Register  Login  Active Topics  Maps  

HTLAL Book Club 2015

  Tags: Book Club | HTLAL
 Language Learning Forum : Multilingual Lounge Post Reply
69 messages over 9 pages: << Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 8 9
Carola
Tetraglot
Newbie
Netherlands
Joined 3405 days ago

3 posts - 3 votes
Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, Japanese
Studies: Mandarin

 
 Message 65 of 69
16 August 2015 at 1:04am | IP Logged 
These days I'm mostly focusing on Japanese, and I'm currently reading 気まぐれロボット
(Kimagure Robotto) by 星 親一 (Hoshi Shin'ichi). It's a collection of science
fiction 'short-shorts' - short stories of around 5 pages. I'm about halfway through and
the stories so far have been quite enjoyable. I love how each story ends with a
punchline, but I must say they are getting a bit repetitive.

After this I am thinking of continuing reading Harry Potter. I started reading the first
book a while ago but stopped after the first chapter because I got distracted by other
books.
1 person has voted this message useful



Anya
Pentaglot
Senior Member
France
Joined 5807 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 66 of 69
16 August 2015 at 3:23pm | IP Logged 
In Japanese, I am currently reading a translation of "Rage of angels" by Sidney Sheldon, quite interesting, using
parallel text in English.
2 persons have voted this message useful



Via Diva
Diglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
last.fm/user/viadivaRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4248 days ago

1109 posts - 1427 votes 
Speaks: Russian*, English
Studies: German, Italian, French, Swedish, Esperanto, Czech, Greek

 
 Message 67 of 69
20 August 2015 at 11:56am | IP Logged 
I am afraid to read in German because my vocabulary is not big enough and my knowledge of grammar is like a map fill of white spots. Yet that didn't stop me from reading (listening-reading the book in German plus German audio) Herr aller Dinge. Andreas
Eschbach isn't an excellent writer, at least from what I have heard, and if you're looking for quality sci-fi you probably need to keep on looking.
I have less demands here. What I need is an interesting plot (interesting enough to keep me reading, at least) and not too complex style (to be able to follow). And, well, I think, Herr aller Dinge can give you both.
It's a story of a Japanese boy and his dreams, be it the dreams of things he could do, or of people he cherish. Everything adds to the mix along the way - drama, adventure, politics, economy, history, sci-fi. I can only compare it to a soap opera. You have this
boiling kettle of genres, and you present in in episodes, one line of the story changing the other abruptly each time.
The language is easy enough for me to follow. There is quite a bit of scientific stuff explained in the book, but the vocabulary isn't all too hard and it's fine if you don't need 100% comprehension. I don't know whether Eschbach has checked what he's written,
because in one of his other books Ausgebrannt (which I read in Russian) he states that crude oil chemically (!) decomposes to a number or products including propylene while distilling. Call me when you find enough propylene in crude oil. Or that
diesel and mazut are the same - and this is matters a lot, you'll know why if you read the book.
Still, I don't think that I should be too picky. I rated both these books 4/5 on goodreads, and I would recommend to at least try them, especially if you haven't read much in German beforehand.
2 persons have voted this message useful



Anya
Pentaglot
Senior Member
France
Joined 5807 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 68 of 69
20 August 2015 at 9:41pm | IP Logged 
In German, I am reading a book adopted by I. Franck method, "Schachnovelle" by Stefan Zweig. Reading the very
first pages make me think about Nabokov's "The Luzhin Defense", one of my favorite books. Later, I understood that
the main character is very different.
1 person has voted this message useful



Mork the Fiddle
Senior Member
United States
Joined 3983 days ago

86 posts - 159 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Norwegian, Latin, Ancient Greek

 
 Message 69 of 69
18 September 2015 at 2:08am | IP Logged 
In Spanish I am reading Dime quién soy by Julia Navarro. Currently I am on page 123 out of 1097 pages total. In part I chose this novel because it is a BFB, a big fat book. I just finished the Spanish translation of Haruki Murakami's 1Q84, which is an even bigger BFB, and my reading of it was far slower than I liked. It took me about a year to read the two volumes, about 1400 pages. Part of that was because it is not one of my favorites by Murakami, it goes a bit slow, and part was because my reading speed in Spanish is definitely not up to par. So I wanted to read another BFB to help speed up my reading of Spanish.

Dime quién soy was a lucky choice, because I am finding it fascinating. The plot covers the time from the events leading up to the Spanish Civil War to, I suppose, the present. Interesting characters, interesting predicaments, a bit less convoluted than Carlos Ruiz Zafón's La sombra del viento and a lot less gothic, too.

In French I am reading Souvenirs d'une ambassade à Berlin by André François-Poncet, who was French ambassador to Berlin from 1931-1938. Hence he got a close-up look at the rise of Adolf Hitler and National Socialism. Not exactly memoires, the book is an account of the significant events of the times with very occasionally bits of the ambassador's own personal role in the action. I just finished the chapter on the Olympic Games of 1936 and on the flamboyant lifestyle of Goering.

In Ancient Greek I am reading with parallel text The Civil Wars by Appian. Because Appian lived centuries after the times of Classical Greece and Athens, his use of words and the words he uses differ a bit from Classical Greek, but he manages well to describe the turbulent politics and prominent personalities. There are enough words unfamiliar to me that I would be lost without the parallel text.


2 persons have voted this message useful



This discussion contains 69 messages over 9 pages: << Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register


Post ReplyPost New Topic Printable version Printable version

You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum


This page was generated in 0.2813 seconds.


DHTML Menu By Milonic JavaScript
Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved
No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization.