Welcome to Litsy!

New episode just posted! This week we are discussing the much taught and discussed 1927 novel by Hermann Hesse, “Steppenwolf.“ Going in we didn't quite know what to expect but we both agreed we were pleasantly surprised by this enlightening, thought provoking, and surreal novel.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0u4zJHtj9d6cPjRoWQ2IAT

It was hard choosing between this one and The Starless Sea, so I slept one night over it and decided that Hesse's Steppenwolf already spoke to me when I was younger. It spoke to me again. And it will later again, I'm sure. It's a book that will accompany me through my whole life. Therefore it is going to be my Book of the Year 2023.

#bookoftheyear #boty #bookoftheyear2023 #boty2023

Some books impact your whole life. Some books stay with you forever. Steppenwolf is such a book for me. It came to me when I was a confused teenager and helped me finding myself. Now, after more than 20 years, it came back to me when I needed it most. Of course the Steppenwolf knew I needed him. Or more, I needed Hermine. I forgot about her but now she stood out. Maybe I didn't need her back then, but now I sure did. And once again I found myself.

Of course my re-read of Hesse's Steppenwolf is my #BookoftheMonth in June. And it's also in the semifinal for book of the year. No surprise.

#BtM

I didn't enjoy this book as much siddartha, and the message of story was more challenging to interpret.

Working on hitting my 2020 goal of 70 books!

This little book, 3.5”x5.75”x1”, is NOT what I expected! Sometimes, the fun of requesting a library book is what it will look like when it arrives. I honestly have no idea what this book is about. It‘s my #ClassicsClub #Spin #ccspin

Mi-am putut da seama că Haller era un geniu al suferinței, că își formase o capacitate de a suferi genială, nelimitată, îngrozitoare, de genul celei pe care o evocă Nietzsche în unele din maximele sale.

206 pages. Extremely boring. Childishly philosophical, felt like depressed teenager's tragedy when it really isn't. I don't know what's all the fuss about. Finished reading only because I hoped for a strong ending but my prayers were not answered.

#steppenwolf #hesse

@RamsFan1963 @hannah-leeloo @Erofan wanted to see my #ThankfulThursday-surrealism-choice @Cosmos_Moon …

No gimme. Chose 🇩🇪 „Der Steppenwolf“ but all the same could‘ve ended up tagging 🇩🇪„Kafka am Strand“ or 🇩🇪 „Der Wal und das Ende der Welt“. 🤷🏽‍♀️

1. No plans. But: Australia 🇦🇺‼️

2. For my significant other and my bestie to reach out • For my physiotherapist • For my independence/sovereignty and my relative good health.

3. ⬇️

Meine H.H. Bücherserie.
Steppenwolf mittlerweile 2 Mal.

Now that i've finished i understand why this novel is such a legend. A great meditation on gender identity, mental health and the arrogance of the intellectual elites. I'm sure i'll be gifting this book a lot (it's perfect for any millenial humanist) and will be revisiting it myself again and again.#bookandbath

This one's a bit tricky since it the book has a fictional preface which reads as follows...

"Vorwort des Herausgebers: Dieses Buch enthält die uns gebliebenen Aufzeichnungen jenes Mannes, welchen wir mit einem Ausdruck, den er selbst mehrmals genrauchte, den 'Steppenwolf' nannten."

#FirstLineFridays

What Goethe tells the Steppenwolf about lifetimes and eternity: "Auch ich habe den Wert der Zeit einst überschätzt, darum wollte ich hundert Jahre alt werden. In der Ewigkeit aber, siehst du, gibt es keine Zeit; die Ewigkeit ist bloß ein Augenblick, gerade lang genug für einen Spaß."

Another day another #bookandbath

"..., dass ohne Liebe zu sich selbst auch die Nächstenliebe unmöglich ist."

Today I learned that RuPaul has read Hermann Hesse. #ifyoucantloveyourselfhowinthehellyougonnalovesomebodyelse #canigetanamenupinhere #halleloo #bookandbath

Finished Steppenwolf recently, and I really liked it. I found the "Steppenwolf" relatable (which maybe is a sad thing), and I also really liked the philosophical bits. Best of all I felt it ended on a hopeful note.

"The illusion that cost India the efforts of thousands of years to unmask is the same illusion that the West has labored just as hard to maintain and stengthen."

I've been reading this book for a little while now, and I often have to stop and consider some of these things.
I think it will become one of my favorites.

“the desperate clinging to the self and the desperate clinging to life are the surest way to eternal death”

So far slow going, 77 pages in. I just don‘t care about Harry Haller and the ramblings of bourgeois disenfranchisement and focus of individualism, but I understand it picks up soon.

#7days7covers #covercrush Day 5
@merelybookish
@Susanita if you want to play, 7 covers posted in 7 days, no explanations & tag someone new each day.

I was quite puzzled when I read Thomas Mann‘s praise at the back of the book. He says this book taught him what reading means. 🤔 Sorry, this is intellectual blah-blah for me.

The long sentences need concentration and it‘s far away from being as fluently read as Hesse‘s „Siddhartha“. This book is so overly intellectual that I am not willing to „work through it“ in my leisure time. Call me a whimp but this is too vigorous for me.

„Araukarie“ (p. 37)

I can‘t help it but I think Kristopher from my last book would have loved that word.

In case you, like me, don‘t know what I am talking about:

🇩🇪 https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Araukarien?wprov=sfti1

🇬🇧 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Araucaria?wprov=sfti1

Skipping the preface for the moment seems to be a good idea. I mean, look, it obviously has 32 pages. The story itself starts on page 33.

Brings me to think, that at least one third of the preface must just be waffling.

After a few lines I decided to skip the preface of the publisher because I‘m afraid that it will take away too much of the story for me.

I want to read it unbiased.

I will come back to it when I‘m through with the book and then read it as a postface. 😁

Took this one home from the bric-a-brac only because I knew title and author – even though I couldn‘t have put my finger on that they belong together. 🤭

I thought: „It‘s kind of a classic so maybe one should have read it.“ So it went home with me.

I made mixed experiences with so-called classics – what is it all about Robert Louis Stevenson‘s „Treasure Island“ 🤔 – so I hope to not be too disappointed.

I‘m curious, so let‘s start‼️

One of my all time favourites, and my #AdventRecommends day 19 recommendation.

I'm not that good with English to give this book justice, so here is a part of the synopsis.
"Steppenwolf is a poetical self-portrait of a man who felt himself to be half-human and half-wolf. This Faust-like and magical story is evidence of Hesse's searching philosophy and extraordinary sense of humanity as he tells of the humanization of a middle-aged misanthrope"

Please give a #howl if you're also a fan of Steppenwolf and the Magic Theater for Madmen Only.
#OctoberXFiles @Robothugs @Cinfhen

calling all idiots, punks, and meanderers-Give this "un a (re-) read.

No complaints (moans generally relished) it's only 200 pgs and has the goods

I don't think I read this at the right time. There were basically no animals in it. Spoiler, the worlf is a metaphor.

Folio Society are having an INTERNATIONAL giveaway for their edition of Steppenwolf over on their Instagram!

He gave at the very first glance the impression of a significant, an uncommon, and unusually gifted man. His face was intellectual...He had thought more than other men, and in matters of the intellect he had that calm objectivity, that certainty of thought and knowledge, such as only really intellectual men have, who have no axe to grind, who never wish to shine, or to talk others down, or to appear always in the right.

There was once a man, Harry, called the steppenwolf. He went on two legs, wore clothes and was a human being, but nevertheless he was in reality a wolf of the steppes. He had learned a good deal of all that people of a good intelligence can, and was a fairly clever fellow. What he had not learned, however, was this: to find contentment in himself and his own life.

All interpretation, all psychology, all attempts to make things comprehensible, require the medium of theories, mythologies, and lies.

The man of power is ruined by power, the man of money by money, the submissive man by subservience, the pleasure seeker by pleasure.

There are always a few such people who demand the utmost of life and yet cannot come to terms with its stupidity and crudeness.

A wild longing for strong emotions and sensations seethes in me, a rage against this toneless, flat, normal and sterile life. I have a mad impulse to smash something, a warehouse perhaps, or a cathedral, or myself, to committ outrages...

For what I always hated and detested and cursed above all things was this contentment, this healthiness and comfort, this carefully preserved optimism of the middle classes, this fat and prosperous brood of mediocrity.

You are willing to die, you coward, but not to live.

Now and again I have expressed the opinion that every nation, and even every person, would do better, instead of rocking himself to sleep with political catchwords about war guilt, to ask himself how far his own faults and negligences and evil tendencies are guilty of the war and all the other wrongs of the world, and that therein lies the only possible means of avoiding the next war.

None of us intellectuals is at home in reality. We are strange to it and hostile.

Had the opportunity to by this at my bookshop. Not that my German allow me to read it... at the moment. But one day... 😆

A wild longing for strong emotions and sensations seethes in me, a rage against this toneless, flat, normal and sterile life.

This book is absolutely batshit and I loved it.

Started this one on audio! I‘ve been meaning to read it for ten years and never did for some reason, but I love Siddhartha, so I have high hopes! #germany #readaroundtheworld

Well, I guess I‘m in the right place.

I've found myself through this book
I wish I could meet the author & say thanks my bro 😂

Fantastic book!!! It can be seen by most as a sad depressive book and it is in many ways, but his final message, in my opinion, was optimistic. As Hesse says himself, despite the sickness and crisis the novel deals with, the objective is not death or destruction, it's redemption. I'll read this book again and again later in life cause I'm sure depending on the stage we are, it will add new contents to the reading. #Sha2017 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I want to read, but...

I really love reading. However, sometimes I can't find my inspiration for reading. It usually happens after I finish some book which I didn't like, and then I am stuck with another one.
Several days ago I read This Savage Song and I didn't like it, then I re-read Steppenwolf though I love that book, I couldn't find myself enjoying. What is going on?

Q: Anyone with the same problem? Any kind of help is welcome!