Tobi

Sorry, it was meant as a joke. All Americans I know personally (exactly one) are decent drivers. And he even owns a Ford Mustang with a manual gearbox. It isn't my place to judge the way Americans drive their cars, but sometimes the European in me wants to make a joke at the expense of the US and their inhabitants. If the driving lessons are given in the BMW or even the racing car, I will gladly accept that offer

I love the look of the Tesla, sometimes I see one gliding around before my university and I stop to stare at it as long as I can. Environmental friendly and nice to look at. I envy your dad for that car and what would I give to get a test drive in one of these, but I don't think they would give a 20-year-old one at the Tesla dealership here in Frankfurt . Oh, and my mum used to drive a Twingo in the exact same colour, like the one on the picture you posted, but the axis broke while driving to fast over a railway crossing.

I have not seen a thread about cars around here, so I thought I start one, since cars are one of my favourite topics to talk about (books and football are one the same level ). Here some topics I can imagine are interesting to talk about: What is your dream car? What car do you drive at the moment? Do you like it? What are the "must-have's" in your car (AC, automatic gear, ...)? Do you buy a car because it is practical, for the looks or for other reasons? What is your favourite car manufacturer? -- My dream car is the BMW 507, built from 1956-1959. I've never driven one, which could be related to the current price of around 1 million euros, but in my opinion it is the best looking car ever built. Just gorgeous & romantic. Here's a picture of the one located in the BMW Museum in Munich. -- At the moment I do not own a car, because it is much easier and cheaper to get to my university with public transport, but from time to time I borrow the car from my mother. It's a Volkswagen Polo Cross and I really hate how it feels to drive. Can't really say why, it's just feels to smooth for such a small car. And it looks to girly for my taste.. orange is just the wrong colour for this car. Nevertheless I am grateful to be allowed to drive it at all. Prior to that I drove a red Volkswagen Polo Open Air, until somebody crashed into my back, which resulted in total loss and a lifetime fear of cars driving much to close behind me. Luckily I got physically unharmed out of it (it wasn't at a very high speed, around 60-70 km/h), but I still miss my old car, too many fond memories... -- "Must Have's" for me in a car are manual gear (automatic is for old people and Americans ) and AC. "Nice to have's" are a navigation system, a decent audio system and of course all those expansive luxury options like leather or xenon headlights. I think, if I buy my first self paid car (the red Polo was my mother's old one), I'm going to be a little bit irrational and go for the looks and feels of it, because a car is more than a car for me.. somewhat like freedom and self expression. And if I am able to afford it, it will be a BMW. Most likely not the 507 for obvious reasons, but maybe the current 1 series. Anyone as emotional as I am about cars or are all book lovers practical when it comes to cars?

I have not read it yet, but you could associate Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima with the season of spring. According to the comments on goodreads it is a wonderfully written book. Furthermore I would like to mention Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett. While I was reading it, I could not stop thinking about these hot summer days, which were so much fun when I was young (They still are ).

Germans and burning books.... not a welcome activity at all. Nevertheless I wouldn´t hesitate to throw Friedrich Schiller´s Maria Stuart on a burning pile (of course I would, it´s a shame to burn decent books, which this indisputable is). However my dislike for this book most certainly derives from the forced read I had to do in German class. On the topic of the most worthy book of not burning I can't decide. I vary between Fight Club and 1984. I think, Fight Club is in the lead. To all the books mentioned and still to be mentioned to ignite last: I think there are going to be some nice inspirations on what to read next. Keep it up

You don't have to apologise, I was simply surprised that nobody had further ideas / recommendations. It isn't anybody's fault

So, as a conclusion to the non-existence of further suggestions I can say that this is a genre nobody except me takes any interest in? Is there simply a lack of good books? Or are the good books not known by western people?

Both look interesting, but I don´t think I have the endurance to read 1000+ pages of "Romance". Maybe I give The Pillow Book a try. Nevertheless thanks for your recommendations No, I haven´t, but from what I´ve read about them, I get the impression, that they are not as nearly as good as Shogun. Would you recommend reading them?

Hi everyone, About 2 months ago I finished Shogun by James Clavell and I loved it. Since then I have been in search for similiar books. I don´t really care if it´s based on real events, but there should be this most interesting and exotic medieval Japanese culture of harmony, perfectionism and "not saying what you mean" (don´t know how else to describe it ) in it. Books i´ve already read or don´t want to read: The Otori Series, read it around 7 years ago, when I was a teenager. Is it worth a re-read? Memoirs of a Geisha, not interested, sounds too much like a Romance to me. Stormdancer, it was ok, but I expected more from it. Thank you for your help

The romance between those two is not described in a single chapter, more over the course of the book. But the more I think about, the more I am sure this is not the book you are looking for, because the teasing part is not really recognizable in this book.

I didn´t say that Tolkien and Martin are comparable, but since lotr contained all the things she asked for (medieval, kings, queens) and is genuinely awesome, I had to post it. Oh, and I can remember Martin being praised as "The American Tolkien", which certainly has no meaning nowadays. I think on half of the fantasy books I own there is a comment about "the new Tolkien".

Maybe Shogun? Only book I ever read with a romance somewhat related to the one your are describing. But I have to confess that I don´t read a lot of books with a focus on romance. To be more specific: I don´t read Romance

Maybe The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams? I liked it, not one of my favourites, but neither is The Game of Throne series, so you could give it a try. And in contrast to George R.R. Martin´s books the series gets better with each book and not worse (only my opinion, the last two from Martin were disappointing). Furthermore I can recommend The Dwarves by the German author Markus Heitz. It´s about kings and stuff, dwarf style. But I can´t say if the English translation is any good, because I only read it in German. Oh, and I should mention The Lord of the Rings

After a quick read through all the post I´ve not seen a single post about The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, which is my humble opinion one of the best fantasy books I have read up to today. You could describe it as Oceans Eleven set in a fascinating fantasy world with a little drop of The Godfather in it. The Name of the Wind was already mentioned earlier, so I can only repeat how awesome that book is. As an addition I would like to recommend The Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko and all books from that series (and in general from that author). Modern fantasy (or urban fantasy, even if I don´t know the exact meaning of that term) as a catchphrase may describe them the best. To say something about sci-fi, too: The one book that springs to my mind is Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding. It´s more steampunk than sci-fi, but since I like books with exotic settings, that´s only a postive point for me. Additionally: Pirates. Everybody likes pirates.

I can highly recommend Shogun by James Clavell. It´s set in medieval Japan and is about the rise to power of the Togukawa clan and the simultaneously arrival of a English sailor in Japan.

Thanks for the nice welcome. My Dog´s name is Lucy, she is 8 years old and a Cairn Terrier (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairn_Terrier). The problem is, she just got a cruciate ligament tear ("Kreuzbandriss" in German, I had to put it in google translate, I hope it´s the right translation) and therefore I cant take her for a walk at the moment. ;( Here´s a first picture of her taken somewhat around christmas time

Hi everyone, My name is Tobi, I´m from Frankfurt, Germany, 20 years old and I love to read books (like everyone else here) and that´s the reason for me joining this forum. Don´t need any more reasons, do I? I´m reading books since … I really don´t know … I think I was 8 or 9. It all started with those cool little comics about Tim & Struppi, Spirou & Fantasio (still a great read) and of course Disney comics, mainly “Lustiges Taschenbuch” (English: “funny paperback”), a comic series, which you can buy nearly everywhere in Germany. Not long after that I got my hands on a copy of the first Harry Potter and since then I am a little bit addicted to reading. A long time I only read Fantasy books, but roughly 3 years ago my attitude towards the other genres changed and now I´m reading almost everything. Additionally at that time I got the idea of “collecting” and buying books to hoard them at my bookcase, before that I got them from my local library (run by THE best librarian in the world). About a year later I started reading my books in English, first to improve my English skills and now because the original versions are mostly simply better than the translated German versions. Some of my favorite books are “Fight Club” by Chuck Palahniuk, “1984” by George Orwell, “The Name of the Wind” and “The Wise Man's Fear” by Patrick Rothfuss, “Shogun” by James Clavell and the “Tales of the Ketty Jay” Series by Chris Wooding. Currently I´m reading “A Journey to the Center of the Earth” by Jules Verne and “Capitalism and Freedom” by Milton Friedman (mainly for my studies). You can find further information on what I´m currently reading and my a collection of books owned by me on my goodreads profile: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/16407422-tobi Apart from reading I love to take a walk with my dog, play basketball, watch football (Eintracht Frankfurt & Liverpool FC are my favorite football clubs), play video games and of course to hang out with friends. Furthermore I´m a student of Economics / Business Administration (with a planned specialization in Finance) at the University of Frankfurt. To everyone who wonders what strange expression I wrote in the title of this topic: “Gude” is a common Hessian greeting and since we Germans are not allowed to be “proud Germans”, I'm a proud Hessian (Hesse is the state of Germany, which Frankfurt (am Main) is located in) For a start that's everything you need to know about me and I hope for some good and entertaining conversations PS.: Spotted any (grammar, spelling, wrong / strange expression) mistakes / errors in this or any further posts from me? Just let me know, I´m always trying to improve my written English.