Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

[DaveAgain]

French
Would love to find similar collections available in print and audio of contemporary French authors. The only one I have found is a collection by Anna Gavalda, but I have listened to it several times and would like to try someone new. Again, contemporary.

Odette toulemonde often gets mentioned.

Pocket produce an annual short story collection for restaurants du coeur, 13 à table.

https://www.babelio.com/serie/13-a-table-/41677

https://www.restosducoeur.org/partenair ... ers-poche/

[MorkTheFiddle]

Bingo, Dave. Odette Toulemonde would seem to fit the bill, and I have ordered audio and hard copy.
I will research the resto series in a bit.

Now I have Spanish and French bookends for my reading, and I can stop beating the bushes for good reads. Thanks a bunch for these recommendations:)

In process of search, I was saddened to learn the book world has grown more monochromatic with the end of business of The Book Depository.

[huhh]

Some catching up . . .
1. A few weeks ago loading LWT on my linux box was a success after maybe seven years of trying. The key difference seemed to be how the set-up handled a password for mySql. Formerly it used just a blank, now a real word. Not sure if that was it.
Using linux for LWT is important because Windows 11 looms, and 11 is going to require a couple of things I don't want to do. Not going to get into it, but it seems now is the time to rely much less on Windows.

2. I hoped to set up Pimsleur-type interface for Ancient Greek using Gradint. Rdearman and Xenops are clearly smarter than I am, cause Gradint is too fiddly for my patience to bear.
So as an alternative do something with WorkAudioBook? Nope. WorkAudioBook would not load. The newest downloaded verstion doesn't load either. Then I happened to note on line that WorkAudioBook is no longer free. How that would affect loading I have no idea, but the program is now dead in the water as far as I can see.
Maybe Audacity can be made to work. Maybe we'll see.
Besides Ancient Greek, I want to do something in French with Le grand cahier by Ágota Kristóf, an Audible recording. Uncomplicated syntax, a strong and clear voice that is easy to follow.
And something in Spanish. Something both simple and compelling like Le grand cahier. I'll do some digging in a storage disk and see what I can come up with.

I've found 《le grand cahier》 to be friendly for beginner French speakers, but finding the audiobook of it is killing me, where can I find the audiobook of le grand cahier? Merci beaucoup!

[DaveAgain]

I've found 《le grand cahier》 to be friendly for beginner French speakers, but finding the audiobook of it is killing me, where can I find the audiobook of le grand cahier? Merci beaucoup!

worldcat.org list a free download.

https://www.worldcat.org/fr/search?q=ti ... ok-digital

[huhh]

I've found 《le grand cahier》 to be friendly for beginner French speakers, but finding the audiobook of it is killing me, where can I find the audiobook of le grand cahier? Merci beaucoup!

worldcat.org list a free download.

https://www.worldcat.org/fr/search?q=ti ... ok-digital

Thank you so much for sharing this! I can't wait to read and listen to this book！

[MorkTheFiddle]

My audiobook was paid for. Too long ago to remember from whom. My first guess is audible (or audible.fr) but my mobile network is down for the moment so I can't access Audible or even the Audible index of works ("2" factor, really "3" factor, verification for Audible/Amazon depends on a phone call; as does iTunes, so I can't check to see if I bought it from Apple). Nor can I confirm whether I bought audio for all three books in this trilogy. The audiobook is (probably) buried in one of 5 or 6 portable hard drives. I'll look, but it could take a long while (I'm house-sitting for friends who are vacationing in, of all places, France; they are tied to a tour, else I would ask them to check FNAC for us).

Gallimard in Montreal carries the books but apparently not the audio. [I give the web address cause Gallimard can be a could source for French materials, though the shipping costs from Canada to the the USA can be unbelievably high.]

I do think it is possible that I bought a CD for this, so I tried to contact FNAC to check, but I am denied access (???). My VPN connects through the USA. I could connect through the Netherlands, and that might solve the connection issue, but I need my USA connection for other things at the moment.

Anyway, if you buy or if you borrow, I don't think you'll be disappointed by Le grand cahier.

Thanks to Dave for the web resource.

Edit. I found the audiobook. It is in mp3 format, so probably not an Audible, but rather from a CD.

[DaveAgain]

I do think it is possible that I bought a CD for this, so I tried to contact FNAC to check, but I am denied access (???). My VPN connects through the USA. I could connect through the Netherlands, and that might solve the connection issue, but I need my USA connection for other things at the moment.

The French publisher, Editions Livraphone, seem to have gone bust, according to fr.wikipedia.org. The one listed by worldcat.org la magnétothèque, look like a charity for the blind. Interestingly le magnétothèque seem to have been replaced by vues et voix, who do not list the Kristof book on their website. All weird stuff with this one

[MorkTheFiddle]

The French publisher, Editions Livraphone, seem to have gone bust, according to fr.wikipedia.org. The one listed by worldcat.org la magnétothèque, look like a charity for the blind. Interestingly le magnétothèque seem to have been replaced by vues et voix, who do not list the Kristof book on their website. All weird stuff with this one

This short clip confirms that the publisher was Livraphone: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CG5F16zI-fwKd4iz8-hGJSqcowhz1veq/view?usp=sharing and gives a sample of the mellifluous voice of the narrator.

[MorkTheFiddle]

Spanish
Read and listened to the first story of Todos los cuentos by Gabriel García Márquez. The story is called "La tercera resignación." I look forward to reading the rest.

French
Read and listened to the first two stories of Odette Toulemonde et autres histoires by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt. "Wanda Winnipeg" (!) and "C'est un beau jour de pluie" are the names of the stories. The first story has echos of Colette and Sagan.

Lost and Found: Lettres portugaises. Also lost but not found was my bookmark, so I will begin them again.

Thanks to DaveAgain for both French readings.
Thanks to classmate Bill Chamberlain for introducing me to his wife Joanna who introduced me to one of her colleagues, from Columbia, who introduced me to the writing of Gabriel García Márquez. I slaved over the first 50 or 60 pages of Cien Años de Soledad, floundering in vocabulary, but the interest of the story kept me going.

[MorkTheFiddle]

Spanish
Read/listened to "Eva está dentro de su gato." 11 pages, 29:59 minutes. I say "read," but after a few minutes I was understanding the audiobook without help, so I only listened to the rest. Faster that way, too.

Arturo Pérez-Reverte. El Problema Final. 33 of 317 pages. The semi-retired actor who played the Spanish version of Sherlock Holmes has an adventure. Set in the 60s and its references to those days may put off younger readers. Or, may pique their interest. So far, early days, one of my favorites by the author.

French
"L'intruse," Odette Toulemonde et autres histoires, 68-104. I read to page 88, 19:41 minutes. Definitely droll.