Rick Gekoski: Eine Nacht mit Lolita (Tolkien's Gown & other Stories of Great Authors and Rare Books)

Gekoski, former literature professor, is an antiquarian and rare book dealer by trade. He has a few very interesting anecdotes to relate. Interesting and great fun to read.

Edgar Allan Poe: Selected Tales

Of course I know several of these stories: The Fall of the House Usher, The Murders of the Rue Morgue, Maelstrom, to name a few. But it was so long ago I had read them, and most in german translation only. So it was interesting to discover them anew. Great stuff. There are other, less well-known, and rightly so, in parts. Poe can be just pompous and a bit boring.

Michael Crichton: Next

Crichton about genetic engineering, again. Other than in Jurassic Park, this is about humans. Not a single story, but a number of partly interwoven strands. Some of these represent more or less the current state of the art, some are extrapolated. As usual, fast-paced, gripping, page-turning. In any case, he raises a number of important questions about the handling of new technology and the related ethical issues. And to my surprise, he even gives substantial answers at the end of the book.

Ralf König: Hempels Sofa

König is one of the most successful german comic book authors of the last few decades. He began as a genre author of the gay community, but since his audience enlarged, he has also been making books that do not have the gay lifestyle and community as their primary focus.

This is one of them, the story of a young man from the country who wants to meet his Internet date in the big city. Of course this does not go as planned.

As always, König is never derisive about his characters. They are really human in all of their greatness and weak moments alike.