Help! I'm silently freaking out.

[Ea]

I hardly ever read novels in Danish - one (1) this year so far. Since I started to read ebooks over three years ago, I more or less stopped reading books in anything but English as they were not available.

Now I find myself choosing English over Danish, or just somehow putting off reading those books in Danish I'm interested in (such as books I can't find as ebooks anyway).

It was somehow 'easier' to read "The Trial" for the November boook club in English than in Danish - what the f*** is up with me? It's a German book. The English translation is probably not better than the Danish.

Should I put myself on a forced Danish language book diet for some time? It will all (sadly) be p-books...

It's not like I'm losing my language, but why on earth should I favour a foreign one? I know I have a choice, but I'm still drifting towards English. It's really odd. Why I'm silently freaking out....

[Idoine]

Same here ! I have some french books awaiting me, and I continue loading my TBR list with English language ones !
But I refuse to read books in english, that are first french-written !

[Ea]

Originally Posted by Idoine

But I refuse to read books in english, that are first french-written !

Likewise! It would be seriously WEIRD for me to read a Danish book translated into English But I try to stay away from books in other languages as well. It's simply just too odd that I would need an English tranlation before a Danish....

[Idoine]

Originally Posted by Ea

... It's simply just too odd that I would need an English tranlation before a Danish....

Well, as it's a translation... Now the question is : "Is this book available in my language and in ebook, at a reasonable price ?"
If not, and that's pretty always the case, I buy the english translation (as for the Stieg Larsson ones, and Q&A...)

[Katti's Cat]

If a books was written in German I now try to buy that. Otherwise I stick to english books.

And just consider your preference for english books as
a) improving your language skills
b) time saver - it's probably easier to find the english translation than the danish ones (not sure about it but sounds good ) that way you have more time reading english books and working on your language skills

[montsnmags]

Is it possible that you're electing to read in a language that you're expecting to be that read by the people you're most likely to (want to?) discuss it with (eg. The Trial for the MR Book Club, being discussed and likely read in English?). Just a thought.

Cheers,
Marc

[lene1949]

I'm Danish and living in Australia... Ever since I started reading books in the English language, I don't like the Danish language... Maybe it would be different, if it was a Danish author..

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Ea

I hardly ever read novels in Danish - one (1) this year so far. Since I started to read ebooks over three years ago, I more or less stopped reading books in anything but English as they were not available.

Now I find myself choosing English over Danish, or just somehow putting off reading those books in Danish I'm interested in (such as books I can't find as ebooks anyway).

It was somehow 'easier' to read "The Trial" for the November boook club in English than in Danish - what the f*** is up with me? It's a German book. The English translation is probably not better than the Danish.

Should I put myself on a forced Danish language book diet for some time? It will all (sadly) be p-books...

It's not like I'm losing my language, but why on earth should I favour a foreign one? I know I have a choice, but I'm still drifting towards English. It's really odd. Why I'm silently freaking out....

Hmm, the last time I read a Dutch book was.... april? I finally got my claw on a children's book I've been wanting to get for ages (for free no less, one advantage at working with a publisher ). Before that? I can't even remember... Or it must be a children's book (by that same author) I scanned in myself.

If a book in not originally written in Dutch, I might as well read the English (ebook) translation instead of the Dutch (pbook) translation. I've been an avid English book reader ever since I've been in the States as an Exchange Student.

To be honest, I can't think of one current Dutch book I'd like to read...

[FlorenceArt]

I can understand how you feel, but I still try to read books in French unless they were originally written in English. But sometimes maybe that's a mistake, for instance if the French translation is really bad.

I'm still trying to figure out how I should read Stieg Larsson's books, which are available in French but not as ebooks, at least in a format I can read. I guess I'll just try to grab them at the library, but they are never in, I may have to reserve them

I also remember many years ago, hearing about a French translation of a major work by Mishima (the Sea of Tranquility?), only the translation was not from the original Japanese but from the English translation. How twisted is that? As a result, I never read this book, which is rather stupid I guess...

I feel a bit reluctant to read English translations of books that are in another language. It feels wrong. At least if I read a French translation I am only suffering from the translator's errors. I don't want to add to that my own incorrect or inaccurate understanding. When I read in English I'm sure I don't get all the subtleties, and I sometimes make mistakes. Although I still prefer that to reading a bad French translation, reading an English translation of a book would feel a bit like reading that French translation of an English translation of a Japanese book.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

I can understand how you feel, but I still try to read books in French unless they were originally written in English. But sometimes maybe that's a mistake, for instance if the French translation is really bad.
<snip>
I feel a bit reluctant to read English translations of books that are in another language. It feels wrong. At least if I read a French translation I am only suffering from the translator's errors. I don't want to add to that my own incorrect or inaccurate understanding. When I read in English I'm sure I don't get all the subtleties, and I sometimes make mistakes. Although I still prefer that to reading a bad French translation, reading an English translation of a book would feel a bit like reading that French translation of an English translation of a Japanese book.

First of all, I generally find Dutch translations worse than the English translations. Second, finding Dutch translations in ebook format is worse than finding a needle in a haystack. Unless you like drama, romance or thrillers. And I don't like any of those categories...

[Terisa de morgan]

Well, I don't know how many Spanish books I've read this year, but I can count them with my fingers (and because my mother doesn't read in English, less if she did it).

[Ea]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

...
I feel a bit reluctant to read English translations of books that are in another language. It feels wrong. At least if I read a French translation I am only suffering from the translator's errors. I don't want to add to that my own incorrect or inaccurate understanding. When I read in English I'm sure I don't get all the subtleties, and I sometimes make mistakes. Although I still prefer that to reading a bad French translation, reading an English translation of a book would feel a bit like reading that French translation of an English translation of a Japanese book.

I can follow this. While I'd probably prefer to read a good English translation over a bad Danish one, if I had the choice, I think there's a level of subtlety or intimate understanding, that you can't really 'get at' unless you have grown up with that language. As fro books written in Danish - if it was a cheap thriller or something it probably wouldn't matter much, but if it's by a writer with a 'good' language, I feel it would be a shame to read it in English (not that many are translated to English anyway )

I'm just lucky that many of the authors I like are English or American, and there seem to be an overweight of English and American authors among novels that are translated compared other foreign countries. I sometimes wonder why there are so relatively few German, French and Spanish authors that are translated, but perhaps it's simply because it's a really small market and there isn't room for a great number of titles.