Soffía's Icelandic log

[Soffía]

I've just about hit my reading target for 2016 - which is 2500 pages. (I'm at 2409 as I usually reckon it, counting finished books only, but close enough. My in-progress reading puts me over the top.)

Not too bad! I've just finished Draumalandið, which is the first non-fiction book that I've read in Icelandic. There were sections where I understood most of it, and sections where I understood very little of it, but I got through the book and it'll be interesting to go back to it after a year or two and see what difference that makes.

After I luxuriate in my filled project bar for a little while, I'm going to up my yearly goal to 4000. That seems tight, but achievable. Maybe the moral is that I should start reading more intensively, but I think that might be a task for next year.

[Φιλόσοφος]

Very interesting log.

May I ask, which online store are you using to order books from Iceland?

Also, do you know of a complete edition of the Old Norse sagas that is in-print and easily obtainable? An English translation equivalent is found here:

http://www.sagas.is/vara.php

Thank you!

[Soffía]

May I ask, which online store are you using to order books from Iceland?

I'm using Forlagið, which is actually a major publishing house. If I needed books not available from them, I would try Eymundsson. Though I know that Foyles (big London bookstore) uses Bóksala stúdenta to source their Icelandic books - I've also occasionally bought straight from Foyles, who will do special orders.

Also, do you know of a complete edition of the Old Norse sagas that is in-print and easily obtainable?

Are you looking for an edition in Old Norse or in modernised spelling?

I came up with this from a quick search but I'm not certain it's complete: http://www.eymundsson.is/nanar/?product ... 2494013152

[daegga]

The standard publications are from Íslenzk fornrit: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Íslenzk_fornrit
This is what you usually find in university libraries with plenty of footnotes.

[Φιλόσοφος]

I came up with this from a quick search but I'm not certain it's complete: http://www.eymundsson.is/nanar/?product ... 2494013152

That one isn't available though.

The standard publications are from Íslenzk fornrit: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Íslenzk_fornrit
This is what you usually find in university libraries with plenty of footnotes.

Are the books actually available for ordering?

[daegga]

At least they used to be (via hib.is), but I find it hard to find any information on their site now.

[Soffía]

Much happier reading The Hobbit in Icelandic now than I was when I first tried to read it. Much, much happier.

I wish I could work out when that was. I know that I bought it in February 2015 (the receipt is still in the book), so it might have been that long ago. Probably middle of last year at least. I remember thinking "man, I thought this was an easy book," and after some determination and a lot of skimming I stalled out in the middle of 'Riddles in the Dark,' which is telling as that's the most gripping chapter.

I picked it up again last Sunday with some trepidation – but I've been having a great time with it! This has been a busy week but I've been sneakily reading bits of it on the Tube, during lunch at work, etc. So maybe all that reading in the mean time has paid off.

Now I'm really cross to find that Lord of the Rings is out of print. I should have bought it when I had the chance.

[Soffía]

Just finished The Hobbit. It didn't actually take me that long to read – I was paused for quite a while, doing other stuff like watching the Vuelta a España (what can I say). Anyway, The Hobbit was great, and in my opinion a good bit more challenging than Harry Potter.

Since then I've started reading my first book in Faroese! It's a translation of Andri Snaer Magnason's Sagan af bláa hnettinum. It's a children's story, around a hundred pages. Very Andri Snaer Magnason and also somewhat reminiscent of The Little Prince. Having looked at the English translation on Google books, it's clear that I missed quite a bit in the first ten pages. But I also learned lots of key Faroese words, such as "but," "penguin" and "grown." Definitely a do-able jump from Icelandic and it's pretty cool to have another language to play with.

I can also highly recommend sprotin.fo, which is a free online Faroese dictionary with copious example sentences. It includes Danish, German and Italian as well as English and Faroese-Faroese.

[PeterMollenburg]

Good going with the Hobbit!

I'm curious, what aspect of La Vuelta interests you soffía?

[Soffía]

Good going with the Hobbit!

I'm curious, what aspect of La Vuelta interests you soffía?

Thanks!

I started watching the Tour de France this year because I thought I might enjoy the scenery... the joke was on me, as I found myself becoming a fan of pro cycling. Since then I've been watching most of the major races, though La Vuelta was a particularly suspenseful one.

I keep thinking the Tour de France might be a good motivator to learn French (not so interested in Spanish), but we'll see...