reading & weather
Feb. 9th, 2014 11:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareinaLiving this far north I normally expect winter to be that period of time wherein it never rains, but temperatures are below freezing and it can (and does) snow. Using that definition winter this year lasted for only about a month--we had above freezing temps and a bit of rain around new years, and it warmed up enough to rain (in between snow flurries) this weekend. One month of proper winter is rather pathetic compared to the five months that is normal. I hope this year is just an odd fluke, and that it isn't going to be the new typical pattern--there aren't many places further north I could move to in hopes of better weather (and many of them have been even warmer than we have been). Oh well, there is a chance at decent winter temps and proper snow yet this winter, I shall remain hopeful.
Today was a low-energy day spent mostly reading. I have just finished Drakjackten, the Swedish translation of Anne McCaffery's Dragon Quest, which I borrowed (or perhaps they gave it to me?) from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
linda_linsefors's parents when we visited them at the beginning of January. This book took me 39 days to read. I remember when that book (in English) would take one to five days, depending on how busy I was. Clearly, life is far busier now, even after one takes into account that reading in Swedish takes me longer--given how many times I have read that book in English since high school it I don't take that long to read the Swedish version--I have a good idea of what every paragraph should be saying (though there are bits that I had forgotten--the last time I read it was March 2010, and I have no idea before that--I have only been keeping a record of books read since 2005).
I have just looked it up: Last year I manged to read a total of 13 books:
Patrick Rothfuss: Vindens namn (del 1) (Swedish translation of the first half of the Name of the Wind--first time to read this in Swedish, but I have read it three times in English, once out loud tolord_kjar. Note that he so enjoyed it that he is actually reading the print version (in English) now, because he wanted to hear it again, but didn't like the audio book versions he found (he normally prefers audio books to text) compared to my reading of it.)
Astrid Lindgren: Bröderna Lejonhjärta This one was written in Swedish in the first place, and I had never read any version of it before, but, being a children's book I was able to follow most of it without needing to look up many words.
Patrick Rothfuss: The Wise Man's Fear (English version, outloud tolord_kjar.
Roald Dahl: Kalle och choklad fabriken Swedish translation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I had this in English as a kid, and read it often then, but hadn't read it in many years.
Patrick Rothfuss: Vindens namn (del 2) (Swedish translation of the first half of the Name of the Wind--first time to read this in Swedish,but I had read the English version several times)
J.R.R Tolkien: Hobbiten Swedish translation of the Hobbit--another I have read many, many times in English, most recently out loud tolord_kjar.
Katherine Kurtz: Deryni Rising an old favourite in English, which I read out loud tolord_kjar.
Carin Svensson: Marie Curie - forskaren som sprängde gränser A retelling of Marie Curie's life story, written especially for people who have learned Swedish as a second language as adults, so it has a rather limited vocabulary and a very plain way of telling the story. This one was easy to follow both because of how they wrote it, and because my favourite book as a child was a kid's version of her story, so I knew mostly what to expect, though there was some information I didn't know before reading this one.
Jean M. Auel: Grottbjötnens Folk The Swedish Translation of Clan of the Cave Bear. Another one I had read often in English, starting in high school, so, even though this is not exactly an easy read in any language, I did just fine with the Swedish version. I didn't bother looking up the words for the various plants mentioned in the book, since I didn't recognize most of them in English when I read it anyway.
Less Wrong (Eliezer Yudkowsky): Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality I had never read this before reading it out loud tolord_kjar and linda_linsefors, which meant we were free to speculate what might happen as the story progresses. There were many places where we had to pause the reading because I was laughing too hard to actually manage to say the next sentence.
Mary Norton: Den förtrollad mässingsknoppen The Swedish translation of Bed-knobs and Broomsticks. This one I know I read once as a kid (borrowed from a library), but I didn't remember much of it.
L. M. Montgomery: Vår vän Anne The Swedish translation of Anne of Avonlea (second book in the Anne of Green Gables book). Another one I have read many, many times over the years.
Astrid Lindgren: Nya hyss a Emil i Lönneberga another one written originally in Swedish that I had never seen in English, but, being written for children, was easy to follow.
Today was a low-energy day spent mostly reading. I have just finished Drakjackten, the Swedish translation of Anne McCaffery's Dragon Quest, which I borrowed (or perhaps they gave it to me?) from
linda_linsefors's parents when we visited them at the beginning of January. This book took me 39 days to read. I remember when that book (in English) would take one to five days, depending on how busy I was. Clearly, life is far busier now, even after one takes into account that reading in Swedish takes me longer--given how many times I have read that book in English since high school it I don't take that long to read the Swedish version--I have a good idea of what every paragraph should be saying (though there are bits that I had forgotten--the last time I read it was March 2010, and I have no idea before that--I have only been keeping a record of books read since 2005).I have just looked it up: Last year I manged to read a total of 13 books:
Patrick Rothfuss: Vindens namn (del 1) (Swedish translation of the first half of the Name of the Wind--first time to read this in Swedish, but I have read it three times in English, once out loud to
lord_kjar. Note that he so enjoyed it that he is actually reading the print version (in English) now, because he wanted to hear it again, but didn't like the audio book versions he found (he normally prefers audio books to text) compared to my reading of it.)Astrid Lindgren: Bröderna Lejonhjärta This one was written in Swedish in the first place, and I had never read any version of it before, but, being a children's book I was able to follow most of it without needing to look up many words.
Patrick Rothfuss: The Wise Man's Fear (English version, outloud to
lord_kjar.Roald Dahl: Kalle och choklad fabriken Swedish translation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I had this in English as a kid, and read it often then, but hadn't read it in many years.
Patrick Rothfuss: Vindens namn (del 2) (Swedish translation of the first half of the Name of the Wind--first time to read this in Swedish,but I had read the English version several times)
J.R.R Tolkien: Hobbiten Swedish translation of the Hobbit--another I have read many, many times in English, most recently out loud to
lord_kjar.Katherine Kurtz: Deryni Rising an old favourite in English, which I read out loud to
lord_kjar.Carin Svensson: Marie Curie - forskaren som sprängde gränser A retelling of Marie Curie's life story, written especially for people who have learned Swedish as a second language as adults, so it has a rather limited vocabulary and a very plain way of telling the story. This one was easy to follow both because of how they wrote it, and because my favourite book as a child was a kid's version of her story, so I knew mostly what to expect, though there was some information I didn't know before reading this one.
Jean M. Auel: Grottbjötnens Folk The Swedish Translation of Clan of the Cave Bear. Another one I had read often in English, starting in high school, so, even though this is not exactly an easy read in any language, I did just fine with the Swedish version. I didn't bother looking up the words for the various plants mentioned in the book, since I didn't recognize most of them in English when I read it anyway.
Less Wrong (Eliezer Yudkowsky): Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality I had never read this before reading it out loud to
lord_kjar and linda_linsefors, which meant we were free to speculate what might happen as the story progresses. There were many places where we had to pause the reading because I was laughing too hard to actually manage to say the next sentence. Mary Norton: Den förtrollad mässingsknoppen The Swedish translation of Bed-knobs and Broomsticks. This one I know I read once as a kid (borrowed from a library), but I didn't remember much of it.
L. M. Montgomery: Vår vän Anne The Swedish translation of Anne of Avonlea (second book in the Anne of Green Gables book). Another one I have read many, many times over the years.
Astrid Lindgren: Nya hyss a Emil i Lönneberga another one written originally in Swedish that I had never seen in English, but, being written for children, was easy to follow.
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Date: 2014-02-10 04:59 pm (UTC)Ok, potentially useful cover, but I don't need to know which ones have which uses, so long as someone does.