Book Bloggers Abroad Guest Post (2) – Germany

Welcome to the weekly guest post in the Book Bloggers Abroad series. Every week a book blogger from a different country will be featured who will talk about what it’s like to be a book blogger where he or she lives.

GERMANY

Our guest blogger for today is Rikki from Germany. Her book blog is called  The Bookkeeper. Her genre is mainly GLBT (which stands for “Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender”), but she reads a variety of genres. Go and have a look!

I live in Bavaria in Germany. I am married to an Englishman and live with him and our two sons (6 and 4) in Nuremberg. The area where we live is a little bit outside the old town but still in the city with lots of apartment buildings. Just around the corner from us is a large park with the river, playgrounds, jogging paths etc. So it is in the city, but still with a bit of nature attached.

Old town of Nuremberg

We have lots of bookshops in the city. Below is a picture of my favourite one. It has four stories, with a coffeeshop, reading areas and an indoor playground with slide. We  also  have a large library with several branches all over the city, that I go to about every 6 weeks. Most of my books I either buy online though or swap them at a German swap site. Mainly because there are not that many English books in the shops and the selection is better online.

Bookshop: this is the English book section which is done up to look like a library with chimney and leather coaches

In Germany as far as the price of books is concerned it doesn’t matter where you buy your books. They are generally not that expensive (ca. 8-12 EUR for a paperback) and over here we have a thing called book price control. The price of a book has to be fixed by the publishing house and the book dealers are required to sell the books at that price. So whether you buy a bestseller at a book shop, a department store or a supermarket, it always costs the same. The only exceptions to this law are faulty books which have to be labeled as such, used books that have been sold once already at the fixed price or books that have been on the market longer than 18 months and for which the publisher has lifted that fixed price.

You will never find a book published in Germany cheaper online than in your local bookstore. For imported books, which is the majority of what I buy, this control is not applicable, so those books are rather inexpensive. Often I get an imported English book cheaper than the German version.

I have limited time for blogging, but try to blog every day nevertheless. I work four days a week and have two kids, so I usually have some free time only in the evenings. Since blogging requires reading first most of the time, I have to find a balance between reading, blogging and other hobbies.

I’m blogging mainly in English because the books I review are published in English. I mainly review GLBT books (with some other genres thrown in for good measure) and even most Germans who read GLBT books do so in English it seems (for lack of translations probably). To me it wouldn’t make any sense to blog in German.

Book shelves

I read outside on the balcony if I feel like it. In summer the temperatures are ideal for reading outside, not too warm or too cold. But my main reading I do before I go to sleep.

I either read in German or English. My native language is German. If I read books that were originally published in German I read them in German (exception: “The Reader” is on my TBR pile in English, simply because I preferred the English cover). If they were orignally published in English, I read in English. If they were published in another language I read them in German.

I can’t say I have a favourite German author. I have some favourite books that were written by Germans that I would recommend, but no specific author. One book in specific (and I mention that one, because I don’t think I ever mentioned it in any of my blog posts before) is by Walter Moers and is called “The 13 1/2 lives of Captain Bluebear“. It’s highly imaginative and fun. It is a book you either love or hate.

Click on the world for a Google Maps picture!

Thanks, Rikki for letting us have a look at your life as a reader and blogger. I like it that you have a play area in your book shop! And your town centre looks very nice!

Don’t forget to take a look at Rikki’s blog. If you have any questions or comments for Rikki, just leave them in the comments section.

Next week Bellezza from USA will be visiting us for the third Book Bloggers Abroad guest post. Don’t miss it!