Tag Archives: Books

How to Break a Bookworm’s Heart

By Sara Cepollina

Michael Fass­ben­der, Marisa Tomei, and Alexan­dra Dad­dario: What do these three actors have in common?

You may not know all of them, but what you need to know is that they’ve all played a char­ac­ter from a book or a com­ic, and that they don’t look like their book-alikes at all! For some peo­ple, this may not be rel­e­vant, but for book fans, who’ve lived side-by side with their fic­tion­al char­ac­ters, it’s high­ly impor­tant that an actor who some­what resem­bles the pro­tag­o­nist in the book plays the role. I’m an avid read­er, and when­ev­er the rights to one of my favourite books are bought, I begin to think about the per­fect actor who would best fit the role.

“Jane” is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.

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A Gift that Keeps Giving: The American Memorial Library in Berlin

By Svenja Dörflinger

“Today we are lay­ing the cor­ner­stone of the Amer­i­can Memo­r­i­al Library. It is to be open to all who desire to enter and learn what men of all nations and all beliefs have thought and writ­ten. It is the free­dom to learn, to study, to seek the truth. This is the essence of a free soci­ety. This is the source of our great­est strength.”

It’s the year 1952 – a hot June day in West Berlin. The city’s may­or, Ernst Reuter; U.S. High Com­mis­sion­er for Ger­many, John McCloy; and Amer­i­can Sec­re­tary of State, Dean Ache­son, are lay­ing the cor­ner­stone for the first Amer­i­can pub­lic library in Ger­many, the Ameri­ka Gedenkbib­lio­thek (Amer­i­can Memo­r­i­al Library). In his speech, Ache­son not only gives hope to the peo­ple of Berlin – who live in a divid­ed city after a hor­ren­dous war – he also deliv­ers a mes­sage that is per­haps more top­i­cal than ever.

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