A language learners’ forum

This is a continuation of the book club previously run in this thread:
https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =18&t=1087

Reading plan 2020
August: - Tiempos recios by Mario Vargas Llosa
July: - My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
June: - The Stranger by Albert Camus
- The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud
May: - The Chestnut Man by Søren Sveistrup
- The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren
- The Winter Queen by Boris Akunin
- The Plague by Albert Camus
- Southern Mail by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Reading plan 2019
February: Metro 2033 by Dmitrii Glukhovskii
March: Les hirondelles de Kaboul/The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra
April/May: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
June: The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric
July: A Country Doctor's Notebook by Mikhail Bulgakov
August: Black Run by Antonio Manzini
September: Petit pays/Small Country by Gaël Faye
October: Three tales/Trois contes by Gustave Flaubert
October/November: Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz
November: Roadside Picnic by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky
December/January: Heaven and Hell/Himnaríki og helvíti by Jón Kalman Stefánsson
December: Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov


How it works:

Reading books
- There will be a new book chosen every month.
- Everyone reads it in the language of their choice.
- No pressure to finish the book within the month, just take the time you need.

Discussing books
- Let us know as soon as possible about your intent to read the book, and in which language
- Feel free to discuss any aspect of the book, like reading difficulty, quality of translation, or content. Just jump into it whenever you have a thought you want to share.
- However, keep in mind that forum rules apply, so be careful with topics like politics and religion, and be nice to others!
- The language used here is English only. You can use short quotes from the book in your target language, but keep in mind that others may not be able to read it. If you want to write in your target language, you can post it in the old book club thread or on your log, and post a link here if you want.
- Don't post spoilers ahead of time! If a suggested reading schedule is posted, try to stick to it in your discussions.

Choosing books
- Books are chosen by vote on the forum. A poll will be posted approximately three weeks ahead of the start date, and will run for a week. A link will be posted here.
- The poll is based on suggestions made in this thread. A suggestion should include: a) Title (English/original) b) name of author c) list of languages the book has been translated into, and d) a short introduction to the book (which you can write yourself or take from an online bookshop or wikipedia). Incomplete suggestions will be accepted, but complete ones will probably get more votes.
- We normally choose books for two months at a time.

Suggested reading schedule for Metro 2033:

Maiwenn wrote:In case anyone else needs a reading schedule for Metro 2033, I thought I'd post mine here:

Sunday, February 3rd: Chapters 1-2 (~67 pages)
Sunday, February 10th: Chapters 3-8 (~218 pages)
Sunday, February 17th: Chapters 9-14 (~238 pages)
Sunday, February 24th: Chapters 15-20 (~222 pages)

It turns out Metro 2033 is on the longer side, so I personally will need these reading targets to keep me on track. I've chosen Sundays as there's the weekend to catch up if Monday-Friday were too busy for reading. This also leaves us the last few days of February to discuss the book in its entirety spoiler-free.

I'll be taking a pass for February, but will be joining everyone in March for Les hirondelles de Kaboul, in French.

Can you put the book of the month in the thread title? And maybe move the book schedule to the top of the introductory post? That way people who havent been involved are immediately up to date with what is happening.

I have to admit, I was disappointed when I saw what won. The benefit of a book group is that it makes you read stuff you wouldn't want to, but I am in two Anglophone book groups currently - I get quite a bit of that! But it's a Russian book, it's very well known, so I've been trying to work myself up to getting it. And then I saw how long it was. Motivation dwindled a little but I tried to boost myself back up. Looked up the plot and ...

I suspect I will be back in March!

MamaPata wrote:Can you put the book of the month in the thread title? And maybe move the book schedule to the top of the introductory post? That way people who havent been involved are immediately up to date with what is happening.

Good ideas. Fixed it now.

WildGinger10 wrote:Holy moly - I just looked it up and the German edition is nearly 800 pages - I'll have to pass on it for now until I get much more comfortable reading at this level, don't want to drown on my first time in the pool!

According to goodreads, the German text also includes "Das Evangelium nach Artjom". I'm new to this book/series myself but this is probably separate from the rest of the story and optional?

And I hadn't actually checked in but I've been reading it in BCMS (well, Clare says it's Serbian). I misread the poll and thought the book would be chosen for February-March, though I was fairly sure even that would be not enough for me I also signed up for the 6WC so for now that keeps me going. Well, I still haven't finished the first chapter But things are finally getting interesting now.
(I mostly decided to give it a try because my cousin hardly ever reads fiction for fun but he loved the book back when it came out. I'm also intrigued by the whole "metro universe" now and I'd love to read the stories about other cities if I can find them)

Anyway, I kinda hate the Sokolnicheskaya line so it's funny to read that it got taken over by communists BTW fun fact: "Lenin hills" station was renamed in the 90's (Sparrow hills - Воробьёвы горы*), but in the book it's still referred to as that. Well, the old name is still in use, especially for the hills themselves.
*ironically my friend Воробьёва lived there for a year

Also let me know if you need help making sense of Moscow metro In the modern map you'll see two circle lines. The bigger one was only introduced in 2017 - it was originally built as a railway line around the border of the city (in the 1910's I think), then it was disused for decades before being refurbished and merged with the metro system. So back when the book was written, it was not on the map at all. (And many new stations have been opened ever since, at the end of several lines and on the light green line)

I wanted to start reading a few days before the end of February "The Swallows of Kabul" due to my time to read is limited and is so hard to me being able to finish a book in one only month.

Besides, the plot really appealled me. )

Nevertheless, I'm so disappointed because it was impossible to come across with a kindle version to download. It seems like online version doesn't exist or at least I can't to find it.

Mista wrote:Suggested reading schedule for Metro 2033:

Maiwenn wrote:Sunday, February 3rd: Chapters 1-2 (~67 pages)
Sunday, February 10th: Chapters 3-8 (~218 pages)
Sunday, February 17th: Chapters 9-14 (~238 pages)
Sunday, February 24th: Chapters 15-20 (~222 pages)

Um, what are those page numbers/counts? Are they for the longer edition that includes the "Gospel according to Artem"?

Serpent wrote:

Mista wrote:Suggested reading schedule for Metro 2033:

Maiwenn wrote:Sunday, February 3rd: Chapters 1-2 (~67 pages)
Sunday, February 10th: Chapters 3-8 (~218 pages)
Sunday, February 17th: Chapters 9-14 (~238 pages)
Sunday, February 24th: Chapters 15-20 (~222 pages)

Um, what are those page numbers/counts? Are they for the longer edition that includes the "Gospel according to Artem"?

They are page counts from the German edition, which doesn't seem to include a Gospel according to Artem. According to the English wiki page on Metro 2033 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_2033), the page counts are rather variable:

544 (Russian edition)
458 (English edition)
544 (Finnish edition)
784 (German edition)
598 (Turkish edition)
704 (Persian edition)

Do the other editions contain fewer than 20 chapters? The Gospel is apparently only ~18 pages in English, so I can't imagine that it would account for such a discrepancy.