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Harry Potter alternatives? | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
| blackverve Senior Member Canada Joined 4722 days ago 40 posts - 46 votes Studies: German | Message 1 of 31 29 January 2012 at 2:09am | IP Logged | |||||
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It seems like a lot of learners are using Harry Potter as it's translated into a zillion languages but I can't stomach them. I'm a beginner in German and I decided to start with youth-age books to develop my reading cause I dislike childrens' books. I thought of Twilight but people say it's poorly written...and, I'm not familiar with other youth-type books that are popular enough to be translated into German. Any suggestions? I only read non-fiction books now but when I was a teen I liked books that had vampires, love triangles...umm, used to read Stephen King, Edgar A. Poe...well, I'm looking for books written for tweens that's known to be well written with proper grammar and all. I want to read books with modern English and German so books written in 1648 wouldn't work.
I don't like stories about magical creatures such as "The Hobbit"...the more realistic the better. The furthest I would go into "non-realistic" stuff is vampires. Don't like sci-fi/fantasy too much. My favourite fiction book is Fernando Pessoa's "Book of Disquiet" if that gives you an idea of what I used to like. I suppose I like diary-type memoir stuff a lot like Henry Miller. I dislike books with any religious undertones too. I want to read the English version first; then the German version with an audiobook. Any ideas? Books that were written in German originally and then translated would be brilliant. Thank you. Edited by blackverve on 29 January 2012 at 7:32pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| s0fist Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5036 days ago 260 posts - 445 votes  Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Sign Language, German, Spanish, French | Message 2 of 31 29 January 2012 at 2:59am | IP Logged | |||||
hmmm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| blackverve Senior Member Canada Joined 4722 days ago 40 posts - 46 votes Studies: German | Message 3 of 31 29 January 2012 at 3:34am | IP Logged | |||||
Uh, ya...my sentences are not clear. Sorry. Just looking for books written for tweens; just meant I'm unfamiliar with the fiction category for all ages as I only read non-fiction right now as an adult. But for language learning now I'm open to all genres. Edited by blackverve on 29 January 2012 at 6:52pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ellsworth Senior Member United States Joined 4947 days ago 345 posts - 528 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Swedish, Finnish, Icelandic, Irish | Message 4 of 31 29 January 2012 at 3:53am | IP Logged | |||||
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A great book is "Die Vermessung der Welt." Just finished it. Really, really good and
famous in Germany and around the world. Maybe a bit harder than what you are looking for, but it's not a hard book and really worth any time you may spend on it! 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6587 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 5 of 31 29 January 2012 at 4:06am | IP Logged | |||||
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Sure Stephen King has been translated into German?
Another popular choice is The Little Prince. I think it's public domain. Haven't read it myself but I'm going to. Really for example in Romanian or Danish I've been listening-reading HP because there's not much else you can find... it's very different in German. Every major work has probably been translated into German. It could be a good idea to find German translations of things that are originally in (European) languages you don't plan to learn - Russian, Polish, Portuguese (Coelho), Norwegian. Just my assumptions, obviously. In these cases, the German translations are likely to be as good as English translations and possibly better. And one more thing to consider - if you don't like reading fiction, it might not be the best thing to use for learning either. Edited by Serpent on 29 January 2012 at 4:07am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Raincrowlee Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 6692 days ago 621 posts - 808 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Indonesian, Japanese | Message 6 of 31 29 January 2012 at 5:17am | IP Logged | |||||
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If you're not interested in teens' books, why not try something like The Stranger or The Sun Also Rises, which are famous for their pared down prose.
Many genre books (though certainly not all) genre books are written with the general reader in mind; I just got turned on to mysteries by Maxime Chattam in French, and they're easily readable. Perhaps you can find someone of a similar caliber. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Anomi Newbie Austria Joined 4681 days ago 20 posts - 26 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 7 of 31 29 January 2012 at 8:55am | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm surprised that you don't want to read a translation of the Harry Potter series, it's excellent for foreign language learners because the books are both interesting and increase in difficulty as the series continues. The last few books in the series are definitely not children's books either.
But if you want to try something else, you could look into the Die Tribute von Panem trilogy, which is the German translation of the Hunger Games trilogy. The series is very popular in English and is being made into a few movies at the moment. It is a series ment for teenagers though, so I'm not sure if it would be above your level if you're looking for tween fiction. I'm sure it's worth the look though. Apparently the audio for the German version has been nominated for some awards as well, if that interests you (: Also, it's published under Scholastic. So the level of reading, as well as the style of writing should be adequate. Edited by Anomi on 29 January 2012 at 9:09am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6369 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 31 29 January 2012 at 11:41am | IP Logged | |||||
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Maybe the Chronicles of Narnia? They were written for young readers.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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