Dave's log, (German and French)

[cjareck]

10. Im Stahlgewittern by Ernst Jünger, 301 pages. Running total 301 + 1,691 = 1,992 pages.

You are exteremely quick! And how do you rate Jünger? Especially in comparison with Remarque?

[DaveAgain]

You are exteremely quick! And how do you rate Jünger? Especially in comparison with Remarque?

"Hurry up and wait" seemed to a common theme, and both mentioned the imbalance in resources between themselves and their opponents. Between the two I prefer Mr Jünger.

His bio describes him an an insect expert, so I'm a little surprised there was no hint of that in the book.

[DaveAgain]

Nußknacker und Mausekönig by E T A Hoffmann, 96 pages. Running total 96 + 1,992 = 2,088 pages

I read each chapter in French (Casse-Noisette et le roi des souris), then read and listened to the German.

The origin of the Nutcracker, a classic Christmas Story, is a fairy tale ballet in two acts centered on a family’s Christmas Eve celebration. Alexandre Dumas Père’s adaptation of the story by E.T.A. Hoffmann was set to music by Tchaikovsky and originally choreographed by Marius Petipa. It was commissioned by the director of Moscow’s Imperial Theatres, Ivan Vsevolozhsky, in 1891, and premiered a week before Christmas 1892. Since premiering in western countries in the 1940s, this ballet has become perhaps the most popular to be performed around Christmas time.

https://www.nutcracker.com/about-us/his ... nutcracker

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I've started (three days in!) reading a German magazine article every day, I look up all unknown words in the article. I'm using Deutsch Perfekt, which I download from the Goethe eLibrary.

Deutsch Perfekt is a magazine intended for language learners. All the articles are graded: Leicht (A2), Mittel (B1), Schwer (B2 und höher). There is a glossary of words on the side of the page, and words appearing in the article that are included in the glossary are underlined in the article text. I read a "Leicht" article.

[DaveAgain]

12. Der Sandmann by E T A Hoffmann, 42 pages. Running total: 42 + 2,088 = 2,130 pages

I read a chapter in French (l'homme au sable), then read and listened to the German. etc.

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I was looking to cheer myself up with an Oscar Wilde comedy after the Sandmann (not a happy tale), but I ran into a new problem, it turns out old German books use a very hard to read font!

Poo.

Bunbury (The Importance of being Earnest): German text, German video, French text.

[MorkTheFiddle]

I was looking to cheer myself up with an Oscar Wilde comedy after the Sandmann (not a happy tale), but I ran into a new problem, it turns out old German books use a very hard to read font!

Poo.

Yes, that old font is a bugaboo. Once in your position, I debated reading enough of that font to get used to it. But, nope, life's too short.

In other news, you certainly are working your way through some of the best of German lit. Good on you!

[cjareck]

I was looking to cheer myself up with an Oscar Wilde comedy after the Sandmann (not a happy tale), but I ran into a new problem, it turns out old German books use a very hard to read font!

You mean Schwabacher oder Fraktur?
Most of the books I read first in German were printed with such a font. I linked the Wiki articles for you, there are listings of a whole alphabet. I would propose to look up for the words you know, look at the letters in them. You will notice that even if you can't recognize all letters you can read the words. They are the most precious - look at the unknown letters that you know from context and look for them in new words. After a few such iterations, you will be able to read most of the letters. Such as "X" are very rare - I saw it for the first time after a few years!
I use this method for reading handwritten texts. Only that is a challenge

[DaveAgain]

You mean Schwabacher oder Fraktur?
Most of the books I read first in German were printed with such a font. I linked the Wiki articles for you, there are listings of a whole alphabet. I would propose to look up for the words you know, look at the letters in them. You will notice that even if you can't recognize all letters you can read the words. They are the most precious - look at the unknown letters that you know from context and look for them in new words. After a few such iterations, you will be able to read most of the letters. Such as "X" are very rare - I saw it for the first time after a few years!
I use this method for reading handwritten texts. Only that is a challenge

Thanks for the tip

[DaveAgain]

Maria Stuart, by Friedrich Schiller, 300 pages. Running total: 300 + 2,130 = 2,430 pages 160 pages. Running total: 160 + 2,130 = 2,290 pages

I read each scene first in French, then in German.

After finishing I found out that there's a french translation in verse! (Braun)

There are lots of performances of this on YouTube, in different languages.

[DaveAgain]

14. Der kleine Nick, by René Goscinny & Jean-Jacques Sempé, 171 pages. Running total: 171 + 2,290 = 2,461 pages

I read each chapter in German, then in French (where possible), then in German again.

I bought the German text, and I was able to borrow most of the French texts from my local library. I had not considered that the German Der kleine Nick might have a different set of stories to Le Petit Nicolas, but it does.

Der kleine Nick (ISBN: 9783257235401):

Eine Erinnerung fürs Leben (Un souvenir qu’on va chérir, Le Petit Nicolas)
Herr Hühnerbrühe (Le Bouillon, Le Petit Nicolas)
Das Fußballspiel (Le football, Le Petit Nicolas)
Der Schulrat war da (On a eu l’inspecteur, Le Petit Nicolas)
Rex (Rex, Le Petit Nicolas)
Der letzte Schultag
Bei uns entscheidet Papa (C’est papa qui décide, Les Vacances du Petit Nicolas)
Der Strand ist Klasse (La plage, c’est chouette, Les Vacances du Petit Nicolas)
Der Tausendsassa (Le bouts-en-train, Les Vacances du Petit Nicolas)
Die Klippen (L’île des Embruns, Les Vacances du Petit Nicolas)
Die Gymnastik (La gym, Les Vacances du Petit Nicolas)
Minigolf (Le golf miniature, Les Vacances du Petit Nicolas)
Wir haben Einkaufen gespielt (Le On a joué à la marchande, Les Vacances du Petit Nicolas)
Wir sind wieder zu Hause (On est rentrés, Les Vacances du Petit Nicolas)
Dschoscho (Djodjo, Le Peit Nicolas)
Ein prima Blumenstrauß (Le chouette bouquet, Le Petit Nicolas)
Der Empfang für den Minister (On a répété pour le ministre, Le Petit Nicolas)
Ich geh weg von zu Hause (Je quitte la maison, Le Petit Nicolas)

(I think 'Der letze Schultag' maps to 'La distribution des Prix, Les Récrés du petit Nicolas', but I was not able to check.)

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I've switched from reading an article in Deutsch Perfekt every day to reading an article in Stern.de, due to a SNAFU with Adobe Digital Editions - the zoom function stopped working.

[DaveAgain]

15. Der Horla by Guy de Maupassant, 52 pages. Running total: 52 + 2,461 = 2,511 pages

Librivox splits this into four parts. I read and listened to each part first in German, then read in French, then read and listened to the German again.