Russian by audiobooks with matching texts

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Eafonte
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Re: Russian by audiobooks with matching texts

Postby Eafonte » Sun Oct 31, 2021 9:13 pm

October 31,

Today, after a two-day lull in my Russian language study, I started reading and listening the 1917 short novel "Звезда Соломона", 100 pages, by russian writer Alexander Kuprin (1870-1938).

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Re: Russian by audiobooks with matching texts

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Mon Nov 01, 2021 6:26 am

oli1142 wrote:I m looking for the Audio of Russian for Dummies. Where can I find it?


A CD is included with the book.

https://www.dummies.com/languages/russi ... d-edition/

Unless the title is in public domain, nobody here will share the audio.

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Jean-Luc
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Re: Russian by audiobooks with matching texts

Postby Jean-Luc » Mon Nov 01, 2021 9:08 am

I am using the audios of Red Kalinka. Interesting tales at the right level make the reading fun and easy and focusing on new words. We can print the PDF for a reading.
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Eafonte
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Re: Russian by audiobooks with matching texts

Postby Eafonte » Mon Nov 08, 2021 3:11 am

November 7:

Today I finished reading and listening "Звезда Соломона". This novella, delivered in a fluid and elegant prose, tells us about what your life would be like if all your wishes magically come true. This was my first encounter with this russian writer. Куприн мне понравился!

Although I stumbled upon many unknown words and reread all but two chapters, I read the novella extensively. Sometimes, after rereading a chapter I would look up a word only if it lingered in my mind.

Books read: 12.
Pages read: 3,106.
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Eafonte
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Re: Russian by audiobooks with matching texts

Postby Eafonte » Tue Nov 09, 2021 2:06 am

November 8:

Today I started reading and listening "Алые паруса", 89 pages, a novella by russian writer Alexander Grin (1880-1932).

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Eafonte
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Re: Russian by audiobooks with matching texts

Postby Eafonte » Fri Nov 12, 2021 10:53 pm

November 12:

Today I finished reading and listening "Алые паруса". This book is a sweet and romantic fairy tale, which tells us how a far fetched prediction told to a poor little girl could come true against all odds. Grin's diction is very lyrical, full of metaphors and some convoluted musings, hard to follow sometimes. I read the book extensively, rereading and relistenig each chapter, in the same way as the previous book, no look ups.

I had previously acquainted myself with this author in 2018 when I watched the 1961 movie based on the book, a wonderful film btw:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YzwW4hxrx4

My advice: It's better to see the movie first. The movie is close to the book and will help the learner understand the poetic and sometimes convoluted language of Alexander Grin.

After basking in sunny Grinland, today I went to the cold and gloomy shores of the Baltic Sea: I started reading "В тени алтарей", 743 pages, a translation to Russian of the 1933 novel "Altorių šešėly" by lithuanian writer Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas (1893-1967).

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Books read: 13.
Pages read: 3,195.
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Eafonte
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Re: Russian by audiobooks with matching texts

Postby Eafonte » Sun Dec 05, 2021 11:32 pm

December 05

Yesterday I finished reading "В тени алтарей" (In the Shadow of the Altars). This book, a classic work of Lithuanian literature, is a 3-part fine psychological novel and Entwicklugsroman about the true calling of a young lithuanian catholic who is ordained in spite of doubts about his own suitability as a priest, struggles to reconcile his priesthood with a parallel literary activity, becames thereafter disillusioned with the Catholic Church, and finally renounces priesthood in order to fully engage poetry. A beautifully written work of fiction, in sober diction with sharp psychological analysises of the main character's actions, telling about the hardships of becoming loyal to your true calling, of being yourself, no matter what it takes. I enjoyed it and dare say it's a hidden gem of World Literature, concealed by having being written in Lithuanian, a language of few native speakers and very alien to the mainstream european languages, thus preventing it from reaching a wider readership (besides the Russian version I read, there are translations into Polish and German, but none into English or French I could find). The author of the book, Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas (1893-1967), was himself a catholic priest and poet , and in 1935, two years after the book got published, he also renounced his priesthood (and married). Fiction became reality, life imitated art.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincas_Mykolaitis-Putinas

As I didn't find no audio recording available, I got more time to busy myself with the reading, and did it in a semi-intensive way: while I was reading a chapter I would note down in a notebook excerpts of phrases with unknown words or idioms. After finishing reading one or more chapters, I would look those up in my Ожегов paper copy (or just googling them to get an image of the unknown word, if it was the name of a thing or object). As I suspected before, the novel, being a translation from an obscure language to me, happened to be way harder than translations from French into Russian I have already read so far, but somewhat easier than works of proper Russian fiction literature.

Goodbye Lithuania! Now I've arrived in a far-off place: in the easternmost tip of Russia and Eurasia, the Chukchi Peninsula on the shores of the Arctic Ocean near the Bering Strait, the place where the action of the novel "Магические числа", 306 pages, by soviet Chukchi writer Yuri Rytkheu (1930-2008), which I started reading and listening today, takes place.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chukchi_Peninsula

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Books read: 14.
Pages read: 3,938.
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Eafonte
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Re: Russian by audiobooks with matching texts

Postby Eafonte » Mon Dec 13, 2021 11:17 pm

December 13, 2021:

Yesterday I finished reading and listening "Магические числа", published in 1985. The novel leading character is Kagot, a Chuckchi shaman who made friends with the norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen and got engaged as a cook in Amundsen's ship "Maud" in 1920. According to the author, Kagot's story is real.

I found the first 50 pages of the book somewhat hard, because besides some unknown common russian vocabulary I stumbled upon many unknown words about the arctic reality and local lifestyle (and looked all up):

1. Ice/snow vocabulary: льдина, торос, ропак, припай, целина, наст, полынья, разводье, заиндеветь, задубеть, затереть льдами.
2. Arctic fauna and game vocabulary: песец, умка, росомаха, нерпа, лахтак, моржа, тюлень, евражка, лежбище, пушнина.
3. clothing: торбаса, камлейка, кухлянка, малахай.
4. other words relating to Chuckchi lifestyle: яранга, полог, нарта, остол, камлать.

After that, the novel became easier to read, demanding a few more look-ups. I enjoyed reading it, liked Rytkheu's straightforward Russian and got utterly fascinated with the real-life character of Roald Amundsen.

So today I started reading "Руал Амундсен", 220 pages, a biographical novel about him, written by Александр Яковлев, published in 1957.

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Books read: 15.
Pages read: 4,244.
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Eafonte
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Re: Russian by audiobooks with matching texts

Postby Eafonte » Sat Dec 18, 2021 10:00 pm

December 18, 2021.

Yesterday I finished reading "Руал Амундсен". I found it a compelling book written in straightforward Russian, with very few unknown words per page, which kept me deeply engrossed in the real life experiences of this larger than life norwegian. As a spin-off I learned of Amundsen's role model, his fellow countryman and polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen, of whom there is also a biography written by a russian author. I thought about reading it, but for the time being I've had enough of polar adventures. Maybe later.

So today I started reading and listening "Перстень с печаткой", 299 pages, a translation into Russian of the 1964 spy novel "Sellő a pecsétgyűrűn" by hungarian writer András Berkesi (1919-1997).

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Books read: 16.
Pages read: 4,464.
Last edited by Eafonte on Wed Jan 12, 2022 4:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Eafonte
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Re: Russian by audiobooks with matching texts

Postby Eafonte » Wed Jan 12, 2022 4:26 pm

January 10, 2022: I finished reading and listening "Перстень с печаткой". This book is a Cold War era hungarian spy novel: the good guys are counterspies of communist Hungary and the bad guys are a wicked Gestapo officer, a dumb french agent and a ruthless british spy having no qualms about blackmailing a british-hungarian nephew engaged in Her Majesty's Secret Service during World War II.
Few unknown russian words, but intricated plot.
January 11, 2022: I started reading and listening "Дикая охота короля Стаха", 234 pages, a translation into russian of the 1964 gothic novel "Дзікае паляванне караля Стаха" by belarusian writer Uladzimir Karatkievich (1930-1984).

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Books read: 17.
Pages read: 4,763.
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