

Name: Ulrike Düwert
Company: Verlagsgruppe Oetinger, Hamburg, Germany
Question #1: Where and when do you read?
I prefer to read novels in bed – on weekends also in the morning, otherwise in the evening, and on the train or bus. Newspapers (still old school on paper) at the breakfast table. Mobile phone news in all and sundry places, sometimes even while walking, which I urgently need to break the habit of doing.

Question #2: Which book have you most given as a present?
Phew, tough question! To adults books from the “Benjamin Malaussène” series by Daniel Pennac and different books by Matt Ruff. Still two of my favourite authors. To children and teenagers, of course, books from us.

Question #3: What do you remember about your first book fair?
That was in Frankfurt in 2006. I was in the set-up team, too, like all the newcomers at our publishing house. So first of all, the fascination that so much chaos and rubbish can be transformed into finished bookstalls overnight. Then the many, many people, the positive stress, which carries you through several exciting days, and afterwards, of course, the week without a voice but with a thick cold…
Question #4: Tell us the resolutions you have made for this year.
This sounds like addiction therapy (although my only secret addiction is coming of age films), but under the impression of the current world situation I have made the new resolution to accept the things I cannot change and to focus on what I can change. And that is usually so much more than you first believe.
And to do more sport. Every year anew. It’s working out so-so again.

Question #5: Tell us about a bad habit, an obsession or a particular attitude you have picked up since starting to work at Oetinger
Every time I go to a bookshop, I also scan the children’s book section and unobtrusively reposition two or three of my favourite titles from our programmes so that they stand out more. Completely stupid, but I can’t help it.