Read many foreign books? (novels, literature, comedy, bookstore)

[Cida]

I was just thinking - as I'm starting The Count of Monte Christo - that I think generally Americans don't read much in the way of foreign books, apart from the occasional trend, now with Swedish thrillers, or for classic literature, Russian novels.

I wonder if people read man English -language books in other countries?

[jtur88]

I can't read comfortably in any foreign language. Are you talking about English translations of authors like Hoeg or Allende or Barbery, or are you referring to reading it in the original language?

As for the reverse, I suspect there are a lot of people in Europe who can read English well enough to read our popular best-sellers in English, without a need for a translation.

[peppermint]

I read some of the French authors (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Dumas, Hugo, Voltaire, etc.). I also enjoy Elie Weisel and some others. I can't think specifically right now. Guess I spent too much time mowing in the hot sun and fried my brain.

[kevxu]

Originally Posted by Cida

I was just thinking - as I'm starting The Count of Monte Christo - that I think generally Americans don't read much in the way of foreign books, apart from the occasional trend, now with Swedish thrillers, or for classic literature, Russian novels.

I wonder if people read man English -language books in other countries?

I'm an American, and I used to read Brazilian novels in Portuguese, though my current proficiency no longer allows for that. Most of my reading is English language translations of foreign books, though much of my non-fiction reading is by American authors.

Translations of American books are common in Europe, though many bookstores do have small English language sections where one may purchase the original version of some books. Oddly enough, the last time I was in a large Portuguese bookstore in Lisbon, the American books available were not current bestsellers but rather books from the past fifty years and earlier.

I help out a woman who makes her living as a translator from English to German. Most of her books are American, equally divided between one or two best-selling middlebrow authors and the rest is an endless series of popular, badly written garbage by a best-selling grade Z female author, who seems to specialize in steamy, but hysterically funny sex scenes.

[BigSwede]

I read books by american authors.

[peppermint]

I just started a novella by the Dutchman Hans Keilson. Comedy in a Minor Key is about a Dutch couple who take in a Jew during the Nazi occupation, but the Jew dies and they have to dispose of the body without being caught. My first Dutch author!

[Anette.V]

I love foreign books! I am originally from Europe and I have probably read more foreign books than American ones. I am currently reading "The Idiot" by Dostoyevsky.

[Cida]

Sorry I wasn't clear! I meant books by foreign authors translated into English. Of course I didn't expect everyone to be able to read in half a dozen languages.

Annete, it doesn't surprise me that someone from Europe would read books by foreign authors, but it just seems that when I see some most people are reading, apart from the occasional Steig Larsson, it's all English-language.

(The other example that occured to me later, along with my saying that people do read some calssic Russian novels, like Anna Karenina - I remember when Herman Hesse was in vogue for a while, and it was common to see people carrying those distinctive paperbacks.)

[StarlaJane]

Originally Posted by Cida

Sorry I wasn't clear! I meant books by foreign authors translated into English. Of course I didn't expect everyone to be able to read in half a dozen languages.

Annete, it doesn't surprise me that someone from Europe would read books by foreign authors, but it just seems that when I see some most people are reading, apart from the occasional Steig Larsson, it's all English-language.

(The other example that occured to me later, along with my saying that people do read some calssic Russian novels, like Anna Karenina - I remember when Herman Hesse was in vogue for a while, and it was common to see people carrying those distinctive paperbacks.)

That would fall under the heading of "World Lit," which was the topic of my English class my senior year in high school. I also took World Lit in college and, surprise, majored in langs. Now, I read in the original lang, when possible, but also any and all World Lit classics, mostly b/c of the English class that first piqued my interest. Some favs that have been translated into English but are still great (although probably better in their original langs):

Metamorphoses - Kafka; originally written in German
Anna Karenina - Tolstoy; originally written in Russian
Notes from Underground and The Grand Inquisitor - Dostoyevsky (Russian)
The Iliad and The Odyssey - Homer (Ancient Grrek)

I actually still have my World Lit anthology from college, and it is just a treasure trove of material, in translation.

[jtur88]

I love reading foreign books. I've rad some recently by Japanese and Scandinavian writers, and I'm fond of Garcia-Marques and Allende. Anna Karenina is amazing and I was captivated by Sigrid Undset's books.

But I have found that they sometimes read like they are very poor translations, and lack the pizzazz of a book written by a very good author in English. For example, in reading Barbery's "Elegance of the Hedgehog", I was left with the feeling that it was a very funny book, but translated by someone who had no sense of humor at all. I'm currently reading a book by Ninni Holmqvist, that I think must be very pporly translated, to where it becomes nothing but a rather juvenile narrative, which I doubt the Swedish original was.

There are now two translations of Sigrid Undset. The old classic one reads like Silas Marner, and the more recent one reads like Pillars of the Earth. Tremendous difference. Most readers would love it or hate it, depending on which translation they got.