This is my list of my read books over the years - not entirely complete - especially in the history department - by somewhat comprehensive. The languages correspond in which I read it, not in which it was written. This is still a very much messy list that needs to be ordered and structured properly!
I might add some comments to some books, or perhaps write some reviews in the future.
English
Fiction
- Bram Stoker - Dracula’s Guest and Other Weird Tales: Thoroughly enjoyed this book!
- Charles Dickens -A Tale of Two Cities
- George Orwell - 1984
- Ryohgo Narita - Durarara!! 1-13
- Thomas Malory - King Arthur And His Knights (Selected Tales by Sir Thomas Mallory)
- Todd Strasser - Give a Boy a Gun
- Unknown - Beowulf: The epic epic! A must read.
- Unknown - The Death of King Arthur
- Unknown - The Quest of the Holy Grail
Fantasy
- Carlo Zen - Saga of Tanya the Evil 1-5
- Greg Keyes - The Elder Scrolls 1-2
- Rudyard Kipling - Puck of Pook’s Hill: I love Rudyard Kipling’s songs. Oak, Ash and Thorn is one of my favorite songs.
- J.R.R. Tolkien - Lord of the Rings 1-3: *The**fantasy tome. Perhaps a bit difficult to read at times, and might be at times too dry for some but I enjoyed almost everything it.
- Miles Cameron - Traitor Son Cycle 1-5: An underrated fantasy series. The author shines with a deep understanding of history, especially warfare. It has an intriguing magic system unlike any other I’ve seen so far.
Mystery, Suspense and Horror
- M.R. James - Ghost Stories: Enjoyable unsettling gothic stories.
Non-Fiction
- Joe Navarro - What Every Body is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading People
History
- James Hannam - God’s Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science: A nice and short overview into the medieval sciences for the average person - though the party about medicine is weak.
- Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse - Fake History: Written by the author of the eponymous website.
- Louis Barbas - Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918: A grim recollection of WW1 though with clear socialistic tendencies by the author Mr. Barbas, who was a part-time writer for a socialist newspaper.
- Matthew Gabriele - The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe
- Seb Falk - The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science: An amazing overview into the medieval sciences. I can recommend it wholeheartedly.
- Steven A. Epstein - An Economic and Social History of Later Medieval Europe, 1000–1500: Great book about the economy of late medieval Europe. Goes into the details at times.
Poetry
- Various - Minds at war: Poetry and Experience of the First World War
- Various - Poetry of the First World War
German
Fiction
- Alexander Lernet-Holenia - Mars im Widder
- Alfred Döblin - Berlin Alexanderplatz
- André Breton - Nadja
- Arthur Schnitzler - Traumnovelle. Fräulein Else. Leutnant Gustl: Fräulein Else is perhaps one of the most interesting short stories I’ve ever read.
- Auguste Lechner - Die Nibelungen
- Friedrich Torberg - Der Schüler Gerber: Possibly my favorite novel, or at least one of the top 5
- Friedrich Torberg - Die Tante Jolesch
- Guillaume Prévost - Das Buch der Zeit 1-3
- Hartmann von Aue - Der arme Heinrich
- Heinrich Mann - Der Untertan
- Heinrich Mann - Professor Unrat: Very enjoyable in a morbid way.
- Hermann Hesse - Demian
- Hermann Hesse - Steppenwolf
- Horváth - Der ewige Spießer
- Jaroslav Hašek - Der brave Soldat Schwejk: A monolith of a book but Mr. Hašek combined a weird sense of (martial) humor with short sections about the depressive reality of WW1.
- Jordi Sierra i Fabra - Gauditronix
- Joseph Roth - Confession of a Murderer: Told in One Night
- Joseph Roth - Das Spinnennetz
- Joseph Roth - Die Legende vom heiligen Trinker und andere Erzählungen
- Joseph Roth - Hiob
- Joseph Roth - Hotel Savoy
- Joseph Roth - Radetzkymarsch One of my favorite novels. An empire in the decline, and a young soldier who is just drifting through life with hardly any autonomy at his job or in his private life.
- Joseph von Eichendorff - Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts
- J. Sheridan Le Fanu - Carmilla
- Juli Zeh - Corpus Delicti: Ein Prozess
- Michael Ende - Die unendliche Geschichte
- Michael Ende - Momo
- Natsume Sōseki - Der Bergmann
- Ödön von Horváth - Der ewige Spießer (German Edition)
- Ödön von Horváth - Jugend ohne Gott
- Osamu Dazai - Alte Freunde: Short, beautifully written, in Dazai’s typical sophisticated prose. A story about a man who just can’t deny his gues for some reason.
- Osamu Dazai - Crackling Mountain and Other Stories
- Osamu Dazai - Schoolgirl:
- Osamu Dazai - Self-Portraits: Tales from the Life of Japan’s Great Decadent Romantic
- Osamu Dazai - The Setting Sun
- Patrick Süskind - Das Parfum. Die Geschichte eines Mörders
- Pierdomenico Baccalario - Ulysses Moore 1-10
- Ryūnosuke Akutagawa - Rashomon: A collection of short stories. In the Thicket and Rashomon are somewhat famous here in the west but Mandarins is considered a classic in Japan.
- Thomas Mann - Buddenbrooks: The slow and agonizing fall of a wealthy family, a Top-10-Anime-betrayals-esque reveal in the first quarter of the book and a cast of protagonists who just can’t get it right.
- Thomas Malory - König Artus und die Ritter der Tafelrunde
- Vladimir Sorokin - Der Schneesturm
- Voltaire - Candide
- Wolfram von Eschenbach - Parzival
Fantasy
- Andrey Sapkowski - Der Hexer 1-8
- George R.R. Martin - Das Lied von Eis und Feuer 1-10
- J.R.R. Tolkien - Der Hobbit
- J.R.R. Tolkien - Die Silmarillion
- J.R.R. Tolkien - Die Kinder Hurins
Mystery, Suspense and Horror
- Maurice Leblanc - Arsene Lupin 1-7: The master detective who manages to outsmart Sherlock Holmes himself (accordin to Leblanc…) which initself created a litigation back in the days - to perhaps I should say Herlock Sholmes?
Non-Fiction
- Dale Carnegie - How to Win Friends & Influence People
- Jonas Kratzenberg - Schützenhilfe: Für die Ukraine im Krieg - ein deutscher Soldat berichtet von der Front
- Pavel Filatyev - ZOV - Der verbotene Bericht: Ein russischer Fallschirmjäger packt aus
- Svenja Eisenbraun - Lexikon des Unbewussten (German Edition)
History
- Erich Maria Remarque - Im Westen Nichts Neues
- Ernst Glaeser - Jahrgang 1902: An interesting take on WW1… not from the front lines but the ‘home front’ from the POV of an adolescent boy.
- Ernst Jüngers - In Stahlgewittern: The German WW1 novel that everyone should read.
- Georges Duby - William Marshal: The Flower of Chivalry
- Henri Barbuss - Das Feuer
- Romedio Schmitz-Esser - Um 1500: Europa zur Zeit Albrecht Dürers (German Edition)
Poetry
- Charles Baudelaire - Die Blumen des Bösen
- Sebastian Brant - Das Narrenschiff
History
- Arnold Esch - Wahre Geschichten aus dem Mittelalter: Kleine Schicksale selbst erzählt in Schreiben an den Papst
Japanese
Fiction
- Haruki Murakami - Killing Commendatore
- Honobu Yonezawa - 愚者のエンドロール (角川文庫)
- Honobu Yonezawa - 氷菓
- Makoto Shinkai - 天気の子
- Mizuki Nomura - 文学少女 1-4 + 外伝 1-3"
- Natsume Sōseki - こころ: Perhaps the classic Japanese novel known in the west - for good reasons. Read this.
- Natsume Sōseki - 坊っちゃん
- Natsume Sōseki - 門
- NisiOisiN - 物語シリーズ 化け物ー愚物語: The legendary Monogatari series. One of the most successfull anime-franchises if we look at Blue-Rays sold (a benchmark commonly used by the anime industry). Having read this in English and Japanese I can say that the English translation is lacking… a lot.
- NisiOisiN - クビキリサイクル1-4
- NisiOisiN - 刀語 第一話 絶刀・鉋
- Ozamu Dazai - 人間失格: Perhaps one of the most famous Japanese novels next to Kokoro. Both the German and English translations are great but the original just hits different.
- Tatsuhiko Takimoto - NHKにようこそ!: Spawned its own anime (a great series with flaws) but this is just… much more depressing. Drugs, delusions, complexes and generally just aweful and unfortunate people all in one book.
- Tomihiko Morimi - ペンギン・ハイウェイ
- Yoru Sumino - 君の膵臓をたべたい
- 宗田理 - ぼくらの七日間戦争
Fantasy
- Aneko Yusagi - 盾の勇者の成り上がり 1-5
- Ao Jyumonji - 灰と幻想のグリムガール 1-13
- Fuyumi Ono - 十二国記: An amazing fantasy series known as Twelve Kingdoms in English. The world-building and lore is among the best I’ve ever seen. And the characters are amazing.
- Fuyumi Ono - 月の影 影の海〈下〉完全版
- Fuyumi Ono - 風の万里 黎明の空〈上〉
- Keiichi Sigsawa - キノの旅 1-9
- Mizuki Tsujimura - かがみの孤城 [Kagami no Kojou]
- Rifujin na Magonote - 無職転生 ～異世界行ったら本気だす～ 1-16
- Ryo Mizuno - ロードス島戦記 1-5
- Ryo Mizuno - 新装版 ロードス島戦記 1-7
- Yasutaka Tsutsui - 時をかける少女
Mystery, Suspense and Horror
- Edogawa Rampo - 押し絵と旅する男
- Edogawa Rampo - 目羅博士
- Edogawa Rampo - 陰獣〈江戸川乱歩ベストセレクション4
- Edogawa Rampo - 芋虫
- Hiroshi Mori - すべてがＦになる THE PERFECT INSIDER (講談社文庫)
- Kanae Minato - 告白
- Kōhei Kadono - ブギーポップ 1-17: The reason I started to learn Japanese
- Yukito Ayatsuji - 十角館の殺人: One of the most well known Japense murder mysteries.
History
- Koujun Kobayashi - 社会の学び方・日本史編: Interesting (though basic) takes on the development of societies by using observing Japanese history.