Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I must say that that really bugs me. I think books should always be published using the language that the author intended, rather than "localized" for different markets.
Reading the American versions of the "Harry Potter" books, to use an example, makes me cringe. They are such quintessentially "British" books, and so very much set in Britain, that I can't bear to see "parking lot" instead of "car park", "mail slot" instead of "letter box", etc. Sorry, but we have car parks in Britain, not parking lots  . I actually think that it's rather insulting to the American readership to assume that the won't be able to cope with British expressions.
Similarly, when I read an American book, I want it to stay "American", not have its spellings changed to British English.
Sorry - a bit of a "rant", I know. It just hit one of my buttons, reading that  . |
I live in the States, born and raised. When I first heard of the HP books, I thought that it would be interesting to read, but then I found out online that the publishers changed the NAME of the first book: from Philosopher's Stone to Sorceror's Stone. Evidently, they believed that not enough Americans have heard of alchemy to know what a philosopher's stone is or to understand what was meant. That frustrated me, since as much as possible, I've always believed in reading books in the original language as penned by the author so that I can capture the full meaning of the story. Of course, the Russian classics are another story, since, as of yet, I have not had time to learn Russian. :-)
Fortunately for me and the Harry Potter series, I was able to obtain all of the series from Canada, where they are shipped the original British English versions. Amazon's Canadian web site received many orders from me over the past few years. I highly recommend them to obtain original British English versions of Harry Potter and other UK imports.
Best Wishes,
Eric