It’s beautiful and terrible at the same time to read a really good book. For example “The Song of the Crayfish” by the American author Delia Owens. A friend recommended it, saying that if you “like nature” you will like it. And how you like nature, especially since the corona pandemic. Because on the Isar the sky is wide and the water tells of “life in the river”, of flow and lightness, of the wisdom of the Greek philosopher Heraklit, who explains the world in two words: “Everything flows”.
With the arrival of the book you are away from nature and also from the family. Unfortunately, it’s so good that you can’t stop reading, and with 464 pages of the paperback edition of the former Spiegel bestseller published in January 2021, you have been immersed in the world of the “march girl”, that of everyone lives abandoned in a derelict shack on the North Carolina seashore. If you were to take part in the summer reading club of the Grünwalder community library, it would also do a lot with its thick book spine to read the 27 meter high stack that is in demand there – as high as the distance between the Grünwalder bridge down to the Isar.
The fact that children and adolescents are ahead in this reading competition between young and old or between children and parents is probably due to the fact that it is not that easy for parents to dive into a thick book and forget everything around, especially not in the one Summer vacation when the kids want to be kept busy. The pile that adults have picked out so far is only 2.70 meters high. The children, on the other hand, have already made it eight meters – certainly encouraged by mom and dad, who are happy when the children read because they can then have a cappuccino in peace.
But adults still have time to catch up. The last deadline for submitting the competition is September 20th. And school will start again on September 14th. During this time you should order the crayfish. And prepare to be totally sad on page 464 because the story has already come to an end.