All my life I've been what they call a 'buveur d'encre' in French, or a 'kutu buku' in Indonesian, or a 'Leseratte' in German, or, in the good ol' Queen's English, a bookworm!
Reading is a drug of which I am a slave; deprive me of printed matter and I grow nervous, moody and restless; then, like the alcoholic bereft of brandy who will drink shellac or methylated spirit, I will make do with the label on a can of soup or a tin of paint or the telephone directory; I will even make do with a newspaper several years old.
Today I read a newspaper that's fifty-seven years old, all thanks to the nice people - and two very nice people, Frau Katja Hinrichs and Herr Matthias Winkler, in particular - at the German Bild Zeitung .
Remember how I'd asked them to find me the old advertisement that made me decide to emigrate to Australia in 1965? (read the story here)
Well, "deutsche Gründlichkeit" is alive and well because just two days later Frau Hinrichs sent me the exact copy of the advertisement which fifty-seven years ago I had cut out, filled with my name and address, and mailed to the "Australische Auskunfts- und Auswanderungs-Büro":
Information about Australia, a young and aspiring nation, and the opportunities awaiting you there, are available from the Australian Information and Immigration Agency
2 Hamburg 1, Mönckebergstrasse 11, Phone 33 49 82.
For more information complete this coupon (in block letters) and mail it to us."
All in "Blockbuchstaben" (block letters), of course! A year later I was in Australia; six years later I was an Australian. Reading changed my life!
P.S. Read also "10 Pfennig BILD Zeitung"
