogge geege s Roschte.
S Räntnerlääbe isch kai Schlägg, wisse jo die maischte.
Do schluggt dr Hampe Wessels läär – gly muess är eppis laischte!

(We drink coffee at the Huguenin. Then we go shopping. (-> Huguenin is a well known coffee house in Basel)
A quick visit with the ophthalmologist. Then jogging against our rusting.
A pensioner's life is no sugar licking, as most people know.
So Hampe Wessels swallows empty - soon he has to do some work!) (->Hans-Peter Wessels is the head of the traffic department in Basel, not much liked, and he will retire soon)

Happy new thread, Paul!

>29 paulstalder: I love the look of that railway station turned into a free library! Thanks for posting the picture, Paul.

>44 harrygbutler: Thanks, Harry

>45 alcottacre: Hej Stasia, it's a great place to be. I used to go there by car and got boxes of books ... now it is good, I don't have a csr anymore :)

The university library is closed today, tomorrow it will be open for university students and personnel ... international library loans are on ice ... I correct shelf references and answer telephone calls (a very demanding job) ... at least I can drink as much coffee as I like :)
corona is closing in (the virus not the beer)

a found this bee flying off a blossom in the cemetery

savoir mourir



there are some art installations in the cemetery of Basel with large wooden letters

Hi Paul, hope all is well with you despite the Covid-19 all around Europe.

>50 johnsimpson: thanks John, I work part time in a food shop for Asylum seekers and social recipients. some of these don't care about social distancing or hygiene :( let's see how it will be next wednesday

>51 paulstalder:, Could be an interesting time Paul. We have decided to stay home as much as possible to try and stay safe and so that Karen can get to work. It is not good as Karen is taking the last of her annual leave fro 2019/20 but at least we got out last Thursday and Friday. We were planning to go out and about tomorrow but we will go for a walk nearby where we probably will not see many people and if we do we will be at a safe distance.

The last Covid-19 update from the PM and his medical advisers told us to stay at home as much as possible so we pre-empted this by a couple of days.

Hi Paul! I hope you stay safe and well.

>48 paulstalder: Absolutely stunning photo! Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for sharing the pictures, Paul.
I wish you a wonderful sunday and stay well.

Paul, I hope you are able to stay safe and well, drink lots of coffee, and read!

>48 paulstalder: >49 paulstalder: Thanks again for sharing the photos.

>52 johnsimpson: it seems that my boss at caritas now has understood the emergency of the situation and installed a system with a doorman who checks everybody and only lets 3-4 people into the shop, and he organized some disinfectant. Most people now care about the rules.

>53 karenmarie: thanks, Karen. It was a quiet weekend, with some reading and some photographing.

>54 SirThomas: thank you Thomas. Same to you

>55 alcottacre: coffee ! yes, definietly. thanks, Stasia. I did read a bit lately, I finished 4 books but didn't list them here so far, I feel a bit strange about the whole situation. My kids tell me to stay home since I belong to the risk groups, on the other hand I am (feel) obliged to work in the caritas shop. We sell the usual food like other shops but cheaper, so the poorer can get some good food, at a lower price than they would have to pay for the same in the shops.

i found other letters in the cemetery: Mensch = human

>48 paulstalder: Lovely photo.

>56 paulstalder: I love the generosity of your spirit and I am glad they are finally taking some measures to cut down the risk of infection. Stay well!! : )

>56 paulstalder: Well done Paul for working through the risk.

>58 Berly: thanks Kim, I like making pictures and then share them here

>58 Berly: >59 PaulCranswick: thank you both. Caritas is doing a good job selling basic stuff to poorer people. But these people are not always aware of hygiene and social distance. Now we nmake controls at the entry and only let 3 people into the shop at any time. That helps, and we have got enough disinfectant.

As I wrote in the corona thread:

Yesterday I had to stop working in the caritas shop (we sell food to poor people) because I got nauseated and felt like vomiting. I went home, prayed, drank a lot of tea and slept for an hour in late afternoon (never done that before). Today I still have a headache which feels like a inflammation of the frontal sinus. Okay I stay put.
Actually I am on holidays, I planned to travel to Tajikistan today, but well, as we all know, that's all cancelled, it's virussed off. Okay, so I make holidays in Housetralia, visiting such interesting places as Cook-Island, Toiletronto, Shower Man Hat On, make some excursions to Sofarest, Garden City, Balcony State. And I start some new fitness programs like upscreaming (possible challenge with neighbours), page turning, or screen sweeping or self shooting.

The whole situation is affecting me. My interest in reading and keeping this thread going have diminished

self shooting

>61 paulstalder: Oh dear. I hope you feel better quickly and that your interest in this activity re-awakens.

I hope you feel better soon, Paul.
Hugs - and stay well.

Paul, I'm so sorry that the situation is getting to you. It's hard to stay home when you think you can help others, but you don't want to become one of the people using scarce hospital resources, and I know your children need you to be safe.

Hugs.

I feel much better, still some headache/sinusache, but no fever nor much sneezing.

>63 quondame: thanks, Susan. It will, I guess, reading is still appealing to me :) but documenting it has lost of importance at the time being.

>64 SirThomas: Danke Thomas, it will be better, slowly.

>65 karenmarie: Thanks Karen, I feel strange, out of place. I did some work during the weekend, baking a cake, vacuuming, laundry, also Bible reading and another book, but I often play mahjong at the moment. Usually I like being at home doing nothing, but being ordered to do that is a totally different matter ...

Calvin, the cat, follows me everywhere I go, but keeps its distance

---
coffee --- Dalahästar

---

25) Altes Brauchtum in den Werken Jeremias Gotthelfs by Fritz Huber-Renfer. Jeremias Gotthelf is one of best know (older) Swiss authors. His Die schwarze Spinne is quite well known. In this pamphlet the author deals with different customs mentioned in his works. He tells about birth and child baptism (if one is asking somebody to be a godparent to a new born, then do that when the evening comes, so the spirits do not see so clearly where you heading and whom your asking), marriage, death, and games people played. An intersting short treatise.



first published 1954 in German in Switzerland

26) Das Labyrinth der Welt : Roman by Ross King. A bookseller of London in 1660 is asked by a lady to search for old books and manuscripts. An interesting read, a bit overwhelmingly filled with historical and alchemistic facts and theories.



first published 1998 in English

27) Dreiklang neuer Erzähler by Hedy Weber-Dühring, Hans Mohler, Wolfgang Eric Wiesner. A collection of three short stories for young readers by three different young Swiss authors.
Die Rute: The teacher is not pleased by Cornelias appearance and behavior in school, so one day she follows the child home and discovers a very sad situation ...
Direktor Midas: A man named Midas asks a young woman to build and furnish a house for him and live there until he dies. Angelinas reads the Greek story of Midas and comes up with the idea, that, as Midas bathed in Paktolos, so the director Midas of today should have a bath there ... a strange, unlikely story
Yves Guernac: A young, mentally handicapped man lives in a small harbour. He always tells about Mother Mary who talked to him one day and asked him to follow when the time has come ... the sad story of a mentally retarded young man whom everybody is laughing at and not taking his ideas and fears seriously.

on the whole only for those who want to know the early works of these authors



first published 1960 in German in Switzerland

Oh dear, stay safe and healthy. I keep my fingers crossed that you have a speedy recovery.

>72 Ameise1: thanks, Barbara. I still have a little headache and feel quite tired.

I had contact with friends in Egypt and got some good news from other parts of the world.
We had a prayer meeting within our church with zoom :) I never prayed online with other people, but that seems to be right thing to do in this time.

The university library asked me to come and help with the increasing demand for digitalization of documents for students ... I'll take part in the zoom conference and see if I want to do that and end my holidays.

28) Der Schrecksenmeister : ein kulinarisches Märchen aus Zamonien von Gofid Letterkerl ; neu erzählt von Hildegunst von Mythenmetz ; Roman by Walter Moers. There in Zamonia are living Schrecksen (kind of witches) and in each city there is Master of the Schrecksen. One day a little crat (kind of cat with two livers and able to speak every language in that world) is starving and then saved by the Master, but the deal is gruesome: the Master obliges the crat to get killed after a month and boil it down to its fat ... nice fantasy story



first published 2013 in German

29) Obelix GmbH & Co.KG by René Goscinny. The Romans urge Obelix to sell them as many obelisks as he can provide, other people of the village start producing obelisks as well. Another attempt to conquer the village ... humourous reading



first published 1976 in French

30) Evie Blackwell - Tote Spuren by Dee Henderson. Evie is part of a new task force around Chicago who will re-open old cases of missing persons. She is looking for missing college student who disappeared 7 years ago after visiting a concert. The singer of that band is the fiancé of a coworker on the team. Then she finds similar cases of missing young women who disappeared after such a concert ... a good mystery with some good talk about faith.



first published 2017 in English

statistics for March

1544 pages, 7 books,

7 books were written in German, in 0 English, and 0 in Swiss German

nationalities: CH 2, D 1, GB 1, CDN 1, USA 1, F 1,

dead 4, alive 3
male 5, female 2

oldest 1954, newest 2018 (book, my copy)
oldest 1941, newest 2017 (work, first published)

I added 0 bookmarks and 21 books to my collections

that makes it easier to keep my distance

Wonderful - I wish you an as well as Sunday.

>79 SirThomas: Danke, Thomas.

31) Das weisse Krokodil : Roman by C. C. Bergius. Tie-tie, a Tibetan monk, is on his last trip, from China to Malaya, in order to find a lonely place where to end his long life in meditation. A fisher tells him of a hidden, forgotten pagoda in the swamps. Tie-tie goes there and lives in harmony with the surroundings plants and animals. He starts a friendship with a white crocodile. But then the fisher comes back to him and brings boatloads of tourists who want to see this nutcase monk with his white crocodile ... an easy read with some insights in the life of a Tibetan monk.



first published 1965 in German

32) Die Dame aus Dubai : Comic by Thierry Smolderen. Lindsey walks into a demonstration in London which turns nasty. She is saved by a woman, Chamza, who invites her to come along shopping in Dubai. She seems to be immensely rich, but where does her money come from? There is a connection to an Arab Emir. At first Lindsey is fascinated by this jet-set life of her new friend.... the first part of a terrorist thriller in the new future. Well drawn, but the story is a bit scanty.



first published 2008 in French

33) Das Kamel mit dem Nasenring by Salim Alafenisch. A stormy night in the Negev, the Bedouins are all gathered in the main tent. The women and children are asleep but the men keep watch over the tent and the herds during this storm. So the storyteller starts with an epic story, the history of their tribe always experiencing different kind of borders. The first border they encounter is the Suez canal which gives an end to the desert and blocks their ancient trading routes, then comes the Osman rulers from Turkey who tried to make the Bedouins resident and sets them trading borders: no trade with salt anymore, then English occupy their country and build a city where the Bedouins should live, then after the war there is now a national border between Jordan and Israel - how should the animals know not to cross borders? So the Bedouins start schools for their animals and train donkeys, goats and camels to recognize such borders and keep away ... a really good told story, with some good insights into the life of this, nowadays, minority who have no lobby anywhere.



first published 2003 in German

Salim Alafenisch is a descendant of Bedouins, he is born in the Negev, an Israeli citizen, and now lives in Germany and writes his stories in German.

34) Mein schwarzer Hund : wie ich meine Depression an die Leine legte by Matthew Johnstone. A good illustration what depression can be: a Black Dog which hinders one to go forward, to enjoy life, which weighs you down all the time ... the author himself experienced depression and then came up with this 'comic' about what depression is and how one can learn to live with it. A good, helpful book.



first published 2005 in English in Australia

I got this book from a friend of mine. My 'Black Dog' is still around but not as fierce anymore as it used to me.

35) Ein Tag auf dem Piratenschiff by Christa Holtei. The eight-year-old Niklas lives on a pirate ship around 1400. A children's book about a day in the life of a ship boy with the German pirate Klaus Störtebeker. A good story but it plays down the hardship and the brutality of piratery. But okay for a 'first readers' booklet



first published 2010 in German

Hope you have had a lovely, peaceful, safe and healthy weekend, Paul

>86 PaulCranswick: thanks, Paul, it was rather quiet. My daughter brought some self-made pesto (ramsons), put the bag to the ground in front of our door and then stepped back two meters with her son in her arms. I would like to hug my grandson again but that's not going to happen soon ... :(

36) Berndeutsch und Hochdeutsch im Werk Jeremias Gotthelfs by Fritz Huber-Renfer. Jeremias Gotthelf (1797-1854) is one of the best known Swiss authors. Since 1828 he wrote articles in local newspapers addressing the social conditions of the people, 1836 he published his first novel. He was writing in High German but direct speech was almost always in Bernese Swiss German, he wrote in a letter: 'I don't want to write in dialect, so in the first 20 pages no-one will notice anything, but then I am forced, whether I like it or not, to write in dialect, and, honestly, many things can only properly presented in dialect. In addition, our dialect is succinct and powerful.' The Swiss liked it and his novels were well accepted, but then Germans friends of Gotthelf complained about not being able to understand everything. So Gotthelf started to edit most of novels for the Germans - a lot of local atmosphere and cultural got lost that way. Even Jacob Grimm (one of 'the brothers', who edited the Deutsche Wörterbuch) wrote in his preface to the Wörterbuch, that 'not many equal to the power of language and impression on the reader as Jeremias Gotthelf's dialect does'. So he included many expressions he found in Gotthelf's work, 'because of their forceful idioms'. --- a good article on the importance of dialect in Gotthelf's work. It appeared to the 100-year-anniversary of Gotthelf's death.



first published 1955 in German in Switzerland

the alphabet according to my own books

A: Das Attentat : Roman by Graham Greene
B: Bruder Cadfael und der Ketzerlehrling : ein mittelalterlicher Kriminalroman by Ellis Peters
C:
D:
E: Evie Blackwell - Tote Spuren by Dee Henderson
F: Findus zieht um by Sven Nordqvist
G:
H:
I:
J:
K: Kleiner Frosch ganz gross by Michael Schober
L: Leben ohne Alltag by Wilhelm Busch
M: Ein Mensch mit Zukunft by Peter Rüesch
N:
O: Oben in der Villa by William Somerset Maugham
P:
Q:
R:
S: Spuren im Schnee by Patricia M. Saint John
T: The tale of Timmy Tiptoes by Beatrix Potter
U:
V:
W: Die weinende Susannah by Alona Kimhi
X:
Y:
Z:

the alphabet according to library books

A: Altes Brauchtum in den Werken Jeremias Gotthelfs by Fritz Huber-Renfer
B:
C:
D: Didache = Zwölf-Apostel-Lehre. Tradition apostolica = apostolische Überlieferung
E:
F:
G:
H: Heilige Wasser by Ignace Mariétan
I:
J:
K: Der kleine Mock by Olga Meyer
L: Liluli by Romain Rolland
M: Das Monster vom blauen Planeten by Cornelia Funke
N:
O:
P:
Q:
R:
S:
T: Die Tadschiken im Spiegel der Geschichte by Ėmomalī Raḩmon
U:
V:
W:
X:
Y:
Z: Die zwölf kleinen Propheten und ihre endgeschichtlichen Weissagungen by Samuel Limbach

the alphabet according to authors read

A: Salim Alafenisch
B: Wilhelm Busch
C:
D:
E: Detlef Eigenbrodt
F: Cornelia Funke
G: Graham Greene
H: Dee Henderson
I:
J: Matthew Johnstone
K: Alona Kimhi
L: Samuel Limbach
M: Olga Meyer
N: Sven Nordqvist
O:
P: Beatrix Potter
Q:
R: Romain Rolland
S: Patricia M. Saint John
T:
U:
V:
W: Hedy Weber-Dühring
X:
Y:
Z: Adam Zieliński

37) Chamzas Augen : Comic by Thierry Smolderen. Part 2 of this end-time comic. Chamza was kidnapped and she got a chip implanted which let the US intelligence see with her eyes and hear with her ears. They have the idea that Chamza knows where the money of Al-Kaida is, and they want that money, whatever the costs (especially of human lives).... slightly better than the first part but still not convincing



first published 2013 in French

38) Grossmutters Familienfest by Diane Goode (Illustrator). Five kids live in New York NY in different parts of the city and tell how they visit their grandma for a party, one comes by bicycle, one by coach, one by tram, etc. ... not much for a story but good to talk with children about cities and travelling and family reunions.



first published 1986 in English

39) Zum Frühstück Krokodile by Alison Lester. Different children are shown what they eat for breakfast, what hobbies they have, what they take with them when going to bed .... not much of a story but again quite helpful for getting to know kids when reading the book together.



first published 1985 in English

We celebrated an online church service with six other churches. The sermon, the prayers, the songs were all recorded in one of the local churches and then broadcasted via vimeo, youtube etc. It's my first Good Friday I did not spend together with others in a church meeting ... But we are connected through the Holy Spirit. We also celebrated the Lord's Supper - which is really special, each one prepares his/her own bread and cup and serves it to oneself :)

I wanted my message this year to be fairly universal in a time we all should be pulling together, whatever our beliefs. Happy Celebration, Happy Sunday, Paul.

Happy Easter!

Frohe Ostern, Paul

Hi, Paul! I've not been getting around to the threads much, but I wanted to stop by and wish you and yours a happy Easter.

>96 PaulCranswick: >97 quondame: >98 figsfromthistle: thank you very much for the good wishes

>99 harrygbutler: thanks for coming round

40) Lügnerin : Roman by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen. Nuphar, a 17-year-old school girl, is verbally abused by a customer when working in an ice cream shop during summer holidays. She runs out of the shop, the customers comes after her and grabs her arm, and she screams all her frustration about her uneventful life out - people come to help her and under this new experience being the center of all this attention, she nods to every accusation people around her make about that customer, so in the end he is accused of sexual abuse. The lie grows, first it helps Nuphar to brighten up, but more and more it pulls her down ... an interesting novel about people living a lie, most characters do pretend to be someone they are not. But some lies are destroying other lives, some are just dazzle oneself. But the end is disappointing, it is very short and somehow does not fit the beginning of the story, the building up to Nuphar's first screaming was slow and step by step - but the end is like when I had to finish writing a paper in a test and ran out of time ... does anbody know what the author hints at with the pink piglets she mentions?



first published 2017 in Hebrew

41) Hoffnung ist kein Märchen by C. S. Lewis. A tea-table-book about hope with citations form C. S. Lewis' books. Some good passages about hope, faith, good live, with nice pictures from England and Ireland. A comfort read when stuck at home



first published 2001 in English

Hi Paul!

I hope this finds you better and continuing to stay safe.

My my! Lots of good reading.

>103 karenmarie: thanks Karen for coming by

For those interested in documentary films: the Visions du Réel, a filmfestival with documentary films in Nyon VD (Switzerland) should take place at the moment, but, well, not in a theatre but online. Most movies can be viewed worldwide, some are restricted to Switzerland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visions_du_R%C3%A9el

https://www.visionsdureel.ch/

76 films in the online edition 17.4.-2.5.2020
70 films during 25.4.-2.5.2020

I wish you a wonderful sunday, Paul.
And stay well!
>101 paulstalder: The book sounds very interesting. When I read it, I try to pay attention to the pink piglets. But unfortunately I am not very good at symbolism.

>106 SirThomas: thanks Thomas.
avatiakh read it also, but her book doesn't include that last chapter with the pink üpiglets - a mystery to me. I wrote to the Swiss publisher (Kein & Aber) about the ending and asked why there are different endings in different languages, and what the original Hebrew ending is. I expect an answer next week.

>101 paulstalder: There are two different endings of Lügnerin: I wrote to the Swiss publisher and got this answer:
' In der Tat unterscheiden sich die internationalen Ausgaben dieses Romans hinsichtlich ihrer Enden. Während die deutsche Ausgabe (und die meisten anderen auch) dem hebräischen Original folgt, haben sich der britische und der amerikanische Verlag mit dem Einverständnis der Autorin dazu entschlossen, das letzte Kapitel zu streichen.'
(Indeed, the international editions of this novel differ in their endings. While the German edition (and most of the others as well) follows the Hebrew original, the British and American publishers, with the author's consent, have decided to delete the last chapter.)
Sadly, they gave no explanation for the differences, nor for the pink piglets.

© Light Art by Gerry Hofstetter / Foto Frank Schwarzbach

In Zermatt, the tourism organisation there 'enlightens' the Matterhorn

42) Der Ring by Herbert Plate. Peter is 18, a welder, and loves to walk. He thinks a lot about the meaning of life and community etc. Fritz is 17, a car mechanic, and the leader of a youth gang. He is always loud and strong in his gang, otherwise he is afraid of not being accepted. Hans is 18, a commercial apprentice, living in a rich home. He is showing off his riches and tries to impress Karin Hester, 18, an office worker in a textile factory, who is not interested in money or glitter but has a heart for the underprivileged in town. Erhard is 20, a decorator, who wants to build a place for the kids in the slum. Lilli is 16, who wants strong, courageous men around her, who steal and fight for her. Horst is 15, a refugee form East Germany, out of school, hanging around, looking for any role models and sense in his life. Otto is 18, a mason, who is big but very shy, he is just called 'pimple-face'. .... Two months in the life of different teenagers growing up in a German city in the 1960s. One of them breaks a jeweler window and steals some pieces of jewellery. He loses one ring which is found by another teenager, who shows it to another. Then the ring is stolen, then sold for a few cents and in the end comes into the hands of a social worker who unravels the mystery and brings the robber to justice.
A good idea to tell the story from the viewpoints of the different youths, always from the first-person perspective with the personal thoughts, feelings and impressions of that person. The writing as such was a bit boring. But a good story



first published 1964 in German

43) Mord in Mompé : Kriminalroman by Jon Durschei. A young woman is found strangled in her bath. She has just returned - unexpectedly - from a self finding trip to Ireland. During that time she had invited a young writer to take of her large house for free, enabling him to write his new novel and also allowing him to invite other artists who want to work in a remote alpine village in the Swiss alps. She had many admirers but never had any sincere relationship, and never made clear to any of these what she actually thought of them. She was pretty stubborn about how to work in the house. So, who of these many men killed her? or was it a jealous woman of the village? ... a home town mystery of a small village in the Grisons, good read for locals, I guess, but otherwise not impressive.



first published 1987 in German in Switzerland

>111 paulstalder: I had to look to see where Mompé was located.

>112 thornton37814: me, too. I passed it on the road to the Oberalp or the Lukmanier, also by train, but never stopped there.

© Light Art by Gerry Hofstetter / Foto Michael Portmann

a huge danke, merci, grazie for all those who keep their distance and those who their work for others

>114 paulstalder: Impressive images there Paul, and a lovely sentiment. Hope you are keeping well.

>115 charl08: thanks, Charlotte, it's fun to see these pictures, but some people living there are not too happy about the light waste ....

I had a shocking corona experience at the Caritas market: A couple came to the shop. I told them that we have restricted entry rules: only one person can go into the shop, only very small children are allowed to join their parent. The man was okay with it and went shopping. But the woman attacked me verbally by comparing me with a Nazi policeman at a KZ (concentration camp) for not letting her into the shop with her husband. When I tried to explain that I just do my job in this difficult time, she quoted the infamous slogan 'Arbeit macht frei' (work makes you free) as an explanation for my attitude towards her .... I am still shocked. I couldn't answer that. I guess, there is no answer to such nonsense. ... Luckily the man was pretty fast in shopping, so he came and took her with him ... then a man from the other side of the road come down from the first floor and congratulated me for my patience, he heard everything through the open window ...

>114 paulstalder: Thanks for the beautiful pictures, Paul.
And also a thank-you from me for all those who keep their distance and those who their work for others.

>117 paulstalder: The crisis brings out the best and the worst in people. I hope you manage to focus on the good and put the bad aside.
I wish you all the best!

>118 SirThomas: The crisis brings out the best and the worst in people. Isn't that the truth... Fortunately for me, it's mostly been the best, but I can imagine there are some pretty nasty people out there, especially as they get more stressed.

>117 paulstalder: Wouldn't it be nice if in times of trouble, troubled people could be more courteous rather than finding excuses to give us what we need less than ever.

>118 SirThomas: It was nice for me checking the Zermatt site everyday and see what flags or symbols they 'threw' at the Matterhorn. Some looked pretty nice. And I made sure that I always copied the name of photographer as well - they are pretty strict about copyright infringements :) . It's over now and we can enjoy some easing of the rules: hairdressers, physiotherapist, garden centers are open again but with strict rules: wearing masks in the shops, disinfecting your hands when entering, and keep your distance as good as that is possible.

>119 drneutron: Hej Jim, yes, I had some good experiences as well - like phone calls whom I haven't met for years and now they check the internet for my phone number and call me up :)

>120 quondame: you're right, Susan, but some of the customers coming to the Caritas market had some bad times already and we often are a kind of lightning rod, taking all the power and most of the time that is okay, but sometimes

>114 paulstalder: Beautiful pictures, Paul! Thank you.

>117 paulstalder: I'm so sorry that happened to you, Paul. Shocking behaviour. To compare you to a Nazi policeman. That is dreadful. We in Canada are still fairly locked down, but there is talk of a gradual reopening of non - essential things, like barbers, hair dressers, garden centres, etc. But it will be slow and our government has yet to announce to us how things might happen. We are told next week an announcement will be made.

>122 vancouverdeb: Thanks Deborah. I enjoyed the pictures from the light show in Zermatt.

Now, we do have more customers coming to the Caritas market. People who lost their job. Caritas has received CHF 700'000 from the Glückskette (a national fund raiser for social projects) in order to support the most needy. So many people come now with these vouchers who never thought of having to come to us ... some people are telling us about sad stories like that, others are telling us about good things: how neighbours help each other, how family members call via zoom, skype or whatsapp or even send hand written letters with pictures draw by their kids, people with bronchitis who can breathe properly nowadays ... so it's always a mixture of people. Some showing pictures of food or clothes they made themselves ...

Hair dressers, garden centers are open again here, hospitals can to 'unnecessary' surgeries again. All with strict rules about distances and hygiene. Next week we will start a pick up possibility for books from the university library (for students only, who will have to order the books online and then get them with a pickup invitation).

I started to upload pictures of graves to findagrave.com. There I noticed that the biggest cemetery in Switzerland, the Hörnli, has a wrong address and the umlaut is missing. So I mailed a guy at findagrave and asked to correct the name from Hornli to Hörnli or Hoernli and change the address from Basel to Riehen. His answer is quite interesting:
The Swiss government says the the main address for the cemetery is listed in Basel. The name of the Cemetery already shows Friedhof Am Hornli. In America, our computers do not offer the .. over the o as in Hornli.
I was astonished about the references to the Swiss government. I mean, if I want to know the address of a cemetery in Sacramento CA, do I then ask the US government? The administration office of the cemetery is located in Basel, but the whole cemetery is in Riehen and its address is Hörnliallee 70, 4125 Riehen (I live here).
Poor Americans whose computers do not offer umlaute ... Okay, I know what he means, but every computer (with the help of the internet) offers any scripts. I just have to look for it and install it. As a genealogist he should be aware of the importance of umlaute over here. Müller and Muller, Kohler and Köhler are not the same. For us Goethe and Göthe are the same, whereas Gothe would be something else. All the URL here have ae, oe, ue instead of ä, ö, ü. (by the way: Osterreich is the Empire/Realm of Easter, Österreich/Oesterreich is the Empire of the Austrians)
That's what I like about LT, here I can enter my books with the proper scripts and any script is accepted. And nowadays even the authors with umlaut are properly differentiated so that Möller and Müller are not lumped together as they were when I came to LT.

>124 paulstalder: About the ö he is simply wrong and unwilling to make a simple cut and paste effort. The software may not distinguish ö from o in all cases, but can certainly display it and, unless he's using truly antique hardware, print it. You have encountered lazy bureaucratic jerk.

>105 paulstalder: Thanks for that link. Lots of interesting films. Enjoy the beginning of your weekend.

>125 quondame: I guessed as much about he ö, Susan. He was just too lazy to copy-paste the correct name, he was probably just using an 'American' list of cemeteries where all the umlaute were missing anyway.
But the good news is, that somebody else there corrected name and address. So, I am pretty happy about it, and I probably extend my visits to other cemeteries of Basel (Wolf and the Jewish one).

>126 figsfromthistle: you're welcome, Anita. I thought it would good for them as well, to get a wider audience who wouldn't come to Nyon VD.

>117 paulstalder: So far, Paul, I have been pleasantly surprised by how people have behaved in Malaysia, but your experience shows have unreasonable people can be when things don't go their way. Well done for keeping your patience.

>128 PaulCranswick: Hej Paul, I am glad that most people here calmed down and are accepting the restrictions.
What is more of an issue now, is this tracing app they are developping now here and which they want to implement. Many people are afraid that others would find out where they met whom for how long ... staying healthy is for me at the moment more important than that kind of privacy.

44) Noah baut die Arche by D. M. Prescott. God tells Noah to build an ark and so save his family and all the animals during the Flood. A nice book for children



first published 1983 in English

45) Inspektor Jury schläft ausser Haus : Roman by Martha Grimes. Two weird murders just before Christmas in Long Piddleton. Inspector Jury from Scotland Yard is called in, but that brings more deaths ... who is behind all that? An easy read (would that qualify as a 'comfort read'? we don't have that term in German).



first published 1981 in English

46) Frau Schmitt fährt mit : Fröhliche Reisegeschichten zum Vorlesen und Erinnern by Uli Zeller. What can one do withe elderly people who suffer from dementia? The author works with such people and has collected many small stories and games or riddles to tell and play. He works in a senior home and gives useful hints about visiting and 'activating' elderly people.
Tell a story the other person can relate to, keep it short, and then ask about their own experiences and/or ask riddles, like how is that song going 'Go tell it on the ....'? or what are the kids of cows called? or what do people eat in your hometown? It gives some really good ideas.



first published 2019 in German

>131 paulstalder: I used to love the Martha Grimes novels! I want to read her latest release soon and then I want to go revisit some of the older ones. I don't remember which I've read and which I haven't. Might as well start at the beginning and enjoy.

>133 thornton37814: It was not the first Grimes I've read and will read more later.

I guess I neglected LT a bit because of my uploading pictures to findagrave. But I learned that Otto Frank, the father of Anne Frank lived in Birsfelden BL and is buried there. I found his grave today. Birsfelden is a town just across the Rhine from Riehen.

>135 paulstalder: Love the flowers on his plot.

>136 thornton37814: Birsfelden has a nice smallish cemetery, the graves are well kept, nice ground to walk around

statistics for April

1826 pages, 16 books,

16 books were written in German, in 0 English, and 0 in Swiss German

nationalities: CH 2, D 4, GB 2, CDN , USA 2, B 1, IL 2, AUS 2

dead 6, alive 9
male 9, female 6

oldest 1971, newest 2020 (book, my copy)
oldest 1955, newest 2019 (work, first published)

2 books Thierry Smolderen (B, male, alive)

I added 0 bookmarks and 36 books to my collections

Although, belated, I still wish you a very happy new thread!

>139 Carmenere: thanks for coming by, Linda

When visiting the cemetery in Birsfelden, I discovered a new public bookshelf, an old telephone cabin :)

47) Das Reispflanzerlied : Roman by Eileen Chang. Jin'gen receives a piece of land by the communist at the beginning of the revolution. He wants to live the Communist dream. His wife works as a servant in the big city but then comes home in order to help on the fields. But despite good harvests the people are starving because the Party takes most things for thmeslves and the army.... a tragic story about hunger and death, and love and hope in rural China of the 1950s. A good read



first published 1955 in English

>141 paulstalder: Very neat! I had a discovery in my little town yesterday as well. Someone put up a big little free library. Can't wait to see what books it holds :)

>143 figsfromthistle: these places are so much fun. It's always a big pleasure to discover such a bookish place

I am celebrating the end of Ramadan, Paul, a time of thanks and forgiveness and I want to say my thanks to all my LT friends for helping keep me somewhat sane these last few years.

Hope all is well, Paul, no sightings of you for more than two weeks?

>145 PaulCranswick: Thanks for visiting, Paul. Hope you can celebrate with your family. People here are a bit frustrated that they cannot meet in large numbers for celebrating the end of ramadan. I had a zoom talk with friends from Egypt and they tell me also of a somewhat quieter feast. Our church services and Bible exchange talks all happened online. On the 8th June we will move a step more towards normality (whatever that will be).

Yes, I neglected my reading. I still read the Bible and for my course on the Islam (also online) I read parts of the Koran and some Hadith, but otherwise I finished two books this month. I think that's the lowest number ever. The situation with the virus is affecting me, not physically (I still work in my two jobs and go out), but mentally. Kind of auto-pilpot-life. And LT suffered my absence ... put I uploaded 2000 pictures of graves from Basel and Riehen to findagrave :)

And I lost a tooth last week and my grandson got his first tooth the next day. coincidence?

>146 paulstalder: I think COVID-19 messed up everyone's life mentally in some manner. Now I'm going to have to cross-check my ancestors to see if any were in Basel, but I don't think I have many there.

Best wishes for you, Paul.
These times are very stressful.
Thank God my ability to read books is not so badly affected. But many other things are neglected - also LT.

>147 thornton37814: Lori, I feel so strange, I do a lot of things but many affect me.
I did a huge part of the Friedhof am Hörnli (the biggest cemetery in Switzerland) but I don't understand how findagrave thinks that 98% of the graves are listed ... the cemetery contains around 25'000 graves, so presently there are only 10% listed ... I also did part of the cemeteries of Riehen, Bettingen BS, Muttenz and Allschwil, the Jewish cemetery of Basel may be the next one. If you need a picture of a grave in German speaking Switzerland, let me know, I might go and look for it.

>148 SirThomas: Thanks Thomas. I got some new books but I didn't list them so far here.

48) Wer die Vergangenheit stiehlt by Tony Hillerman.



first published 1988 in English

statistics for May

453 pages, 2 books,

2 books were written in German, in 0 English, and 0 in Swiss German

nationalities: CH , D , GB , China 1, USA 1, B , IL , AUS

dead 2, alive
male 1, female 1

oldest 1990, newest 2009 (book, my copy)
oldest 1955, newest 1988 (work, first published)

I added 0 bookmarks and 8 books to my collections

49) Fahrerflucht by Carlo Meier. The Kaminsky-Kids visit a friend who is in a wheelchair because a driver hit him a year ago and fled. The case was closed by the police but then the kids find a somebody who was making a movie of a birthday party next to the place the accident happened and they recognize the exact color and make of the car..... a good mystery with and for teenagers (of all ages). I like the series



first published 2014 in German in Switzerland

50) Wolkenbruchs wunderliche Reise in die Arme einer Schickse : Roman by Thomas Meyer. Motti Wolkenbruch grows up in a strict Jewish orthodox family in Zürich. When studying at the university he thinks that non Jewish girls look nicer thanb the Jewish girls his mother wants him to marry. The temptation is to big for him and starts a relationship with a gojete (non Jew) ... fun read, with some insights into Jewish life



first published 2012 in German in Switzerland

>153 paulstalder: The book sounds very interesting, it increased my mount TBR again a bit ;-).
Happy birthday Paul and a wonderful weekend.
Here with us is best reading weather...

>153 paulstalder: I googled to see if my guess at the title was right and came across a film of the book too, hopefully with subtitles!

Wishing you a pleasant and peaceful Sunday, Paul

>154 SirThomas: It's a fun book to read. You'll learn some Jiddish expressions like 'Kiss in Tuches' and other useful (sexual) idioms. But it is interesting to see Motti's descriptions of his background, his behavior and how he changes all that. His faith is not explained and there are no confrontation/dispute about matters of faith. Coming of age in a Jewish context in Switzerland

>155 charl08: Yep, there is a movie, 2018. I hope they keep the Jiddish words in the subtitles, that gives the movie some spices.

>156 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. I was with my mother and sister celebrating my birthday at her home. My kids came all on Saturday. They bought a bee sponsorship. So, the beehive has now my name written on it and I can visit the bee colony and help with the work (If wanted) and will get the honey of that hive. So, the next outing will be a bee-visit, or is that a hive-warming-ceremony?

I had some emailing with somebody from findagrave about names of towns. I was looking for Sankt Moritz. They listed that as 'Saint Moritz' which is bad, because Saint is (also) French and there is a Saint Maurice in the Wallis which had a German name (Sankt Moritz). So, if one finds an old Swiss document with the name of Saint Moritz it most probably refers to Saint Maurice VS and not to Sankt Moritz GR. Anyway in genealogical circles referring to Sankt Moritz as Saint Moritz is about as useful as referring to San Francisco as Sankt Francisco or Sankt Louis ...

>153 paulstalder:, >157 paulstalder: Thank you Paul, it was a very fine read.

>159 SirThomas: Glad you enjoyed it, Thomas

POPSUGAR Bookclub. Great game for book lovers. The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books here.

Want to play? Copy this into your post. Look at the list and put an "👍" after those you have read.
35 for me.

1 Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings -JRR Tolkien 👍
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 👍
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling 👍
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible - The Torah 👍
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell 👍
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman 👍
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy 👍
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien 👍
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulkner
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams 👍
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck 👍
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll 👍
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens 👍
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis 👍
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis 👍
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne 👍
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell 👍
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery 👍
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood 👍
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding 👍
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel 👍
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon 👍
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley 👍
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck 👍
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov 👍
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas 👍
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville 👍
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens 👍
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens 👍
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 👍
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Eupery 👍
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Aleandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl 👍
100 Gaudy Night - Dorothy Sayers

taken from Thomas

We read 22 books together, Paul.
Did you forget a couple of thumbs? I count 31.
I wish you a wonderful week!

>162 SirThomas: I guess we read many more books together, since the German literature is totally missing in this list.
I am not to sure about Austen, Blyton, Stoker and Dumas, because I read a lot during my 20s but haven't noted them down.
And '6 The Bible - The Torah' should count as two entries - I read the Bible and the Torah.
Have a great weekend

I found this grave here in Binningen (close to Basel)

Stetten Germany

Stetten Germany

Baden Switzerland

Riehen Switzerland





I wanted to make another picture of this grave last Saturday but the grave is gone. I don't know what happened to it ...

Basel

Allschwil, Switzerland

Allschwil, Switzerland

Interesting gravestones, Paul and reminds me of a poem I wrote about 27 or 28 years ago out for a walk in a stately home in Derbyshire. There was a real life pet graveyard.

Elvaston Gravestone

What affluence it is indeed
To bury one's dog in mature gardens
With headstone.

What masonic hand had carved
So affectionate an epitaph
To soothe spoiled juvenile sensibilities?

Are the village dogs, when burned
Upon allotment spoil heaps smiling
That those with fire-sticks pay admission
To view such crass indulgence?

Hi Paul!

>163 paulstalder: - >172 paulstalder: Beautiful, creative, inspiring. Thank you for sharing those photos. I particularly like >166 paulstalder: and wonder what Hildegard and Kurt’s story was.

Happy Father's Day, Paul.

>163 paulstalder: I'm not sure about some books either - and have not counted them.
Some I have read only partially (like the Bible), they are not on my count, too.
I guess you are right with our together read books - we share 849 books in LT!

>164 paulstalder: - >172 paulstalder: wonderful pictures, thank you for sharing them, Paul.

>169 paulstalder: Sometimes something like this happens in our area - many graves are tended by older people, if they can't do it anymore, there is nobody who can. The children have moved far away. So the graves are cleared - sad.

>173 PaulCranswick: Thanks for sharing that poem. Interesting idea, burying one's pet. When our cat died, my sister and I (about 4 or 5), buried it in the garden next to a huge sun flower, weeping, and put some pebbles and sticks on the spot and then forgot about it. I think it was good we didn't create a cemetery back then ....

>174 karenmarie: Thanks Karen. Sometimes I check geni or ancestry or other such sites to find out more about the 'owners' of the gravestones (well, they never owned them, did they?), but most of the time there is nothing personal.

>175 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul, we don't celebrate father's day here, that was 19th March. But I heard a father's joke from England (I don't know why he said it is a 'father's joke'): Studies showed that the French Fries were not made in France but in Grease (read it out loud ....)

>176 SirThomas: Hej Thomas. Such lists are always tricky. I haven't listed all the books I read in my teens and twens, that would give us some more shared titles, I guess.
In most cemeteries here, graves are cleared after 25 years, unless somebody pays for keeping it. - or one was so famous that the cemetery keeps the gravestone for 'touristic' reasons.

>173 PaulCranswick: a dog as gravestone

Dürer's 'Praying Hands' are a wide spread motif over here

cats, dogs, and birds afre quite common, and occasionally a horse

angels (mostly naked) are also quite common

minarets are rare

statues

family crests

a Swiss football player has a football on his grave

>191 paulstalder: I don't think that I will encourage a too expensive memorial, Paul, as I would sooner my largesse go to my kids and SWMBO.

>191 paulstalder: Looks like a "soccer" ball to this America. LOL It's funny to me that the rest of the world calls it one thing, and we call it something else. Why didn't we name our version of football something different?

>192 PaulCranswick: I totally agree. When Suki died, we got some money from relatives especially donated for a gravestone - and Suki expressed the wish for a stone in the likeness of her most loved Swiss mountain (Mount Pilatus near Luzern). If I die within the next 20 years I will ask to be buried in the same grave and my name added underneath hers.

>193 thornton37814: Your version is called 'American Football' over here. Soccer comes from association and comes from England (I think) with the name of the first Football Association of the world. Even the French use the word 'football', FIFA stands for 'Fédération internationale de football association'. It is really interesting to see how the same things are called by different names in different countries.

>195 paulstalder: Thank you for sharing with us, Paul.

Could I ask you in >194 paulstalder: - why next 20 years?

>196 PaulCranswick: 20 years: graves will be removed after 20 or 25 years, so if I die 'too late', my wife's grave will be gone :)

51) Luftgärten : Kate Brannigans zweiter Fall by Val MacDermid. Kate starts investigating disappearing conservatories and finds some fraud with mortgages and real-estates. Okay, fun: Kate gets her first mobile phone ...

52) Der Fliegenmelker und andere Erzählungen : Geschichten aus Damaskus by Rafik Schami. Growing up as a Catholic in a slum of Damascus with other Christians, Moslems, Armenians etc. Most of the stories are autobiographical. Kids fights, bathing time, selling sweets, learning about politics, beliefs (pour salty water on your doorstep when a corpse passes by on its way to the cemetery; wear amulets against the evil eye...). Fun and interesting read.

53) Nach der Ewigkeit by Maxim Ossipow. Russian short stories about everyday life in Moscow and in some ex Sovjet province towns. Interesting reading.

Dropping by to wish you a splendid Sunday, Paul

Thanks, Paul, I was at my sister's celebrating her birthday with her family, and came back this morning. Now we have to wear a mask in public transport.

statistics for June

1109 pages, 5 books,

5 books were written in German, in 0 English, and 0 in Swiss German

nationalities: CH 2, D , GB 1, Syria 1, Russia 1, B , IL , AUS

dead , alive 5
male 4, female 1

oldest 1997, newest 2018 (book, my copy)
oldest 1989, newest 2018 (work, first published)

I added 0 bookmarks and 5 books to my collections

I did make a list of Swiss literature I'd like to read for morphidae's challenge. Let's see which titles she choses for me :)
http://www.librarything.com/list/21472/all/Schweizer-Literatur-2020#

Some beautiful and thoughtful headstones. Thanks.

When you say graves are removed, are you speaking of the headstone or the contents of the grave as well? If the latter, what is done with the renains? I'm a little surprised at the relatively short timeframe.

Hi Paul!

>195 paulstalder: Beautiful.

>205 ffortsa: Thanks, Judy, there are some really nice stones around.
Well, at some places graves are left 22 years (a friend told me that about her husband's grave). If there are remains they are all put together, as far as I know, and one get a notice to fetch the grave stone and other things from the grave or the stones will be destroyed. We are a small country, space is scarce. Till Reformation time the burials were done in the church yard of the church where the funeral took place. But after Reformation that changed more and more and cemeteries became separated from the churches and were public land. Many church yards were re-used for other things (houses, parks, storage ground...), the graves there mostly destroyed, some stones were put into church walls etc.

>206 karenmarie: Hej Karen
This is the model mountain:

54) Die glücklichen Inseln hinter dem Winde oder wo Tante Julies Reise endet : Geschichten vom Glück ; vom vierundsiebzigsten bis zum achtzigsten Tag by James Krüss. There are some mysterious Island Behind the Winds which can only found by those who have birthday on the special wind-day, then the whole ship is drawn near to the islands and the guests are welcomed by speaking animals. Those who can cope with such an idea are lead around the different islands by the daily changing 'rulers' (each day another group of animals, all starting with the same letter, humans living there opted out of ruling since they don't do a good job ruling in the outer world). Ski on sugar slopes, use magic glasses in order to hop from island to island, use sound to start the elevator .... fun, a classic German children's book

As seen on sporcle.com I created my own quiz with missing title words from book covers (in German). This are the A-missing-titles:

-7_______----------5_____----------4____-------------2__-----------10_____________

-13_____________--7_______------5_____---------9_________---------6______----

TheB-missing-titles:

-5_____----------3____------------6______---------16___________------6______

-10__________---5_____--------- 5_____-----------5_____---------7_______----

55) U is for undertow by Sue Grafton. A young man comes to Kinsey Millhone with some memeories of his when he was 6, assuming he had seen two guys burying the body of an infant who was kidnapped then and never found since. ... Interesting read, although I didn't like the flashbacks in time so much

>210 paulstalder: >211 paulstalder: Are these for a quiz here or are you running a "real world" quiz, Paul? I'm finding these pretty challenging! Except for of course Anne of Green Gables!

>213 charl08: Charlotte, I will present them to my family on Sunday, during our trip on the boat for my mother's 90th birthday. We are a book family, so some will be pretty well known, others are a bit more difficult. I made a challenge for each letter, except Q, V, X, Y

>210 paulstalder: what a wonderful idea - I love it!
Best wishes for your mother - I hope you have a wonderful day.

>215 SirThomas: thanks, Thomas. We had a great day. We visited the island of Ufenau in the lake of Zürich. We had fish in the restaurant there and some white wine which grows on the island (well, the grapes grow there). The island belongs to the monastery of Einsiedeln. On the way back while on the boat there was some rain and a storm warning for the smaller boats, but then it cleared again. One grandchild was missing, on holidays abroad (Sardinia, which seems to be pretty safe), otherwise the two children and 4 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild was around. She enjoyed it.

56) Das lose Glück by Matthias Zschokke. Three friends meet almost each night on a boat on a Swiss lake. They remain silent most of the time and just feel free being together being away from the busy world. ONe evening a woman swims to their boat and they take her on board and each person tells her/his view of the world and the way of life. ... sociological-philosophical mobnologues about the reason for life and the raison d'être of each person. Some interesting points but also a lot of platitudes, a depressing view on life

57) Der verzauberte Garten by Edith Nesbit. 3 kids are on their way to their uncle to spend the vacation there. They want to try out charms with the aid of flowers and so study the language of flowers. An old children's book where everything turns out well...

58) Blumen für Polt : Kriminalroman by Alfred Komarek. A car hits a moped in a little village in the Weinviertel, Austria. The driver of the moped is dead immediately, the driver of the car has some alcohol in his blood. An accident of did moped-driver try to get some financial compensation in provoking an accident? but why did the car driver behave so strange? Inspector Polt starts to sort out the different ideas and rumours behind these two men ... a light mystery with some local color.



I borrowed this book from a reader of our library whose name is Polt :) and comes from the Weinviertel

Happy 90th birthday to your mom, Paul! What a great occasion for celebration. It sounds as if it had been a fun day for the whole family.

We had a good day, Madeline. It was my mother's wish to go there, and it was worthwhile. They do not offer cakes on the island, so we were allowed to bring on our own birthday cake and got plates and knives to use from the restaurant :) They had some good white wine going with the fish.

There are some wooden statues on the island, one impressed me especially: stacks of books with a person sitting on the top, reading .... :)

---

The weather got windy and wet when we waited for the boat

>221 paulstalder: Great statues!! :D

>216 paulstalder: That does sound pleasant!

>223 SqueakyChu: Hej Madeline, Yes, they look great.

>224 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul, it was a good day out

Hey Paul, you have great photos on your thread. Nice to know that your mother's birthday was a success. I hope that you are alright. The new school year begins on Monday. Let's see how many students are in quarantine.

I am glad, you had a good day together.
The wooden statues are awesome.
I wish you a wonderful weekend, Paul.

>226 Ameise1: Hej Barbara, hope you had a good start in school. We will have to wear masks in our shops from next Monday onward. Let's see how it goes.

>227 GeorgeKhan: Thanks Thomas,

59) Die Villen der Frau Hürsch : Roman by Alfred Komarek. Daniel Käfer is offered a new job at the publisher he edits a business journal but he refuses it because he would have to stop publishing his journal. Before a new start in another job he makes holidays in the Aussee, a little town in the Steiermark, Austria. There he comes a cross a stone near the border of the lake with his surname. He starts to ask around and finds out that there was there was a great aunt who worked here as a maid. But why did she commit suicide? ... interesting read with local colouring (regionalism?) of the Steiermark.

60) Die Peanuts - das Glück ist eine Schmusedecke by Charles M. Schulz. Linus should give up his warm blanket before his aunt would show up. Charly, Snoopy. Lucy and others are trying to help him ... fun read with some good truths about what kids need.

61) The sellout : a novel by Paul Beatty. Bonbon Me lives in suburb of Los Angeles CA called Dickens, but the city should be removed from the map and the mind. He starts segregation and slavery again in order to better the life for his people ... a satire about life in the USA. I've haven't read niggers in a book so often as in this one

statistics for July

1273 pages, 5 books,

4 books were written in German, in 1 English, and 0 in Swiss German

nationalities: CH 1, D 1, GB 1, A 1, IL , USA 1

dead 3, alive 2
male 3, female 2

oldest 1988, newest 2010 (book, my copy)
oldest 1921, newest 2009 (work, first published)

I added 0 bookmarks and 3 books to my collections

>231 paulstalder: I love Peanuts!

>233 paulstalder: That is a very below avarage reading month for you, Paul. I am struggling myself this month after a good year so far.

Have a great weekend.

>234 thornton37814: me, too!

>236 PaulCranswick: yes, Paul, since corona I do read far less than usually and also my interest in books diminished. I hope it's going to be better with reading, for you, too.

62) Pia Plappermaul by Sandra Grimm and Brigit Antoni (Illustrator). Pia is very talkative. She tells stories, sings, chats ... never quiet. So Mats, her brother, explains her one day that there are only a certain of words each person on earth has in stock, so, soon Pia would run out of words. And Pia fells silent .... a lovely children's book

---

Pia Plappermaul Mats explains his sister the problem with the amount of words everybody has available.