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Books (French, Italian & Portuguese) | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7006 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes  Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 1 of 8 30 December 2005 at 11:35am | IP Logged |
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I've placed this in this sub-forum but I'm not sure if it should be somewhere else. Admin or mods please move accordingly.
There's a thread on where to find foreign language books in general here there's a thread on audiobooks here. My question combines both these, so rather than post the same questions in each thread, I decided to start a new one. What I'm loking for are books and accompanying audiobooks, in their original languages, for French, Italian and Portuguese. Which author(s) would you recommend and why? Which would you consider the easiest to read and why? Where's the best source for them? Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. P.S. By "accompanying" I mean that the same book exists in paper version and CD/cassette version, in order to use them both simultaneously (as I've explained in the audiobook thread). Edited by patuco on 30 December 2005 at 6:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Call me Ishmael Newbie United States Joined 6901 days ago 8 posts - 8 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Spanish | Message 2 of 8 30 December 2005 at 7:19pm | IP Logged |
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I learned to read French mainly through reading "The count of Monte Cristo". Which I think was good because it was long and had lots of conversation and action, and the vocabulary wasn't very intense. Plus it's a classic that I enjoyed in English as well. I'm reading "Les Miserables" unabridged right now, and the vocab is much more difficult and maybe out of usage as many words are not found on wordreference.com. I get most of my books from a store located in New York City. The store also has a pretty good selection of audio books. Although some are only available as tapes rather than cds. I'd love to know if you have any good recommendations for books too.
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| omicron Senior Member United States Joined 7112 days ago 125 posts - 132 votes Speaks: English* | Message 3 of 8 09 February 2006 at 8:02pm | IP Logged |
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For French, I recommend L'Etranger by Albert Camus
I've met a couple people who didn't even want to try it because it's 'philosophical literature', so they assume it'll be a difficult read. And maybe it is difficult, if you're reading it for its absurdist philosophical themes. But as an exercise for reading French, it's very accessible. It's written in first person 'spoken French' - Meursault is talking directly to you. You're not going to find any literary verb tenses. And you can get a recording by Camus himself on Amazon.fr here - probably the most authentic experience of the book to be found. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| loïc Tetraglot Newbie Joined 7148 days ago 10 posts - 12 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, German Studies: Portuguese | Message 4 of 8 10 February 2006 at 4:14am | IP Logged |
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My favorite french authors are authors of the 19th century: Balzac, Flaubert, Maupassant, Stendhal, Zola... I warmly recommend you Guy de Maupassant, as he wrote numerous short stories that should be quite easy to read. I've just taken a look at the amazon.fr site, and these authors are available in audio books.
Jules Verne is really fun to read if you like adventures, wreck stories... I loved his books when I was a child. Must read: 20000 lieux sous les mers, De la terre à la lune, Le tour du monde en 80 jours, L'île mystérieuse... Many of his books are available in audio books (with abridged versions for children). Before 19th century: Tales by Charles Perrault, La Fontaine, philosophical tales by Voltaire (Candide, Zadig...) are available in audio books and a pleasure to read. 20th century: L'étranger by Camus is easy to read, you can try also La peste. Proust is available in audio books but not easy to read and a bit boring (long phrases and thick books...). I can't help you for post 1950 litterature as I don't really like it (self-obsessed authors, boring books...). The best known author nowadays is Michel Houellebecq, easy to read (short phrases, simple vocabulary) but not my cup of tea. A link with free audio books in french: http://www.incipitblog.com/index.php/sommaire The equivalent to http://www.vorleser.net/ (German audio books) in french: http://www.livresaudio.net/ (only a few poems for the time being). Free audio books in portuguese: http://www.bibvirt.futuro.usp.br/sons/livro_falado/titulo.ht ml Edited by loïc on 10 February 2006 at 4:35am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7006 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 8 10 February 2006 at 6:03am | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the responses. Those links seem promising.
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| Bak Triglot Senior Member Senegal Joined 6635 days ago 31 posts - 36 votes Speaks: Spanish, French*, English Studies: German | Message 6 of 8 18 September 2007 at 11:44am | IP Logged |
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I've read somewhere that whoever reads "les Aventures de Télémaque" by Fénelon will write french perfectly for the rest of his life...
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| berlinhammer Triglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6556 days ago 19 posts - 19 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC1, French Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 7 of 8 08 November 2007 at 4:49am | IP Logged |
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Well, portuguese I wouldn't know, what with my entire command of the language consisting of 'obrigado'.
Italian: at the moment I'm enjoying reading a Harry Potter book and before that I read 'Manolito on the Road' by Elvira Lindo translated from the Spanish. I also read a couple of 'easy readers' that were really enjoyable though I don't know how hard the originals would be. They were 'Io non ho paura' by Niccolò Ammaniti (a film too I believe) and 'I giovedi della signora Giulia' by Piero Chiara. I've enjoyed reading these, but as my italian isn't fluent yet i've only read kids' books and easy readers so far. French: Houellebecq is a good modern writer, i read Plateforme but it's good but very depressing. One author i like is Marie Darrieussecq, 'Truismes' is a really good book, not too long and quite easy to read. Another book i enjoyed was by Sylvie Germain, called 'jours de colere'. There is endless amazing french literature out there as mentioned by some previous posters, but you may want to stay contemporary for the moment if you're looking to improve upon your language. EDIT: oops didn't notice you were fluent in french already. well take your pick! not sure which books are available on audio, i'll keep an eye open. Edited by berlinhammer on 08 November 2007 at 9:17am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ginawang8412 Newbie ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6149 days ago 11 posts - 12 votes Speaks: Mandarin* | Message 8 of 8 16 January 2008 at 12:44am | IP Logged |
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hi, I found very good website to Learn Portuguese, Spanish and other languages for the beginners, if anyone interested in can have a look. The very important thing it's free for study in here!!!
Here's the link: http://www.linguasnet.com/ 1 person has voted this message useful |
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