new layout + couple book recs maybe?
Oct. 19th, 2008 12:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janie_tangerineSo, I felt like changing layout and I did, though it's always His Prettiness. Looks like I'm in a I-need-Pretty phase -nods-. The rest probably shows that I like myself weird headers.
And uhm, in order to get this post to have a sense, couple book recs y/y? Though one is more of an author rec.
Okay, first with the Finnish writer (I was going to rec the book, but I searched and I don't think it has been translated into English. Weird because it was translated here but anyway): so it was my mother who buys regularly stuff from an editor which publishes Scandinavian writers who gave me some books from this Mr. Arto Paasilinna who I'm told is a cult author in Finland and the guy writes indeed some hilarious stuff. I fear I haven't read the only one I'm sure was translated into English, but the one I finished just now was really, really hilarious (it was about an ex-Lutheran priest traveling around Europe with his domesticated bear, who can iron clothes and dance some Russian popular dance, just to give you the idea) and the other two I read last year were pretty great, too. So yeah, just saying that if you end up finding this guy in some bookshop it's a guaranteed fun/intelligent read.
Captain Alatriste by Arturo Peréz Reverte: I read this one mainly because since my father is a complete addicted to the series (it's the first book) and he has been trying to get me to read the thing for at least seven years, I figured I might give it a try. I enjoyed that a lot, especially since it was kind of Three-Musketeers reminiscent (in the sense that while the atmosphere was way heavier, there was some inspiration, a common character and a pretty blatant credit when he mentioned Milady de Winter, which kind of made my day when I read it) and it was a pretty exciting story.
Also, there was some excellent characterization in there. The only thing that I had half a quibble about is that it doesn't really happen much and it feels more like a starting point. Which is all good if he has a planned series and I get that if you need ten installments or how many they are of course in the first book you just establish the characters and describe the atmosphere instead of having a lot of stuff happen, but still.
Also, but this doesn't have much to do with the book in itself, I have this idea that by reading it translated I lost at least half of the stuff, in the sense that since the translation kind of felt forced at times and other times it just sounded bad I figured that I'd have enjoyed it more if I actually knew Spanish and read it like it was supposed to. And clearly my father has the whole series in Spanish, damn him and his language skills *sigh*. Now I don't know if I should take a grammar/dictionary and try to read book #2 in Spanish though it's a language that for me comes across as quite hard despite me being Italian or just go and get the translation somewhere. Maybe it'd be the good time to at least learn some basic Spanish, but I fear it's beyond me right now. Oh well, I'll see. After all it's an adventure novel, so maybe I would get half of it. But anyway, good read, a fun one and it doesn't have a dull moment.
Also, am I the only person who manages to read while working out? Because there's a guy at my gym who is always so surprised to see that I do it. I mean, I've seen people reading the sports newspaper, while is it so strange that I read a novel instead? *shrugs*
And now it's definitely too late. *is off*
And uhm, in order to get this post to have a sense, couple book recs y/y? Though one is more of an author rec.
Okay, first with the Finnish writer (I was going to rec the book, but I searched and I don't think it has been translated into English. Weird because it was translated here but anyway): so it was my mother who buys regularly stuff from an editor which publishes Scandinavian writers who gave me some books from this Mr. Arto Paasilinna who I'm told is a cult author in Finland and the guy writes indeed some hilarious stuff. I fear I haven't read the only one I'm sure was translated into English, but the one I finished just now was really, really hilarious (it was about an ex-Lutheran priest traveling around Europe with his domesticated bear, who can iron clothes and dance some Russian popular dance, just to give you the idea) and the other two I read last year were pretty great, too. So yeah, just saying that if you end up finding this guy in some bookshop it's a guaranteed fun/intelligent read.
Captain Alatriste by Arturo Peréz Reverte: I read this one mainly because since my father is a complete addicted to the series (it's the first book) and he has been trying to get me to read the thing for at least seven years, I figured I might give it a try. I enjoyed that a lot, especially since it was kind of Three-Musketeers reminiscent (in the sense that while the atmosphere was way heavier, there was some inspiration, a common character and a pretty blatant credit when he mentioned Milady de Winter, which kind of made my day when I read it) and it was a pretty exciting story.
Also, there was some excellent characterization in there. The only thing that I had half a quibble about is that it doesn't really happen much and it feels more like a starting point. Which is all good if he has a planned series and I get that if you need ten installments or how many they are of course in the first book you just establish the characters and describe the atmosphere instead of having a lot of stuff happen, but still.
Also, but this doesn't have much to do with the book in itself, I have this idea that by reading it translated I lost at least half of the stuff, in the sense that since the translation kind of felt forced at times and other times it just sounded bad I figured that I'd have enjoyed it more if I actually knew Spanish and read it like it was supposed to. And clearly my father has the whole series in Spanish, damn him and his language skills *sigh*. Now I don't know if I should take a grammar/dictionary and try to read book #2 in Spanish though it's a language that for me comes across as quite hard despite me being Italian or just go and get the translation somewhere. Maybe it'd be the good time to at least learn some basic Spanish, but I fear it's beyond me right now. Oh well, I'll see. After all it's an adventure novel, so maybe I would get half of it. But anyway, good read, a fun one and it doesn't have a dull moment.
Also, am I the only person who manages to read while working out? Because there's a guy at my gym who is always so surprised to see that I do it. I mean, I've seen people reading the sports newspaper, while is it so strange that I read a novel instead? *shrugs*
And now it's definitely too late. *is off*
