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Book you’d read/recommend in any language | ||
Tags: Book | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5547 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 17 of 22 16 May 2010 at 10:04pm | IP Logged |
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If I had to read a novel more than once in various languages, or add it to my desert island library of one, it would definitely be "Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov. An absolute bona fide classic! Edited by Teango on 16 May 2010 at 10:04pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| dolly Senior Member United States Joined 5781 days ago 191 posts - 376 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Latin | Message 18 of 22 16 May 2010 at 11:10pm | IP Logged |
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One book I read in every language is the New Testament. I look for the text and audio in the exact same version and this helps me with listening comprehension.
I'm going to read The Little Prince in all my languages, eventually. Text + audio in Farsi HERE And when I attain reading proficiency in all my languages, I would like to read War and Peace chapter by chapter in each language. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Deshwi Triglot Newbie Canada Joined 5591 days ago 31 posts - 38 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Arabic (Written), Turkish, Hindi, Persian | Message 19 of 22 17 May 2010 at 12:23am | IP Logged |
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"Cien Años de Soledad" (One Hundred Years of Solitude), by Gabriel Garcia Marquez has been translated into a few languages. I also enjoyed reading "The Alchemist". Yesterday I was searching the Toronto Library website for things like "Dracula" or Anne Rice, in other languages and I was suprised to not find much.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| noriyuki_nomura Bilingual Octoglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 5331 days ago 304 posts - 465 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Japanese, FrenchC2, GermanC2, ItalianC1, SpanishB2, DutchB1 Studies: TurkishA1, Korean | Message 20 of 22 23 May 2010 at 7:04am | IP Logged |
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I just finished reading "la ferme des animaux" (animal farm in French) by George Orwell this morning, oh my, this is probably one of the best books I have ever read!
ps: as the story revolves around animals in a farm, it's refreshing/useful to learn so many French words related to a farm :) Edited by noriyuki_nomura on 23 May 2010 at 7:05am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Emerald Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom languagedabbler.blog Joined 6236 days ago 316 posts - 340 votes Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 21 of 22 23 May 2010 at 11:11am | IP Logged |
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Deshwi,
Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles are available in Spanish. I am not sure about other languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Euphorion Hexaglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5331 days ago 106 posts - 147 votes Speaks: Slovak*, Czech, EnglishC2, GermanC1, SpanishC2, French | Message 22 of 22 23 May 2010 at 3:15pm | IP Logged |
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The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek (in Czech 'Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka') - that is my book number one, an incredibly deep, funny, intelligent and rich book that I treasure and if I had to choose one book to take to a desert island, it would be Švejk. It calms me down, it makes me laugh and it doesnt stop fascinating me. When I hold this book in my hand I feel safe.
A real jewel of Czech literature. Bertold Brecht once said: "If I were asked to choose three works of this century which will be part of the universal literature, the Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk would be one of them." A couple of weeks ago I found Švejk among the 1000 books you should read before you die, a list that someone wrote. Every book shows itself in its full beauty if it is read in the original language, but in the case of Švejk it is twice as important. It is considered to be untranslatable to other languages, because of the richness of its language, the variety of specific slangs, of many Germanisms and other -isms, and many other reasons. But if you want to read it and you dont speak Czech, there are two translations which are very good. First of all the German translation by Grete Reiner, a Jewish translator and editor from Prague who was perfectly bilingual and lived the times of Jaroslav Hašek (and was murderd in Auschwitz during the war). This translation is very close to the original and has never been surpassed. Thanks to the unique woman who wrote it and the cultural proximity of Czech and German. Even some of the first foreign versions of Švejk (for example the Norweigan one) have been translated from the German translation, not directly from Czech. The second excellent translation and at the same time the first high-quality English translation comes from Cecil Parrot. This is the best and maybe the only way how to get in touch with this extraordinary work of world literature for most people around the world. I have also gone through other versions and I regret to say that the French, the Spanish and even the Slovak (!) translations are far from the original book. Well, after having written these couple of sentences, I will have to read it once again and I look forward to it sooo much ;) Here's a link to Švejk on Amazon or other booksellers Edited by Euphorion on 23 May 2010 at 5:46pm 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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