Wedellsblog goes live

I love books. They make me feel nice and warm all over. There are very few things better than sitting down with a good book, and none of them can generally be purchased for under 20 EUR.

I have repeatedly tried to transfer this love of books to my friends. For years on end, they could look forward to finding 'Molecular Biology Explained' or 'Arthur Clarke's Greatest Sci-Fi Stories' under the Christmas tree. Only belatedly did I realise that my gifts were not received with the same amount of enthusiasm as, say, a nice sweater or an envelope full of cash.

So now, I have instead decided to start blogging about the books I read. I'll tell you about the good ones, and warn you about the worst ones. On occasion, for the factual books, I'll even provide short summaries so you can pretend to your friends you have read them, too.

Obviously, a number of my first postings will be about books I read a while ago, but the plan is to keep it fairly current. More than a 'favorites' list, I mean this to be an inspiration to people who are interested in the cool new books that come out with some regularity.

Just to warn you: I have somewhat idiosyncratic tastes. For instance, when it comes to fiction, most of the so-called classics doesn't do anything for me; I simply find them too long-winded compared to the standards of contemporary writing. A lot of the supposedly great comtemporary writers are not to my liking, either. I found John Fowles' 'The Magus' completely plotless. Zadie Smith's 'White Teeth' bored me. Of Paul Auster's stuff, the only book I liked is 'The Book of Illusions' - the rest were too pretentious and artificial for me.

As to the world of factual books, this will be somewhat caleidoscopic; I am interested in a very wide range of subjects, from business to brainstorming, from sex to sociology, from economics to evolutionary biology.

Just so you know what to expect. Enjoy the reading.