Thoughts from Deutschland

Michael Thielen from Hamm, Germany, wrote in response to the early announcement of how this blog is replacing the newsletter, Reading. Here's what he had to say and some reading recommendations:

"What a pleasant surprise it was to see your first eleactronic Reading. I especially liked the adition of book covers in colour, and I guess that electronic publishing helps reducing your own expenses for it since you´ll save considerably on printing and postage. So you can buy more books to review.

Readingwise I would like to bring your attention to an American author by the name of James Patterson who specializes in crime fiction dedicated to those readers too tired to read long chapters (like myself). There is a new chapter every three or four pages in e.g. The Fifth Horseman. If you haven´t already reviewed the man, I might come up with a line or two on him one day. [And I'll add those words right here, Michael.]

And have you discovered Bill Bryson´s latest, Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, in which he describes his life in Iowa in the fifties of last century? It´s more like his older, and funnier, stuff for which I enjoy his writing.

Finally on this, there is British motor journalist, TV presenter and columnist of British rag The Sun, Jeremy Clarkson who published what they claim are bestsellers in Britain, like I Know You Got Soul, A Brief History of Machines ( on technical achievements) and The World According to Clarkson which you might also enjoy. You know he writes and publishes what he (and sometimes I) think of as common sense coments on daily life.

• Joe Hartlaub's review of The 5th Horseman by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro at BookReporter.com
  
• A link to a Guardian (UK) podcast of Bill Bryson reading from The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid
  
• Wikipedia on Jeremy Clarkson