This was a challenging and inspiring read. It's been a while since a novel made me look up so many cultural references. Reading Wittgenstein's Mistress was partly like solving a riddle and like looking at a brilliant piece of art that brings together fascinating thoughts and gives them a new shape that is more than the sum of these parts. This novel IS this piece of art. It's the best brain food I've read in ages. The only reason I didn't give 5 stars is that I didn't get emotionally hooked to it, it was hard work sometimes. But maybe that's not really important. Also: it's pretty rare to read a book from a female character's perspective written by a man without stumbling over gender stereotypes. Another strength of this novel...