German/English reading group discussion
What topic of books are you reading?
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i'm a german-language learner, so i pick up and try to read whatever i can get my hands on--some books more successfully than others! my first real book was an agatha christie novel translated into german. i learned lots of useful words like "corpse" and "poison" and "clue" in german.i've also read Eichendorff's Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts, and i liked that a lot (though he seemed to spend a lot of time climbing trees...) When I'm tired, i read Grimm's Fairy tales...
If you have some suggestions for good books to read in german--great! i'm not into the heavy stuff, either.
Hi,I am bilingual in German and English (and I have a PhD in German). I read everything, from heavy stuff to light stuff in German, English, and some in French as well.
For light stuff in German, sometimes children's literature works really well. If you like children's fantasy, I would suggest Michael Ende's Die unendliche Geschichte (you can even read it together with the English translation to compare and contrast).
One thing I did a few years ago to practice French was to read the Harry Potter series in French translation. Much easier than reading the heavier stuff and because I had already read the books in English, I kind of already knew the plot some, so I did not have to use a dictionary all that much. You might try to read the HP series in German.
One of my favourite all-time pieces of literature is Lessing's Nathan der Weise, but you have to like plays.
Check my bookshelves, I have lots of German literature listed, and not just heavy stuff either.
I have really enjoyed the Harry Potter series in German, both the audio and the print versions. Rufus Beck is the German reader and I think he does an excellent job. I read a lot of children's books, both in English and in German. I have also enjoyed quite a few of the books by Elke Heidenreich. I like to listen to audiobooks in German to maintain my German comprehension. I am a native English speaker, who spent a year in Germany as a foreign student, more than 40 years ago.
LauraW wrote: "I have really enjoyed the Harry Potter series in German, both the audio and the print versions. Rufus Beck is the German reader and I think he does an excellent job. I read a lot of children's bo..."I like Elke Heidenreich, especially Kolonien der Liebe..
I am bilingual in German and English but a little rusty with my German. I can read it pretty good and hope to get some ideas.
Brenda wrote: "I am bilingual in German and English but a little rusty with my German. I can read it pretty good and hope to get some ideas."I'm getting rusty with my spoken German mostly, but on the other hand, my reading and writing is usually better in any language than my oral language capabilities.
Gundula said:One of my favourite all-time pieces of literature is Lessing's Nathan der Weise, but you have to like plays.
Lessing is exactly what I mean with "heavy stuff". That is literature we need to read in school. Same is with Goethe and Schiller, although I love "Das Leiden des jungen Werther".
I would like to read the Harry Potter Series and compare German and English version.
At the moment I just started reading Linwood Barclays "In Todesangst" (engl. Title "Fear the worst")
Only thing with me is that I read quite slow and need about a month for a book because I am not reading every day.
Zauberlehrling! wrote: "Gundula said:One of my favourite all-time pieces of literature is Lessing's Nathan der Weise, but you have to like plays.
Lessing is exactly what I mean with "heavy stuff". That is literature we..."
I really started to love Lessing's "Nathan" after seeing it performed on stage. And while I would agree that Lessing, Goethe and Schiller are "heavy stuff" Goethe is (in my opinion) much heavier than the other two. For me, a lot of the really "heavy stuff" are the mega-long novels of the 19th and 20th century (the novels Adalbert Stifter, Gottfried Keller, Thomas Mann, Robert Musil and the like).
I really like reading German children's and young adult literature, both classic and modern (I actually like reading children's literature in English and in French as well).
I know what you say about being a slow reader, I am a slow reader as well, and I am also easily distracted by things I read and go off on tangents, researching words, phrases etc. (fun and enlightening, but it does slow down one's reading).
I hope that sometime in the future, this club will perhaps do some group reads of specific novels or short stories (in German and perhaps also in English translation).
Mod
Well, I am a German native speaker and English is my second language. I mainly read English books in order to improve this language. Whenever I visit my family in Germany, I will 'stock up' some German books. The luggage is usually pretty heavy after each trip.
I love reading books with female characters, biographies as well as fantasy fictions like Lord of the Rings (I read both in German and English!)and historical fictions. I agree to start with something easy and not too advanced like Mann or Lessing. It is not easy to get German fictions in the US depending where you live. Where do you get your German novels from?
Boi Nghi wrote: "I am so sorry for not logging in the goodreads website for quite a while. Although I am the creator of this reading group and I am not so sure, whether I will get any responses. I am glad to see ma..."A lot of the German novels I own are literary classics like Goethe and Schiller that I had to read for university. I used to always stock up on German books when visiting family in Germany, but I stopped doing that a few years ago because I was always getting comments about the fact that I needed an empty suitcase for all of my books etc. Now, if I can afford it, I use Amazon Germany (I've gotten quite a few German children's books that way) and I got the original "Nesthäkchen" series (in alter Frakturschrift) from ABE books (the modern version has been mercilessly cut and abridged). I wish that I could get German literature (especially current literature) from the library, but most Canadian libraries do not have much German language literature (although mine does have some biographies and historical novels). I was going to get the Anne of Green Gables series in German translation (to compare to the original), but that has not happened yet.
I think I remember getting some of the Anne of Green Gables books in audio in German and I was a bit disappointed - they were split into quite a few different segments and each was sold separately. I also remember not being terribly impressed with the translation. I will check my library to see if I still have them so I can comment more accurately.
LauraW wrote: "I think I remember getting some of the Anne of Green Gables books in audio in German and I was a bit disappointed - they were split into quite a few different segments and each was sold separately...."From what I have read in some secondary material, the "translation" is quite abridged, with a lot of the descriptions, a lot of what makes the book "Canadian" or PEI left out. I don't remember exactly, but I think something like 20% of the first book has either been left out or significantly changed, growl.
Boi Nghi wrote: "I agree to start with something easy and not too advanced like Mann or Lessing. It is not easy to get German fictions in the US depending where you live. Where do you get your German novels from?"As I am a German Native as well (living in Scotland for 2 years and a bit now) I still read the majority of my books in German. I usually order them from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.de and pick them up when I visit my Family.
I will never understand why it is so common that if one speaks of foreign literature first thing that is mentioned is the classic literature like Goethe, Schiller, Lessing, Mann, Shakespeare, Wilde, Twain, Hemningway or Miller. I would rather think that one speaks about modern literature like JK Rowling, Dan Brown, Diane Gabaldon or even Erich Kaestner.
Mod
I usually order from amazon.de. It costs quite a bit for shipping, but I don't buy that much, so I consider it a treat for me.
LauraW wrote: "I usually order from amazon.de. It costs quite a bit for shipping, but I don't buy that much, so I consider it a treat for me."My problem is that there are so many books that i want to read that it is hard not to go overboard, sigh.
I now have the 4 disk set of Anne of Green Gables in German next to me. I just listened to the first couple of minutes of the first disk and can verify that they are significantly abridged. There is also some added narrative that isn't found in the original book. E.g., the beginning scene, where Rachel Lynde is looking out the window and sees Mathew Cuthbert driving up the road, is read by two readers as a dialog between Rachel and her husband Thomas. The beginning description of the mindset of the brook is left out completely. Some of this is something that is typically done by abridgement, but added conversation, where none was originally included seems like more than abridgement to me - more like dramatization. Still, if you are familiar with and enjoy Anne of Green Gables, it is interesting enough to hear it in German. Just don't count on a direct translation.
have you-all seen the website polyglot project? http://www.polyglotproject.com/browse...the site promotes reading books/stories in the original language (rather than translations) and has posted a selection in many different languages. in german it has Mann, goethe, and Kafka (heavy!) but also lots of Grimm fairy tales, and Hesse (siddhartha seems do-able to me...)
if we all wanted a book to read together to discuss, this might be a way to all access the same material!
the site doesn't work flawlessly however, so depending on your software you might not be able to use all the features...
what you do you think?
LauraW wrote: "I now have the 4 disk set of Anne of Green Gables in German next to me. I just listened to the first couple of minutes of the first disk and can verify that they are significantly abridged. There..."An article I read on the German "translation" (I would call it an adaptation) of Anne of Green Gables, Storm and Dissonance: L. M. Montgomery and Conflict, states that the Anne of Green Gables was only first translated into German in 1986 in response to the first Kevin Sullivan film. Not only was, as Laura has stated, much abridged, there were also things added to make the book appear closer to the movie (remember in the movie, Rachel and Thomas Lynde talk about Matthew leaving Green Gables, and I think Thomas Lynde says something about him perhaps going courting, this was obviously never in the original, but it might have been added in the German translation; I see that I will have to get these books sometime to read/contrast them).
Innes wrote: "have you-all seen the website polyglot project? http://www.polyglotproject.com/browse...the site promotes reading books/stories in the original language (rather than translations..."
Thanks for the link, I am not only going to browse the German section, but the French section as well. It would be good to start reading a book sometime soon (I would suggest allowing people to read both German and English translations). I also know that some German literature does also exist as dual-language editions.
An article I read on the German "translation" (I would call it an adaptation) of Anne of Green Gables, Storm and Dissonance: L. M. Montgomery and Conflict, states that the Anne of Green Gables was only first translated into German in 1986 in response to the first Kevin Sullivan film. Not only was, as Laura has stated, much abridged, there were also things added to make the book appear closer to the movie (remember in the movie, Rachel and Thomas Lynde talk about Matthew leaving Green Gables, and I think Thomas Lynde says something about him perhaps going courting, this was obviously never in the original, but it might have been added in the German translation; I see that I will have to get these books sometime to read/contrast them). That makes more sense from what I have been listening to. The audiobooks are much more like movie dialogue. The other thing that bothers me, though, is that the mood seems to be completely changed. Everyone is so happy and congenial. Even the arguments seem saccharine. It does lose a lot of the flavor of the original.
Gundula wrote: "It would be good to start reading a book sometime soon (I would suggest allowing people to read both German and English translations)."How about Neo Corleone by Elke Heidenreich? It is pretty accessible - and Amazon.com has both the English and the German versions. [and I already have the audiobook for it...lol]
LauraW wrote: "Gundula wrote: "It would be good to start reading a book sometime soon (I would suggest allowing people to read both German and English translations)."How about Neo Corleone by Elke Heidenreich? ..."
I have that on my to-read list, I would definitely be interested.
LauraW wrote: "An article I read on the German "translation" (I would call it an adaptation) of Anne of Green Gables, Storm and Dissonance: L. M. Montgomery and Conflict, states that the Anne of Green Gables was ..."Oh yuck, the mood is so important in the Anne series. I mean, it is not as gloomy and as brooding as some of the episodes in the Emily of New Moon series, but the mood is definitely not universally saccharine.
Hi everyone! I'm a fantasy author and I'm looking for some German book bloggers who would like to read and review my book in English on their blog. Here there a ling to my book, if you are interested, just shot me a message. Thanks! – http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...
German/English reading group
Books mentioned in this topic
Storm and Dissonance: L.M. Montgomery and Conflict (other topics)Kolonien der Liebe (other topics)
Die unendliche Geschichte (other topics)
Nathan der Weise (other topics)
I don't read books only because the author has a big name. If the story is good then I am especially interested in Mystery-Thriller and Biographies, but I also read Science-Fiction and Horror.
What do you like?