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A Very Short Introduction and Que sais-je for other languages

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2022 2:44 pm
by einzelne
I'm sure many of you know these series:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_Short_Introductions
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Que_sais-je%3F

These are short, neat intros in all sorts of subjects. I find them useful for maintaining my languages when I don't have time for full fledged books. They are short enough, entertaining and at the same time allow me to have a glimpse into the areas I don't have time to read something more fundamental. Plus you expand you vocabulary.

I'm interested in similar series in other languages. Germans have the zur Einführung series but, generally, I find them more demanding (and it seems that they limit themselves to the humanities).

What about other languages?

Re: A Very Short Introduction and Que sais-je for other languages

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2022 3:04 pm
by DaveAgain
Not exactly the same thing, but German publisher Rowohlt has a series of short biographies "monographien".

https://www.rowohlt.de/buch/sachbuch/monographien

https://www.rowohlt.de/buch/sachbuch/bi ... innerungen

Re: A Very Short Introduction and Que sais-je for other languages

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2022 6:00 pm
by Herodotean
The Wikipedia article for Que sais-je? mentions the German series C.H.Beck Wissen. These books seem to all have 128 pages and be priced at 10 euros. Unfortunately they are not available on Kindle through Amazon US.

Re: A Very Short Introduction and Que sais-je for other languages

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2022 6:09 pm
by einzelne
Herodotean wrote:Unfortunately they are not available on Kindle through Amazon US.


O, thanks! The series looks good.

As for German books, you can switch the county of your Kindle to Germany and you will see German books (not all of them though).

Since I prefer to have my own deDRMed copies of books, I prefer to buy German books on ebook.de, convert them into mobi files, and upload then by using the "Send to Kindle" app.

Re: A Very Short Introduction and Que sais-je for other languages

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2022 6:24 pm
by DaveAgain
Herodotean wrote:The Wikipedia article for Que sais-je? mentions the German series C.H.Beck Wissen. These books seem to all have 128 pages and be priced at 10 euros. Unfortunately they are not available on Kindle through Amazon US.

The Goethe eLibrary has some of those.

Re: A Very Short Introduction and Que sais-je for other languages

Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2022 3:18 pm
by reineke

Re: A Very Short Introduction and Que sais-je for other languages

Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2022 10:25 pm
by zenmonkey
In German, you also have Zeit Wissen magazine which fulfill that "short intro on themes" focus. They also have a podcast.
French has a bunch of topical magazines - Science et Vie, Science et Avenir, etc.

Re: A Very Short Introduction and Que sais-je for other languages

Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2022 7:04 am
by DaveAgain
reineke wrote:https://www.tessloff.com/was-ist-was.html

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Was_ist_was

Advanced but condensed and covers a lot. Also very boring.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bildung._ ... n%20sollte.
I already own a copy of Mr Schwanitz's Bildung book, so I hope that I enjoy it more than you did!

Re: A Very Short Introduction and Que sais-je for other languages

Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2022 2:05 pm
by einzelne
What about other languages? Italian, Spanish etc?

Re: A Very Short Introduction and Que sais-je for other languages

Posted: Sun Jan 23, 2022 3:47 am
by Herodotean
Nobody's asking about English, but I just came across the Cambridge Elements series:

Cambridge Elements combine the best features of books and journals to create a quick, concise publishing solution for researchers and readers in the fields of academic publishing and scholarly communication. They consist of original, succinct, authoritative, and peer-reviewed scholarly and scientific research, organised into focused series edited by leading scholars, and provide comprehensive coverage of the key topics in disciplines spanning the arts and sciences.

Conceived from the start for a digital environment, they provide a dynamic reference resource for graduate students, researchers, and practitioners.

As the description indicates, these are academic in focus. The series appears to be rather new, so some areas are rather under-represented. Here's a sample volume: Europe and the Anglo-Saxons, by Francesca Tinti (2021). 75 pages at 16 USD for a PDF and 20 USD for a paperback, so not cheap.