George Orwell

reviews Mein Kampf - with the usual unfaltering honesty.

[via Oliver Ashford, with thanks]

Titles gone begging - 3

Sorry I Lied: confessions of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

Tolkien tells the Nazis

... if impertinent and irrelevant inquiries of this sort are to become the rule in matters of literature, then the time is not far distant when a German name will no longer be a source of pride.

- JRR Tolkien, on being asked by a German publisher whether he was of Aryan descent

[With thanks to Letters of Note.]

It's a wonderful Liff

I am indebted to whichever anonymous Wikicontributors for the following gems concerning the late Douglas Adams and The Meaning of Liff:

1. The original definition of Liff, as contained in The Meaning of Liff, is 'A book, the contents of which are totally belied by its cover. For instance, any book the dust jacket of which bears the words, "This book will change your life."' Which, of course, The Meaning of Liff does. (Does have it on the cover, I mean. It may also change your life.)
2. a) In the revised and updated edition of the book - The Deeper Meaning of Liff - the definition of the titular Liff is different. b) It now means a phenomenon for which there is no word. 
3. There is a German version. 

Ohhh super!

Just on Facebook, from Hugo Schmidt:

The next editor who jerks me around like this will find himself cocooned to a wall in Habsburg so that German females can lay eggs in his brain.

 I don't know if one can technically be cocooned to a wall; but you have to appreciate the sentiment.

Dust-jacket thou art

‎In Alfred Andersch, German literature has discovered one of its soundest and most individual talents.

- Alfred Andersch, dust-jacket copy (own)

InDefinition - 32

Tannhäuser, n. German beauty salon (Hauptstraße, Bayreuth)

On the German

It sounds like typewriters eating tinfoil being kicked down the stairs.

- Dylan Moran

Is there anything more depressing

than eyeing up an attractive girl and then hearing her speak in German?