Contact
Politycki & Partner
Schulweg 16
D-20259 Hamburg
Tel. (49) 040 - 4 30 9315 - 0
Fax (49) 040 - 4 30 9315 -15
Reception readme.cc
'A good bookshop is a place where one can browse books for hours at ease and then, the space in which one repeatedly finds books that were never sought. Readme.cc is just this: one clicks from A to B and then remains there inspired by an idea, an image or a remark that catches the attention. Readme.cc is like a salon or reading circle of yore, an agora of reading desire. To read is a lonely pleasure–yet it calls for exchange. Readme.cc makes this possible on multiple levels.'
(Barbara Basting, Culture Editor, Tages-Anzeiger, Zürich)
'This innovative, extraordinary and ambitious project unifies the most important advantages of contemporary intercultural communication. Readme.cc enables quick, simple and border-crossing exchange, especially transgressing borders of hierarchy. The pleasure of reading and participating in cultural exchange as well as the desire to exchange make Readme.cc living proof that the salon culture of small minds has come to an end.'
(Pierre-Frédéric Weber, Faculty of Letters, University of Szczecin/Stettin)
'We know it and doctors confirm our knowledge: sitting in front of a computer can damage your health. Then one stumbles upon Readme.cc, surfs a bit, just wants to get an idea of the portal… and then… one has passed an hour browsing virtual bookshelves, devouring recommendations and, then with a note block filled: "read finally!", "library!", "buy!"'
(Gudrun Schury, Literature expert and author)
'The contemporary world enters literary life in Readme.cc because Readme.cc has nothing to do with dates of publication and everything to do with the timeless quality of books. The international orientation and success of this endeavour heightens its importance and the pleasure of using it. But almost most important: Readme.cc perpetually evolves without forgetting its creed, to promote reading and the things we read in their most beautiful form.'
(Dr. Rolf-Berhard Essig, Author and Literature Critic, Die Zeit, Süddeutsche Zeitung...)
'Readme.cc is a novel attempt at constructing the Tower of Babel, but this attempt is in virtual space where it can be done. The construction work is speaking about books and reading and this means that the barriers between the languages of its users are prerequisites for, and not hindrances to, discussion. Just these barriers between individuals make literature important because literature aims at addressing the unique in each individual. This is the way books are discussed on Readme.cc, personally and based on individual experience.'
(Dzevad Karahasan, Writer and Professor at the University of Sarajevo)
'Readme has finally constructed an international community of readers devoted to fiction. The simple fact that it joins individuals with similar reading preferences enriches life. It is a pleasure to contribute to the realisation of this on-line archive. To quote the Czech Nobel laureate Jaroslav Siefert: the quest for beautiful words is better than killing and murdering.'
(Michael Stavaric, Writer and director of the Czech Cultural Centre in Vienna.)
'As the importance of the Internet expands, we often hear that the world is shifting from the concrete to the virtual, that soon all Europe will shop for groceries exclusively on the Internet, and that we will all read books on portable computers. Real life, one imagines, will become images on computer screens. <br/>After ten years in the English and French publishing industry, and as a devotee of foreign language literature, I have often pondered the authority and role of the Internet. Will we be forced to abandon living with five senses, turning the pages of a book, be happy eating fruit that one must select on a screen? Will all be abandoned to the virtual? I don’t think so; I don’t think things will proceed to this extent. Readme.cc is a wonderful counter example and this inspires me. Readme.cc represents all that is good in the Internet: the idea joins the Member States of the EU, joins readers from across Europe and all books. Yes it is a virtual library, and yet in its own way unique because it does not compete with public libraries. On Readme.cc every book is accompanied by a comment because behind every book is a reader. Readme.cc is a human AND literary experience. It is a type of literature critique, but with the potential of comprising all the world’s books, not just new releases, as is the case in conventional media.
Readme.cc is interesting just because of this extraordinary potential: imagine a library that contains all of the books of the world in numerous living languages. Which reader has not dreamt this? A European readers’ community that has leafed through the pages of all the books that have ever existed… We will never be able to accomplish in the concrete that which is possible on the Internet. Readme.cc can become the Babel of books and the forum for all who have tired of searching in silent libraries'
(Muriel Fischer, Publishing Editor, Paris)
'I like Readme.cc this virtual library, because I feel that participating in it puts me in the middle of history. This is so because I can see what others enjoy to read and recommend. As a child I thought that New York was the apex of the world; there one was in the centre. Readme.cc is somehow the apex of libraries because readers create it. It is an apex of libraries in the countries that participate. Is this exaggerated? Yes! It shows, nonetheless, that even today we need this type of communication.'
(Prof. Alja Lipavic Ostir, German Department, University of Maribor)
'One constantly hears laments that Others, and primarily the young, do not read. It was of course different in the Golden Age. Nevertheless, the Internet reacquaints us with reading, it even forces us to read, and on the Internet everything can be published, including the finest of literature. If you live, if you live once, don’t permit yourself to wallow in the narratives of downfall. Don’t be mistaken; the world functions as it should. This, albeit, is simultaneously so beautiful and horrible, terrible, wonderful, unbearable and amusing.'
(Endre Kukorelly, Writer, Budapest)
'Every human being is–every book is a book–a human being. Each contains a degree of specific knowledge of the world and communicates that knowledge in a different manner. Arching over language, style, authors and readers, Redme.cc creates a huge virtual book the pages of which are books recommended by it readers. A rich, diverse world book.'
(Julianna Wernitzer, Historian of Literature, Petöfi Literature Museum, Budapest)