--- title: Watch a German Literary Critic Scrutinize Ikea's Catalog description: In a new promotional video for the Swedish furniture firm, Hellmuth Karasek turns his faculties to the world's most circulated book canonical: https://time.com/4019716/ikea-catalogue-german-literary-critic-hellmuth-karasek-ad/ author: Nash Jenkins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-02T08:04:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:24:11.007Z og:title: Watch a German Literary Critic Review Ikea's Catalog og:description: Hellmuth Karasek takes on the most circulated book in the world. og:url: https://time.com/4019716/ikea-catalogue-german-literary-critic-hellmuth-karasek-ad/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7220c569af1f1547/698861f73c1639537e4598b2/screen-shot-2015-09-02-at-4-04-28-pm.png?branch=production&width=516&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 516 og:image:height: 290 og:image:alt: Screen Shot 2015-09-02 at 4.04.28 PM og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch a German Literary Critic Review Ikea's Catalog twitter:description: Hellmuth Karasek takes on the most circulated book in the world. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7220c569af1f1547/698861f73c1639537e4598b2/screen-shot-2015-09-02-at-4-04-28-pm.png?branch=production&width=516&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch This Prominent German Literary Critic Scrutinize Ikea's Catalogue by [Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Sep 2, 2015 8:04 AM UTC  by [Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Sep 2, 2015 8:04 AM UTC Hellmuth Karasek is probably Germany’s most famous living literary critic, and so perhaps it is his intellectual duty to examine the book that calls itself the world’s most circulated. That book is Ikea’s annual catalogue, with [twice as many copies](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9643122/Ikea-25-facts.html) as the Bible printed each year. In a new promotional video for the Swedish furniture firm, Karasek turns his faculties to the catalogue, treating it as if it’s an attempted piece of literature. “It is a furnished novel,” he says. “The characters are forced to crowd themselves between the furniture, they seldom get their say, they barely speak coherently — and yet this work has become such a success.” He then goes on to disdainfully read aloud from its pages. Watch for yourself. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4019716/ikea-catalogue-german-literary-critic-hellmuth-karasek-ad/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4019716/ikea-catalogue-german-literary-critic-hellmuth-karasek-ad/"},"headline":"Watch This Prominent German Literary Critic Scrutinize Ikea's Catalogue","datePublished":"2015-09-02T08:04:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:24:11.007Z","description":"After all, the catalog is the most circulated book in the world","url":"https://time.com/4019716/ikea-catalogue-german-literary-critic-hellmuth-karasek-ad/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Books","Advertising","Germany","Ikea"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7220c569af1f1547/698861f73c1639537e4598b2/screen-shot-2015-09-02-at-4-04-28-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nash Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7220c569af1f1547/698861f73c1639537e4598b2/screen-shot-2015-09-02-at-4-04-28-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Screen Shot 2015-09-02 at 4.04.28 PM","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4019716/ikea-catalogue-german-literary-critic-hellmuth-karasek-ad/","name":"Watch This Prominent German Literary Critic Scrutinize Ikea's Catalogue"}}]}] ```