Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

Translated from the German by M. D. Herter Norton

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 stars

Part of my reading around the world challenge because Rilke is Austrian and writes in German.

Beautiful writing. I can't even really form proper thoughts about this book because it really was so beautiful and it felt kind of unexpected. 

I picked this book up as a graduation present to myself and because Emma from *emmie* on YouTube recommends it all the time as one of her favourite books. I didn't really look closely into what it was about and so was really pleased that I loved it so much.

This book is a collection of letters that Rilke wrote to an aspiring poet in the early 1900s. The letters are beautiful and gave some wonderful advice about life and writing and creativity. And includes a section that explains what was happening in Rilke's life when he was writing these letters and what he was writing to publish at the same time.

It was the first time I've read a book and felt like underlining whole paragraphs straight away. Some of the letters just really hit me and it is a book that I plan on rereading just to remind me of how beautiful writing can be.

It is even more enchanting to know that the beautiful words have been translated and seem to still hold the way they were written.

The book is very introspective and thought-provoking.