What did I read or what was I reading?
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What did I read or what was I reading?
I am having the most bizarre case of isolated memory loss. I read a book, or at least I was reading a book and I don't know whether I finished the book, what its title is or who authored it. I do, however, know some plot details and was hoping that someone here could identify the book, or whatever it is, that I read.
The book starts off with a young man who has just finished up his education to be an engineer of ships, I believe, and he has been hired to a new post, but before he takes the job, he has been sent away to some mountain retreat so that he might reduce stress. He arrives by train and apparently has a cousin who stays at this retreat as well. There may have been an instance of cheese wheel races, though that might have been from Catch-22. I'm not sure, things are starting to blur.
I have asked a friend, who said at the outset it resembled Rand's The Fountainhead, but we concluded that it wasn't that book. Any leads would be great.
The book starts off with a young man who has just finished up his education to be an engineer of ships, I believe, and he has been hired to a new post, but before he takes the job, he has been sent away to some mountain retreat so that he might reduce stress. He arrives by train and apparently has a cousin who stays at this retreat as well. There may have been an instance of cheese wheel races, though that might have been from Catch-22. I'm not sure, things are starting to blur.
I have asked a friend, who said at the outset it resembled Rand's The Fountainhead, but we concluded that it wasn't that book. Any leads would be great.
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http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/The_Magic_Mountain
Originally Posted by theflicker
I am having the most bizarre case of isolated memory loss. I read a book, or at least I was reading a book and I don't know whether I finished the book, what its title is or who authored it.
That said, even though I've never read it, I can say without doubt that the book you are describing is Thomas Mann's "Magic Mountain".
The narrative opens in the decade before World War I. We are introduced to the central protagonist of the story, Hans Castorp, a young German. We encounter him when he is in his early 20s, about to take up a ship-building career in Hamburg, his home town. Just before beginning this professional career he undertakes a journey to visit his tubercular cousin, Joachim Ziemßen, who is seeking a cure in a sanatorium in Davos, high up in the Swiss Alps. In the opening chapter, Hans is symbolically transported away from the familiar life and mundane obligations he has known, in what he later learns to call "the flatlands", to the rarefied mountain air and introspective little world of the sanatorium.
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Thanks, that's definitely it. It's especially weird because I know that I was reading a physical copy but cannot find one in my house, nor do I recall taking it from or returning it to the library. In any case, I am certain that I did not finish the book. Thanks again. I'll have to get back on that.