Nobody reads books anymore

Nobody reads books anymore. We only tweet.

Still, there is the Last Book I have read. I stubbornly plowed through all of Zweig’s Beware of Pity. Made me mad as hell - being terrorized by a manipulative Jewish girl? How is that credible? A dumb young officer? But it must have been a good read, because I kept reading it.

And then I read what others wrote about it. He left his super-energetic wife for his sickly secretary, so that must have been what the book was about. In 1943 they committed suicide together someplace in South America. And this neurotic windbag was the most read writer of early 20th century?

So I asked my German Professor of Deutsche Literatur, Professor Erdmann, and he said “Zweig? Do not read him. Not worth it.” By Dec 29 I was done with Zweig. Just in time.