The Evolution of Science Fiction discussion
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In what language(s) do you read? US or UK English, or....?
For me: US and American English all the way. I'm trying to learn a little Spanish but I'm ashamed to admit that most of what I know is from signage and bilingual schoolchild paperwork from my two decades in Carson City, NV. Now in rural Missouri there seems to be no Hispanic/Latino presence at all and I miss it so much!
I live in Canada so I am more liable to use the UK version first.
I'm from Germany and tbh I can't say which versions I read: I take whatever is available via amazon.de (seldom in German, though, cause the translations are often more expensive).
I'm from the UK so UK :) Incidentally, can someone explain why 'The Kraken Wakes' wouldn't be an acceptable title in America, it seems (to me) more interesting than Out of the Deeps.
The only title I know is The Kraken Wakes.
US for me, although UK probably wouldn't be too tough.
Mod
Marketing groups change titles for reasons that only they understand! For some SF books at least up into the 1970s, maybe later, the author had no control of what title the publisher would stick on it.
I've not read it, but reading a bit about it I find that the word "Kraken" is never used in the book. The title is a reference to a Tennyson poem that might be better known in the UK.
Also, the two versions have small differences in the plot, so a different title helps to distinguish them.
For the original question: I read mostly in English (various flavors), a few books per year in French, and am taking baby steps into Spanish.
Ed wrote: "Marketing groups change titles for reasons that only they understand! For some SF books at least up into the 1970s, maybe later, the author had no control..."It was so bad that the US publisher left out the last chapter of A Clockwork Orange & that's the version Kubrick based his movie on. The last chapter completely changes the message of the novel, too.
It wasn't limited to changing the title, either. Bradbury said that he had been shocked to find that previous editions of Fahrenheit 451 had been edited down until 75 sections had been missing.
Apparently manuscripts were retyped from previous editions until around 2000 or so. There were quite a few paperback reprints that must have been copied by drunken monkeys & never proofed.
I read in Ukrainian, Russian, English, Polish and a little Czech. I try whenever possible read an original, not a translation, for which, among other things I now have access to several libraries in the USA. Most English texts I read are US English, the only exception I can think at the moment being Harry Potter's books
Mod
I read one of the Harry Potter books in the UK version. I didn't really notice any difference.
Ed wrote: "GR has been recommending books in Russian to me even though I can't read it. I blame Oleksandr."Interesting, bearing in mind that my suggestion lists never had Russian texts, but more than once had Polish
oh, wonders of algorithm's behavior
I read in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. And a little Portuguese and Dutch.
Really, dutch, Rosemarie?Being from The Netherlands (we're officially not allowed to say Holland anymore), I prefer reading in dutch but it's no problem reading in english - i do that about 40 % of the time. I did not read in French or German since high school.
Dutch translations are available for the majority of the sf novels, especially the older ones. Reading in english slows me down somewhat and at times I have the fear of missing out on some details. I am not aware of differences between us or uk versions.
My husband and I went on a trip to Belgium and the Netherlands a few years ago and I learned enough Dutch to read most things, albeit slowly.German is my first language, so learning Dutch was fun, since I am a total language nerd. I like looking at patterns in vowels and consonants as the languages change.
It's a natural progression in the Romance languages too. I am fluent in French, studied Latin for four years which made Italian a lot easier. Then Spanish and Portuguese.
I love travelling so I really enjoy learning the languages of the places I am going to visit.
I learned a few words of Greek on a trip to Greece, and had a list of the alphabet handy in my purse, so I could decipher a few words on menus, etc.
What part of the Netherlands are you from, Leo?
I am really impressed Rosemarie.I live at Nijmegen, centre - east, some 10 km's from Germany.
Leo wrote: "Being from The Netherlands (we're officially not allowed to say Holland anymore), "Why?
Rafael wrote: "Leo wrote: "Being from The Netherlands (we're officially not allowed to say Holland anymore), "Why?"
I second the question
I can read in portuguese (my mother tongue), spanish and english. I studied some german but I am far from be able to read anything, but I can at least pronounce what I read well enough and recently I started to study dutch but I have no hurry. And very recently (last week) I started to study cantonese. I use YouTube to learn and/or practice.
The ministry of foreign affairs tells us, when we are abroad, that we should use "The Netherlands" to tell where we are from. Because "Holland" is by you narrowminded foreigners only associated with, I quote: cheese, windmills, tulips and weed. And "The Netherlands" is far more than that. What exactly, is not explained. I guess we can check this with Rosemarie.
Another argument, we have 2 provinces named Holland, north and south, these contain the 3 biggest cities and a lot of the places tourists visit. But there are 12 provinces in Ho... eh, The Netherlands. Don't you forget about that.
Anyway, everybody in The Netherlands had a good laugh about it last week. We are a happy country, having this kind of problems.
Maybe I am precise about calling it The Netherlands because I am a retired teacher and had to set a good example.
What a fascinating thread! Thank you everybody; I'm learning so much.I think I'll generally go with the US title when making the polls. I have a feeling most of our lurkers are US or Indonesian, based on clues I've run across in other topics on goodreads.
But I hope newcomers continue to post here!
Mod
I mostly associate Netherlands with The Legendary Pink Dots. They lived in Nijmegen. But actually, they've moved back to UK a few years ago.
So, what's left? Herring, I guess. And Indonesian restaurants.
Leo, what comes to mind when I think of Amsterdam is bicycles everywhere!
Mod
I should have said I'm fine with US versions as well. Sadly I can't understand more than a sentence or two in any other language.
Ed wrote: "Have any of you tried a goodreads-like site in another language? I've used Babelio.com a little for French books, but the community there is much smaller."I tried LitRate because in my Pocketbook e-reader it is a default app (they try to compete with Amazon on local markets) but I saw not enough content to remain there
Rosemarie wrote: "Leo, what comes to mind when I think of Amsterdam is bicycles everywhere!"Funny, this is normal in our country, because it's crowded and small, bike is often the fastest way of transport. I've been in Toronto once and I can understand it's different for you!
Ed wrote: " The Legendary Pink Dots. They lived in Nijmegen..." Some still do, but they are not very famous here.
Ed wrote: "Have any of you tried a goodreads-like site in another language? "There is one, ok for popular books and dutch literature, but not crowded enough to support groups as ours. I was very happy to discover GR.
We have more cyclists than we used to but they often have to share the road, until we get more designated bike lanes.My daughter told me about goodreads four years ago and I am so glad I joined. I have had a lot of fun talking about books here.
Mod
They are not famous anywhere, even though they are doing a 40th anniversary tour right now. One of my best friends was their tour manager and bus driver for one year and moved to Nijmegen, but has moved on elsewhere now. But that's enough about that!
Ed wrote: "Have any of you tried a goodreads-like site in another language? I've used Babelio.com a little for French books, but the community there is much smaller."In Brazil there's a one called Skoob (books spelled backwards) but is is not well organized as GR nor has so many people.
I read in greek mostly. I may read in english sometimes but I don 't enjoy it as much as in greek. I find reading a relaxing habbit and the whole process of making the translation in my mind when I read in english takes away all the fun.
That's fair! I hope that most of the books we read have been translated into Greek. Btw, welcome! There's another topic here about specific books in other languages... maybe you know some SF classics that were originally written in Greek. If so, please post them there!
Thank you so much for your kind welcome post! Can't wait to explore the group and have thrilling conversations with fellow members!
I read in both American and Kings English and have very little troubles. I can also read enough of Latin to usually figure it out of look it up just a tiny bit.
I've always wanted to learn more Latin, but it was never offered at any school I attended. I'm terrible with languages when spoken, but can often get the gist when written. Richard Burton has shown me that my French is worse than I thought. I'm reading Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah & he's fluent in far too many languages. He often assumes others are, too.
Jim wrote: "I've always wanted to learn more Latin, but it was never offered at any school I attended."I tried to self-learn it one summer, got all the basics, even started on Julius Cesar but later other things interfered and I've never got back to it
I took Latin for four years in high school and it does help sometimes when authors quote Latin. But it's really handy when deciphering the meaning of a new word.German was my first spoken language but Engish was the first language I learned to read since we emigrated to Canada when I was six.
French is required in Canada and I went on to study French and German Lit at university.
Rosemarie wrote: "I took Latin for four years in high school and it does help sometimes when authors quote Latin. But it's really handy when deciphering the meaning of a new word.German was my first spoken language..."
Are you in Quebec?
I'm in Toronto. Canada is officially bilingual as a country, but how much French students need to take varies from province to province.
I read, write, and speak English. I am learning German and have started to read very simple German stories.
Good for you, Keith.I love learning new languages.
I read in Bulgarian. I read in English, but most of the literature is short stories and novels. I learned Russian and German in school, but they are very rusty.
Cheryl - I'm a newbie rather than a lurker, and am English though many of my ancestors were Dutch. I'm fascinated by this thread, and everyone's comments, so thank you for starting it, and for all those sharing interesting views and experiences :) Jim - I do remember the original controversy over A Clockwork Orange - but only learned of the truncated American version years later, after joining Goodreads! Also that Ray Bradbury produced and reworked his stories in quite such a variety of formats. Goodreads is great for opening your eyes to a wider (or just a different) view :)
Ed., - I think you're absolutely right about marketing lying behind the surely more pedestrian title Out of the Deeps for The Kraken Wakes. It happened with the first Harry Potter book too. It's much more difficult to find the original title of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on GR, than the US Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, although the English title is how it remains published here.
The question itself ... well yes I do prefer to read English to American, but having said that, I think the type of English should be retained: English English or American English. So although "traveler" doesn't feel right to me, I would retain it in The Time Traveler's Wife - even though the edition I read had the extra "l" in.
Like others have said too, I'd have loved to learn Latin, but did French and German at school instead, but to my regret, never well enough to read books in those original languages.
Hi, I’m (US)-American, but have been living half my life in Germany. So I read old books I brought with me from the States in US English, new ones I buy from Amazon.de or in German book stores in UK English, and books by German authors in German. Occasionally when on vacation in France, Spain or Italy I will try to read a local book in the native tongue, but my fluency in the Romance languages is nowhere near my German level.
Joe, I do the same thing when I travel in Europe. I'm fluent in French and German and working on Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.In what part of Germany do you live?
I was born there and have travelled there a lot.
The Evolution of Science Fiction
Books mentioned in this topic
Great North Road (other topics)But n Ben A-Go-Go (other topics)
A Kestrel for a Knave (other topics)
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (other topics)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Barry Hines (other topics)Samit Basu (other topics)
Samit Basu (other topics)
Saad Z. Hossain (other topics)
Ray Bradbury (other topics)
So, let's take this opportunity to see how global this group is. Where are you from, where do you live now, what languages do you read, and if you choose to read in English are you more likely to find an edition from the UK or the US (or Australia or Canada for that matter....)?
(Of course this is all optional, especially the first two questions... it's just that we hope to reach people from a variety of countries. :)