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Book Club: Ben Hur [EN] | ||
 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 1 of 9 04 February 2009 at 12:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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This is a place to read "Ben Hur" (by Lewis Wallace) together and to discuss it. Please post unrelated things in the other Multilingual Lounge threads or your personal language-learning log. To learn more about HTLAL's book clubs, read this thread.
You want to participate? Here's how: 1. Get the book, either in the original English or in a language of your choice. You can probably find it in a local book store, you can definitely find it in an online book store and there's even a free text online and a free audiobook. 2. Start reading. 3. Post a lot, preferably in English. Tell us what you just read, what you expect to happen next, how you like the book so far, what words or sentences you have trouble with, what method (if any) you are using to go through the book, or anything else you want to share. 4. Try to finish the book within a month. The group will start reading the book on February 5th 2009. 5. Prepare for the next book. Next month, we are planning to read "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This book's text is also available online, but if you want a real book to hold, be sure to order it in time. Enjoy! Edited by Sprachprofi on 04 February 2009 at 12:22pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6885 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 9 11 February 2009 at 3:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, I have started on it. It was interesting to get a little more detail on the legend of the three wise men in the first chapter, especially since they feature so prominently in the Christmas time celebrations around here.
I am marking unknown words as I go along, and will perhaps look some of them up later if I have the time and energy. But increasing my English vocabulary is not really a priority for me, as I sometimes feel I have a bit more than I can handle in that department already. The largely outdated vocabulary used in the book, shrouded in an uncanny old-fashioned writing style, events unfolding in mysterious ancient times and in exotic foreign lands, all this makes for a pleasant read but at the same time does not make the book ideal for learning anything that will be especially useful in real life. So far I am reading from printouts, but I am quickly getting fed up with the inconvenience and will soon have to decide whether to actually get the real book, or give up on it. A few more chapters are necessary to decide if I can build up sufficient enthusiasm for the story to want to stick with it. For a bit of background I looked up the author Lewis Wallace in Wikipedia and read about his life. There was also a chapter-by-chapter summary of the book itself in Wikipedia but I am undecided whether I should read it lest it spoil the fun. I am doing some other reading at the same time and am not likely to finish this, or any of the other book-club titles within the month. Edited by Hencke on 11 February 2009 at 3:25pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JonB Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6256 days ago 209 posts - 220 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Italian, Dutch, Greek | Message 3 of 9 12 February 2009 at 4:11am | IP Logged | ||
Sprachprofi, I think it's a really wonderful idea to start a book club discussion. However I think it is wrong to encourage people to post in English here in the multilingual lounge! This is practically the only part of the forum where we are allowed to write in languages other than English! In my opinion it is very sad that this forum (a forum for polyglots!) is almost completely dominated by just one language - English. If this domination is now going to extend to the multilingual lounge as well, then I for one am not going to post here anymore :-( Can you not move the book club thread to another part of the forum? 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 4 of 9 12 February 2009 at 5:05am | IP Logged | ||
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The idea is that every book is discussed in the original language. In the Effi Briest book club for example, the preferred language is German. Anyway, feel free to post in whatever language; that's why the book clubs are all in the Multilingual Lounge.
I will be reading "Ben Hur" during my flight to California later this month, so I will join the discussion late. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6885 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 9 12 February 2009 at 5:18am | IP Logged | ||
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JonB, The book club threads are in this room so we can comment on books in the language of each book. Initially there are three languages, including English, and hopefully more languages will be added before long.
It would be confusing and impractical to move the English book club threads to another room, just because they are in English, and have the rest of them here. The language of each of these threads is reflected in the title so you can easily spot which ones are in English and avoid those if you choose to. There is no need to turn your back on the Multilingual area completely. But if the administrator agrees, creating a separate multilingual room for the book club might be a good alternative. It could include general discussion about literature too, in any language. (The description of the "Cultural Experiences" room includes "books you've read" but there doesn's seem to be a lot of comments on books). What do you all think? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JonB Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6256 days ago 209 posts - 220 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Italian, Dutch, Greek | Message 6 of 9 12 February 2009 at 6:25am | IP Logged | ||
Okay Sprachprofi. In fairness, I hadn't noticed that there were also other threads for French and German books. :-) However, I still say the use of English should be avoided in the multilingual lounge, otherwise we'll very quickly have a situation where it's only English which is used here - just like everywhere else in the forum! (Deine Muttersprache ist Deutsch, doch es kommt eher sehr selten vor, dass du deine Beitraege hier im 'multilingual lounge' auf Deutsch schreibst, nicht wahr?) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JonB Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6256 days ago 209 posts - 220 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Italian, Dutch, Greek | Message 7 of 9 12 February 2009 at 7:36am | IP Logged | ||
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BTW I also agree with Hencke - I think a separate room for book discussions would be a very good solution ;-)
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 8 of 9 02 March 2009 at 4:57am | IP Logged | ||
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Well, I finished the book just in time. I must say I was disappointed in the first few chapters, because I don't need to read a retelling of the gospels, but the latter chapters had their own story, little related to that.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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