log(book)

The 24 books I read in 2004 year in books

Cover of Emil and the Detectives.

Emil and the Detectives

by Erich Kästner · published 1928 · read 2004-12-01
★★★★★
Charming adventures in Berlin of the 1920s? Children taking on adults together? Wild chases and solidarity? All this, and more. Emil is infinitely relatable as he travels to the big city, is robbed and tries to recover the money. Emil is just a good kid in a bad situation, and seeing him grow and manage to muddle through and make friends is heart-warming.

Cover of Der erste Frühling.

Der erste Frühling

by Klaus Kordon · published 1995 · read 2004-12-01
★★★☆☆
Concluding the series, we get to see the daughter of the first book's protagonist live through 1945 and deal with everything the world throws at her. Among other things: lies her grandparents told everybody to keep her away from nazi youth organisations, her father returning from the KZ, her whole worldview toppling along with her country, practical post-war problems, and adolescence.

Cover of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

by Douglas Adams · published 1979 · read 2004-12-01
★★★★☆
The incomparable, oft-compared, one and only Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's so much of a classic that saying anything about it defeats the point.

Cover of Die Wilden Hühner.

Die Wilden Hühner

by Cornelia Funke · published 1993 · read 2004-11-01
★★★☆☆
Generic-but-good girl series, where the girls do lots of adventurous things and are way cooler than the boys, and very matter-of-fact. I liked it a bit as a kid, though I mostly read it for lack of other things to read. I can still name some of the characters and their general vibe (ok, mostly Sprotte), which is a mark in favour of the book.

Cover of Pala und die seltsame Verflüchtigung der Worte.

Pala und die seltsame Verflüchtigung der Worte

by Ralf Isau · published 2002 · read 2004-11-01
★★☆☆☆
Pala is a book about language, about literature, about poetry – and yet, I didn't really like it. Maybe it's that I had high expectations from Franz Fühmann's masterwork, or that it just felt like it was trying too hard. Whatever it was, despite all the reasons I should love it, I don't.

Cover of Die Wilden Hühner: Fuchsalarm.

Die Wilden Hühner: Fuchsalarm

by Cornelia Funke · published 1998 · read 2004-10-01
★★★☆☆
More adventuring, more summer gang stuff. I enjoyed it at the time and will never read it again.

Cover of Matilda.

Matilda

by Roald Dahl · published 1988 · read 2004-10-01
★★★★☆
Possibly my favourite book by Dahl. While it is needlessly cruel (like all his books), it catered to the nerdy book-loving kid demographic relentlessly, and that was more than fine by me. And now we even have a great Tim Minchin musical, which is another point in favour of the book.

Cover of Sagen des klassischen Altertums.

Sagen des klassischen Altertums

by Gustav Schwab · published 1837 · read 2004-09-01
★★★☆☆
The German reference for Greek legends. Published in 1837, it has had time to become the de-facto standard. It's readable and provides solid background knowledge for all other things that start with Greek legends.

Cover of Das Pentomino-Orakel.

Das Pentomino-Orakel

by Blue Balliett · published 2004 · read 2004-09-01
★★★☆☆
Dan Brown, kids edition: Children have to solve weird puzzles where the correct solution is far from obvious unless you're the author. Better than Brown in that there's a better reason for the obscurity and also there are no illuminati.

Cover of Life, the Universe and Everything.

Life, the Universe and Everything

by Douglas Adams · published 1982 · read 2004-08-01
★★☆☆☆
I liked the series less and less, the longer it went on, but I still read it – and not just out of pop-cultural duty.

Cover of Murder at the Vicarage.

Murder at the Vicarage

by Agatha Christie · published 1930 · read 2004-07-01
★★★☆☆
This is where it begins: The tons of Miss Marple book start here, introducing the gentle but sharp old lady who can solve every crime by reducing it to some small village squabble. I generally enjoy the Miss Marple mysteries more than the Poirot ones, mostly because Hastings is so incredibly obnoxious. But both series have in common that the bulk of the mysteries are not particularly noteworthy and I often can't remember any details.

Cover of Treasure Island.

Treasure Island

by Robert Louis Stevenson · published 1879 · read 2004-07-01
★★★★☆
The one and only classic pirate adventure. Much better than I would have thought, given that famous and classic stories often were good at the time and then remained unreasonably popular. But no, Treasure Island got to me. To be fair, I was a eleven year old boy, so it was written for me with little way to fail, but still: I couldn't put this book down.

Cover of Alice in Wonderland.

Alice in Wonderland

by Lewis Carroll · published 1981 · read 2004-06-01
★★★☆☆
The trippy book. I read Alice as a child, with a lot of confusion at first, and then with some resignation to the fact that it would all make sense once I was older.

Cover of The Arctic Incident.

The Arctic Incident

by Eoin Colfer · published 2002 · read 2004-06-01
★★☆☆☆
Arguably an instance of the second book being better than the first book: We see more of Holly, Artemis is forced to cooperate. There's more banter, there's more depth to both our heroes, and the plot is more intriguing.

Cover of 4:50 from Paddington.

4:50 from Paddington

by Agatha Christie · published 1957 · read 2004-05-01
★★★☆☆
There's no way I can think of this book without seeing and hearing the movie. The book veered a bit too far into the "here, have some train schedules" direction – I'm not much of a mystery reader, the details bore me and I never try to puzzle them out on my own. For good reason: Miss Marple books often work with hazy clues and psychology magic.

Cover of Die roten Matrosen.

Die roten Matrosen

by Klaus Kordon · published 1994 · read 2004-05-01
★★★★★
Revolution! This book made me understand, at least a little, what happened in Germany's past. It takes place during the 1918 revolution, and the protagonist is a boy from a worker family in Berlin's Wedding district. It's specific, it's fun, it's well-sourced. It very much stands on the pro-communist side of things (who, after all, did not win the revolution), so he may be responsible for my early dislike of socialists. Regardless, it's an excellent book, and made sure that I could never forget what happened in those days, and who key players like Ebert, Scheidemann and Noske were.

Cover of The Name of the Rose.

The Name of the Rose

by Umberto Eco · published 1980 · last read 2021-08-12
★★★★★
Medieval monks? Thinly disguised opportunities to lecture the reader about history and theology? Showing off your knowledge of obscure and less obscure references? It might sound obnoxious, but Eco is obviously just a giant nerd and is having fun, and I fell for his joy more than anything. Though I do love monasteries and medieval backgrounds and libraries and clever protagonists, so that helped.

Cover of Mort.

Mort

by Terry Pratchett · published 1987 · read 2004-04-01
★★★☆☆
Mort was really good for me at the time, but looking back, I'm less of a fan. Still a good book, of course, just a long way off the Discworld's best. Extremely good for being only number 4 in the series, of course!

Cover of Der Trotzkopf.

Der Trotzkopf

by Emmy von Rhoden · published 1883 · read 2004-03-01
★★☆☆☆
Luckily you cannot read this book in earnest anymore – times have changed too much. So if you read of the far-too-wild, far-too-stubborn young Ilse, who has to go to a boarding school to learn manners, and who is slowly "tamed" by her new friends and teachers until she turns into a young lady, you can feel amused or offended (depending on your temperament) instead of feeling pressured to do the same.

Cover of Only You Can Save Mankind.

Only You Can Save Mankind

by Terry Pratchett · published 1992 · read 2004-03-01
★★★★☆
A computer game that turns out to be real – in 1992. Great fun. Has aged, of course, but the important bits still work.

Cover of Igraine the Brave.

Igraine the Brave

by Cornelia Funke · published 1998 · read 2004-02-01
★★★★☆
Igraine is a very sweet book for kids. Igraine wants to be a knight, not a boring wizard like everybody else in her family, and she gets her wish – and has to save her family in the process. A bit saccharine in the general tone, possibly, but the execution borders on dry and is just generally sparking joy.

Cover of Artemis Fowl.

Artemis Fowl

by Eoin Colfer · published 2001 · read 2004-02-01
★★☆☆☆
Artemis Fowl was fun at the time – I particularly enjoyed decoding the secret message in the decoration on every page. It was a good thing to read at the time, but nothing I'm going to revisit any time soon – I don't think it would stand up to a re-read.

Cover of Tomte Tummetott.

Tomte Tummetott

by Astrid Lindgren · published 1961 · read 2004-01-01
★★★★☆
Pure wholesomeness: Tomte Tumtetott is a spirit(-ish) who lives on the farm, and only comes out at night. He talks to the animals (who understand him) and to the sleeping plants and people. He is kind to everybody and has a good word in every situation. He reminds the sleeping people and animals that spring will come, and is generally very laid back. A calm book for younger children.

Cover of A Murder Is Announced.

A Murder Is Announced

by Agatha Christie · published 1950 · read 2004-01-01
★★★☆☆
One of the generic Miss Marple mysteries, but a rather good one. I liked the premise – and there's not much more to like. It's one of those books where the author had one good idea (see title), and then follows through. Christie does that very well, and that is that.