What are you reading today?

[nopenopenope]

I’m in the midst of an accidentally masochistic streak. Yesterday, I started El asesino tímido: 1 | L30??, by Clara Uson, a novel about the real life suicide of 70’s Spanish low budget horror film actress Sandra Mozarovski interspersed with musing about Camus and Wittgenstein and coming of age in the waning days of Franco. I’m totally into it, but it’s too hard, and it’s not the Wittgenstein, I’m cool with him, I’ve read him for fun … in english, … it’s everything else. I kept going because sometimes the language in a book settles down after a bit, especially with extensive reading as you get used to the new words, but not here. By the time I admitted defeat, I felt like I was not only being repeatedly punched in the face by the author but that she had been standing over me with a snide, condescending smile the whole time.

So, today, I started Un episodio en la vida del pintor viajero, by Cesar Aira, and it’s even worse. Here, I feel much like the poor painter of the title who is hit by lightening, twice, then dragged behind his horse (who had also been struck by lightening, … twice).

I’m just about ready to go back to reading Dick and Jane in english.

Deep breaths, I’m taking deep breaths …

Maybe I’ll just watch some movies; it’s not as if Deprisa, deprisa | L30??, which I started watching last night, is that hard … alas, no, it’s super hard and is punching me in the face over and over again, too, also with a snide, condescending, pimply, heroin addicted smile.

Deep breaths, I’m taking deep breaths …

[nopenopenope]

I’ve effectively finished La ridícula idea de no volver a verte | L31, part biography of Marie Curie, part memoir of the author mourning her husband, part musings about love, life, death and loss. Only effectively, as Curie’s journal that she kept following the death of her husband is included as an appendix, and that will have to wait til tomorrow.

I’ll openly admit that I was underwhelmed by the first half and not overly interested in Marie Curie in general. Add to that an annoyance with #hashtag nonsense scattered throughout and I stuck this in a corner for a while wondering if I’d ever get back to it.

I’m thrilled that I did. I don’t know what changed, the book itself, my comprehension, … me, … whatever … a light suddenly flickered on, first dim then overwhelmingly bright, beautiful and, surprisingly, joyful.

And a quick thanks to everyone here … for adding books, for rating books, for putting them on your “want to read” list. You’ve all brought some really wonderful books to my attention and I’ve very grateful.

[NihongoLearner19]

I just finished the wonderful Poet X in only 2 days! It’s a coming of age story written as a novel in verse by one of my favorite authors, Elizabeth Acevedo. The main character is relatable and easy to sympathize with, and it’s a joy to watch her find her place in the world. It’s pretty easy to read since it’s not very text dense and uses a lot of everyday language. 100% recommended!

[nopenopenope]

My brain has been little more than a glorified whoopie cushion these last few days, so I’ve taken today more or less off to read book reviews from el pais. They’ve nicely put out a list of todas las criticas de babelia for 2024; music, theatre and art are also tabbed. The list isn’t paywalled but at least some if not all the reviews are.

I can’t find most of the spanish books locally as they are too recent, but it’s fun to see what is being written right now. I liked Juan Tallon’s Obra maestra, a fascinating, ambitious failure of a novel about a giant, several tonne Richard Serra sculpture going missing from the Reina Sofia … which really happened … , and will give his new one, El mejor del mundo, a go once I can find a copy. And, while Juan Manuel de Prada’s Mil ojos esconde la noche doesn’t sound all that interesting to me, the reviewer’s remarks about his first novel Las mascaras del heroe makes me think I might enjoy it.

The list of things to read grows ever longer …

[nopenopenope]

I ended the 2024 on a very good note, came within 0.003% of my goal for words read and finished Pedro Páramo: 189 (Letras Hispánicas) | L42 which had been far too hard for me back in July but is fully in my range now.

2025 is not even a day in and it isn’t going well at all. I got 10 pages into La tía Julia y el escribidor | L30?? before having to admit that there were far too many words that I didn’t know per page. So I picked up Tres tristes tigres | L30?? which started off great until about 20 pages in where it shifted to a letter written by someone even worse at spelling then me … la hija tulla bino a berme … volbio con una serbesa muy dulse … yegue tarde y les ise cafe … not actual sentences but indicative of the inverted c/s and b/v, dropped h’s and general misspellings. the phonetic readers out there will shrug, and rightly so, but lordy I’m a sight reader and these just floored me … then the phonetic spelling of the cuban accent with the odd s dropped started … and not some random line or quick exchange but page after page after page filled with them.

Tres tristes tigres | L30?? is a classic and I very much want to read it, … but … no, I just can’t and it breaks my heart just a little. Most books I can’t read I figure I’ll be able to after awhile, but this one may be the exception as it exploits all of my weaknesses, not just as someone learning a new language but as a reader in general.

If you’re a sight reader like me or you’re early in the process of learning to read, be warned.

[Micki]

@nopenopenope

came within 0.003% of my goal for words read

I was intrigued by this. It seems an extremely small fraction to be under your goal. Even if your target was 10,000,000 words that would only be 300 words short?

[nopenopenope]

dammit. you’re right. 0.3%. 10k shy of 3.5 million (does this work out?). kant spel, kant du mats.

however, in my defense, I’ve just now belatedly re-allowed 9895 words that I’d initially struck off (the first chapters of 3 books I never continued). so, it’s now 105 words shy of 3.5 million!

[Micki]

Now that is impressive! To have a goal of 3.5 million and stop 105 words short takes some special skills!

[nopenopenope]

lordy, lordy, lordy, I’ve just started Don Quijote de la Mancha | L45??. I’m through the author’s prologue and into the poems … so, 1% read! I’m not going to be reading it as a main book but as something to putz with since thousand plus page books make me restless.

So far, much easier, relatively speaking, than La invención de Morel | L35 was for me a year ago, which gives me some hope that by trying this now I won’t just be, um, tilting at windmills…

fingers crossed!

[eefara]

Oooh, good luck! Don Quijote is my white whale, haha.

[nopenopenope]

thanks! If it goes well, I’ll post a little update every couple of hundred pages!

[Micki]

I read El prínicpe Caspian, the fourth book in the Narnia series. A book I proposed as a Spanish book club pick, then withdrew in favour of more Spanish/Latin American picks.

I have a lovely hardback edition of this, part of a set of seven bought a few years ago. I bought the first four in Argentina and tried to resist buying all seven, but then saw the same set in Madrid on the way home and couldn’t resist completing the set!

I realised that I’ve ended up reading Spanish versions of quite a few of the big fantasy children’s books over the years. Including Harry Potter and The Hobbit too. They can be good learners books as they are popular stories, but more simple children’s language. I have a copy of the first Lord of the Rings book somewhere I might have to tackle at some point.

[eefara]

I love that cover!

[eefara]

I’ve been pretty wishy-washy with my Spanish over the last couple of years, not wanting it to rot away entirely while also refusing to put in the time I’d need to make myself able to read anything above low L20 books in a reasonable amount of time. So one of my goals last year was to just jump to one of my “goal” books in Spanish and, assuming I didn’t accidentally pick the equivalent of an L40 book, see if that would be enough to rekindle any interest in learning for me.

I didn’t end up doing that last year, but the thought’s still been on my mind, so I decided to go ahead with the plan. Most of the books I’m interested in in Spanish at the moment are nonfiction, which I figured could get very difficult very quickly, but I think I’ve found a happy medium: Eso no estaba en mi libro de Historia de la Navegación | L30??. I figure any nonfiction series with a title that’s the equivalent of “stuff your teacher didn’t teach you in high school” should be aimed at a very general, non-specialist audience, perfect for my low level needs. Even more perfect is that the book’s sections all appear to be incredibly short, at least to start with, so I can just read a section every day or two (or one every week, whenever), and has a digital version I can use to pull flashcards out of.

So here I am; I’m hoping to report back here every so often on how it’s going, have I given up, am I ignoring my flashcard reviews, etc.

[Micki]

I hope you get on well with it, it does look interesting. I love the content tags on Natively:

Also liked the Spanish translation of the Latin at the start of page 1. It’s so similar to the Spanish it took me a second to realise why the author was repeating themself!

[eefara]

@Micki

I love the content tags on Natively:

I added those, haha. Hopefully if I read more I can find more good tags to add, haha.