Learning by reading

[Nogon]

Week 16:
Decided to read more in my weaker languages, and less in English, which probably accounts for me going to the library and borrowing several books by Philip Pullman - in English .

French:
Finished Philippe Claudel - La petite fille de monsieur Linh (Monsieur Linh and his Child). A great little book, easy to read, which sometimes teetered at the edge of kitsch, but managed to steer clear of it.
Read the beginnings of several books, but couldn't decide what to read next.

Dutch:
Read Håkan Nesser - Herfst op Gotland (Den sorgsne busschauffören från Alster; not translated into English, I believe). The first of Nesser's Barbarotti-series that I ever read. Liked it quite well, even though it could have been a bit shorter to my taste. I like slowly told stories, but this one was a tiny bit too slow. Nevertheless I'll read some more books of the series in Dutch translation, I think.
Found a wonderful verb: ijsberen (to polar bear) .

Swedish:
Read Kerstin Ekman - Häxringarna (Witches' Rings), part 1 of her The Women and the Town tetralogy. Had read it many years ago, back in the 90's: liked it then and still like it. Encountered a few words unknown to both me and my dictionaries, as they were obsolete or dialectal or both. I could easyly guess their meanings through context though.
Now reading part 2: Springkällan (The Spring).

English:
Read two short books by Philip Pullman, The Imagination Chamber and Serpentine.
Listened to his The Golden Compass, part one of the His Dark Materials trilogy, read by Philip Pullman himself and a full cast, who read the dialogues. Pullman did a great job, as did the person who did Lyra's voice, but some of the other voices were a bit too exaggerated to my taste. Nevertheless a breathtaking story, which I had read several times in the early 2000's but never listened to on audio. Had forgotten, how gripping it is.
Now listening to The Subtle Knife, part two of the trilogy.

[jeff_lindqvist]

Kerstin Ekman - Häxringarna[/color] (Witches' Rings), part 1 of her The Women and the Town tetralogy.(...)

I haven't read a single line of her works (yet), but I've heard nothing but good things. In case you haven't seen it, there is this mini-series on SVTplay, Händelser vid vatten (based on her book with the same name).

Listened to his The Golden Compass, part one of the His Dark Materials trilogy, read by Philip Pullman himself and a full cast, who read the dialogues.

How I liked that series! (It may very well have been my first listening-reading experience, long before I read about that "method".)

[Nogon]

I love snippets of French in books written in different languages. Like this one, from Charles Dickens' Bleak House (ch. 20):

Ill fo manger, you know,” says Mr. Jobling, pronouncing that word as if he meant a necessary fixture in an English stable. “Ill fo manger. That’s the French saying, and mangering is as necessary to me as it is to a Frenchman. Or more so.”