46.
Die Geschichte von Herrn Sommer by Patrick Süskind.
I read this aloud, along with an audio book. I listened to a sentence, then paused the audio and repeated it. When I came to the end of a page I then looked up all unknown words. At first I used online dictionaries for that, but then I bought an english language copy (english title:
The Story of Mr Sommer) to use as a parallel text instead.
This is a children's book, but it reads well for adults too. We never learn much about Mr Sommer, where he comes from, why he's always walking around, who is pursuing him but that lack of information is part of the draw, you're always reading on in hope of an answer.
I was interested enough to look for an interview with Mr Suskind where he talked a little about the plot, but it seems he's not one for interviews.
https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-most-mys ... a-48050838Sempé (who illustrated the book) does not share this aversion to publicity, but alas I could not find an interview where he discussed this book, and explained the secret of Mr Sommer for me.
A (very negative)
review on the German book website
mentioned by Kat, led me to look at Mr Süskind's essay
Über Liebe und TodDie Liebe und ihr ewiger Gegenspieler, der Tod, sind das Thema von Patrick Süskinds provokantem Essay. Mit Beispielen aus Philosophie und Literatur (von Platon über Kleist bis Thomas Mann) wie aus dem modernen Leben führt er uns die Liebe als Himmels- und Höllenmacht vor. Und er vergleicht die Schicksale von Jesus und Orpheus, die beide den Tod durch die Liebe zu überwinden versuchten.
Mr Sommer's death can be bent to fit the Orpheus story, a descent into the land of the dead, and his wife's occupation as a doll maker could evoke a Goddess, but I'm stretching there, and bad review or not I suspect I'm going to eventually buy Mr Suskind's essay in the hope of eventually finding what was going on with Mr Sommer.
47. Eine Geschichte von zwei Städten by Charles Dickens
I read this on an eReader, I first read each chapter in
German without looking up any words, then again in
English, then again in German looking up all unknown words.
I've been meaning to read this for some time, but I caught the tail end of the
1958 film adaption, just in time for the line:
It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.
I'm sure I've heard that line many times, but I didn't know it was from A Tale of two Cities, so I moved it to the top of my to read list.
I read a
book on rhetoric a few years back, and you cannot help but notice rhetorical devices in this book, starting with the famous opening lines
It was the best of times,
it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom,
it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief,
it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light,
it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope,
it was the winter of despair,
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way— in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
From what I understand of Mr Dicken's childhood his education must have been self-study to a large extent. Wikipedia's artcle on rhetoric suggested Hugh Blair's 'Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres" as a popular rhetoric book Mr Dicken's might have found in a bookshop or library.
Archive.org have this in several languages.
Gutenberg have a
biography of Mr Dickens by his friend John Forster, and a memoire by his daughter,
My Father as I recall him.
48.
Fräulein Smillas Gespür für Schnee by Peter Høeg
I read this without looking up any words, but I had read it before in English (english title:
Miss Smilla's feeling for snow), some years ago.
I think this would be a good choice for anyone wanting a book they could re-read several times. Smilla's a super character, and the book reads well.
Books mentioned in the text: Euclid's elements (
German,
English)
Courses
I've worked through TY Complete German, and I'm now using the dialogues for dictation and double-translation.
I start with English>German translation of the previous day's text. Then listen to that day's dialogue, then listen again while looking at the text, then treat it as a dictation exercise, then translate German > English.
The audio is so far usually less than a minute, I stop at a minute if it goes much beyond that.
Test.
I took the
Leipzig receptive vocabulary test to have a number to guage any future progress against, result: 56%.
French
Other than two episodes of Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie this has just been reading every day. Currently
Mr Blair's rhetoric book.