Welcome to Litsy!

I've finally read this remarkable classic; a suitable read at this time of the year, as there is nothing scarier than war and it is all the more scarier that such horrors are still happening.

"What do they expect of us if a time ever comes when the war is over? Through the years our business has been killing;–it was our first calling in life. Our knowledge of life is limited to death. What will happen afterwards? And what shall come out of us?"

Let's see if I can get around to September's picks in a timely manner.
All Quiet is for the #192025 challenge that may turn into the #192026 challenge if I don't get my shit together.
Summer Heat was supposed to be July's #foodandlit read for Turkey.
No, I'm not behind...

#bookspinbingo #bookspin #doublespin

#uptake #poetrymatters @TheSpineView

Finally finished this one with my own class of 8th graders this week. Most of the boys wanted to read it because they have watched the movie. They thought it would be easy read, but they forgot Mrs Wolff is their teacher. Of course I had them tackle different problems while reading, not only consuming it. We‘ll see if it was worth it.

#ittakesallkinds #war

#ItTakesAllKinds @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs
#War

This is how it looks like when a teacher reads a book. 🙈

Started to read All Quiet on the Western Front yesterday because my students want to read it. Even though it is part of the German so-called „canon of literature“ I never read it in school. Especially the boys in my class want to read ot because they have a weird fascination of the World Wars. Hopwfully the novel will teach them otherwise.

When will humanity learn?

This book should be required reading in high school. A brutal, honest, unflinching glimpse of what war really is and does.

And for a complete turnabout from D.E. Stevenson.

This was assigned reading my freshman year of high school and I‘ve wanted to reread it for years. It is gruesome and heartbreaking. It paints the grim reality of trench warfare without any sugar coating and you can‘t help but mourn not only the loss of life, but also the loss of innocence and the fracturing of humanity. Brutal, but beautifully written. It‘s a classic for a reason.

This book is rough.
#wwi #germanauthor 🇩🇪 #catsoflitsy
⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Needed to escape to the cabin this weekend

Den handler om krig, men den handler mest om menneskelig brutalitet, om at vænne sig til for meget og om at bevare en sidste rest af den, man er, når alting eksploderer omkring en. Fantastisk bog med passager, jeg måtte læse flere gange for at forstå hvor smukt og vanvittigt, man kunne fortælle en historie på samme tid.

My book purchase today. I know I said I wouldn‘t read this after watching the film, but I‘m curious. At least I‘m prepared for the temporary depression this time around.

Not really my book, but it is well written.

4✨ Soldiers face a lot when they are in battle or war. This is a taste of what soldiers may have seen/heard/witnessed themselves through WW1 from the German‘s perspective. It was very sad, and many times graphic. It helps you see the dark sides of war to understand what others went through. This was my #BookSpin and last #roll100 for May @TheAromaofBooks @PuddleJumper

I didn't finish as many books as I wanted to during #AwesomeApril, but that is because I needed to start reading the tagged book for a book club. I believe I am now in the middle of more than 10 books. #bookishproblem
@Andrew65

💔 I had never read it and the guilt finally got to me. I understand why many believed when it was first release that this would help eliminate war. Sadly, we humans aren‘t smart enough to do that. 💔

This flows so well, it's just beautifully written and it's one of the best books I've ever read.

Check out my full review if you want:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5367447309?type=review#...

Visceral and inevitable.

Still deeply disturbed by the senselessness of WWI after watching the new movie and even more disturbed by the question whether humanity (leaders) learn any lessons about peace from it. This as I listen to a report on recovering Ukrainian soldiers at Walter Reed Hospital.

Last night I had planned to read the novel. Now I don‘t know.

Wow. Whoa. The devastation, the loss of life! Unfathomable horrors of war. Told in such a way that hurts the heart. I can‘t make sense of it. (And maybe, just perhaps, why Goose Book didn‘t land right with me.) Which also makes me question myself and timing and mood…

Starting the actual novel this time. 🤣
Maybe I should have brushed Esther before having her model with book… #WW1lit #Classic #CC50_part2 #ClassicsClub #DogsofLitsy #EstherFest #WiaN2023 QXZ category

I love classics. This has been a book I‘ve wanted to read for many reasons: anti-war, translated work, and now because. . . I have a challenge with category of book title with a Q! Just reading this Editor‘s Note has me chilled, apprehensive 😕
#wian2023 #whatsinaName #classic #cc50_2 #translated #WiaN_QXZ

I‘m not sure why it took me so long to get to “All Quiet On The Western Front” but I‘m so glad I finally read it, and that it‘s most likely going to be my final read of 2022. I‘m not sure if I have anything to add that hasn‘t been said before so I‘ll leave it with a quote. Just know this book has become a favorite of mine. 🖤
“Our hands are earth, our bodies clay and our eyes pools of rain. We do not know whether we still live.”

“We are little flames poorly sheltered by frail walls against the storm of dissolution and madness, in which we flicker and sometimes almost go out”

WW1, trench warfare, chemical attacks. You feel for the young men fighting a war when they have yet to experience life. The war is all they know, and all they have is each other. Death is abundant, and conditions are terrible. Great book, couldn't put it down.

Starting my new book.

An excellent reread of this novel that I can now appreciate it a little more than when I read it the first time. The author has an uncanny knack for writing almost nonchalantly about the horrors of the Great War only because the main character knows no different in his adult life. A hard read but an important one nonetheless. A story of a young German man, Paul, and his comrades‘ lives while on the Western frontline during WWI.

In a week of vacation, I have read all of three chapters. But today is off to a rainy start so getting a few chapters in now. 📖 🙂

#manicmonday #LetterA
Thanks for the tag @sprainedbrain and @vivastory 📖tagged
🖋Jane Austen
🎬Animal House (I know, sorry , not sorry)😄
🎶The Animals
🎤And It Stoned Me Van Morrison
Late to the party , join in!

A classic for #LetterA in the #AlphabetGame

Thanks for the tag, @CoverToCoverGirl !

13 books completed in February
Favorite: All Quiet on the Western Front
It was a good #1001books month with 6 new reads from the list as well as progress on Ulysses.

#ReadingStats #MonthlyStats #BookSpinBingo

This is a powerful book about the harsh reality of war and the way in which it impacts young soldiers. It will be one I‘ll continue to think about as I read other stories that speak of war with a lighter touch.

#1001books #ReadTheWorld #ReadingTheWorld #Germany #translated #WWI
#Reading1001 #TBRTakedown February 2022

I don‘t tend to mark or highlight a lot as I read, but I noted several quotes in this book that expressed thoughts about war very clearly. This scene of the soldier thinking about why he does not want to talk about what he has seen and done at the front is one of those.

Today is a virtual snow day so I had time this morning for a few pages of my book with breakfast before online classes. I‘ve had this book on my TBR for a while, and it is completely living up to my expectations. I‘m about halfway through, and it clearly describes the horror endured as well as the camaraderie of soldiers at the front.

#BookAndBreakfast #translated #Germany #WWI #1001books #Reading1001
#TBRTakedown February 2022

Why has it taken me so long to read this book, was an excellent read, and is in fact a must read. No wonder Hitler didn‘t want Germans to read this book. Frank Muller did an excellent job as narrator.

Now I need to get hold of the sequel.

This was quoted and mentioned in a book I read at the weekend. Never read it so thought I‘d address this by listening to the audiobook.

One of the great theme‘s in all of Hemingway‘s books was the Lost Generation - referring to those who fought and returned from WWI. It seems that this sense of lost-ness was not unique to the Allied Powers. This novel reveals how a war desired by the elite was fought by commoners on both sides who had nothing to gain but everything to lose and nothing to come home too after their sacrifice. If they came home at all.

A harrowing read about World War I by a German author who went through it. Very well written, but reading this made me have to set it aside now and then. Read for #1001Books

I read this with a much deeper appreciation than when I read it in high school ( 50+ years ago). Deservedly a must read classic.

Tonight‘s movie

I‘m not sure why it took me so long to read this classic. But the writing simply blew me away. A stark, sobering narrative that earns the praise on its cover as “The Greatest War Novel of All Time.”

Today‘s plans. 👍🏼

We are little flames poorly sheltered by frail walls against the storm of dissolution and madness, in which we flicker and sometimes almost go out.

I never had to read this book during school so I picked it up as a quick read. Wow. It is heavy. Wonderfully written, but heavy.

Well, that was depressing. Beautiful words to describe an ugly subject.