Welcome to Litsy!

I went to the library to pick up a hold and was seduced by the "blind date with a book" display. I almost don't want to open it, the anticipation is so sweet! Any guesses about what it is before the big reveal? The clues: It's satire, "dark, unsettling, and nerve chafing," and about 1/2 inch/1 cm thick.

#AboutABook #SetInFuture @Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

It always freaks me out when famous books written in “the future” are actually set in our past, so I find it comforting that this is actually still some 200 years away. Also I love this book.

Hesse is one of those authors I‘ve been lucky to read at just the right moments and so several of his works, including this one, have had a great impact on me. #GamesPuzzlesDay #NovemberNarrative @Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

"a proper Glass Bead Game player ought to be drenched in cheerfulness as a ripe fruit is drenched in its sweet juices. He ought above all to possess the cheerful serenity of music, for after all music is nothing but an act of courage, a serene, smiling, striding forward and dancing through the terrors and flames of the world, the festive offering of a sacrifice."

#BeginsWith #Glass

For a moment I regretted using The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters for the Dream prompt at the beginning of the month, but then I remembered this pseudo-scifi chunkster.

@Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

This audiobook has taken me most of the month, and I finished a good portion of it today, including on my afternoon walk. I didn‘t mind listening to it, but I can‘t really say I enjoyed it either. It‘s written to take place in the future, but it felt much more like the past to me. Parts of it were interesting to consider but parts of it were also slow, and I didn‘t appreciate the addition of the “writings” at the end.

#audiobook #1001books

‘If music is not serene, the people grumble and life is deranged. All this arises from mistaking the nature of music and seeking only tempestuous tonal effects.‘

Book 11 of 2021. #Reading1001 #1001Books

Genius. My favorite book ever. In truth it is the sum of different books in one.
It is also a manual about leadership. Masterpiece!

Mein Lieblingsbuch überhaupt. Meisterwerk von Hermann Hesse.

Magister Ludi takes place at an unspecified date centuries into the future in a fictional province of central Europe called Castalia, which was reserved by political decision for the life of the mind; technology and economic life are kept to a strict minimum.

#fantasysetting
#marchmadness

This book debuted on my TBR in 2008 on my spouse's recommendation. It still sounds awesome, but for some reason, I've not managed to pick it up yet.

I've been seeing the #GratefulReads posts but it only registered this morning that they were part of a challenge. Sometimes it takes me a while, but I'm jumping in now on Day 18!

#beenonyourtbrtoolong
@OriginalCyn620 @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

In my teens and then twenties I took #inspiration from each of these books, respectively, maybe it‘s time for another Hesse. #selfimprovementsept @OriginalCyn620 @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Very long and dense but worthy of the determination to get through it

#wave #quotsyjuly19 @TK-421

#LiteraryLuck #Games A Hesse I have not read also published under the name Magister Ludi .

Diabolo (singular) Diabolus (plural). Had to look up the definition. Nice little word. Very apposite in this context.

This is an example of a book I bought just for its cover. My endless TBR plays with my heart. Maybe this will be the year I read it.

#PlayingGames #NewYearReads
@bookloo @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Goodreads.com photo

If this happened to anyone other than me, I wouldn't believe it. Back in 1998, while living in upstate NY, I acted in a play called Tracers, which was about the Vietnam War. There were many references in the play to Hermann Hesse, whose work I wasn't familiar with back then, so I went to a used bookstore nearby to see if they had any of his books. I bought it, and inside of it, someone had left this full-page ad for a protest against the war!

For in prehistoric times music, like the dance and every other artistic endeavor, was a branch of magic, one of the old and legitimate instruments of wonder-working.

I am finally tackling this one. It's been on my TBR since my teenage years. Planning on reading 50 pages per day & really absorbing it.

Visiting family for two weeks; do you think I have brought enough books with me? In need I have the books I already have here, the e reader and Audible but you cannot be to careful

I've never read Hesse but this is on my TBR. #gaminginthelitworld #octphotochallenge @LibrarianRyan

I've read it too many times to count.

I'm about to take my book club book international!