10. Read five books.
You might think that with all the complaining I’ve been doing about the test and the apartment search, I wouldn’t have any time to finish two books. Normally I would agree, except: I finished The World Without Us back in June before all the craziness really started, and I read Der Vorleser (The Reader) in German, so I counted that as part of my test preparation (see how nicely that worked out?). Without further adieu, my thoughts on these two books…
I found The World Without Us to be thought-provoking, interesting and a joy to read. Alan Weisman spends just as much time addressing the everlastingness of plastic and nuclear waste, as he does explaining how easily our biggest and greatest cities and monuments will far apart within centuries and even decades. He strikes a nice balance between the lasting damage we humans cause and the unbelievable resiliency of planet Earth. And he does it all with memorable and detailed descriptions that will make you really consider the size of your foot print. Highly recommended!
After I saw The Reader in the theater, I was inspired to buy the English language version of the book. However, with an already long queue of books to read, and since I already knew the storyline, this one stayed at the bottom of my list. Or at least until my German teacher highly recommended reading the original German version, which he said was written more or less at my reading level. This immediately appealed to me for a couple of reasons. First, I’ve been jonesing to finally read an entire book in German, but hadn’t been able to find one that matched both my ability and my reading interests. Second, already knowing the storyline reinforced my understanding of what I read, making the whole process a lot less daunting. And whaddya know, I did it! And I’m considering doing it again!
The German language is so specific and exact, I don’t know how it’s ever properly translated into English without losing all its nuances and still maintaining its eloquence. Take the title, Der Vorleser, for example, which literally means “the person who reads to someone else.” We don’t have such a specific word in English, so it’s translated simply to “The Reader.” Close obviously, but no cigar, and seems to offer up some literary ambiguity in the meaning of the title (if you know the storyline, you know what I mean), which actually doesn’t exist in the original German.
Anyway, well worth the read (I was sobbing at the end), and helped keep my brain nicely immersed in the language, even during my down time. Hooray!
I read Der Vorleser in German, too. I tend to be lazy about reading in German, but I agree that this book was a good choice – well-written and certainly an interesting story. It has been a while since I read it, though… time to find some more German reading.
If you have any intriguing suggestions, let me know! In the meantime, I think I’m going to move on to “Damals war es Friedrich” — I should be able to handle a book written for youth, although afterwards I might need to take a break from WWII themed stories.
Good for you! I basically stopped reading for pleasure while living in Mozambique, partly because I had to read so much for my work it was unappealing when I had down time. I’m starting up again, but mostly I read while on planes. :)
Thanks! Yeah, I fear that once I start my PhD, it’s going to be a lot harder to read for pleasure. But, I will spend more time commuting by train, which is always a nice opportunity to read a little. :)
Wow! I’m so impressed and cannot wait to be at that level of German. I am still at the elementary level but this is inspiring. Thanks for sharing!
P.S. I am reading A Prayer for Owen Meany right now and enjoying it.
I read “The Reader” in English maybe four years ago, but now I’m curious to try it in German. I think right now it’s still a bit beyond my level, but I will keep it in mind for the future. Great idea!