Sir Furboy's Language (and Random Stuff) Category Challenge

In 2016 I read books in six languages and had a further ten categories that I read from. This was fairly successful and so this year I am repeating and extending the experiment. It is 2017, so that is 7+10, so this coming year I intend to read books in at least 7 languages. That is my existing six plus a new language that I will be learning this year - I intend that to be Greek.

I am keeping my other 10 categories the same as they yielded a range of reading that I was happy with.

Thus my categories are:

--- LANGUAGES ---

1. Welsh

1. Sgwid Beynon a'r Adenydd Angel - Siân Lewis
2. Sgwid Beynon a'r Dyn Marw - Siân Lewis
3. Gwaed y Gwanwyn - Gareth Williams
4. Gramadeg Cymraeg Cyfoes
5. Hen Blant Bach - Gwen Parrot

2. French - Category Complete

1. La Bouteille à la mer (La Patrouilles des Castors 5)
2. La Genèse - Louis Segond Version of the Bible
3. Les jumeaux Tapper - Tous les coups sont permis
4. Le trophée de Rochecombe (La Patrouille Des Castors - 6) - Mitacq
5. Le Secret des Monts Tabou (La Patrouille Des Castors - 7) - Mitacq
6. Le hameau englouti (La Patrouille Des Castors - 8) - Mitacq
7. Le Traître sans visage (La Patrouille Des Castors - 9) - Mitacq
8. Le Signe Indien (La Patrouilles des Castors - 10) - MiTacq
9. Où on va Papa ? - Jean-Louis Fournier
10. Harry Potter a l'ecole des sorciers - J K Rowling
11. Ma Vie en Or - Emmanuel Bourdier
12. Les Loupes Escarlates (La Patrouilles des Castors - 11) - MiTacq
13. Menace en Camargue (La Patrouilles des Castors - 12) - Mitacq
14. La Couronne cachée (La Patrouille des Castors 13) - Mitacq
15. Harry Potter et la Chambre des secrets - J K Rowling
16. Le chaudron du diable (La Patrouille des Castors 14) - Mitacq
17. L'autobus hanté (La Patrouille des Castors 15) - Mitacq
18. Le fantôme (La Patrouille des Castors 16) - Mitacq
19. Le pays de la mort (La Patrouille des Castors 17) - Mitacq
20. Les démons de la nuit (La Patrouille des Castors 18) - Mitacq
21. Vercingétorix contre Jules César - Hélène Montardre
22. Interdit! - Florence Jenner Metz
23. Vingt milliards sous la terre (La Patrouille des Castors 19) - Mitacq
24. El Demonio (La Patrouille des Castors 20) - Mitacq
25. Passeport pour le néant (Patrouille des castors, 21) - Mitacq
26. Prisonniers du large - (Patrouille des castors, 22) - Jean-Michel Charlier, Mitacq
27. L'esclave: Prince Captif - C S Pacat
28. L'envers du décor - (Patrouille des castors, 23) - Jean-Michel Charlier, Mitacq
29. Souvenirs d'Elcasino - (Patrouille des castors, 24) - Jean-Michel Charlier, Mitacq
30. L'empreinte - (Patrouille des castors, 25) - Jean-Michel Charlier, Mitacq
31. L'Île du Crabe - (Patrouille des castors, 26) - Jean-Michel Charlier, Mitacq
32. Blocus - (La patrouille des castors, 27) - Mitacq
33. Le calvaire du mort pendu - (La patrouille des castors, 28) - Mitacq
34. Torrents sur Mesin - (La patrouille des castors, 29) - Mitacq
35. La pierre de foudre - (La patrouille des castors, 30) - Mitacq

3. Dutch

1. De Brief voor de Koning - Tonke Dragt
2. Groter dan de lucht, erger dan de zon - Daan Remmerts de Vries

4. German

1. Essential German Grammar - Durrell, Kohl, Kaiser and Loftus
2. Enders Spiel - Orson Scott Card
3. Oneyun - Alan J. Stark
4. Working with German
5. Angela Merkel - Porträts und Interviews aus dem SPIEGEL

5. Italian

1. Io e te - Niccolò Ammaniti
2. Il Principe - Niccolò Machiavelli
3. Il libro della giungla - Rudyard Kipling
4. Come Dio comanda - Niccolò Ammaniti
5. Easy Learning Italian Conversation - Collins Dictionaries
6. Collins Complete Italian Grammar - Collins Dictionaries
7. Il Piccolo Principe - Antoine de Saint Exupéry
8. Breve storia d'Italia - Alfio Caruso

6. Greek

1. είμαι μικρή - Philipp Winterberg
2. πίθηκοs - Niki Marouli

7. Old English

1. Complete Old English (Anglo-Saxon) - Mark Atherton
2. Sweet's Anglo Saxon Primer - Henry Sweet
3. The Dream of the Rood
4. Beowulf

--- OTHER ---

8. Sci Fi - Category Complete

1. Arena One: Slaverunners - Morgan Rice
2. Enders Spiel - Orson Scott Card
3. Oneyun - Alan J. Stark
4. Insurgent - Veronica Roth
5. Allegiant - Veronica Roth
6. In Dark Service (Far Called Trilogy #1)- Stephen Hunt (actually Steampunk)
7. Life Before Legend - Marie Lu
8. Nowhere - Jon Robinson
9. The Gate Thief - O S Card (arguably this one is fantasy. However I think all the magic is described with a science like explanation that allows it to be regarded as SCiFi).
10. Gatefather - O S Card
11. GemX - Nick Singer
12. Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie
13. Railhead - Philip Reeve

9. Fantasy - Category Complete

1. The Bronze Key - Holly Black, Cassandra Clare
2. Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide - J K Rowling
3. Pegasus and the Flame - Kate O'Hearn
4. Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power. Politics and Pesky Poltergeists - J K Rowling
5. Fool's Quest - Robin Hobb
6. Stardust - Neil Gaiman
7. The Darke Toad - Angie Sage
8. A Slave to Magic - Lana Axe
9. Clariel - Garth Nix
10. The Boy with the Golden Eyes - Majorie Young
11. The Novice - Taran Matharu
12. Fyre - Angie Sage
13. Frogkisser - Garth Nix
14. Knights of the Borrowed Dark - Dave Rudden
15. Assassin's Fate - Robin Hobb
16. A Rare Book of Cunning Device - Ben Aaronovitch
17. Xavier: St Griswold College for Abandoned Boys - E M Cooper

10. Coming of Age - Category Complete

1. Inside Out - Amanda Speedie
2. Spud - John Van De Ruit
3. Io e te - Niccolò Ammaniti
4. Attica - Garry Kilworth
5. Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
6. Release - Patrick Ness
7. Come Dio comanda - Niccolò Ammaniti
8. The Wall - William Sutcliffe
9. See you in the Cosmos - Jack Cheng
10. The Bombs that Brought us Together - Brian Conaghan

11. Children & Young Adult - Category Complete

1. The Bronze Key - Holly Black, Cassandra Clare
2. Middle School: The Worst Years of my Life - James Patterson
3. Middle School: Get Me Out of Here! - James Patterson
4. Middle School: My Brother Is a Big, Fat Liar - James Patterson
5. Middle School: How I Survived Bullies, Broccoli, and Snake Hill - James Patterson
6. Middle School: Save Rafe! - James Patterson
7. La Bouteille à la mer (La Patrouilles des Castors - 5)
8. Les jumeaux Tapper - Tous les coups sont permis
9. Le trophée de Rochecombe (La Patrouille Des Castors - 6 ) - Mitacq
10. Lockwood & Co: The Dagger in the Desk - Jonathan Stroud
11. Fright Forest - Marcus Sedgwick
12. Dark Inheritance (The Unicorne Files) - Chris D'Lacy
13. Max Helsing and the Thirteenth Curse (Max Helsing: Monster Hunter) - Curtis Jobling
14. The Case of the Vanishing Boy - Alexander Key
15. Chronicles of Egg: Blue Sea Burning - Geoff Rodkey
16. Alfie Bloom 1: Alfie Bloom and the Secrets of Hexbridge Castle - Gabrielle Kent
17. Abraham Frost: The cup of Jamshid - Andrew Old
18. Cabin Fever (Diary of a Wimpy Kid book 6) - Jeff Kinney
19. The Third Wheel (Diary of a Wimpy Kidd book 7) - Jeff Kinney
20. Hard Luck (Diary of a Wimpy Kid book 8) - Jeff Kinney
21. The Long Haul (Diary of a Wimpy Kid book 9) - Jeff Kinney
22. The Candle-Man Catherine Fisher
23. Jinx - Sage Blackwood
24. The Haunting - Margaret Mahy
25. Darkmouth - Shane Hegarty
26. The Gates - John Connolly
27. So You Want to be a Wizard - Diane Duane
28. Diary of A wimpy Kid: Old School - Jeff Kinney
29. Department 19 - Will Hill
30. The Sword of Aradel - Alexander Key
31. Pathfinder - Angie Sage
32. The Ring of Allaire - Susan Dexter
33. Children of the Lost - David Whitley
34. Lockwood & Co: The Empty Grave - Jonathan Stroud

12. Award Winning - Category Complete

1. De Brief voor de Koning - Tonke Dragt - 1963: Kinderboek van het Jaar (Children's book of the Year / Gouden Griffel), 2004: Griffel der Griffels (award for the best Dutch children's book of the past fifty years)
2. Enders Spiel - O S Card - (Ender's Game) 1986 Hugo and 1985 Nebula Awards
3. Stardust - Neil Gaiman - 1999: the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature; 2000: Alex Award from the American Library Association.
4. Seal Secret - Aidan Chambers - Zilveren Griffel 1985
5. Once by Morris Gleitzman - 2011 Katholischer Kinder- und Jugendbuchpreis
6. Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie - Hugo Award 2014, Nebula Award 2013, Arthur C. Clarke Award 2014 and others.
7. Où on va Papa ? - Jean-Louis Fournier - le prix Femina 2008
8. John Adams - David McCullough - 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.
9. The Indian in the Cupboard - Lynne Reid Banks - 1984 Pacific Northwest Young Readers Choice Award plus several other US State young reader awards.
10. The Bombs that Brought us Together - Brian Conaghan - Costa Children's Book Award 2016

13. Historical - Category Complete

1. Once by Morris Gleitzman
2. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
3. The Last Kingdom - Bernard Cornwell
4. Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
5. The Great Trouble: A Mystery of London, the Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel - Deborah Hopkinson
6. River God - Wilbur Smith
7. Hero on a Bicycle - Shirley Hughes
8. Where Rowans Intertwine – Margaret Grant
9. Eagle of the Ninth - Rosemary Sutcliff
10. Caligula - Douglas Jackson
11. Five Days in London - John Lukacs
12. The Druid's Son - G R Grove
13. Boudica: Dreaming the Eagle - Manda Scott
14. Boudica: Dreaming the Bull - Manda Scott
15. Boudica: Dreaming the Hound - Manda Scott
16. Boudica: Dreaming the Serpent Spear - Manda Scott

14. Geographical - Category Complete

1. Groter dan de lucht, erger dan de zon - Daan Remmerts de Vries - Vlieland and Amersfoot, Netherlands.
2. Spud - John Van De Ruit - South Africa
3. Io e te - Niccolò Ammaniti - Italy
4. Gwaed y Gwanwyn - Gareth Williams - North Wales
5. The Runaways - Victor Canning - South West of England
6. Five on Brexit Island - Bruno Vincent - Dorset*
7. Seal Secret - Aidan Chambers - West Wales
8. John Adams - David McCullough - USA
9. After Tomorrow - Gillian Cross - Normandy, France
10. See you in the Cosmos - Jack Cheng - Colorado, Las Vegas and Los Angeles USA.

* Number 6 doesn't really fit in any of my categories, but I have placed it here because it is set in Dorset and refers to a current geo political situation. Next year I need a "none of the above" category, or perhaps politics, or humour.

15. Classics - Category Complete

1. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
2. Il Principe - Niccolo Machivelli
3. The Thirty Nine Steps - John Buchan
4. Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
5. Grimm's Fairy Tales - The Brothers Grimm
6. Norse Mythology - Neil Gaiman
7. Dracula - Bram Stoker
8. Il libro della giungla - Rudyard Kipling
9. Eagle of the Ninth - Rosemary Sutcliff
10. 1984 - George Orwell
11. Il Piccolo Principe - Antoine de Saint Exupéry
12. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
13. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

16. Wish I hadn't Bothered - Hoping very much that this category is complete

1. Hero.com 1: Rise of the Heroes - Andy Briggs
2. Arena One: Slaverunners - Morgan Rice
3. Oneyun - Alan J. Stark
4. In Dark Service (Far Called Trilogy #1)- Stephen Hunt
5. The Boy with the Golden Eyes - Majorie Young
6. The Novice - Taran Matharu
7. Free Four - Veronca Roth
8. GemX - Nicky Singer
9. The Geneva Trap - Stella Rimington
10. The Incredible Tide - Alexander Key

17. Non Fiction - Category Complete

1. The Rough Guide to Sicily
2. Essential German Grammar - Durrell, Kohl, Kaiser and Loftus
3. The Rough Guide to Italy
4. Il Principe - Niccolo Machivelli
5. Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town - Mary Beard
6. Fluent in 3 Months - Benny Lewis
7. Data Science in Python, Volume 2: Data I/O, Jupyter Notebook, GUI, Deployment, Numeric Programming, High Performance Python - Alexander Stepanov
8. Lonely Planet: Southern Italy
9. Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee - Press Association
10. Easy Learning Italian Conversation - Collins Dictionaries
11. John Adams - David McCullough
12. Angela Merkel - Porträts und Interviews aus dem SPIEGEL
13. And the Weak Suffer What They Must? - Yanis Varoufakis
14. Do You Think You Are Clever - John Farndon
15. How to write fiction - The Guardian
16. Beginners' French: Food and drink - Open University
17. The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark - Carl Sagan
18. Statistics for the Curious: Why Study Statistics? - Eric Smith

I ticked off two categories with A Tale of Two Cities, historical and classics, but that is because I want to achieve 10 books in each category, and with 17 categories, 170 distinct books is perhaps a little too much, so since then I have allowed myself duplication when it makes sense.

17 out of 17 Categories started.
11 out of 17 Categories complete.

Welcome back and good luck with your challenge!

I am so impressed with language skills like yours. I can do my own (Swedish), English, and one more well, but if I try to put a fourth one in, it'll overwrite my previous language #3. :)

Wow, I'm impressed! Good luck with your challenge.

Very impressive challenge you have set. Looking forward to seeing what books you read to fill out your categories.

Thanks for the comments. Eva, I don't think you will lose a language for learning more, but you will probably mix them up in speech sometimes. I went to France a couple of years ago and when my French ran dry I accidentally inserted some Welsh. The person I was speaking to would probably have got by if I had used English, but Welsh flummoxed him!

Definitely a challenging challenge. Good Luck and Happy Reading!

"Welsh flummoxed him"
Flummoxes us all... :)

It must be so much fun to acquire new languages like that. Do you attend classes or use a program online? I will be most interested in what you read for your fantasy and YA categories but will find the other categories enlightening. I hope you gave a wonderful year of reading and language acquisition.

Wow. Good luck!

First three books read, and so far I have read one each in English, French and Dutch (although the Dutch one I started last year).

Fuller reviews will appear in my 75 books thread here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/244992

However in short, the books are:

1. De brief voor de koning - Tonke Dragt

A young adult book that has been translated into English as "The Letter for the King", and is a classic tale of a journey by a young but noble knight.

2. La Bouteille à la mer (La Patrouilles des Castors 5)

Fifth in this series of comic books about a scout patrol, and in this one there are two classics of 1950s storylines: the message in a bottle and a cold war intrigue.

3. Once by Morris Gleitzman

Review already in my other thread. A story about a Polish Jewish boy searching for his parents in the second world war.

Wow! I am so impressed.
Happy New Year!!

Again, another amazing challenge! Good luck!

Thanks both.

I have also now added A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens - a work that I have curiously never read before, nor seen a TV/film adaption.

Madame Defarge reminds me of someone in British public life right now. Hmm... if the Simpsons predicted the presidency of Donald Trump, Dickens has to get credit for predicting the rise of UKIP!

Actually to be fair, the similarities break down on closer inspection. Madame Defarge is much nicer than her namesake(s).

I am ticking off two categories with A Tale of Two Cities, historical and classics, but that is because I want to achieve 10 books in each category, and with 17 categories, 170 distinct books is perhaps a little too much, so I will allow myself such duplication when it makes sense!

A good start on your challenge.

>16 hailelib: Thanks for that. Do you have a thread btw? I can't seem to find it.

La Genèse - Louis Segond Version of the Bible



I have joined the Bible as Literature group read, and just completed the first book of the Bible, Genesis, but reading it in a French version. The plan is to read the whole Bible this year.

Last time I read the Bible from cover to cover was back in 2011 or 2012, and at the time I was on LibraryThing and reported the whole Old Testament as one book and the whole New Testament as a second book for purposes of my 75 book challenge. This was because I was aware that many books of the Bible can be read very quickly and it seems silly, for instance, to report the letter of Philemon as a single work.

However, because I am reading in French this time around, the going will be slow. Also taking a look at word counts, I see that Genesis has some 32,000 words or so, and that is on a par with a long mid grade book, or a shorter young adult work. Thus I don't think it unreasonable that I claim it as a book read.

But that leads to the question, where will the cut off be?

The answer will be that I will count many shorter works under a single heading. For instance, "Letters of Paul" will count as one book and I will tag Ruth onto Judges (maybe Joshua too), will treat 1 and 2 Samuel as one book, and do the same with Chronicles and Kings etc. Roughly speaking I will not be counting anything less than about 20,000 words as a single book.

Obviously what I call a book is entirely up to me in my thread, but that is a solution that works for me and, I think, fairly represents the reading effort I will be putting in.

Now, as to a review of Genesis: well this was a familiar story to me, although my first time reading it in French. Having recently read The Bible Doesn't Say That, I was struck by a difference between Genesis 1 and 2 that Joel Hoffman had pointed out but just seemed more obvious in the French. Where Genesis 2 starts speaking of the LORD God instead of God, I tend not to notice this in English. However the difference between "Dieu" and "L'Eternal Dieu" was much more noticeable to me in French, as is all use of "L'Eternal" on its own for "The LORD".

Other than that I had no great new insights. The story begins with the creation and then the flood narratives before moving onto Abraham. Isaac gets little attention, whereas Jacob gets a lot, and then of course there is the Joseph narrative, leading to the children of Israel living in Egypt, nicely setting the scene for the sequel... Exodus :)

Added Middle School: The Worst Years of my Life. A very enjoyable book by James Patterson. Full details in message 33 of this thread:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/244992

I took a class on translation theory in university and we talked a fair bit about Bible translation. It's interesting stuff!

>20 rabbitprincess: Yes indeed. It is still a goal of mine to learn Hebrew but so far I have made a couple of attempts and always get very bogged down on that alphabet! That and the fact that the vocabulary is very different. Maybe one day.

A quick summary for January:

10 books completed (quite a few others started!)
7 out of 17 categories started
2 books read in French
1 book read in Dutch
157 miles (252 KM) walked, crossing most of Sicily (virtually - see my other thread : http://www.librarything.com/topic/244992 )
No categories complete yet
My TBR list has grown to 80 books, which is actual books I have and targeted to read this year and does not count very many free samples I have on Kindle.

This is why I want to read books in other languages...

Groter dan de lucht, erger dan de zon - Daan Remmerts de Vries



This was a fantastic book - my favourite this year. Written in Dutch for older children and upwards, it is a story of self discovery for one Dutch boy, touching on issues of mental illness, bullying, friendship and various other themes. It sensitively explores these themes and lightens the mood with some fine dry humour. It is a readable book set on the backdrop of the island of Vlieland and the community of Amersfoot in the Netherlands.

During a dreary summer camp on Vlieland, eleven year old Elmer gets hit on the head by a large spoon(!) That night, he suddenly hears a mysterious voice calling itself Lomax. Lomax claims that he has come to help Elmer and Elmer finds the power to rebel against the things he does not like, and thus enjoy the camp better, aided by Lomax's promptings. To start with this works out quite well, but when Elmer takes revenge on the most obnoxious boy in his class (and class bully), everything starts to go wrong. Can Elmer escape from Lomax?

As the book's synopsis says: Everyone has voices in their head. But should you listen to them? Must you obey them? And above all is it possible to get rid of them again?

This book is only available in Dutch, and that is a pity. I think it should get an English translation, as English speaking readers are missing out on a good book otherwise. If anyone reading this is looking for books to publish in translation, take a look at this one. I might also suggest that whoever the tourist authority is for Vlieland might also want to consider sponsoring an English translation, as it sells the island nicely (even though Elmer's early experience there is not so great - he describes the Wadden Sea as just another name for mud!)

This book won a 2016 Zilveren Griffel which is an award for Dutch books for children and young adults. I think it would have won a similar English language award had it been written in English.

And finally, on the Dutch, there is some Vlieland and/or Frisian slang in the book that stretched me a bit, but it was good deciphering some of those terms, and I liked the term Jochiebochie. There was also some Pidgin German that was amusing in the context and also extremely hard to decipher!

A great discovery.

Also could tick off Dutch, Geography, Young Adult, Coming of Age and Award winning books categories. I will just mark it up in Dutch and Geographical though.

>23 sirfurboy: Here's hoping someone takes you up on your advice and gets this translated - I'd like to read it!

>23 sirfurboy:
Sounds great! My Dutch is lacking, though, so I too hope it gets translated.

A French book that took me a bit longer than intended (bought it in early January):

Les jumeaux Tapper : Tous les coups sont permis - Geoff Rodkey

English version: The Tapper Twins Go to War (With Each Other)



Geoff Rodkey has a wonderful sense of humour and writes great stories and screenplays. I sought him out particularly because I had enjoyed his work previously (as well as some hilarious letters sent to his son, found on his website). This, I thought, would be a great read.

I also found the book in French, and the nature if the book made it an easy read, so one I could hopefully follow in French without too much effort.

It would be wrong to call this book disappointing. It was indeed very funny, and cleverly constructed. It was also very well observed, and ultimately had a cautionary message. Claudia, one of the Tapper Twins, learns some improtant lessons here, and the whole book is really very good.

Nevertheless, for me personally, I found this book almost too uncomfortably well observed of sibling squabbling and one upmanship. In the middle of the book, I was thinking that I didn't really want to see any more of this. The overall message of teh book redeems it though, but still it won't be one of my favourites.

That problem does speak to Geoff Rodkey's skill, however. His characters are very well drawn, very believable, and then wrapped up in a style of book that makes you think you are right there with them, your own school friends engaged in all out war. I remain a fan of the author, a very clever writer, but not convinced I will be a fan of the Tapper Twins. There are more in the series but I will leave them for now.

Added Nombres, fourth book of the Bible in French, and now:

Spud - John Van De Ruit



The write up for this one says:

It's 1990. Apartheid is crumbling, Nelson Mandela has just been released from prison and thirteen-year-old Spud Milton is about to start his first year at an elite boys-only boarding school. Cursed with embarrassingly dysfunctional parents, a nutty granny and a dormitory full of strange characters, Spud has his hands full trying to adapt to his new home. With only his wits and his diary, he takes readers on a rowdy boarding school romp full of illegal midnight swims, catastrophic cricket matches, ghostbusting escapades, girls and disastrous holidays.

South African comedian John van de Ruit invites the reader into the mind of a young boy whose eyes are being opened to love, friendship and complete insanity!

That sums it up nicely. A good story, well written, firmly in the coming of age genre. Some of it is hilarious, some is hard. There are some nice moments, the obligatory sadness and triumph of hope.

I am going to mark up this one as a German book... it had plenty of German passages in it to read after all. Also, it is about German!

Essential German Grammar - Durrell, Kohl, Kaiser and Loftus



I started this one months and months ago! But the thing about grammar books is that you don't usually read them start to finish. This will be a great reference work, but it is set out in a way that makes it quite hard to read more than a few pages at once.

What this is not: this is not a guide to teach yourself German. It is wrongly set out for that purpose, for a start. Early chapters go through all the structures of German sentences that can happen, but I think it was not until chapter 10 that we finally had a discussion of word order that made sense of all those structures.

There are exercises and chances to practice what is presented, but if a student were handed this book and nothing else to learn German, I don't expect they would get very far.

Still it is a thorough grounding in the grammar of the language, and having read it once, I hope I will feel confident to go back to those sections that I only have a hazy recollection of to try to really get to grips with the grammar.

>23 sirfurboy: That book does sound interesting. So does Spud.

Thanks Violet.

And then I read...

Enders Spiel - Orson Scott Card



This was a re-read with a difference. I read it in German this time. Familiarity with the story certainly helped me through when my German was not up to it.

Ender's Game was one of Card's earliest and best works. Originally a short story, I think it was the first story he developed into a book, and of course it is now also a movie, a comic book series and, sadly, a cash cow. Card keeps churning out new stories in the Enderverse when he should have left it alone long ago.

Still this story was original and remains good to this day, even though these days I am more inclined to see some plot flaws. If you haven't read it, this is as good an introduction to OS Card as any, and good SciFi too.

26. Oneyun - Alan J. Stark



Three peoples live on the continent Mekoona, and all serve the god, Oneyun. The countries are Esperon, Ostreya and Ruskaron. Ruskaron is the accursed Ostmark, whose people were once humiliated by Oneyun.

For thousands of years, the priests of the Great Church have been guarding countless sanctuaries, in which the god awaits his liberation. War unleashed a plague on the Ruskaron in the past and war is brewing again.

This story is not long, and it is free. For that reason I obtained it last year as one of my German TBR stories. However, it turns out that Amazon freebie stories are not much better in German than they are in English. This one had a large cast, all with virtually no characterisation at all. Instead we leaped straight into conversations about the nature of faith and translations of scripture. If it had been longer I would have given up, but I persevered to the end, and found that the whole book was predicated on a kind of joke. It was not the worst thing I have read, but I was somewhat underwhelmed.

First Italian book of the year:

Io e te - Niccolò Ammaniti



Italian book, but an English version is available, titled Me and You.

This is my second book by this author. My first was his award winning Io non ho paura (I'm not scared). This book was similar in its gritty and realistic portrayal of Italy, Italian life and real Italian families. It also shared a darker side with that other book, which I found a little disturbing. I am going to read another book by this author, but if that one is very similar I expect I will decide to move on to others.

That said, Ammaniti is an excellent writer. His characters are well thought through, well developed. His settings believable, his descriptive language is powerful, evocative and yet succinct. There is something compelling about his stories even though he writes about people I would not normally choose to read about!

This was also quite a short work which helped as I was reading it in Italian.

Il Principe - Niccolo Machivelli

(The Prince)



I have never read this before, so I rectified that this year and read it in Italian too, as one of my Italian reads for the year.

the book is not that long, but reading in Italian is challenging, and, of course, it was not modern Italian either, so I spent a lot of time with Google translate on this one - although I was somewhat encouraged that the Italian did not feel as antiquated as 16th century English would. It was more the case that there was challenging vocabulary.

Much has been said about this book. I perhaps did not find it quite as Machiavellian as I had expected! Although there was plenty in there to lend credence to that term. How to be a powerful prince by playing one group of people off against another, and more.

Machiavelli also seeks to bring together many examples to support his points, but I suspect closer inspection of many of these may reveal other reasons he had not foreseen as to why these people succeeded or, more often, failed.

Still this is a seminal work. So much so that some European history courses would treat it as ushering in Modern European History. It is also an interesting snapshot on the rather hopeless nature of Italian politics at that time, a victim of its geography.

I read The Prince in English translation and was surprised at how readable it was. Perhaps its age made me think that the writing style would be opaque.

>34 rabbitprincess: Yes, it is funny how we think older texts will be impenetrable but when we come to read them, they actually make a lot of sense!

A quick summary for March:

34 books completed this year, 16 of them in March, making March my best month so far.
14 out of 17 categories started
7 books read in French
2 book read in Dutch
3 books read in German
2 books read in Italian

No categories complete (10 or more books read) yet.

My TBR list is down to 66 books, which is actual books I have and targeted to read this year and does not count very many free samples I have on Kindle. I have added quite a few free samples this month!

Added Le trophée de Rochecombe (La Patrouille Des Castors - 6 ) - Mitacq

Sixth of this iconic Belgian (French Language) comic book series. The stories are also available in Dutch/Flemish although I have not been able to track down any of those versions.

In this story the Beaver patrol discover a bronze trophy, have a run win with some bullies, have the trophy stolen and then discover that it is a famous piece stolen from a museum along with some precious gems and worth millions. Well obviously the scouts have to find a way to track down the thieves and get the trophy back.

Added a few more works described in my other thread here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/244992

These are:

Fool's Quest - Robin Hobb
Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town - Mary Beard
The Thirty Nine Steps - John Buchan
Stardust - Neil Gaiman
The Last Kingdom - Bernard Cornwell
Le trophée de Rochecombe (La Patrouille Des Castors - 6 ) - Mitacq
Lockwood & Co: The Dagger in the Desk - Jonathan Stroud
Insurgent - Veronica Roth
Allegiant - Veronica Roth
The Darke Toad - Angie Sage
Attica - Garry Kilworthy
In Dark Service (Far Called Trilogy #1) - Stephen Hunt

First Welsh book of the year:

Sgwid Beynon a'r Adenydd Angel - Siân Lewis



This is a novel for mid grade children written in Welsh. S. Gwydion Beynon (Sgwid to his friends) is a 14 year old boy who just wants to be the youngest ever world snooker champion. His father is assistant manager for Stardust Tiles, a famous company that must showcase its latest design, the Angel Wing (Adenydd Angel) tile in London, and the manager's sudden death means that this duty now falls to Sgwid's father, Idris. This leaves Sgwid to stay over with his grandmother while his parents go to London.

Sgwid practices snooker in a garden shed (must be a big shed!) but while he is practicing he witnesses something strange and investigating the garden pond next door, discovers part of the unreleased Angel Wings tile in the water. There is also a strange man (slick hair and skin like leather...so no stereotypes there then) hanging around and also people renting the house next door have gone missing. Before we know what is what, Sgwid is on his way to London and being followed by the strange man, trying to piece together a series of clues that lead to quite an astounding conclusion (astounding because it seems things are a bit more far reaching than you would expect from the above. This is not just someone stealing the tile designs).

All in all this is a fast paced and enjoyable book for the target readership. I don't expect it will get an English translation though.

>39 sirfurboy: Would that be pronounced "Squid"?

>40 mamzel: Yes indeed, it would sound just like squid.

I have added various new reviews in this thread:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/256684

On:

Fright Forest - Marcus Sedgwick
Life Before Legend - Marie Lu
Clariel - Garth Nix
Nowhere - Jon Robinson
The Boy with the Golden Eyes - Marjorie Young

Also these from the previous thread:

A Slave to Magic - Lana Axe
Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain

I copy in my latest Welsh language reads:

Sgwid Beynon a'r Dyn Marw - Siân Lewis

Title translates as Sgwid (or Squid) Beynon and the Dead Man.



The second Sgwid Beynon story following the aspiring snooker player, S. Gwydion Benyon (Sgwid to his friends) who is now under the tutelage of a trainer, Gary Humphreys, in Cardiff. He is still only interested in the snooker and the rugby, but all that changes when someone is spotted. I should avoid spoilers from the first story, but the person spotted is a man who should be dead. A man who Sgwid has had run ins with before. What is he doing here, in Cardiff Bay?

Not a bad story, if not a stand out one.

*

Gwaed y Gwanwyn - Gareth Williams

Title translates as "The Blood of the Spring" (Spring as in the season, not a water spring).



A slightly misleading cover on this one. I picked it up expecting something Arthurian or in the fantasy genre, but in fact it is a young adult detective story set around the murder of a Lithuanian girl in North Wales (who had recently moved there from Liverpool). The writing is good: immediate and well paced. The story turns to events surrounding several people who met or knew the murdered girl, and slowly unravels the cause of the murder. The various characters are all linked together nicely and this is a good book for those who like to read detective novels.

Having said that, it is not my own favourite genre. I liked this one well enough but I would have preferred something in the fantasy genre!

Added:

Fluent in 3 Months - Benny Lewis
The Runaways - Victor Canning
The Gate Thief - Orson Scott Card
The Novice – Taran Matharu
The Great Trouble: A Mystery of London, the Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel - Deborah Hopkinson
Data Science in Python, Volume 2: Data I/O, Jupyter Notebook, GUI, Deployment, Numeric Programming, High Performance Python - Alexander Stepanov
The Unicorne Files: A Dark Inheritance – Chris D’Lacey
Gatefather - Orson Scott Card
Fyre - Angie Sage
Frogkisser! - Garth Nix
Grimm's Fairy Tales - The Brothers Grimm
Max Helsing and the Thirteenth Curse (Max Helsing: Monster Hunter) - Curtis Jobling
Five on Brexit Island - Bruno Vincent
Norse Mythology - Neil Gaiman

There are write ups on these in my 75 books thread

And now added these:

The Case of the Vanishing Boy - Alexander Key
River God - Wilbur Smith
Free Four - Veronca Roth
Dracula - Bram Stoker
Le Secret des Monts Tabou - Mitacq
Hero on a Bicycle - Shirley Hughes

An added these:

Chronicles of Egg: Blue Sea Burning - Geoff Rodkey
Knights of the Borrowed Dark - Dave Rudden
Le hameau englouti - Mitacq
Alfie Bloom 1: Alfie Bloom and the Secrets of Hexbridge Castle - Gabrielle Kent
Seal Secret - Aidan Chambers
Le Traître sans visage - Mitacq
Release - Patrick Ness
Hard Luck (Diary of a Wimpy Kid book 8) - Jeff Kinney

Added some more:

Abraham Frost: The Cup of Jamshid - Andrew Old
GemX - Nicky Singer
Working With German
Cabin Fever (Diary of a Wimpy Kid book 6) - Jeff Kinney
Gramadeg Cymraeg Cyfoes
Assassin's Fate - Robin Hobb

Pop over to my 75 Books Thread to see write ups on the above and these new ones:

A Rare Book of Cunning Device - Ben Aaronovitch
Lonely Planet: Southern Italy
Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee - Press Association

>47 sirfurboy: I popped over and am glad you enjoyed your first Ben Aaronovitch! The Peter Grant series is a lot of fun. I enjoy his narration :)

Thanks for stopping by, and yes, definitely seemed like my kind of thing. Thanks.

Where Rowans Intertwine – Margaret Grant



I see that I got this kindle book on Amazon in November 2015. It was free but I forget why I added it. Possibly it was on a list of Amazon specials and free ebooks, and I picked it up because it is set in North Wales and also refers to a period of Welsh history that interests me.

However as I read my way into the book, I confess I was not entirely gripped. The writing was fine but there was a fair amount of dialogue, and it was all a bit stiff. Some examples:


‘I have secret knowledge for you to cheer your heart, but promise you will not share it, or it may not come true.’
‘I promise! I promise! Come, Ceridwen. Do not keep this secret from me. Tell me before I burst!’
‘Well, my miserable, little brother looks as though he might come to the fest after all,’ smiled Ceridwen at his predictable change in demeanour.
‘I shall, if only you will tell me the secret.’


That passage also shows some curious comma placement - perhaps correct but it had me pausing where I did not need to - but that aside, that dialogue looks like people trying to talk in a way that sounds old fashioned, and it is entirely devoid of contractions found in speech in any age. All the way through it was “you will/you shall” not “you’ll” and “do not” instead of “don’t”, “have not” instead of “haven’t”. I don’t think I saw a single contraction in the work, but there was plenty of old fashioned language. There were even more obvious passages than that, where it felt like I was reading a victorian play rather than a modern novel.

This would be easily overlooked if the story was gripping, but actually this story was something of a slow burner. It had some excitement, some tension but it took a while to get to it.

The writer claimed to have researched the story extensively, and there was clear evidence that she had done so in various areas, and she was clearly familiar with the territory the story was set in, but the setting of this story within Roman Britain did not really match with my perceptions of the period based on my own studies in the period. The lead character, Ceridwen, worships a goddess (and curiously, the work capitalises gods and goddess throughout, even when not clearly speaking of one particular god or goddess). Romano-Celts had goddesses, but I found it very odd not to have the goddess named up front, but instead simply called the “Earth Mother”. That sounded very new age, but not at all Romano-Celtic. Moreover the practice of religion does not match what we know of Romano-Celtic practice.

Britain also seems much less cosmopolitan in this story than it would actually have been in the period. We know from excavations at Hadrian’s Wall among other places that there was a huge range of religious practice and worship, with gods from all over the Roman world finding followers and monuments. It was not just official Roman religion, Celtic religion and a forbidden cult of Christianity (as finds its way into this book), but rather a huge pantheon brought together by Roman soldiers who only rarely actually came from Rome.

There was also mention of “North Cymru” as a geographical area. A weird mixture of English and Welsh words that was not unusual in the writing, but would be meaningless in the context. There was no concept of the geographical nation of Wales at the time. The Celts were British tribes and territories were named for the tribes that occupied them.

The religious aspects of the book were not terrible, but I wonder whether the story would have worked better in a mythical land rather than attempting to root this in actual history. It was good speculative stuff, but perhaps no history really looked quite like this.

This is self published fiction, and it is becoming clear that I am not a great fan of self published stuff, but this is not a bad example of it. The writing is competent, other than the oddities above, and the story is good, if not gripping. Your mileage may vary, and you will probably like it more if you do not know much about the setting.

Il libro della giungla - Rudyard Kipling



The classic Rudyard Kipling work, "The Jungle Book", translated into Italian. I have seen the movies of this story (I think maybe 4 different adaptions now) but had never read the book. On reading it I discovered that Mowgli bows out half way through. I was rather surprised with the early demise of Shere Khan in chapter 3 (of 7), but then discovered that the Jungle Book is actually a collection of several tales. Toomai of the Elephants was vaguely familiar, but the three other tales less so.

Interesting work, and a chance to stretch my Italian.

>50 sirfurboy: Ooh, that is a weird comma placement. Great review of the book! And now I want to go read more about ancient Britain after reading your review ;)

>52 rabbitprincess: Thanks. Yes I think the comma is there because the author thought she was writing a list. Still very strange though.

Added an Italian read:

Come Dio comanda - Niccolò Ammaniti

English title would be "As God Commands", but I think the English version was actually released under the title Crossroads.



My third book by this author. Ammaniti is such an excellent writer, and yet his books are always so dark. I have something of a love hate relationship with his books. I admire his ability to build completely believable scenes with compelling descriptions. I love his interesting and unusual characters, and the way he makes you understand them and want to know more about them. I don't know too much about Italian writers, but surely Ammaniti would be one of the best writers in any language.

On the other hand, the books can be almost gut wrenching at times. This one had quite a lot of violence, but the one redeeming feature was that it does not leave you hanging in the darkness. The end has something of a twist but it also provided some closure. Not total closure mind - that is not the author's style - but it was a fitting end to the book.

Rino is a drunken neo-nazi violent xenophobe father with few redeeming traits, except that he clearly loves his son, 13 year old Cristiano. They and an oddball friend, Quattro Formagio (four cheeses!), plan a petty robbery, but events plunge into a dangerous new direction that leads to a terrible coming of age event for Cristiano.

According to Italian Wikipedia:

... Filippo La Porta su la Repubblica, che definisce Ammaniti «il Dickens di oggi».

That is, Filippo La Porta of "La Republicca" (one of the most notable Italian newspapers) defines Ammaniti as the Dickens of today.

You can somewhat see his point.

είμαι μικρή - Philipp Winterberg

English Title: Am I Small?



Finally I read a book in Greek this year... only that does not count as a stunning achievement, as this was a children's picture book! Still, small steps...

This book appears to be available in a lot of languages, including all the ones on my list. I won't be reading it in all of them though. Still it is a lovely little book.

1984 - George Orwell



This classic dystopian novel needs little introduction from me. Most people will be well aware of the dark future it foretold of Big Brother watching us all.

I thought I should read it because it seems that the current febrile political climate demanded a closer examination of such works to see to what extent the "alternative facts" of the Republican administration in the US and the blatant political propaganda of many media outlets in the US, UK and elsewhere were foretold and warned against in Orwell's work.

On the face of it, actually, I would say not so much. Orwell's polemic is firmly against communism, and that is evident in the work. Moreover the dystopian world described in this novel actually bears little resemblance to the world today. It is much more centralised, and dominated by "the party".

And yet it does not need much digging or deep thought to see some obvious parallels between Orwell's world of Big Brother and what we are seeing today. In the UK, people who sare to question the party line are called "enemies of the people", Michael Gove’s infamous comment that Britain has had enough of experts is stongly reminiscent of the insistence in 1984 that one must believe that 2+2=5 if the party says it is so.

In America too, we saw the seeds of all this when George Buss's aide proudly said in 2002 that the new American empire was “creating its own reality”. Lies did not begin with Donald Trump. We saw all this in 2002/3 regarding Iraq and weapons of mass destruction, as well as allowing the ridiculous anti-intellectual global warming conspiracy movement to be hijacked by politicians. It is into this dark descent that mendacious men like Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Donald Trump could thrive under their new and proud slogan, ripped straight out of this book:

“Ignorance is strength.”

Orwell also predicts the Internet (kind of) with his two-way telescreens. Theresa May has repeatedly pushed for laws that allow UK government to spy on everyone. Cameron and May both insisted that there must be no encryption scheme that the UK government cannot read, and US government have made similar attempts to monitor everything we say in the digital world. That is all truly scary.

This book is a depressing work, but also an important one for our time.

Another Italian read:

Breve storia d'Italia - Alfio Caruso



I picked this one up after reading Steve (scvlad)'s review of it in March (the review is in Italian).

Like Steve, I did not find this brief history of Italy to be particularly brief. It was approaching 500 pages long and has taken me many weeks to read. On the other hand, as it covers 4000 years of history, it really only provides an overview of the whole sweep of Italian history. There were areas where I already knew much more than the book was covering (particularly parts of the Roman history), but the pacing was probably about right for the huge swathe of history I was previously ignorant of.

Now I find myself inspired to read more about the Norman period in Southern Italy, or about Garibaldi (whose name I recognised but about whom I knew next to nothing). The war years complemented my recent read of "Hero on a Bicycle" and added a lot of depth to that, and there are other areas I would want to know more about.

So this is a great introductory work. If I had a criticism, it seemed to me to lack passion often. It was describing all these events, but often it was not clear what the author thought about them or how he wished to interpret them.

And yet, saying that, my quote from the book comes from the penultimate chapter, taking us right up to the turn of the century, and also (in the next chapter) up to about the Berlusconi period. After chapters that speak of the difficult years, he asks:

"Quando scoccherà l’ora di Machiavelli?"

Which I translate as: when will the age of Machiavelli end? When will be shot of the time of Machiavelli?

The history seems to end on a frustrated note, which perhaps is as it should be. When indeed will the age of Machiavelli end?

A nice French read:

Où on va Papa ? - Jean-Louis Fournier



First full day in France on my virtual walk so time for a French book. This one is not very long (150 pages, but with many chapters less than a page long, it felt like less).

This is a wonderful and yet heartbreaking book about the joys, frustrations and despair of bringing up two boys with very great special needs. Fournier spends much time considering the things they will never do. They will never read for instance, never work, never enjoy the cinema. At one point he says they will never conjugate the verb aimer in the first person singular present tense, which struck me as very poignant.

And yet there is humour too, and the boys manage to show their love after all, even though the limit of their communication is generally to repeat over and over "Où on va Papa?" (Where are we going, daddy?).

This book is short, written in accessible French, and powerful in its way. A recommended book for anyone wanting to improve their French, or anyone wanting to engage with a powerful but often ignored subject.

Added John Adams by David McCullough, and another category getting towards completion (Award Winning).

125 Angela Merkel - Porträts und Interviews aus dem SPIEGEL



Der Spiegel (in English "The Mirror") is a German weekly news magazine, and one of Europe's largest publications of its kind. It has relatively long analytical articles as well as political interviews focussing on current affairs, and it seems that they have been pulling together articles on certain subjects published over the years and re-releasing those in ebook form. This ebook therefore covers articles about Angela Merkel from when she first appeared on the political scene shortly after German re-unification, up until late 2013.

I wanted to read more about Angela Merkel as the collapse of the anglosphere lead in international politics has brought Germany to an interesting place. Last year, following Trump's win in America, President Obama visited Germany and appeared to "hand on the baton" of world leadership. This was widely reported, e.g. here:

Has Obama Passed the ‘Leader of the Free World’ Baton to Merkel?

And in all areas of grand importance since, it has been Merkel who has been leading the free world. Whilst Trump sits on his toilet at night tweeting, it was Merkel who made clear the basis on which world unity can move forward, with respect for democracy, human rights, a free press etc. It was Merkel who led the G20's extraordinary statement last week that reprimanded an isolated America on climate change. It is Merkel who people look to as the leader of the free world.

And yet this is extraordinary, because that is really not a role that Germany craves for itself. True enough, Der Spiegel says in a 2013 piece in this book, that the German Chancellor now is on the same diplomatic level as the presidents of Russia, the USA and China. Still, those three countries are also large military powers, and that is something Germany has deliberately and self consciously eschewed since the Second World War.

True enough, German is ramping up its military spending after Obama's call for a commitment of 2% GDP spending on defence by all NATO members. Germany agreed to Obama's demands, and committed to increasing spending over the next few years and has been honouring that, but still the special thing about Germany is that this is a modern liberal democracy that, perhaps uniquely, sees that democracy as growing independently of any military. The army does not, and cannot have the kind of role in the state that it has in the US, China, Russia, or indeed, Britain.

So can Merkel be the leader of the free world without military backing?

This is the dangerous place Trump puts the world in. Many are quite clear that free world leadership now comes from Berlin. See, for instance:

Angela Merkel is now the leader of the free world, not Donald Trump

And in terms of setting the liberal agenda, there really is no doubt of this. A leader is only a leader when people follow, and no one wants to follow Trump to the dark place that he has in mind.

But, then, what if the NATO alliance fell apart? What if there was some assault on the free citizens of a democratic world that required a military response?

Merkel holds the baton, but she will want to hand it back. That seems quite clear. And yet she lived through the collapse of one state, and it is equally clear that she wants to resist the collapse of liberal democracy in Europe before an authoritarian insurgency - something she has warned about for many years. That is why she is so strongly pro EU, and yet she was always in favour of an EU that Britain favoured, with intergovernmental treaties supplanting the commission, and avoiding damaging attempts at treaty change.

It is, of course, a pity that in British media portrayals, absolutely none of this was ever presented by 95% of the mainstream press.

And yet, with Brexit, with Trump, with the collapse of political authority in the anglosphere, Merkel is indeed left holding the baton, whether she wants it or not.

It was thus a joy to read about her in these articles, even if many of the issues discussed were German domestic ones. There were some wonderful insights into the mind of Dr Merkel the physicist form East Germany. Dr Merkel, the daughter of a protestant evangelical pastor, who believes the C in CDU (Christian Democratic Union) is still very important. Angela Merkel who stood up to her critics in the migration crisis by saying that the problem is not too much Islam in Germany, but not enough Christianity (thinking of Christian duties for charity, love for the outsider and tolerance).

There was plenty more here, but also not enough. This was not a biography, but just a series of portraits. I will read a biography next (written in English) and expect that will fill in many gaps.

Still the ebook above was cheap (presumably because it was cheap and easy for Der Spiegel to produce it) and good German practice, although I had to make liberal use of dictionaries and Google Translate to help with this one. Not sure I would recommend it before reading a biography though.

Hen Blant Bach - Gwen Parrot



Still looking for a Welsh language author I can really enjoy. Gwen Parrot writes quite well, but sadly the genre of this one was off for me. Prostitutes, murder and a whodunit... not really my thing. The saving grace of this book is Erful, the protagonist, who has Asperger's syndrome, and is a carefully created character.

Erful has Aspergers syndrome, is thus considered odd and is lonely as a consequence. His only happy memories are those of his childhood school days. When a former pupil is murdered, Erful sets out to solve the case, which is a challenging prospect for someone like him. By happy coincidence, he runs into a range of old school friends and acquaintances. In the end there is a bit of a twist.

Harry Potter a l'ecole des sorciers - J K Rowling



I doubt I need to give a synopsis for the first Harry Potter book. I read this in French though, which has some differences. The main one is that Hogwarts is Poudlard in French. Hogwarts would be hard for the French to pronounce, and in any case loses its jokey feel in French, so the translator chose to go for the semantically similar short and jokey form: Pou du lard (lice of the bacon).

There was also a clever little extra sentence explaining to the French what a prefect was to Harry and saying "didn't you know that?" On the other hand, Hagrid has no accent in the French version.

Other changes are:

Muggle = Moldu (seems to be meaningless but easier to say for the French)
Diagon Alley = Chemin de Traverse
The Sorting Hat = Le Choixpeau which is a clever pun/portmanteau of ‘chapeau’ (a hat) and ‘choisir’ - to choose
O.W.L’s = B.U.S.E - a clever acronym that actually means buzzard in French but otherwise still works.
Malfoy becomes Malefoy
Snape becomes Rogue
Madame Hooch becomes Madame Bibine (which again seems to preserve the slangy meaning of cheap booze)
Madame Pomfrey would sound too much like "french fries" (i.e. Pommes Frites) in French so she becomes Madame Pomfresh. I expect JKR deliberately made Pomfrey sound like Pommes frites though.

Of course, one name works absolutely perfectly in French (although the French will not pronounce the final t): Voldemort. The name literally means "flight from death" in French (or at least, "Vol de la mort" would), and could almost be a spoiler for the story to a French reader!

There are plenty of others, but I had better stop there.

The books are always enjoyable.

Choixpeau! Excellent portmanteau.

>62 sirfurboy: Very interesting comments! When I was younger, I'd read the Asterix comics in both English and French and only later did I fully appreciate the play-on-words, in both languages. I think the French translators did a good job with the Harry Potter names.

Thanks both.

>64 mathgirl40: I want to read Asterix in French. I am still working through a different comic book series first, but they are on my wishlist. I think I tried to read one in the past but my French was not good enough then to spot the wordplay.

I agree, the translator seems to have done a great job.

Another fun French read, but mostly for younger to mid grade Children:

Ma Vie en Or - Emmanuel Bourdier

Title translates as "My life in Gold"



This is a lovely and funny book written for children (I think about 8+). What would you do if you won the lottery and became a multimillionaire? Well, for one young boy, Hippo, and his parents, they are about to find out.

The staggering amount of money he seems to have won reminded me of a children's comic book I read when I was small that contained a strip called "The Bumpkin Billionaires". In that story, the people were so rich that they could not spend the money fast enough, and this is what happens with Hippo too. Whilst his parents are buying Ferris Wheels and private jets to fly to foreign parts to buy small grocery items, Hippo goes out and buys a bakery. He gets very sick on the contents. He buys every toy of every kind imaginable. They move to a giant castle and he buys a dolphin in a giant pool for a pet.

Only eventually he comes to realise, as you know he must, that money can't really make him happy, and what he needs is his friends. The author sums it up in his biographical paragraph at the end, where he explains things he likes doing (like sleeping in the shade on a warm day) and says :

Bref, comme vous le voyez, dans ma vie, l’argent est loin d’être une priorité.

In short, as you can see, in my life, money is far from being my first priority.

What makes Emmanuel Bourdier's books a joy to read is the humour. There were some wonderful descriptions, some wacky characterisations, and some great lines that had be snorting or laughing out loud in this book. The setting may be a touch unrealistic...okay more than a touch... but the humour of the book is delightful.

Les Loups Escarlates (La Patrouille des Castors 11) - Mitacq



Title translates as "The scarlet wolves - The Beaver Patrol 11"

Published in 1964, this is another grand adventure of crooks, moped thieves, kidnap, blackmail and a romp through the catacombs of Paris.

*

The catacombs of Paris involves something like 175 miles of underground tunnels, poorly charted, and largely disused. Although a small portion was used to hold exhumed contents of overflowing Parisian cemeteries in the 18th century, most of the network is unused, probably unsafe, and a danger to the structures built above them. This is a big reason that there are no tall buildings in much of Paris.

The catacombs were originally mines, from where the stone for building the city came. Some workings probably date back to Roman times, but much of the network is from the middle ages.

In 2004, police found a fully equipped cinema in a previously unknown chamber beneath the city streets. Not just a cinema but a restaurant and bar to go with it.

Here is a Guardian Article about it.

I just love that. If it were Sicily you would imagine Mafia connections. Other countries you would think about smuggling, drug running, other dark and illegal activities. But the French? When the French illegally go underground, they go to the cinema and eat fine food.

Menace en Camargue - Mitacq



The 12th book in the series La Patrouille Ds Castors.

Mr. Monicelli, a friend of Chat's father, invites the Beaver Patrol to his farmhouse near Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer in the Camargue (an area I will reach on my virtual walk fairly soon). On arrival, the scouts meet him, as well as Luis Gomez, his steward, and Mr Streicher, an ornithologist. Monicelli's land is vast and coveted by some Americans. It is on these same lands that Gypsies also pass to the great annoyance of Gomez, who accuses them of stealing and poisoning the animals. This story plays strongly with themes of prejudice and racism. The scouts, however, meet Chico, a gypsy boy, and his grandfather, Joseph Zarraté. One evening, Streicher is found dead and everyone accuses the old gypsy. It is up to the Beaver Patrol to prove his innocence, and in the process, uncover something very underhand.

Opening up my last category at last:

Complete Old English (Anglo-Saxon) - Mark Atherton



This is one of the best grammar books I have read. Not because it did a great job of explaining the grammar of Old English. On that point it was probably only good enough. What made this a great books was the incredible wealth of information it presented about Anglo-Saxon England.

The language was taught through readings of extant Anglo Saxon texts, and each text was introduced in its context. Readings were carefully chosen by an author clearly very familiar with the Anglo Saxon corpus. That alone made the book interesting reading.

Add to that the sections in each chapter on cultural contexts, which contained a mix of history and cultural information that greatly enriched this book. And then there were the word hoard sections which are an amateur etymologists delight! Find out in this book about where we get phrases like "willy nilly", or why the less sophisticated characters in Shakespeare might say "chill" for "I want", or what all those place names in England actually mean, or why adverbs so often end in "-ly" or all kinds of other such things.

This is actually my second reading of this book. I first read it 6 years ago, and there was plenty more to learn this time around.

In terms of learning Old English, the book does not set out the information in the way of many grammar books. There are tables of inflections and declensions, but it is not overly structured. This may be because the author understands that almost no-one learns Old English to speak the language. Most people learn the language to read it, so he gives enough information to make sense of the readings, without drilling the forms in the way that would be required if someone were to learn to speak correct Old English. I think that decision is probably right, as it makes the book much more readable and probably more useful.

That sounds like an excellent resource!

I have been reading my way through La Patrouille des Castors, a classic Belgian comic book series in French. It is also available in Dutch, but I have not been able to get hold of those ones.

I have now updated my categories with latest reads, and reviews are in my 75 books thread:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/267387

I also added:

Interdit! by Florence Jenner Metz

(No touchstone. Title translates as "Forbidden!")



A delightful cautionary tale of a boy, Anatole, who likes to do whatever is forbidden, and then, with his friend, finds a forbidden site on the Internet where he can purchase magical items. He starts with a pen that writes by itself, deferring payment until later. Well you just know that is going to lead to trouble!

When the boys find they are in over their head, where will they turn for help?

*

Several English language reads added too, almost all of them in the young adult category.

Added some more of Le Patrouilles des Castors, and A Christmas Carol to my classics list.

Added some more reads ( The Dream of the Rood and Beowulf in old English, plus The Bombs that Brought us Together ). I have a few more to update but 11 of my 17 categories are now complete, and that is as good as it is likely to get this year. I have read books in all 17 categories though, including 7 languages.

Excellent work on your challenge!

I am so proud of myself for reading something in one other language, I can't even begin to imagine seven! Colour me impressed.

>74 rabbitprincess: and >75 Jackie_K: Thanks both.

197 books read this year. Time to put together my 2018 challenge.