This Is Why I Don't Like Translations:
You never know what you actually get to read.
A few days ago I saw that my dad was reading a Jules Verne book in English. I asked him why he didn't read it in Swedish, becuase the original language is French and then you might as well read it in Swedish when you don't know French well enough to read it in it's original language. He told me he didn't trust books translated to Swedish from French, because most of his Jules Verne books in Swedish had been shortened, even the one I read a few weeks ago.
I took a look at the book (Jorden Runt På 80 Dagar), and it says it's "översatt och bearbetad av Henrik Wranér", which means "translated and worked on by Henrik Wranér".
Of course it's been worked on, the language has been changed from French to Swedish! The thing that disturbs me is that they really don't warn me. The book looks like this:
Nothing whatsoever about any shortening.
This is what I see when I open it:
See, I think the word bearbeta doesn't really say shorten. Maybe that's just me. But I really think if you shorten a book it should be announced with big bold letters on the cover. It's just not cool to hide it.
In other news, I've been sick, which means I've read a lot, so I finished Eragon a couple of hours ago and I'm working on the review. Started Washington D.C. (or All American Girl) just because I love the way Meg Cabot writes. I don't know if I'm remembering wrongly, but I feel like the Swedish translations of The Princess Diaries were better...I'm not sure, I read them a while ago.
Also, I'm thinking of ordering a big stack of books soon. But my first priority is Hank Green's So Jokes.
That's it, I'm going back to reading (and coughing xO). DFTBA!
A few days ago I saw that my dad was reading a Jules Verne book in English. I asked him why he didn't read it in Swedish, becuase the original language is French and then you might as well read it in Swedish when you don't know French well enough to read it in it's original language. He told me he didn't trust books translated to Swedish from French, because most of his Jules Verne books in Swedish had been shortened, even the one I read a few weeks ago.
I took a look at the book (Jorden Runt På 80 Dagar), and it says it's "översatt och bearbetad av Henrik Wranér", which means "translated and worked on by Henrik Wranér".
Of course it's been worked on, the language has been changed from French to Swedish! The thing that disturbs me is that they really don't warn me. The book looks like this:
Nothing whatsoever about any shortening.
This is what I see when I open it:
See, I think the word bearbeta doesn't really say shorten. Maybe that's just me. But I really think if you shorten a book it should be announced with big bold letters on the cover. It's just not cool to hide it.
In other news, I've been sick, which means I've read a lot, so I finished Eragon a couple of hours ago and I'm working on the review. Started Washington D.C. (or All American Girl) just because I love the way Meg Cabot writes. I don't know if I'm remembering wrongly, but I feel like the Swedish translations of The Princess Diaries were better...I'm not sure, I read them a while ago.
Also, I'm thinking of ordering a big stack of books soon. But my first priority is Hank Green's So Jokes.
That's it, I'm going back to reading (and coughing xO). DFTBA!
Monday!
Hey peoples! I've decided to write some more blog posts so this thing doesn't get too empty. These posts will be book related, as this blog is about books.
Today I got home an hour earlier than I usually do on Mondays, since my French teacher didn't show up to the lesson. When I got home I noticed that the library was still open, so I went down there. I live in a pretty small place, a little village, if you may. We don't have a book store or a record store, and the only reason I can bare to live here is the Culture School. It's where I spend most of my afternoons, playing bass/guitar or singing, taking music theory, rehearsing with my muggle band. It's awesome indeed.
Since my village is very small and decepticon-y and generally notsome, the library here isn't that big. A few years ago I was pretty bad at returning books on time, so I was kind of afraid to go there. But I'm over that fear now.
I remember when I was about six, and I was really excited because I was getting my own library card (yeah, I was very excited. Nerd from the start). I thought about that when I was checking out the books I was borrowing today, because I saw my name on the back of the card. I had insisted on writing it myself. I didn't turn out very pretty, since my hand writing was kind of shaky, the way it is when you've just learned to write and you're writing on a slippery plastic card. It looks kind of horrible, but it makes me smile when I see it, because I love books and I always have.
What books did I borrow? Ondskan by Jan Guillou, The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus and Washington D.C. by Meg Cabot.
I really like Meg Cabot and The Princess Diaries, so I'm looking forward to read her book. It's english title is All American Girl if you're wondering. Yeah, I'm hoping the weird translation of the title will make sense in the end.
Jan Guillou is a famous author and journalist in Sweden. He's an interesting person, but I've never read anything by him before. I've seen half of the movie that's based on Ondskan, and apparently it's a pretty good book. I'm going to read this first, because I decided to read it for Swedish class.
The Nanny Diaries...I just borrowed that because I wanted to read something in English, and the cover looked interesting.
I was originally planning on borrowing The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (both in Swedish though), but I found neither. When I looked the latter up on adlibris (the biggest nordic online book shop), I found this:
Nothing in Swedish, that is (some of my scandinavian friends will be happy though). But my library was supposed to have it, so I guess someone else have it at the moment.
That was all book talk for the day. I'll see you in the near future.
DFTBA!
Ron
(EDIT: By the way, I'm still on Eragon, and then I have to read Tomorrow When The War Began for English. I'm afraid I'm going to have to read several books at the same time. Gah. Ah, well)
Today I got home an hour earlier than I usually do on Mondays, since my French teacher didn't show up to the lesson. When I got home I noticed that the library was still open, so I went down there. I live in a pretty small place, a little village, if you may. We don't have a book store or a record store, and the only reason I can bare to live here is the Culture School. It's where I spend most of my afternoons, playing bass/guitar or singing, taking music theory, rehearsing with my muggle band. It's awesome indeed.
Since my village is very small and decepticon-y and generally notsome, the library here isn't that big. A few years ago I was pretty bad at returning books on time, so I was kind of afraid to go there. But I'm over that fear now.
I remember when I was about six, and I was really excited because I was getting my own library card (yeah, I was very excited. Nerd from the start). I thought about that when I was checking out the books I was borrowing today, because I saw my name on the back of the card. I had insisted on writing it myself. I didn't turn out very pretty, since my hand writing was kind of shaky, the way it is when you've just learned to write and you're writing on a slippery plastic card. It looks kind of horrible, but it makes me smile when I see it, because I love books and I always have.
What books did I borrow? Ondskan by Jan Guillou, The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus and Washington D.C. by Meg Cabot.
I really like Meg Cabot and The Princess Diaries, so I'm looking forward to read her book. It's english title is All American Girl if you're wondering. Yeah, I'm hoping the weird translation of the title will make sense in the end.
Jan Guillou is a famous author and journalist in Sweden. He's an interesting person, but I've never read anything by him before. I've seen half of the movie that's based on Ondskan, and apparently it's a pretty good book. I'm going to read this first, because I decided to read it for Swedish class.
The Nanny Diaries...I just borrowed that because I wanted to read something in English, and the cover looked interesting.
I was originally planning on borrowing The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (both in Swedish though), but I found neither. When I looked the latter up on adlibris (the biggest nordic online book shop), I found this:
Nothing in Swedish, that is (some of my scandinavian friends will be happy though). But my library was supposed to have it, so I guess someone else have it at the moment.
That was all book talk for the day. I'll see you in the near future.
DFTBA!
Ron
(EDIT: By the way, I'm still on Eragon, and then I have to read Tomorrow When The War Began for English. I'm afraid I'm going to have to read several books at the same time. Gah. Ah, well)
