literary afternoon

my afternoon was very entertaining and i now fancy reading new books thanks to the "leipziger buchmesse" (leipzig's book fair). guests today were, among others, guenter grass (nobel prize winner) and wolfgang biermann, two contemporary german authors. both of them presented their new books. guenter grass, whom i had met earlier this year (he signed my book!!)

and whom you can see in the picture, appeared in his old brown jacket as always. it was a normal interview but then, out of the blue, his voice changed (due to the microphone?) and sounded like a droned out lp. i had to laugh out loudly, so funny. but in the interview, grass criticized something which i had also noticed: the differences between german newspapers decrease enormously (he bemoaned the loss of high level) which means that they more and more resemble each other and assimilate the big tabloid german newspaper "bild".

biermann, on the other hand, acted like a politician and talked and talked and talked. the presenter was slightly unable to cope with him. very entertaining.

grass und biermann auf der leipziger buchmesse - zum kaputtlachen. ;o)