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HTLAL Book Club | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
| 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 9 of 77 02 February 2009 at 10:52am | IP Logged |
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Considering the thread is quite new and already there are quite a few people interested, I think the book club will find enough members.
So let's decide what books we could read together. The most popular studied languages among us seem to be French and Spanish, and of course we all speak English. For French, I would recommend "Ombre sultane" by Assia Djebar. Assia Djebar is one of North Africa's most influential writers. She writes in French, has won several awards and is even a member of the Académie Francaise. In "Ombre sultane", she tells about living in Algeria as a woman. See description on Amazon.fr. What might be particularly interesting to note to French learners on this forum is that the book is written in the present tense, with some imparfait and passé composé, no literary passé simple! This (and the choice of vocabulary) makes the book easier to read than most. For English, I am not so sure what to suggest. Several friends have recommended "To Kill a Mockingbird" as a must-read which is even treated in American schools but is virtually unknown in Europe. As I'm a particular fan of historical fiction, I also still have "Ben Hur" by Lew Wallace and "Ivanhoe" by Sir Walter Scott on my reading list. These are classics and out of copyright so it should be easy to get a cheap copy anywhere. Or we could read something published more recently, if anybody has any suggestions. Also for Spanish I am still looking for suggestions because I myself don't speak the language yet. Edited by Sprachprofi on 02 February 2009 at 10:54am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 6025 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes 5 sounds | Message 10 of 77 02 February 2009 at 11:40am | IP Logged |
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I like the idea; How about this one: Les trois mousquetaires, Alexandre Dumas.
The text is widely available and there is also an audio book; I find it a challenging read but that's because my French is crap ;). It is not too pretentious, a must-read classic and a very engaging story. Edited by Sennin on 02 February 2009 at 11:40am 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 11 of 77 02 February 2009 at 11:53am | IP Logged |
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"Ombre sultane" sounds worth reading; it's the only one of the 5 books listed so far that I'd be enthusiastic about giving a try.
I suppose my question has to be: what level of literature are you aiming at? If it's a matter of relatively simple-to-read books (which are still for native, adult audiences, but perhaps don't use literary tenses as heavily as many other books do), I can think of some stuff for Italian. On the other hand, if more challenging literature is within range (things like "Die Blechtrommel" or "Мастер и Маргарита"), I wouldn't mind seeing other books along that vein. For Spanish, I think anything by Gabriel García Márquez would be a reasonable place to start. I suppose the nature of this project eliminates books which haven't been translated, or have only been translated into a few languages? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Anya Pentaglot Senior Member France Joined 5784 days ago 636 posts - 708 votes Speaks: Russian*, FrenchC1, English, Italian, Spanish Studies: German, Japanese, Hungarian, Sanskrit, Portuguese, Turkish, Mandarin Studies: Ancient Greek, Hindi | Message 12 of 77 02 February 2009 at 12:14pm | IP Logged |
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for me, "Les trois mousquetaires" is a good idea
I suggest "L'isola del giorno prima" for Italian 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 13 of 77 02 February 2009 at 12:20pm | IP Logged |
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Another question: is anyone interested in having a non-fiction option? I'm thinking things like books on history, pop-science, etc. I'd be curious if Iversen had any recommendations in these fields too.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5915 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 14 of 77 02 February 2009 at 3:31pm | IP Logged |
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I think this is an excellent idea, though I don't really have time to contribute much to the discussions. I agree that for English "To Kill a Mockingbird" would definitely be worth considering, it does have some fairly complex themes, but shouldn't be anywhere near as difficult to read as Ivanhoe might be.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| blindsheep Triglot Senior Member Spain Joined 6351 days ago 503 posts - 507 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 15 of 77 02 February 2009 at 5:13pm | IP Logged |
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I'm interested in this idea. I would prefer for novels to do it with easily attainable texts (ie: free on internet), although if I could get a given french book without having to order it through the internet and wait forever here in spain I would be into that also. I may also be interested in non-fiction options depending on what they were.
Cheers. 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 16 of 77 03 February 2009 at 4:27am | IP Logged |
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Honestly if I think it will interest me I will read it. I don't mind what it is fiction, non-fiction. I don't think we should be basing it on what is easy though. And to be honest, 'living in Algeria as woman' isn't exactly making me want to rush off to the FNAC.
If it is downloadable, e-bookable even if I have to pay for it, I'd be much happier. But don't mind me. As an aside: Volte Triglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 9/4/2007 (666 days ago) I knew she was evil. :p 1 person has voted this message useful |
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