The Forum Book Club thread 2020. August: Tiempos recios

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MamaPata
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Re: The New Forum Book Club thread 2019. The Shadow of the Wind

Postby MamaPata » Sat May 25, 2019 1:26 pm

We had a three way tie between Bridge on the Drina, Black Run and a Country Doctor’s Notebook. What do people want to do next? Brun Ugle has suggested that we read one a month for the next few months. It saves people having to decide each month and it means everyone can plan their reading.

Is that what other people want to do? It is a democracy! I’m not in charge, I just happen to have set up this poll, so we’ll go with whatever seems most popular.
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Re: The New Forum Book Club thread 2019. The Shadow of the Wind

Postby IronMike » Sat May 25, 2019 7:54 pm

Happily one of those books is available in Esperanto and I already own it! The Country Doctor's Notebook I could try in Russian. So I'm for those three being our next three months. If we had to choose which one to read first, I'd vote for Bridge on the Drina.
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Re: The New Forum Book Club thread 2019. The Shadow of the Wind

Postby MamaPata » Sun May 26, 2019 10:36 am

IronMike wrote:Happily one of those books is available in Esperanto and I already own it! The Country Doctor's Notebook I could try in Russian. So I'm for those three being our next three months. If we had to choose which one to read first, I'd vote for Bridge on the Drina.


Three months is definitely enough time for your Italian to be good enough to read Black Run!
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Re: The New Forum Book Club thread 2019. The Shadow of the Wind

Postby IronMike » Sun May 26, 2019 1:28 pm

MamaPata wrote:
IronMike wrote:Happily one of those books is available in Esperanto and I already own it! The Country Doctor's Notebook I could try in Russian. So I'm for those three being our next three months. If we had to choose which one to read first, I'd vote for Bridge on the Drina.


Three months is definitely enough time for your Italian to be good enough to read Black Run!

Ha!
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Re: The New Forum Book Club thread 2019. The Shadow of the Wind

Postby Mista » Sun May 26, 2019 11:14 pm

First of all, sorry for disappearing immediately after starting this thread. I didn't plan it like that, obviously, but sometimes life just happens in your face...

MamaPata wrote:We had a three way tie between Bridge on the Drina, Black Run and a Country Doctor’s Notebook. What do people want to do next? Brun Ugle has suggested that we read one a month for the next few months. It saves people having to decide each month and it means everyone can plan their reading.

Is that what other people want to do? It is a democracy! I’m not in charge, I just happen to have set up this poll, so we’ll go with whatever seems most popular.


That's how we have done it before, and I think it's the best way to do it. Experience shows that the books that score high on a poll will do so again later, and I see no point in running a new poll just to get the same result.

And personally, I'd like to read all those books. The Bridge over Drina mostly because it has been in the polls so often that I've come to consider it a "must read" just because of that. :lol: The library has it in German and I was planning to read some German in June, so I support IronMike's vote for this one as the first one out. I also support the suggestion that he should read Black Run in Italian in August. :D You are hereby challenged. :twisted: I will of course go for the Italian original myself too. As for Bulgakov, I'm considering reading it in French.
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Re: The New Forum Book Club thread 2019. June: The Bridge on the Drina

Postby Mista » Wed May 29, 2019 9:22 am

I've updated the title and initial post now, to reflect that it will soon be June.

In my own preparations, I got the German translation of the Bridge on the Drina at the library yesterday. This was at the university library, which has a huge collection of fiction in two rooms in the cellar. Unlike the public library, which sorts the books in the fiction department according to the language of the edition, the university library sorts them according to the language of the original. So to find The Bridge on the Drina, I had to go to the serbocroatic shelf. On my way there, I passed the Russian shelves, and decided to have a look at their selection of Bulgakov on my way back. They didn't have the French edition I was looking for, but I found a Norwegian edition and a Russian one (I can't use the second without the first ...). I also found a French edition of Morphine. Looking a bit closer at the books, I discovered that the Russian one has six stories while the Norwegian one has nine. And according to the introduction in the Norwegian book, the stories were originally published separately in journals, and were planned published in a collection by Bulgakov, but he never got that far. So we know he intended the book, but not what he intended to include in it. Once we get to July, it will be interesting to hear what content others have in their books.

Once home, I realized that if I'm going to read it in Russian, it's probably better to use Kindle. Which is also what I'm going to do for the Italian book, unless I can find a way to deal with the around 100 books that are currently stacked on the floor because I can't fit them into my bookshelf.
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Re: The New Forum Book Club thread 2019. June: The Bridge on the Drina

Postby IronMike » Sat Jun 01, 2019 10:42 pm

Starting La Ponto super Drino tonight. So nice to be able to join the book club!
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Re: The New Forum Book Club thread 2019. June: The Bridge on the Drina

Postby Mista » Sun Jun 02, 2019 6:47 pm

I have a 48 h exam starting tomorrow, so I won't start reading this book until Wednesday.

Who else is reading it (or planning to)?
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MamaPata
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Re: The New Forum Book Club thread 2019. June: The Bridge on the Drina

Postby MamaPata » Mon Jun 03, 2019 7:29 am

I haven’t entirely decided. June is a bit of a hectic month and I have quite a few other things to read. If I do read it, it’ll be in English.
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Re: The New Forum Book Club thread 2019. June: The Bridge on the Drina

Postby David27 » Mon Jun 03, 2019 11:12 am

I also am reading another book now. It looks interesting to me. I’ll probably start it in English in a few weeks so I can try to finish it before July and stay on schedule.
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