Learning by reading

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jeff_lindqvist
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Re: Learning by reading

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Wed Sep 28, 2022 4:43 pm

Nogon wrote:Read Stefan Spjut - Rovet. A gripping horror thriller, published this year. I wanted to read more of Spjut's books but realised that this is a rework of an older book, which has been translated to English: "Stallo".


Oh, this is the start of a new series I didn't know about (I totally loved Stallo, Stalpi was OK). I don't think it's a rework.
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Nogon
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Re: Learning by reading

Postby Nogon » Wed Sep 28, 2022 5:34 pm

I listened to the first hour of "Stallo" as an audiobook. While it is not identical, it is very similar to the beginning of "Rovet". Too similar for me to listen to the entire book (or to read it).

Aftonbladet's reviewer writes:
När jag läst ut boken slår jag upp en av Spjuts tidigare romaner, Stallo från 2012. På Rovets insideflik står nämligen att den ”har växt fram ur” Stallo.

”Växt fram” visar sig vara en underdrift. Vad jag kan se, dock utan att ha läst hela Stallo från pärm till pärm, är Rovet i allt väsentligt en omarbetad version av den. Vissa namn har bytts ut och ett par hundra sidor skurits bort. Bland annat har just Gudruns perspektiv offrats. Annars hittar jag händelser och formuleringar som är exakt desamma i båda böckerna.
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jeff_lindqvist
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Re: Learning by reading

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Thu Sep 29, 2022 5:22 am

OK, thanks, I hadn't read that review. I'll probably give the new book a try, though.
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Nogon
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Re: Learning by reading

Postby Nogon » Mon Oct 17, 2022 8:28 am

Weeks 39-41:
Not much happened languagewise. Read lots of modern literature in German and Swedish. Otherwise:

Dutch:
Finished reading Neil Gaiman - Het kerkhof (The Churchyard). Lovely children's fantasy.

French:
Read Pierre Gripari - La sorcière de la rue Mouffetard et autres contes de la rue Broca (The Witch in the Broom Cupboard and Other Tales). Can't say I loved the stories much.
Now reading Annie Ernaux - La place (A man's place).
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DaveAgain
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Re: Learning by reading

Postby DaveAgain » Thu Mar 09, 2023 9:30 am

Nogon wrote:German:
Read Rita Falk - Weisswurstconnection. A typical "Regionalkrimi" from Bavaria. Quite funny, but I probably won't read her other books.

BeaP wrote:Rita Falk: Franz Eberhofer series - mystery, humour

Ardmediathek have a documentary about Rita Falk.
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Nogon
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Re: Learning by reading

Postby Nogon » Sun Mar 19, 2023 9:18 am

Hello everybody!

I only recently returned to the forum - and to reading in different languages in general. Since last autumn I almost exclusively read in my 3 major languages, English, Swedish and German, with the exception of a handfull of books in French, mostly crime novels by Simenon. Only 3 or so weeks ago, I for an unknown reason read a book in

Dutch:
Ewald Arenz - De smak van wilde peren. It's a translation from the German Alte Sorten. No high literature but a nice read and - most important - the language's complexity (or lack thereof) was a perfect match to my Dutch reading ability.

French:
At the end of last year I decided to read at least 5 of the chunkers in my bookshelves, all of them with more than 1000 pages. One of those I chose is Alexandre Dumas - Le Comte de Monte-Cristo (The Count of Monte Cristo). 2 years ago I read the first 600 pages, so I had about 1000 pages unread which now have shrunk to a mere 300 (still enough for one full-length novel!). I was surprised by the ease with which I now can read it, compared to me struggling with it 2 years ago. I often feel that I'm not progressing in French, but obviously I do! Usually I read a chapter with some checks in the dictionary - not understanding 100%, but I can easily follow the plot - and then reread the chapter in Swedish translation to catch nuances.

Yiddish:
Reading טשאַרלס דיקענס - די פּיקװיק פּאַפּירן (Charles Dickens - The Pickwick Papers). Another one of my fat books, even if this one "only" has 800 pages. But as the German translation which I read again and again (it used to be one of my most favourite books) when I was young has 1016 pages, I decided that it would count nevertheless. Reading 800 pages in Yiddish in one year is quite a challenge for me, but 2 pages and a little bit per day seemed doable, when I decided which books to put on my reading list. I didn't count in that I would neither begin to read it in January nor in February :roll: . I also didn't count in that reading the first chapter would take one hour - PER PAGE! :o
But so the Dickens' language isn't the most easy imaginable. Check the very first sentence:
The first ray of light which illumines the gloom, and converts into a dazzling brilliancy that obscurity in which the earlier history of the public career of the immortal Pickwick would appear to be involved, is derived from the perusal of the following entry in the Transactions of the Pickwick Club, which the editor of these papers feels the highest pleasure in laying before his readers, as a proof of the careful attention, indefatigable assiduity, and nice discrimination, with which his search among the multifarious documents confided to him has been conducted.

I remember that my sister tried to read the book (in German translation) in her early teens, but gave up halfway through this sentence. :D I actually understand, why.
Luckily the language gets easier in the next chapter, so now it takes me about 2 hours to read 3 pages. Guess I won't make it through the entire book this year.

Esperanto:
Started reading Erich Maria Remarque - La vojo returne (The Road Back). It's a sort of continuation of his "All Quiet on the Western Front", telling about the young men returning home after the end of WWI. I may have read it in the original German in my teens - my parents had several of Remarque's books, and I read all they had - but I'm not sure.

English:
Reading Pat Barker - The Silence of the Girls.
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Nogon
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Re: Learning by reading

Postby Nogon » Sun Mar 26, 2023 6:49 pm

Week 12:
French, french & french.

French:
Finished Alexandre Dumas - Le Comte de Monte-Cristo (The Count of Monte Cristo), with its about 1600 pages the by far longest book I ever read in French. I'm actually not so little proud about conquering it :D ! As I wrote last week, I was able to follow the plot with not too many checks in the dictionary, so I am obviously progressing. And progressing quite well in relation to the amount of reading in French, which I've done the last months. But I'm still sooo far from where I'd like to be! Following the plot is not bad, but to really being able to appreciate literature, one needs much more! As I read each chapter first in French and then in Swedish, I was able to compare and noticed that the book was much more gripping in Swedish. All those words which are not absolutely necessary to understand the plot give so much life to a book! And I can't at all understand linguistic subtleties - I not even noticed that Dumas' French is old-fashioned (which I assume it is). Oh, so much left to learn! :shock:
As I wanted to finish this chunker, I didn't read anything in my other weaker languages.

English:
Finished Pat Barker - The Silence of the Girls. It was such a delight to read a book with ease after struggling with Le Comte! I flew through the pages. Nevertheless I liked the book less than I presumed I would. The retelling of (a part of) the Iliad seen through the eyes of Briseis, Achilles' prize of honour after sacking her father's city, who then was taken from Achilles by Agamenmon, whereafter Achilles stopped fighting, was really good, as long as it was told by Briseis. Unfortunately more than half of the book was told in third person, and there I lost interest. I wanted to read the story from a female perspective, not just another retelling of a wellknown story.
Might well reread Christa Wolf - Kassandra from the 1980's, who lets Priamos' daughter Kassandra tell the story about "Achill, das Vieh", where Achilles is a real bastard, not the tragic lover of Patroklos. (He is a bastard too in Barker's book, but also too much of a tragic figure for my taste.)

Oh well, let's see what next week will bring. I have at least a dozen books lying around in my flat, all of them wanting to be read NOW!
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Nogon
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Re: Learning by reading

Postby Nogon » Sun Apr 02, 2023 6:23 pm

Week 13:
Oh, I had so many high plans for reading books in a plethora of languages this week. Instead happened

English:
After reading Ellis Peters - The Confession of Brother Haluin, no. 15 or so of the Cadfael series, I happened to find an audiobook of one of my favourite books on YouTube: Diana Wynne Jones - Deep Secret. And that was the beginning of a Diana Wynne Jones reading and listening spree. Next I read The Merlin Conspiracy, a loose continuation of Deep Secret, followed by the Moving Castle series: Howl's Moving Castle (audiobook), Castle in the Air (paper) and House of Many Ways (audio). And just now I listened to a very short book of hers, written for younger children: Earwig and the Witch.
You might well guess that Diana Wynne Jones is my favourite fantasy author with the exception of Terry Pratchett. I absolutely love her books, and have read most of them multiple times. I had never listened to them though, so that was a new experience. Unfortunately I couldn't find my favourite book - A Sudden Wild Magic - on YouTube, so I think that my DWJ spree might be over for now.

EDIT: The spree isn't over yet. Now I'm two hours into the audiobook of The Pinhoe Egg.
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Nogon
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Re: Learning by reading

Postby Nogon » Mon Apr 10, 2023 9:02 am

Week 14:
Still mostly

English:
as my Diana Wynne Jones listening spree wasn't over at all. I listened to the entire Chrestomanci series, that is Charmed Life, The Magicians of Caprona, Witch Week. The Lives of Christopher Chant, Conrad's Fate, The Pinhoe Egg and Mixed Magics. Most of the books were read by Gerard Doyle (I think his name is), who did a very good job.
Then I listened to a recording of Archer's Goon, which was something halfways between audiobook and radio drama. The main text was read by one person, the dialogues by several other, but luckily there were no sound effects. Unfortunately it was an abridged recording and even more unfortunately the last 30 or so pages were missing, so I read those.
Archer's Goon has a special place in my heart, as it was the first book by Diana Wynne Jones I ever read - though in Swedish translation (De sju makterna) in 1988 or '89. Back then I was an exchange student in Sweden (in Linköping) and read lots and lots of Swedish books. Most were of them were Swedish originals and written for adults, so they still took quite an effort to read. For relaxation, I read children's books in translation, and one day, I happened to borrow that book from the library -> love on first read. Unfortunately by then there were only a couple of books by DWJ available at the library, so I was elated when I later found that the Science Fiction bookshop in Stockholm had her books in English.

German:
Read Dörte Hansen - Zur See (not translated yet). Loved the book telling about the lives of some people living on an island in the North Sea. Not much is happening but it tells a lot about the conditions of life on a small island (and everywhere) and was absolutely gripping. It's only Hansen's third book, but she might well be my favourite contemporary German writer. Can't wait for her next book. Her first book Altes Land has been translated to English (This house is mine).

Swedish:
Read Yasunary Kawabata - Danserskan från Izu/Varmbadhusen (The Dancing Girl of Izu/?). Two short tales from the late 1920's, told in an enchanting style. Can't say I understood them thoroughly though, as I lack the cultural knowledge to be able to fully appreciate the tales.
Reading Pañcatantra (Panchatantra), a collection of ancient Indian animal fables.
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Nogon
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Re: Learning by reading

Postby Nogon » Mon Apr 17, 2023 9:03 am

Week 15:
Still mostly English, but even some

French:
Read Daniel Pennac - L'œil du loup (The Eye of the Wolf). It's a nice children's book, very easy to read. Someone here at the forum mentioned that they started reading French with that book, and I too believe that it would make a great choice for beginners.
Now reading Philippe Claudel - La petite fille de monsieur Linh (Monsieur Linh and his Child), a recommendation from the forum as well. Even this book is quite easy to read.

English:
Read Perumal Murugan - Pyre. A novel translated from the Tamil, from this year's International Booker Prize list.
Read James Rebanks - English Pastoral (US-title Pastoral Song). Nature writing at its finest!
Listened to Georgette Heyer - The Grand Sophy, read by Sarah Woodward. I read all (most of) Heyer's books in German translation when I was young, but this was the first time I encountered her works in English. As expected this book made me chuckle. No great literature, but very entertaining. "Jane Austen light", I used to call her Regency novels.
Listened to Philip Pullman - The Secret Commonwealth, book 2 of his Book of Dust trilogy, the third book of which has not been published yet, alas. The audiobook was narrated by Michael Sheen, who overall did a good job.

Swedish:
Reading Kerstin Ekman - Springkällan (The Spring), part 2 of her Women and the City tetralogy.
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