Do you read lots of books by the same author?
kathy_t
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
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friedag
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agoRelated Discussions
Do you read Chick Lit books?
Comments (2)I haven't read those, but felt the same way about the Twilight series. I hate vampire stuff and resisted all the hype about books, but then my dil was reading them and she convinced me to try one. They are definitely not high literature, but were so much FUN. The author really captured that feeling as a teen that I remember but no longer experience (nor have I for 40+ years) of emotional/sexual longing without there being any sex at all in the books. They are set in the NW so it was fun to see references to where I have lived my whole life. Then I couldn't believe that I saw the movies, too. Sheesh, now THAT"S embarrassing! I'll check out Pretty Little Liars....See MoreAre YOU buying books in Danish that you Can't Read?
Comments (18)We've had this discussion before and, while I can't recall what my previous position on the issue is, today I'm with Beagles and mtnrdredux.:) I like to read actual books and I also like the idea of books as decor. I once arranged a set of bookshelves with the books by color and height. Very pretty although not very efficient when searching for a book, so that idea got scrapped. I have bought books because I liked their appearance, e.g., a book on bridge with a brown velvet-like cover; a miniature book (in English if read from left to right and in French if read from right to left) about a mischevous cat (un chat mechant); a book on antique Japanese prints the pages of which, when the book is opened, unfold in accordian fashion, etc. I haven't done it often, but why not place a book with a beautiful cover or illustrations on a stand or easel, so that it can be enjoyed as if it were a piece of art? I have one probably published in the early 1900s about a pet dog with photos of the time in it, and I had it on a small stand with one wonderful photo of the dog and the girl who owned it showing. Most of those books were very inexpensive, costing $10 at the most, with most under $5; some are valuable (e.g., some of Teriade's Verve art and literature series). In all cases, I chose them because I liked what they looked like though. Since I can't get onto that web site, I don't know what the Danish books look like. However, I can't imagine spending anything approaching that amount on random books, particularly when common sense says that 7 random books might not even fill a bag on a book sale's $2/bag day....See MoreEver read different editions/translations of the same book?
Comments (10)I mostly compare translations with the originals and sometimes find fault, but as I have a degree in translation studies I may be able to shed some light on the subject from that point of view. Translators have to make lots of choices when they start a translation, beginning with how the client - with literary works it's usually a publisher - wants the text translated. Before a translation is made, decisions have to be made about the target audience and what kind of style suits them best. You may want to get the flavour of the grammar and the style across, in which case it will probably feel very foreign and not very fluid, you might want to stress readability over absolute correctness or vice versa, or you might even want to localise it to the extent of making the story happen locally (like children's book translations sometimes do). If you get it wrong, or someone outside the target audience, who has different expectations, then reads the translation, they might not be happy with it, even if the target audience loves it. With the Laclos translation you mention, the publisher might, for instance, have requested that the text be localised so that it would feel more British, or the translator might even have had orders to modernise the language, because I think at least 'dotty' is a fairly new usage. It is interesting that both examples you cite are colloquial usages, because slang and colloquialisms can be extremely hard to get across in translations so that they have the same effect as they did in the original. The age of the translation matters as well. A contemporary translation of a classic will inevitably feel dated in a way that a modern translation will not, even if the modern translator has taken care to use language that reflects the era of the original. And of course it must be said that some translators are better than others at making their translations readable and convincing to the reader. Two translators can, stylistically speaking, produce translations that are adequate to the purpose or equivalent in effect to the original, that yet read like two different authors have rendered the same story. This is no coincidence, because good literary translations are works of art (this applies especially to verse translations, but also to prose). A translator can be technically very good, but unless they also have at least a spark of artistic writing ability, they will not produce translations that satisfy the reader like an original work of literature does. There is an interesting discussion of this sort of thing in chapter 6 of Umberto Eco's Mouse or Rat? Translation as negotiation. He picks up a discussion by another linguist and takes it a bit further in discussing the relative merits of several different translations of Dante's Inferno. Of course, translators of poetry face even bigger challenges than translators of prose, and sometimes the most accurate translation of a poem is the one that abandons the original......See MoreWhat have you learned to do through books and reading?
Comments (24)Like some here, I learn skills best in an interactive situation where I observe, then try, then get corrections. But an instructor is not always available to me, and books work reasonably well when no teacher is available for the skills I want to acquire. And even when they are, books enhance and expand the learning experience for me. I prefer to have both, but will take either when that is all I can get. What have I learned? Gardening, cooking, quilting, sewing were all skills I learned to varying degrees from books, though certainly I have had some instruction, too, particularly with sewing and tailoring. I'm getting mentally prepared to learn to knit, and I think I want to take up playing the recorder. I don't play any musical instrument. Knowing that I would give up quickly if I don't get to a rewarding level fast I thought, why not the recorder? Children learn quickly to play it on a simple level, yet this instrument is capable of producing lovely music in the hands of a musician. And best of all, no one could ever ask you to sing along! Rosefolly...See MoreUser
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