Weird to see a Daniel Kehlmann translation pop up here :)

I did not know this particular text. I think it is from "Ruhm" maybe?

I really enjoyed "F", "Mahlers Zeit" and "Der fernste Ort". (sorry for the book titles in german, too lazy to look up on mobile)

He is a talented writer for sure, and I enjoy him the most in his non-historic works.

tbh, when he became a best selling author in German with his "Die Vermessung der Welt", I enjoyed the book but considered him a somewhat audience-pleasing and shallow author.

His other books pleasantly surprised me.

Disclaimer, saying this as someone who reads much too rarely, not a literary expert :)

This is from his Schiller speech https://www.dla-marbach.de/ueber-uns/marbacher-schillerreden...

and the translator cut the interwoven parts about the CIA's Stargate program, for the better in my opinion.

Thank you for correcting me, had found out I was wrong about the source only today, too (because I was curious, but I was too lazy to correct myself)

In what world is a biography of Gauss audience-pleasing? (I enjoyed it a lot back then).

Ha, good question. I enjoyed it as well. The audience I was talking about is what is usually called "feuilleton" in the newspapers. Might have been a factor as well coming from a family with a lot of school teachers as well ;)

Anyway, wasn't meaning to be dismissive about the book, that was just my perception as a teenager.