This is the first true book in English I read. I found it in a secondhand trade last year. It was really cheap, less than one dollars. I didn't know absolutely nothing about the writer, and nothing about the contain, however I had understood the title. I started to read it very slowly, very, very slowly. It was very difficult and quite fastidious, but I've been anyway able to understand a little, helped by my electronic dictionary. Little by little I'm entered in the atmosphere, and I've been caught by the suspens but, above all, I've laughed for the first time in my life with a book wrote in English. Last summer I was able to read sixteen pages, and this summer I was able to read relatively easily the sixty-four remainder.
83 comments:
Did you read this book "upside down" , Momo ? I can imagine , you faced some difficulties ... !
Hello, Patton. No, I didn't. But it was like if I read it upside down, especially at the start. In other respects, when I first saw it in its box of bananas, it was upside down.
juass juasss ! :-D ////
Why this book and not another one? Was there a particular reason?
I can only congratulate you on this reading (of whatever quality); it elicited laughter from you! Practice is key.
My first complete book in English was a novel we had to read in Grade 9: Black Beauty, a classic. Since then, there have been many others... I hope it is the same for you and it will get easier with time!
krn, I could say that it's not me who choosed him, but that it's him who choosed me. Suddenly, during my first steps, I felt the need to read a book, and this one was the first I found, by random. In other respects, I must recognize that I finally liked this book (very gore and "grand guignol"). And, doing a research in the internet, I discovered that this writer is famous as "the writer who has able to do read the teenagers". So, I thought that he is a good writer for me, and specially for start.
Thank you, Doreus, for your kind encouragements.
Who is the author of "The black beauty " ?
I must clarify that in the meantime I read in English also Hemingway.
Can you advice me some authors to start read in English ?
Anna Sewell a écrit Black Beauty. Tu me vois un peu gêné de te faire des recommandations... Mes lectures sont tellement éparpillées. Je n'ai jamais fait les «grands classiques». Certains, d'ailleurs, comme Charles Dickens, m'énervent au plus haut point. Je te suggérerais de suivre ton instinct, comme tu l'as fait pour ce livre! Le principal, c'est de lire quelque chose qu'on aime lire et qui nous donne le goût de poursuivre.
Tu as sans doute raison.
Suis-je autorisé à demander pourquoi Charles Dickens, que je n'ai pas lu, t'énerve à ce point là ?
Je n'ai pas trop aimé Charles Dickens non plus. Il tombe facilement dans le misérabilisme et l'exagération sentimentale. Mais c'est juste un avis personnel. J'ai trouvé l'atmosphère de Oliver Twist assez pesante.
To go on in english, I liked very much "The adventures of Huckleberry Finn de Mark Twain"
Mark Twain himself called it a "hymn" to boyhood.
And "the adventure of Tom Sawyer" by Mark Twain too.
I forgot to write in English! Shocking!
Well, Charles Dickens annoys me because he uses way too many words (he was paid by the word and had a large family and debts...) to say what he has to say. And yes, like KRN, I find him unnecessarily dark and he has a tendency to revel in misery. It's also a pesonal thing: I just don't feel any connection to that style of writing. On the contrary, I loved Tolkien.
krn, not so sentimental, was not he who wrote a text for use by poor, advising them to eat their children?
J'ai trouvé le film de Polansky, Oliver Twist, très décevant, mais ça n'a rien à voir, bien qu'un peu oui, quand même, puisqu'Oliver Twist a été tellement porté à l'écran et, de ce fait, existe d'avantage cinématographiquement que littérairement, à tout le moins en dehors du monde anglophone, me semble-t-il.
Mark Twain ? Thanks for the advice, krn. Tom Sawyer, another caracter who has been adapted several times in cinema.
Doreus, je cite Cioran (de mémoire) : "Être un fanatique du laconisme, et vouloir vivre de son écriture".
Once more, another author who is adapted several time in the cinema.
Why do you love Tolkien ?
What do you think about the relationship between the cinema and the anglophone literature ?
Eat their children? No, I don't think so.
But maybe I was too young when I read Oliver Twist.
The fate is incensed against this poor Oliver.
Child abandoned at his birth. An unlucky star seems to follow him, by the orphanage in the streets of London where he is collected by a band of grasping thieves.
The nasty poeple are really nasty from the first to the last word of the book and nothing can make them better. KInd poeple are blind and do not see the evil.
We want to shake everybody to make them change.
Nevertheless, I cried several times on the misery of the orphans. Everything was not thus negative.
I don't share your opinion about Dickens . He could be compaired to ZOLA or Balzac , with british touch , of course . Momo , try " The Posthumous Papers of the PICKWICK CLUB " , Dickens is there hilarous . A festival of " non sense " . So British ! Tom SAWYER by Mark TWAIN is a nice story for young boys . Nelson read it , on this Summer .I was as interested as him .
It is certainly the reason why I don't like Balzac.
I can't to find the text about the cannibalism, but that's maybe a sort of rarity.
Thank you Patton. Does it a children book ?
It isn't, Momo.
You can read about tom sawyer here.
the Pickwick papers. by Dickens.
Thank you, krn, did you read these books in English ?
I read Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer in english early in my life,I was fifteen.
The vocabulary is the one of every day and the repetition of many familiar words allows to acquire quickly a nice conversation.
Furthermore, it is very amusing
Hahaa, from what I understood these are good books to start to read.
Yes, they are very good books.
Ah! Interesting literary discussion going on here. I'm not saying that Dickens is bad. Actually, as Patton suggested, his Pickwick Papers are quite renowned... as is, of course, his universally-known A Christmas Carol. It just does not do it for me. I feel the same about Balzac, and yet I love Zola.
As for Tolkien, I was just smitten by the way he plays with language(s), real and invented. I like him in the way I like Umberto Eco: witty and challenging. Not an easy read by any stretch of the imaginagion (well, The Hobbit is easier) certainly not an author I would recommend for learning English.
I love Zola too...
Momo, I also liked "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes.
It is the story of a mentally retarded person, Charlie, whose fate is connected to that of a mouse, Algernon. The book is its personal diary. He begins to write in a very very simple English language, easy to read. Gradually he uses more and more words and it becomes harder to arrive to a steady level.
It is a little bit a sad story which speaks about human relationships, intelligence and friendship.
The progress in the language is interesting and the book is fascinating. It is very human, on a science fiction story.
I believe that ther was a movie adapted from this story.
Sorry Momo, I wanted to say "his personal diary"
The diary is the one of Charlie, not the one of Algernon.
To tell the truth, the first book I read it's this one.
And, because of I didn't know that existed bilingual books, I've bought twice : the same in french and in english.
Oh ! That's very sweet.
I know it.
That doesn’t surprise me. I would like to read this one.
You can get many others, too.
Lately, I read specially my workbook of school, it's like the games on the last page of some magazines.
What kind of games ?
Did you read some books of Roald Dahl ?
What kind of games ? Not games, but like games. I think that some exercices are like games.
Yes, I like very much Roald Dahl.
I read Charlie and the chocolate factory, Dirty beasts, Switch bitch, The witches, The BFG, and some others whose titles don't come in my mind.
It were the books where I took the stories I told to my children before sleeping at night.
Very nice. They liked it.
What Roald Dahl's stories could you advice me ?
The same you read at your children ?
The BFG is one of the best.
Roald Dahl's ability to twist words into a clever and creative new language is fascinating to children, and an enjoyable challenge to adults.
But it will be necessary to accept that a giant can put a child on his tongue to swallow him as a grain of popcorn. That's a dream.
All of them are delicious.
In other words, you recommend this author for learning English ?
No. I must say that reading Roald Dahl is difficult because he plays with words.
I think that Mark Twain is easier.
If you find it, try "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes. At the end of the book, you will have learned without thinking of it.
I found the title of the Oscar-winning movie adaptation : "Charly" (1968)
Didn't you see it ?
Momo , subscribe to " Le Journal de Mickey " english version ( weekly issue ) , or " Play boy " , or " Penthouse " ( harder ) ....
Jouasss, jouasss, jouasss
krn, no, I didn't.
Thanks for all your kind advices.
Patton, Momo wants to read, not only to look at images.
That is good for you.
Open the window, it will refresh your mind.
Yesterday evening, I found the meanning of saving our blogs.
Momo, are you interested ?
Why not ?
What do you mean about "saving our blogs" ?
Why not "Le Journal de Mickey" "Play boy " or "Penthouse" or why nor saving our blogs ?
I mean saving on dvd, creating a back-up disc.
Ho, that's very interesting ! How does it work ?
The pages of our blogs are HTML pages, We just need to use a HTML page publisher and to take the "code source" of every page to recreate it in the software. Comments are saved at the date of the capture.
It is then stored in our directories as a not published Web site.
Now, these not published pages can be kept in memory in our computers, thus on CD or DVD.
Tell me if something is not clear.
I test that this nignt, I works very well.
Hello krn,
that's very interesting to know that we can do a backup so easily.
You have afraid to lost your blog ?
It's a question I have been asked to search.
I resolved it and I thought it might interest you.
Otherwise, I saw it has already occur.
That doesn’t surprise me.
You are right, I maybe should saving my blog.
Have you got a HTML publisher on your computer ?
I did the work with NVU. It's an old software I got two years ago.
The new version is called Kompozer.
It is an open source free software which can be used by Linux, Mac and windows.
I know that you cannot use it now, but I think there is another way. I can't tell you before having tried.
I am very afraid of going to sleep, and nevertheless, I am tired. I have to go to bed. It is imperative.
I understand, krn, I had also insomnia this week.
About the HTML publisher, no, I haven't got, or at least I dont think to have it.
Anyway, I can't do anything before reset my computer.
It would nevertheless be possible to protect these pages on a software like "word" by not taking into account html codes. It would then be necessary to save in another file the images in their size of origin.
The restoration in case of breakdown would be delicate and would waste a lot of time.
Do you know many people who have lost they blogs ?
Dear Momo , Our Blogs are not stored in our own computers . It could be interesting to save your intellectual property , in case of ...crash of some spaceship on Google'storage . Really , it could be a safety action . The only question to our Geek Engineer Krn is : Storage is page by page ? or continuous ? If , page by page , it's boring !? ..
It's boring = C'est chiant....
You can choose, Patton.
But if you save several post, you skip the comments.
So , you mean I have to save post by post ? for getting the whole Blog since the beginning ? It will take a lot of time ? I have more than 600 posts at this time !!
How many hours did these 600 posts took of your time ?
You will have less work just to copy it.
In fact , that's more than 1.200 posts with Baa Baa Black Sheep . You confirm , I have to save Post by Post ? That"s right ?
Baa baa black sheep has 600 posts ?
How exactly does one get the source code? (I haven't used an HTML editor in a while, and it may be self-explanatory in there).
I have over 600 posts to save as well... It would be a good idea to have a locally-saved copy. I do print my blog (roughly a month after posting, so I can also get the comments). That copy will always be accessible, regardless of the internet or any other technological blip.
Patton, would you say «chiant is best translated by "boring"... or rather "frustrating", "annoying"?
" boring " is for me coarser than " annoying " ? You know how I like to use coarse sentences ! ...as the original Patton ... " chiant" est une expression vulgaire : How would you translate it , Doreus ?
In Mozilla and Netscape, the "code source" is accessible since the menu "affichage".
Maybe it is the same in Internet Explorer, but I put it in the bin a long time ago and I do not remember any more.
through ??? better tnan since ( time , not path ) . Aaaaa I get her ! I get her ! hilarious female ! = gonzesse rigolote ......;
Since I left Vixen , I put a spell on Krn , through her e-mail. " Elle va morfler " ....! juasss juasss
Mon cher Patton, comme je ne suis pas anglophone, n'ayant pas eu les moyens de me payer des séjours dans les pays anglo-saxons, que j'apprécie du reste for peu,je me suis référée au dictionnaire Collins. Voic d'ailleurs ci-dessous, le lien vers la page en question.
ref. Collins.
J'ai peu de culture, comme tu le sais, mais il me semble que through signifie à travers.
Quand à since, il me semble que le Collins accepte la notion de lieu, à moins que Metz ne soit une nouvelle unité de temps.
Il y avait déjà le Beaujolais, maintenant, le Metz nouveau est arrivé.
Laissons Doreus trancher là dessus . Je pense que tu as en partie raison , mais pas dans ce cas me semble t il .Pour un cheminement , j'opterai pour Through , from ou via . à travers , depuis ou par le truchement de ? Since me semble réservé à une notion de dâte , ou au sens de " du fait que " ? since I am un salopard ,etc..etc... Attendons l'arbitre Albertain .
Ton lien Collins ne dit il pas la méme chose que moi ? Dâte ou point de départ dans le temps ?
Since I am a graduate in " Fly Screwing System " , I enquiquine ma Cousine ....
Faute de Vixen , je screw les mùouches ! Elle l'avait prédit ;-D
Il me semblait aussi au départ, mais je n'étais pas sûre alors j'ai regardé le Collins. Il y a bien la notion de lieu sur la ligne "il pleut depuis Metz" mais effectivement on peut dire que "depuis Metz" est une contraction de la phrase "depuis le moment où nous étions à Metz"
Perso, j'aurais mis from.
"Il pleut depuis Metz" ? Drôle de phrase, what does it mean ?
Momo, va prendre un café, tu dors encore.
J'au juste tenté de l'expliquer dans mon dernier commentaire.
Je suis un peu découragé, votre tac o tac bilingue est au dessus de mes moyens.
Oui, je vais aller prendre un café.
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