The Forum Book Club thread 2020. August: Tiempos recios

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IronMike
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Re: The New Forum Book Club thread 2019. June: The Bridge on the Drina

Postby IronMike » Wed Jun 05, 2019 3:01 pm

Despite what I said above, I got busy with work and just started it today. Love this book.
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Re: The New Forum Book Club thread 2019. June: The Bridge on the Drina

Postby IronMike » Sun Jun 09, 2019 1:58 am

How's everyone's reading going? Anyone gotten to "that" part yet?
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Re: The New Forum Book Club thread 2019. June: The Bridge on the Drina

Postby MamaPata » Mon Jun 10, 2019 7:53 am

IronMike wrote:How's everyone's reading going? Anyone gotten to "that" part yet?


Dramatic and ominous.
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Re: The New Forum Book Club thread 2019. June: The Bridge on the Drina

Postby Mista » Fri Jun 14, 2019 8:20 pm

IronMike wrote:How's everyone's reading going? Anyone gotten to "that" part yet?


The one in chapter 3? I started the book on Monday, and hope to finish chapter 3 today.
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Re: The New Forum Book Club thread 2019. June: The Bridge on the Drina

Postby David27 » Mon Jun 17, 2019 1:50 am

I hate it when books have a 'that part'.... but I picked it up today and read the first three chapters. I'm glad I chose just to read it in English, it is dense even in the first 50 pages with multiple colorful mini stories about the town and construction so far, and as advertised, without protagonists and very little dialogue. With so many descriptive sections about geography, history, the bridge and it's construction site, I think I would have a difficult/slow going time getting through it in a foreign language. What languages are others reading it in, and how is the reading going for you? Maybe someday if I learn Bosnian ;) I'll reread it in the original
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Re: The New Forum Book Club thread 2019. June: The Bridge on the Drina

Postby Mista » Mon Jun 17, 2019 9:25 pm

David27 wrote:What languages are others reading it in, and how is the reading going for you?

I'm reading it in German, and yes, it has been a little tough. I don't understand everything, but I understand enough. In fact, towards the end of chapter three, I started thinking that maybe I understood a little too much, and that I didn't mind losing some of the details ...
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Re: The New Forum Book Club thread 2019. June: The Bridge on the Drina

Postby IronMike » Tue Jun 18, 2019 12:06 am

I'm reading it currently in Esperanto. I have a copy of it in Serbian and will read it in that language sometime in the future.
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Re: The New Forum Book Club thread 2019. June: The Bridge on the Drina

Postby kanewai » Tue Jun 18, 2019 6:42 pm

I wish I could have joined you all this month - The Bridge sounds interesting, but I'm in the middle of too many books to start a new one. I've got it bookmarked for a later date. And now I'm going to ignore everyone for a month or two so I can avoid spoilers!
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Re: The New Forum Book Club thread 2019. June: The Bridge on the Drina

Postby Robierre » Tue Jun 18, 2019 9:28 pm

I read Bridge on the Drina more than 15 years ago (in serbo-croatian). But last month I read The Vizier's Elephant - it was nice to discover Ivo Andrić once again. Enjoy!
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Re: The New Forum Book Club thread 2019. July: A Country Doctor's Notebook

Postby Mista » Sun Jun 30, 2019 9:07 pm

It's almost July, so I'd like to remind everyone that we will be reading Bulgakov's A Country Doctor's Notebook.

Who will be reading it, and in which language?

I'm planning to read it in Russian, with heavy support from the kindle dictionary, and a Norwegian translation close at hand. But I probably won't start until next weekend, when I return from Iceland.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Getting back to the June book, The Bridge on the Drina, I have now finished the 9th chapter, which means I have read about 40%. I like the book, even in German, and I still have no lack of motivation for reading it, but it's going slowly, and I don't have a lot of time for reading either. I'm currently in Iceland to learn Icelandic, and I'm also trying to squeeze in some non-curricular icelandic reading. I read a few pages every day, sometimes 4, sometimes 14 or 24, but on Friday I will be going home, so I have hopes of finishing by the end of the week (or at least I will make a big leap forward).

For a long time, I was expecting the narrative to zoom in on a main character and a storyline, but I've come to realize that the undertitle (in German, "Eine Wischegrader Chronik") doesn't really point in that direction. It's really the bridge that plays the role of the main character in this book. I'm also getting increasingly conscious that my knowledge of the history in this region is like a swiss cheese, as we say in Norwegian (i.e. like a gruyère: full of holes).
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