kanewai's book shelf (current: italian)

[EndGame]

I commend you on your consistency! Really good discipline!

[kanewai]

This has been one of the slowest reading weeks in months: 60 pages, total (not including English reading). I haven't even been slacking! But I have gotten bogged down in Don Quijote, and after a couple pages my eyes start getting heavy & it gets harder to push on. And I can only handle a little bit of Dante each week - the Divine Comedy is not the kind of work that I can stay up late reading.

I'm also trying to not start on so many books at once, so that I don't end up with a pile of half-finished texts on my table. I thought that this would help me push through the slower ones! So far, it hasn't.

Spanish

• book: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quijote de la Mancha I. The last hundred pages have been mostly side stories the travelers tell each other at the inn. The pace has really started to drag.
• audio:
• course: Great Courses Learning Spanish I. Lesson 3. Subject Pronouns and the Verb Ser. There are little things here and there that help, but it's hard to focus when I know 95% of the material already. This round, it was useful for me to review how to conjugate vosotros, which I never learned properly.

French

• book:
• audio book: Marcel Proust, La prisonnière. Narrated by André Dussolier.
• course:

Italian

• book: Dante. Paradiso. Canto II. Dante and Beatrice merged their physical bodies with a nearby star. I learned after it was the moon. This was a surreal canto, and a challenge to get through.
• audio book: Elena Ferrante, Storia del nuovo cognome.

Arabic

• course: Jane Wightwick, Mahmoud Gaafar. Mastering Arabic Script. . Finished all the special combinations, and now have a week's worth of exercises to get through. This has been surprisingly useful.

English

• book: Sumner La Croix. From First Canoe to Statehood: Eight Hundred Years of Political and Economic Change in Hawai‘i. 2019. This is the first long history of Hawai‘i in over fifty years, and incorporates a lot of new archaeological and economic research that adds depth to the standard narrative that most of us here already know. It's fascinating.
• audio book: Frank G. Bengtsson, The Long Ships (Röde Orm). Narrated by Michael Meyer. Finished! Thoughts below.

Kanewai vs the Vikings

The Long Ships is a Swedish novel set during the 10th and 11th centuries, and follows the adventures of the Viking Röde Orm and his companions across the known world, from Andalusia to Ireland to Miklagard (Constantinople). I'm fascinated by this period in history, and by the stories of the Norsemen, and have listened to a fair number of great history podcasts about the era. I haven't had much luck with fiction, though. I was bored by The Vikings tv show, and the Saxon Stories novels started strong but grew silly.

Röde Orm was the adventure story I needed!

rode orm.jpg

The story moves along at a good pace, there's a lot of dry humor here, there is a wealth of interesting characters, and the audio narration is strong. This would be a good read for anyone looking for a fun, escapist novel.

[kanewai]

Still making slow progress here.

That might change soon. I have a major surgery coming up (nothing critical!) - and I'll be at home recovering up for about three weeks. File this one under you know you're a language nerd when ... you hope the painkillers aren't so strong that you can't concentrate on your language lesson.

Of course, leading up to this I've been a bit stressed and anxious, and only want to listen to music rather than read or study or listen to a podcast.

Spanish

• book: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quijote de la Mancha I (1605). Finally finished! Review below.
• course: Great Courses Learning Spanish I. stalled

French

• book: Alexandre Dumas. Vingt ans après (1845). The sequel to The Three Musketeers. The original three musketeers have retired, Cardinal Mazarin secretly rules France, the people are in rebellion, Cromwell has seized power in England, and our still-naive Gascon, Lieutenant D'Artagnan, is in the middle of it all. Oh, and Mordaunt, the son of Milady, is planning to take his vengeance on all of them. I already know that I am going to really like this book.
• audio book: Marcel Proust, La prisonnière. The narrator is becoming increasingly possessive of Albertine, at the same time as he admits that he doesn't love her now that he possesses her. His prose is so dreamy that we almost forget how absolutely creepy he has become.
• course: A Rendez-vous with French-Speaking Cultures. stalled

Italian

• book: Dante. Paradiso. Stalled.
• book: Massimo Montanari. La fame e l'abbondanza (1997). I head Montanari on a podcast about the history of cuisine, and looked up his books. I thought I had made a great new discovery, but it turns out he does a lot of cooking shows and is actually well known among foodies, even in the US. The book just arrived; I'll start soon.
• audio book: Elena Ferrante, Storia del nuovo cognome. Listening to a couple hours each week.

Arabic

• course: Jane Wightwick, Mahmoud Gaafar. Mastering Arabic Script. Close to finishing the last exercises .

English

• book: Sumner La Croix. Eight Hundred Years of Political and Economic Change in Hawai‘i (2019). I've hit a section outlining how economic policy and 19th century trade agreements set the stage for the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom. It's really interesting (honestly).

Kanewai vs el ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha

quijote 2.jpg

It's hard to approach a book on its own terms when there are four hundred years of people calling it "the greatest novel ever written." There's a lot of baggage there to get past. There were long periods where I thought: this isn't even close to being the greatest novel. People who say that have obviously not read it, they're just repeating what they think they're supposed to say. At other times, I thought that if this was some obscure work that I just stumbled upon I'd probably be excitedly pushing it on my friends.

The book is divided into four parts, and almost all of the famous scenes are in the first two. It's enjoyable. We have the sad knight battling windmills, we have Sancho Panza getting beat up a lot, we have Quijote's friends trying to keep him safe, and we have side-stories that are set in epic style but feature shepherdesses and field hands. It contains all the famous scenes. I am convinced that when people say that Don Quijote is their favorite novel ever that they only read the first hundred pages - because after that it is a damn slog. There are endless passages of Quijote and Sancho having labyrinthine discussions of knighthood, and the joke wears thin quickly. There are many boring side stories involving tertiary characters that goes on for hundreds of pages. They all feature a romance between two men and the most beautiful woman who ever lived. It was painful. I started to hate this book. And judging by the reviews online, it sounds like a lot of people thought the second half of the book was tough to get through.

But the end - the last fifty pages - was actually quite touching. And I've heard the second Quijote book, published ten years later, is even better. They say the characters become more complex and interesting, and the adventures more interesting. So now I don't know ... I was so impatient to finish this, and now I'm tempted to keep reading.

As for the Spanish: I bought a version that was supposed to be en castellano actual. I compared some passages to the original, and I don't see much of a difference. The challenge with this book is the pacing, and the archaic structure, and the fact that sentences run on and on ... and not so much with the language itself.

Here's one passage I liked. Quijote has almost admitted that all his books might have driven him crazy ... and then segues into a defense of his wandering ways. You'll see that there's not much difference between the original and the modern translation:

Cervantes (1605)
De mí sé decir que, después que soy caballero andante, soy valiente, comedido, liberal, bien criado, generoso, cortés, atrevido, blando, paciente, sufridor de trabajos, de prisiones, de encantos; y, aunque ha tan poco que me vi encerrado en una jaula, como loco, pienso, por el valor de mi brazo, favoreciéndome el cielo y no me siendo contraria la fortuna, en pocos días verme rey de algún reino, adonde pueda mostrar el agradecimiento y liberalidad que mi pecho encierra.

Andrés Trapiello (2015)
De mí sé decir que desde que soy caballero andante soy valiente, comedido, desprendido, educado, generoso, cortés, atrevido, dócil, paciente, sufridor de trabajos, de prisiones, de encantamientos; y aunque hace tan poco que me vi encerrado en una jaula como loco, pienso, por el valor de mi brazo, favoreciéndome el cielo y no siéndome contraria la fortuna, verme en pocos días rey de algún reino, donde pueda mostrar el agradecimiento y generosidad que encierra mi pecho.

John Ormsby (1885)
For myself I can say that since I have been a knight-errant I have become valiant, polite, generous, well-bred, magnanimous, courteous, dauntless, gentle, patient, and have learned to bear hardships, imprisonments, and enchantments; and though it be such a short time since I have seen myself shut up in a cage like a madman, I hope by the might of my arm, if heaven aid me and fortune thwart me not, to see myself king of some kingdom where I may be able to show the gratitude and generosity that dwell in my heart.

[kanewai]

I've got some fun stuff across the board at the moment.

Spanish

• book: Santiago Posteguillo. Yo, Julia (2018). It's 192 a.d., and the emperor Commodus (of Gladiator fame) is clearly insane. Five generals are plotting to seize power ... and one woman.
• audio book: Santiago Posteguillo. Africanus: el hijo del cónsul (2006). It looks like I will be spending a lot of time in the ancient world this season.

4114e6DGRWL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

French

• book: Alexandre Dumas. Vingt ans après (1845). Twenty years on, and D'Artagnan is a 40-year old anonymous and forgotten officer in the musketeers. His brilliant friends have all moved on and left him. But the Queen and her lover, Cardinal Mazarin, remember them, and want D'Artagnan to get the gang back together for a secret mission. The sequel is off to a fast and fun start!
• audio book: Marcel Proust, La prisonnière (1923). Passed the half way mark. It's turning into a gay soap opera, full of same-sex seductions and betrayals, secret trysts and broken hearts. The narrator is the only 'straight' character at this point.

dumas_alexandre-vingt_ans_apres.jpg

Italian

• book: Massimo Montanari. La fame e l'abbondanza (1997). The first chapter looks at the diets of the Romans (based on wine, olive oil, and wheat) and the northern barbarians (cider, grilled pork, wild greens, and oat mush), and how the diets changed during the periods of drought, famine, and pestilence as the Roman empire in the West collapsed. So far it's good reading.
• audio book: Elena Ferrante, Storia del nuovo cognome (2012). half way through.

fae.jpg

Arabic

• course: Michel Quitout (Assimil). Arabe marocain. The voices on the audio sound nice and natural, unlike Assimil's main Arab course. That's a plus. But the audio is only vocabulary; none of the 21 dialogues are recorded. And the book does not use any Arabic script, and the transliteration is Assimil's own. I don't know why no one ever uses a transliteration that real people use, like native speakers do on social media. So far I'm disappointed.

English

• book: James S. A. Comey. Cibola Burn (2014)

Super Challenge Update
I'm 194 pages behind in French, 61 pages in Spanish, and a whopping 1031 pages in Italian.
For audio, I am far ahead of my goals with French and Spanish, and on track with Italian.

super challenge.JPG

audio.JPG

[kanewai]

I made a good dent in my reading this past week, at least with French and Spanish. I'm slowly catching up with my Super Challenge goals. But I also re-started courses in Arabic and German - which will mean less time for reading.

Spanish

• book: Santiago Posteguillo. Yo, Julia (2018). 85 pages.
• audio book: Santiago Posteguillo. Africanus: el hijo del cónsul (2006). 105 minutes

French

• book: Alexandre Dumas. Vingt ans après (1845). 90 pages.
• audio book: Marcel Proust, La prisonnière (1923). 285 minutes

Italian

• book: Massimo Montanari. La fame e l'abbondanza (1997). 20 pages.
• audio book: Elena Ferrante, Storia del nuovo cognome (2012). 75 minutes.

Arabic

• course: Living Language. I didn't like this course at first glance, but I figured I'd give it a second chance. I paid for it, I should at least give it a fair shot. I'll focus on writing out my answers; I'd like to reach a point where reading Arabic feels like second nature.

German

• courses: Pimsleur I and Assimil Deutsch. I pulled the books of my shelf and re-loaded the courses onto my ipod, because ich bin ein Masochist.

[kanewai]

I thought I had read tons this week, but here it is Monday, and I've added up the numbers, and really it wasn't so much. Though, also, I'm still balancing German and Arabic study, so I have much less time for pure reading.

Spanish

• book: Santiago Posteguillo. Yo, Julia (2018). 65 pages. The Praetorian Guards have murdered the Emperor, and now various senators and generals are jockeying for power.
• audio book: Santiago Posteguillo. Africanus: el hijo del cónsul (2006). 80 minutes

French

• book: Alexandre Dumas. Vingt ans après (1845). 60 pages.
• audio book: Marcel Proust, La prisonnière (1923). Finished! I have to thank MorkTheFiddle for suggesting listening to Proust instead of reading him. The idea sounded intimidating, but it turns out I really, really enjoy hearing it. This book was the same mix of the beautiful and the banal as the last couple. I enjoy the narrator's interior monologues, but am usually bored by the sections set in the various salons. I'll take a short break then move on to Albertine disparue.

Italian

• book: Massimo Montanari. La fame e l'abbondanza (1997). 15 pages.
• audio book: Elena Ferrante, Storia del nuovo cognome (2012). 195 minutes.

Arabic

• course: Living Language. Now that I'm actually using the book it's not that bad. I've been doing a lot of dictation where I listen to the lesson and try to write out what I'm hearing in Arabic. It's hard, and slow going, but also super useful.

German

• courses: Pimsleur I and Assimil Deutsch. Still in the review stages of each.

[kanewai]

I binged the last couple hours of Storia del nuovo cognome, and I think these binges are more useful for me than trying to listen to a little bit of a book every day. Same with reading. It feels more like immersion. This only works, though, if I have binge worthy material. For now, I do.

Spanish

• book: Santiago Posteguillo. Yo, Julia (2018). 60 pages.
• audio: Santiago Posteguillo. Africanus: el hijo del cónsul (2006). Three more hours down. 21 hours to go. This is a long one.

French

• book: Alexandre Dumas. Vingt ans après (1845). I'm a quarter of the way through, and the pace is starting to slow down ... just like in all his other books. If he holds true to form, the action should start to pick up again at the half-way mark.
• audio:

Italian

• book: Massimo Montanari. La fame e l'abbondanza (1997). 15 pages.
• audio:

Arabic

• course: Living Language. Finished Chapter 3: counting. I forgot how confusing Arabic numbers can be. with the gender switching if you're counting things, but only for certain numbers. It's a bit nuts.

German

• course: Pimsleur I I've hit the awful section with all the math problems, and I hate it.

English

• audio: Herman Melville, Moby Dick (1851). Narrated by William Hootkins New. I tried to read this once before, and really liked the first section set in the whaling towns. I stalled and failed at what seemed like an endless section on whale biology. So far, the audio book has been blowing me away. Melville's use of language is amazing, and the novel so far is raunchy and blasphemous and fun. I seem to do better with audio books for the big fat 19th century novels - maybe I need a narrator to help me past the sometimes archaic language?

[kanewai]

I binged on my two audio books, but didn't do as much reading this week. Arabic took up a lot of time this week; Living Language finally got to verbs, and it took more time and energy to work through the latest chapter.

And there's trouble on the horizon - in a good way, but still trouble. I might have a chance to go to Greece next year, and the wanderlust section of my monkey brain is thinking ooh I should study Greek. The rational part of my mind, meanwhile, is wondering how I'll even balance German and Arabic in the coming months, while still maintaining my Romance languages. I tried to make a list of pros and cons in my mind, but that didn't help much. It went mostly like this:

Should I study Greek?
Arguments against: you don't have the time.
Arguments for: but Greek is cool.

Should I study Arabic?
Arguments against: you don't have the time.
Arguments for: but Arabic is cool.

Repeat for German and Italian.

on to the show:

Spanish

• book: Santiago Posteguillo. Yo, Julia (2018). 40% read. Like all of Posteguillo's books, this would make a great movie.
• audio: Santiago Posteguillo. Africanus: el hijo del cónsul (2006). Blitzed three hours over the weekend. Even though I've read the book I still get lost with the names and the frequent shifts in location.

French

• book: Alexandre Dumas. Vingt ans après (1845). 30% read. The old friends have found themselves on opposite sides of a civil war. It's an interesting set up, though it's obvious which two are on the 'wrong' side.
• audio: various podcasts

Italian

• book: Massimo Montanari. La fame e l'abbondanza (1997). no progress.
• audio:

Arabic

• course: Living Language. Finally started in on verbs with Chapter 4. I've had to slow down, because I want to make sure that I fully internalize this section. I'm worried that my pronunciation is going to completely suck if I don't find some local Arabic speakers to torture with my accent.

German

• course: Pimsleur I Lesson 20. I'll move back to Assimil once I finish, though I don't know how I'll find the time. I've started German so many times already; I'd hate to give up on it once again.

English

• audio: Herman Melville, Moby Dick (1851). There are parts of this book that are amazing. When Melville focuses on people - like the deep friendship between the Presbyterian Ishmael and the 'cannibal' Queequeg, or on the mental battle for control between Captain Ahab and the First Mate Starbuck, or on the internal lives of the men - his writing soars, and you understand why this is the great American novel. The action scenes are intense and incredible. It really does feel like a new genre, like Melville is creating a new American English language that is different than anything found in England. But this is only half the book, and the other half is full of pompous pseudo-philosophical ramblings that are painful to get through. There is so much hot air. So much nonsense. And I guess this is American English too ...

Greek

• course: I will not start Greek unless I actually have a ticket to Greece in hand. I will not start Greek until at least the end of the summer. I will not start Greek until I have more time in my schedule. I repeat: I will not. start. Greek. But just in case ... I've downloaded the Language Transfer course, and dug up the old Pimsleur courses I picked up years ago. Just in case.

[GC1998]

Should I study Greek?
Arguments against: you don't have the time.
Arguments for: but Greek is cool.

Should I study Arabic?
Arguments against: you don't have the time.
Arguments for: but Arabic is cool.

Isn't that always the case!

[kanewai]

Well ... things are about to get challenging. I finished Pimsleur German I, and want to return to Assimil. But I'm also in the middle of Living Language Arabic. I can balance two new languages when I have an audio course for one and a text book for the other; it's harder to find the time and energy for two languages when I'm using books for each. I'm not sure I want to spend the money on Pimsleur Arabic, so for now I'll work on the two books and see how long I last.

Otherwise, slow and steady here.

Spanish

• book: Santiago Posteguillo. Yo, Julia (2018).
• audio: Santiago Posteguillo. Africanus: el hijo del cónsul (2006).

French

• book: Alexandre Dumas. Vingt ans après (1845).
• audio: Marcel Proust. Albertine disparue (1927) New. Mademoiselle Albertine est partie ... and our poor narrator is the only one who's surprised. I was going to wait before I started in on this one, but I actually missed Proust.

Italian

• book: Massimo Montanari. La fame e l'abbondanza (1997).
• audio: Alle otto della sera. Van Gogh (new). Alle otto can be hit or miss; I'm enjoying this series on the mad artist.

Arabic

• course: Living Language. Finished Chapter 5. We're finally starting verb conjugations, which would have been the first chapter in most other books.

German

• course: Finished Pimsleur I & restarted Assimil on Chapter 35.

English

• audio: Herman Melville, Moby Dick (1851) (Finished). This is the most over-rated 'great book' I have ever read.