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Books worth reading | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6430 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes  Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 1 of 21 23 August 2007 at 4:14pm | IP Logged |
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Given the tepid response to the world literature thread, and on Reineke's advice, here's a different question.
What books have you read (in the original language, not translations) which have been worth reading, in your opinion? Optionally, indicate why. Choose any kind of book, but choose ones that you like or respect from personal experience. I'll start by listing two English books. "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence", by Robert M. Pirsig, is a thought-provoking work of philosophy. "Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid", by Douglas R. Hofstadter, is an extremely hard to summarize work. Topics covered range from math and physics to the nature of consciousness. It's garnished with music, artwork (largely, but not entirely, that of Escher), and dialogs between various characters somewhat reminiscent - in style, though not detail or content - of those of "Alice in Wonderland". 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| reineke Senior Member United States https://learnalangua Joined 6438 days ago 851 posts - 1008 votes Studies: German | Message 2 of 21 23 August 2007 at 4:33pm | IP Logged |
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I'll second that and add that I'd like to see recommendations that are also "fun" reads with some artistic merit to them.
I really liked Felidae by Akif Pirincci, a German writer of Turkish origin. I'd recommend it to all cat lovers and mystery novel aficionados. Since it's a rather short and refreshing, different read I'd recommend not reading any reviews and such as a lot of novelty about it would be wasted. Students of Russian would likely enjoy Gogol's Taras Bulba. Again a refreshing, different read - especially so if you compare it some other great but rather depressing Russian novels. Um, it's not really all violets and daisies and fluffy bears either :) Edited by reineke on 23 August 2007 at 4:38pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| sluggy Bilingual Tetraglot Newbie Canada Joined 6294 days ago 24 posts - 29 votes Speaks: English*, Russian*, French, Spanish Studies: Japanese | Message 3 of 21 23 August 2007 at 4:49pm | IP Logged |
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L'étranger by Albert Camus was an interesting read, and I'm also a fan of Marc Levy's original French stuff, although the latter is more of the "contemporary bestseller" type than the former.
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| Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6656 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil | Message 4 of 21 23 August 2007 at 7:15pm | IP Logged |
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If you want something very French, try anything by Boris Vian, for example 'L'écume des jours'. His works have a reputation of being very difficult to translate, so maybe that's why he's virtually unknown outside the French speaking world. You could describe him as a French equivalent to Charles Bukowski.
Similarly, Georges Perec is one of the greatest writers of the last century, but not well known internationally. He wrote the novel 'La disparition' without using the letter 'e' but that's not very easy to read. I recommend 'La vie: mode d'emploi' (Life: a user's manual) which I consider a masterpiece. Daniel Pennac is a highly popular contemporary writer worth reading in French as well. In German, Kafka is my favourite, for example 'Der Prozess' and 'Die Verwandlung'. Hermann Hesse 'Der Steppenwolf' is one of my favourite books and he's written many other good books. Robert Musil is unfortunately not as well known as he should be, for 'Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften' is certainly one of the masterpieces of world literature. 'Das Parfüm' by Patrick Süskind is a great read, too. Edited by Marc Frisch on 23 August 2007 at 7:16pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| reineke Senior Member United States https://learnalangua Joined 6438 days ago 851 posts - 1008 votes Studies: German | Message 5 of 21 23 August 2007 at 8:48pm | IP Logged |
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For Croatian:
Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić children's stories: The Marvellous Adventures and Misadventures of Hlapić the Apprentice - Čudnovate zgode i nezgode šegrta Hlapića "Tales of Long Ago" Priče iz davnine Mate Lovrak Children's books Vlak u Snijegu “Družba Pere Kvržice” August Šenoa novels: Zlatarevo zlato Seljačka buna Čuvaj se senjske ruke Vladimir Nazor: Medvjed Brundo classified as an epic poem but a rather easy and enjoyable read Miroslav Krleža Short stories: Hrvatski bog Mars (Croatian god Mars) Croatian experience during the Great War. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tmesis Senior Member Mayotte Joined 6639 days ago 154 posts - 146 votes Speaks: English* | Message 6 of 21 23 August 2007 at 10:31pm | IP Logged |
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- Edited by tmesis on 17 February 2008 at 2:46pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| bentzi Bilingual Triglot Groupie Canada Joined 6739 days ago 45 posts - 47 votes 4 sounds Speaks: English*, Modern Hebrew*, Russian Studies: German | Message 7 of 21 23 August 2007 at 11:58pm | IP Logged |
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one of my favorite books in English is "Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions" by Edwin Abbott Abbott
in Russian I would recommend Золотой телёнок (little golden calf) and Двенадцать стульев (12 chairs) by illif and petrov both excellent reads, I especially enjoyed the movies based on these books. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Aka-gold Newbie Russian Federation Joined 6293 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 8 of 21 24 August 2007 at 5:35am | IP Logged |
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As a native Russian speaker, I would advise students learning Russian to read Doctor Zhivago by Pasternak.
I'm rereading it myself now, and it's terrific!! As for my questions, I would like to ask if there's a website where I can download free English audio books from. I don't have enough time for reading books, and it would be very comfortable to listen to english speech in transport and so on. Thanks in advance. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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