To be precise, he said that "The Blue Flower" is one of his most favorite books, not the most favorite.
Apologies! As you will note, the vital word for "one of" is not clear in that part of the text, due to it being on a fold and shiny! 
please, no apologies needed. I am not pedantic. But since I think Mark & literature will be one of the topics we'll be discussing more intensively in the future, I thought to put it right here. Well-read people (like Mark) usually don't have that one book but quite a lot of "most favorite" ones.
As you probably are aware, I am English and for a couple of years attended German evening classes, which I enjoyed enormously, but sadly my local council eventually decided not to fund them anymore. I began to try to teach myself from then on by reading and translating as much German as I could and this is what I did with the Knopfler interview in Der Spiegel. I could understand quite a lot of what I read, as far as I could see, because a lot of the text was blurred, but I only referred to a translator when I didn't recognise a word, or phrase.
We English are often accused of being lazy with foreign languages, as opposed to other nationalities who, generally, are very good at English and I have always applauded people for whom English isn't their first language, especially on this forum. I never cease to be impressed with their grammar and spelling for instance and wouldn't dream of correcting anyone.
I remember going to a restaurant in Austria a while ago to reserve a table for dinner and as soon as I began to talk, the proprietor stopped me and said I had no need to speak German, because they spoke perfect English. So, we are damned if we do and damned if we don't!
