Looking for books to read

Translator's Note to Buddenbrooks

We have been considering whether to downsize by giving away books. I have discovered that our library will accept donations in a bag - i.e. not too many at once. And if they don't use them, they will give them away. How useful!

I picked up Henning Mankell's Sidetracked on my wife's shelf, and I wondered if having seen the dramatization, I might not want to read it. Then considered rereading C. P. Snow's Strangers and Brothers, something that would occupy me for a while. I am sure I scarcely remember a word of it. Except perhaps the thought that in politics, nothing really ever gets done. Anyway, I descended to the floor looking for more books, and there are loads of them at that level whose jackets I can't see until I get dust on my own.

Here's one I found: Thomas Mann, Buddenbrooks, first published 1901, translated from the German. (No we did not buy a first edition. We're not quite that old.)

What struck me was the translator's 'note'. Perhaps also a Note to translators.