A Christmas gift that I've already finished, maybe because it is secretly a page-turner, or maybe I'm just at my parents' house with nothing else to do. I liked...

• The encyclopedic feeling of switching from topic to topic, which kept my easily-distracted brain engaged.

• The slightly dogmatic use of first-person narration, so that Sebald slips seamlessly into the voice of whoever's story he is telling, only occasionally reminding us it is someone else with a "...writes X," or "so Y says." This was actually mildly frustrating at first, when the brief biographies of various colorful character's blended into Sebald's own story, but by the end I was really enjoying how the different people, stories, dreams twirled together.

• The many moments where a thread of thought you almost forgot about, maybe from 100 pages back, rises naturally to the surface again, in a wonderful imitation of having come back to mind organically that doubtless took very careful planning and editing.