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Amerykanka’s Adventures - 2015 and Beyond

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Amerykanka
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4967 days ago

657 posts - 890 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian

 
 Message 25 of 55
20 June 2015 at 3:35am | IP Logged 
SUMMER READING CHALLENGE: DAY 5
Niebla - 17 pages

As you can see, my new book is Miguel de Unamuno's Niebla. In my Spanish Lit class last fall I read his short story "El marqués de Lumbría" and enjoyed that, so I thought I would give one of his longer works a try. Furthermore, the style and vocabulary are much harder than those of Marina, so this will be a good challenge. I was half asleep while I was doing my reading today due to my younger brother's insistence that we go mountain biking - it was fun but has left me totally exhausted - but I still managed read the Prólogo, the Post-Prólogo, and the first chapter, so it was a good start. I also added a dozen new words to Anki.

I have yet to complete my Polish reading (thanks to aforementioned mountain biking) and it is getting late over here, so I had better conclude this post.
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Amerykanka
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4967 days ago

657 posts - 890 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian

 
 Message 26 of 55
20 June 2015 at 4:20am | IP Logged 
Cambio de planes: de repente me han entrado muchas ganas de escribir algo en español, entonces aquí lo tienen. Que me perdonen errores estúpidos, que estoy cansadísima (como mencioné en el mensaje de arriba) y por eso no pienso bien las cosas. Como siempre, todas correcciones son muy bienvenidas. :)


UNA RESEÑITA DE MARINA (O MÁS BIEN MIS PENSAMIENTOS DESORDENADOS)
Al principio no sabía si este libro me iba a gustar - de haberlo visto en inglés nunca lo habría leído, simplemente suelo mantenerme alejada de este tipo de historia, pero ya que era en español decidí probarla. Me alegro de haberlo hecho; Marina me gustó a pesar de encontrarse fuera de mis géneros favoritos. La verdad es que no sé cómo clasificar este libro. Yo diría que es una mezcla interesante de misterio, ciencia ficción, horror y aun romance. (Pero no se me dan bien las clasificaciones, especialmente cuando estoy cansada, entonces ¿quién sabe?)

El aspecto de misterio/suspense fue lo que me gustó más. No adiviné la verdadera situación hasta el final; había suficientes pistas para hacer la historia interesante pero no tantas para que el desenlace fuera obvio. También había unas escenas muy escalofriantes (para mí, de todos modos), y otro punto bueno era la habilidad del autor de hacerme sentir muy integrada en el ambiente de la Barcelona de los '80.

La novela fracasó, en mi opinión, en el dominio de ciencia ficción. Quizás no estuviera leyendo tan aplicadamente como debería, pero la manera de Kolvenik de resucitar a la gente me pareció confusa y poco convincente. Acabo de leer Frankenstein y la explicación de Shelley tiene mucho más sentido; cuando leía Frankenstein la "suspensión de la incredulidad" era posible, cuando leía Marina me seguían brotando dudas.

Otra crítica - el personaje principal, Óscar Drai, me parecía un poco débil. No alcanzo entender porque les cae tan bien a Marina y a Germán. No digo que sea una persona mala - al contrario - pero no tiene mucho carácter. Por supuesto el lector tiene acceso a los pensamientos íntimos de Oscar y por eso le tiene afecto, pero Marina y su padre no tienen esta ventaja y por lo tanto solo pueden juzgar lo exterior: su comportamiento y sus palabras (las que son muy pocas). Entonces me pregunto, ¿por qué estaban tan dispuestos a confiarle y hacerlo parte de la familia?

A pesar de estas críticas, fue una lectura bastante interesante y divertida. Quizás lo vuelvo a leer algún día.     
1 person has voted this message useful



Amerykanka
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4967 days ago

657 posts - 890 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian

 
 Message 27 of 55
21 June 2015 at 6:41am | IP Logged 
Now seems to be a good time to talk about what will happen if I don't do the assigned reading for the day. I
will do makeup reading on another day; but my rule is that I have to do the makeup reading AFTER the day
when I failed to complete my assignment. In other words, if I read 30 pages Monday and don't read any
Tuesday, I can't apply the extra pages from Monday as my makeup pages; instead I need to read 15 extra
pages on Wednesday or over the next couple of days. This may sound rather legalistic, but I want to
encourage as much reading as possible and on as consistent a basis as possible, and if I let myself apply
extra pages from the past to each day when I feel pressed for time, I won't make the same effort to read
every day and I will get in the habit of reading in bursts. This kind of sporadic reading is exactly what I am
trying to avoid; consistence is key and in the long run increases productivity (in this case, measured by page
count).

So, now for the report, which will explain WHY it was necessary for me to go into this lengthy explanation.

SUMMER READING CHALLENGE: DAY 6
Szatan z siódmej klasy - 30 pages

To make a long story short: I had a very busy day, and I read an extra 15 pages in Polish to make up for the
15 that I missed yesterday. Hence, I ran out of time and didn't do any Spanish reading. Alas, such is life. In
accordance with the protocol detailed above, I will make up the missing 15 pages tomorrow or over the next
few days.
1 person has voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6393 days ago

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Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

 
 Message 28 of 55
21 June 2015 at 7:00pm | IP Logged 
Honestly the best advice I've seen over the past year is not to make up for the daily goals you miss. Move on, do better next day, meet the minimum if that's all you can do. Don't worry.
If you keep stressing about catching up you'll constantly feel like you're not good enough.
3 persons have voted this message useful



Amerykanka
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4967 days ago

657 posts - 890 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian

 
 Message 29 of 55
24 June 2015 at 3:39am | IP Logged 
SUMMER READING CHALLENGE: DAYS 7, 8, & 9
Niebla - 62 pages
Szatan z siódmej klasy - 60 pages

I may not have gotten the amount of pages exactly right; I didn't have time to update this log yesterday or the day before and so I've mixed up all the page numbers in my mind. But the important thing is that my reading challenge is still going strong!


Serpent wrote:
Honestly the best advice I've seen over the past year is not to make up for the daily goals you miss. Move on, do better next day, meet the minimum if that's all you can do. Don't worry.
If you keep stressing about catching up you'll constantly feel like you're not good enough.


Very true, this is good advice. If I'm only a day behind it isn't a big deal to catch up, but if I start falling behind more days I will definitely just forget about the past and move forward.

Edited by Amerykanka on 24 June 2015 at 3:40am

1 person has voted this message useful



Amerykanka
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4967 days ago

657 posts - 890 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian

 
 Message 30 of 55
25 June 2015 at 5:15am | IP Logged 
SUMMER READING CHALLENGE: DAY 10
Niebla - 34 pages
Szatan z siódmej klasy - 20 pages

Good news - I have finished reading Szatan z siódmej klasy! Now I need to pick another book from my
Polish list. I also plan on beginning my Polish vocab recovery project tomorrow. I will provide details once I
have worked out my strategy.

Incidentally, does anyone know of any good Polish television shows (preferably ones easily accessible
online)?
1 person has voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6393 days ago

9753 posts - 15779 votes 
4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

 
 Message 31 of 55
25 June 2015 at 6:03am | IP Logged 
I have a Belarusian dub of the travel show Boso przez świat and I really like it.
2 persons have voted this message useful



Amerykanka
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4967 days ago

657 posts - 890 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian

 
 Message 32 of 55
26 June 2015 at 5:53am | IP Logged 
Serpent wrote:
I have a Belarusian dub of the travel show Boso przez świat and I really like it.


Thanks - I watched an episode and I think I will enjoy it. It's always nice to learn more about the rest of the
world!

And an update is coming tomorrow - it's late over here, and I want to explain about my Polish vocab plans in
depth at a time when I am not complete exhausted.




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