What do you read in "other" languages

[Geralt]

English is my second language and I use it to read 99% of the fiction and professional reads. Thank god for translations eh ^^
I read also French for professional, but I just started learning it so its slow. I read Foucault. And I know some Japanese (N3) so I read that too, but for the use of learning it more, basically only short stories.

[Turnstone]

Most of the books I read are in English. My first language is German, and sometimes I read German books, too. But if the original book was not German, I prefer the English one because it is much cheaper, and usually I have no problems understanding them.
I don't speak any other languages well enough to read a book in that language (tried to learn French and Russian at school, but I can't remember enough to read a book or speak with someone).

[rogue_librarian]

I try to make do without translations, i.e. read the originals in the case of English, German or French. Most of the books I read for pleasure are in English, with e few German ones thrown in for good measure. I have a thing for British Fantasy (Rankin, Pratchett, Adams, Fforde of late) and Humour (Wodehouse, Mortimer), but like police procedurals and cozies, too. (Charlotte MacLeod, Rhys Bowen ...)

Of course there's a lot of non-fiction, too, most of which is in English anyway. Bad translations bug me, and I've been known to abandon a book for that reason.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by rogue_librarian

Bad translations bug me, and I've been known to abandon a book for that reason.

Me too. I always try to read a book in the original language that it was written in if I can.

[xendula]

Originally Posted by gweeks

The problem is, the scone has sugar in it and the biscuit does not. That makes them not very much like each other.

British scones and American biscuits are very close in my mind, just that American biscuits are more greasy (surprise!) and more salty. I had plenty of cheese scones when I lived in England, and those did not have sugar in them.

On topic: I speak 5 languages fluently, but read in English, which is my third language, mostly, and some books in German, French and Spanish if they either were originally written in those languages, the foreign language version is cheaper on amazon, or I can borrow it from someone who has it in that language. I also have a few Italian books I am yet to tackle.i read mostly in English because book s are cheaper in the US, English is a bit easier for me to read nowadays, and I can borrow ebooks through Overdrive.

One thing I can't stand is when they change names in translations. Why the h is that necessary?! I started reading a series in English because I could eborrow it from the library, then realized it was a translation from German with the third book not yet translated ino English, but all their names are "wrong"!! I am yet to get it, but I already know I will hate it a little because of that.

[GrannyGrump]

I read only British and American, and yes, I do think they are separate languages (kissin' cousins?). I've read so much English lit that my American spelling has fallen under its sway, and recently I've had to start using spellcheck for the first time in my life. British spelling is seductive.

[Polyglot27]

Originally Posted by grannyGrumpy

I read only British and American, and yes, I do think they are separate languages (kissin' cousins?). I've read so much English lit that my American spelling has fallen under its sway, and recently I've had to start using spellcheck for the first time in my life. British spelling is seductive.

Wasn't it Bernard Shaw who said, "England and America are two countries separated by the same language."
I sometimes have problems too with my spelling not only because of the US-UK differences but also because of the French that I see all the time. The French spellings for mariage and litterature sometime interfere when I write.
But the worst is when I write Chinese. I get confused with the classical, the simplified and the Japanese form sometimes since I have learnt all 3 forms.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Polyglot27

Wasn't it Bernard Shaw who said, "England and America are two countries separated by the same language."

Its source is disputed.

In The Canterville Ghost (1887), Oscar Wilde wrote: ‘We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language’.

However, the 1951 Treasury of Humorous Quotations (Esar & Bentley) quotes Geroge Barnard Shaw as saying: ‘England and America are two countries separated by the same language’, but without giving a source.

Much the same idea occurred to Bertrand Russell (Saturday Evening Post, 3 June 1944): ‘It is a misfortune for Anglo-American friendship that the two countries are supposed to have a common language’, and in a radio talk prepared by Dylan Thomas shortly before his death (and published after it in The Listener, April 1954) - European writers and scholars in America were, he said, ‘up against the barrier of a common language’.

So it seems to have been an idea which various people have had.