In 1943 Hermann Hesse’s book, The Glass Bead Game (Das Glasperlinspiel) was published in Switzerland.  In 1946 Hesse won the Nobel Prize for Literature.  I read a lot of Hesse in college and, as an art history major, Narcissus and Goldmund, a coming of age novel set in the middle ages, was a favorite.  Never got around to reading The Glass Bead Game as a student.  I vaguely remember dating someone who told me that The Glass Bead Game would be too complicated a read for a girl (and I believed him!).  Reading it now and enjoying it immensely–particularly enjoyed the part where Joseph Knecht the hero uses something that sounds very much like an iPad in his role as the Magister Ludi of his first important Glass Bead Game.  Bottom line, it’s a good read, if you haven’t read it before, and worth a re-read if you have.  Maybe I’ll start an online book club and discuss how museum culture in the 21st century is both like and unlike Hesse’s fictional land of Castalia.

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