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HTLAL Book Club | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
| JonB Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6256 days ago 209 posts - 220 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Italian, Dutch, Greek | Message 57 of 77 03 March 2009 at 10:36am | IP Logged | ||
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Volte, I'm not saying that I don't want the discussion to go ahead. (In any case, my personal opinion on the issue is entirely irrelevant.)
I was just pointing out the fact that this type of discussion must (at least) come very close to breaching the forum-rules which say: "No religion. No politics". The book in question was written by a militant atheist, and is a very strong attack on all religions - especially Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. One does, therefore, have to question how such a book could be meaningfully discussed without - by definition - also discussing religion?? (I would say it is a question for the administrator to decide.) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6430 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 58 of 77 03 March 2009 at 1:22pm | IP Logged | ||
What can I say? Some of the books I've mentioned have been written by 'militant' followers of various religions (one I mentioned using for Spanish L-R was pure Rapture propaganda; one TV station I started a thread about is dedicated to and named after a former Buddhist nun who seems to have started her own religion); other books openly talked about on this forum are the core texts of major religions. It's perfectly possible to talk about these books while keeping the discussion fairly a-religious. Many of the great classics are political (either explicitly, as in "The Prince", or more subtly). I'd hardly conceive of banning discussion of them here! Let me put it this way: I'm sure the moderators are perfectly capable of taking care of the thread if it starts violating the forum rules, and I see no reason to assume that it necessarily will. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tricoteuse Pentaglot Senior Member Norway littlang.blogspot.co Joined 6669 days ago 745 posts - 845 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Norwegian, EnglishC1, Russian, French Studies: Ukrainian, Bulgarian | Message 59 of 77 08 March 2009 at 11:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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For the French April book I would suggest something by Maryse Condé (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryse_Cond%C3%A9). I have read one of her books now (La traversée de la Mangrove) and it was so good I now want to read everything she has written. If anyone else is up for any of her works, I'll gladly come along! "Moi, Tituba" is perhaps one of the most known books? I'm not sure...
Other recommendations for a somewhat different french author would be Virginie Despentes (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginie_Despentes). I have only read "Bye bye Blondie" but few books have captured me as it did. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6461 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 60 of 77 08 March 2009 at 11:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for pointing out another interesting writer from the Francophonie!
I'd be particularly interested in Maryse Condé's book "Segou", parce que je ne sais rien de l'empire Bambara, tandis que la sorcerie à Salem a été traité de beaucoup d'auteurs, surtout anglophones. As an English book for April I have written down "To Kill a Mockingbird" because no other suggestion received that much of a response, and there were no new suggestions for April. Still looking for a German book and possibly other languages... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ChristopherB Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6307 days ago 851 posts - 1074 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, German, French | Message 61 of 77 09 March 2009 at 1:04am | IP Logged | ||
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How about "Die Verwandlung" for German? It's a book I actually have (as well as the audiobook), but I've only ever read half of it. It's more a novella than a full novel, but very interesting nevertheless. What does everyone else think?
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 5985 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 62 of 77 09 March 2009 at 9:43am | IP Logged | ||
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I just bought a bilingue der Tod in Venidig/la Mort à Venise (Death in Venice) so I'll throw it into the ring for any anylanguage type of thing.
German/French being what I have.... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| NuclearGorilla Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6777 days ago 166 posts - 195 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Japanese, French | Message 63 of 77 09 March 2009 at 10:44pm | IP Logged | ||
It isn't very long, but I'd find it difficult not to recommend it. Besides, being shorter would leave everyone with more time for making sketchy interpretations, which is at least half the fun of it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6461 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 64 of 77 10 March 2009 at 12:05am | IP Logged | ||
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Okay, "Die Verwandlung" it is, for April :-)
Anybody second doing "Der Tod in Venedig" in May? For Esperanto, is anybody up to doing "La infana raso" (or the English translation "The Infant Race")? Or maybe something simpler, like "Fajron sentas mi interne"? I think several forum members have already read that one, they could join the discussion anyway. How'bout other languages? Anybody doing Spanish or Italian for example? For Italian, I could suggest Antonio Skármeta's "Il postino di Pablo Neruda", which has also been turned into a movie. Or how'bout Chinese? I just acquired "聊斋志异" (Strange stories from a Chinese studio) by Pu Songling as part of a collection of Chinese writings with the English translation side-by-side. It's supposed to be quite famous, and Kafka enjoyed these stories in translation. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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