Swarm no more

 I dumped The Swarm. Just got too preachy. Yes, I agree science and industry should get together, should work together. Yes, military and science should work together. Stop telling me.

It got to be too much. In the book two scientists (of the three I'd met by then) were talking to each other, repeating over and over again how science needs to work together with the oil industry. Yes, we get it. I withstood it for a few pages, but it finally became obvious I was hearing the author speaking instead of the two scientists. I don't need that. Even though the premise of this book intrigued me. 

So, sadly, my #GermanLitMonth is over. I'm off to my family book club's current choice, Phantoms, by Dean Koontz. 

Translating

 I'm still translating Medalionoj for my writing group. I translated the first chapter, "Professor Spanner," last month and my colleagues enjoyed it. Well, enjoy is probably not the best verb when talking about Nazis making soap from human bodies. Now I'm translating a chapter called "The Hole." Imagine concentration camps and mothers waiting for their sons to return after WWII. Not the happiest of stories.

For those new-to-the-blog dear reader(s), Medalionoj is the Esperanto translation of the Polish-original novel by Nalkowska, fictionalizing actual Nazi atrocities. I don't know Polish, so I have only the Esperanto to translate. But I chose this book purposefully because I read the Esperanto version a few months ago, but also I found the actual English translation so I can "check my work" once done. My first chapter was quite close to the English version. I was happy with my translation!

I've been searching for and following (the few) blogs from translators. One such translator (Corinne, merci!) hosts the site Training for Translators. Experienced translators hold trainings for those of us out there who want to find out more about this career. I'm particularly interested in the upcoming Translating Official Documents. There was also one earlier this month that, if available to view after the class, I will pay for: Editing and Proofreading for into-English Translators. I've reached out to the site owner to ask if one can buy a course after the fact. 

Kromosomoj

 Kromosomoj (Chromosomes) by Lorjak. In Esperanto. Spoilers follow. English after the Esperanto.

Interesa koncepto: se via patro estis seria murdisto, ĉu vi havas la genojn por murdo? La patro de Bernard Dubosk brutale mortigis multojn da virinoj, bruligante iliajn korpojn en forno. Nu, laŭdire. Li estis gilotinita ankoraŭ asertante sian senkulpecon. Ĉiuokaze, la edzino de lia filo malkovras ke ŝia nova edzo estas la filo de terura krimulo kaj maltrankviliĝas ke ilia infano heredos la "murdan instinkton."

Interese, la leganto kredas ke homoj ne povas heredi murdemajn intencojn tra siaj gepatroj, tamen la ĉefpersono kiu malkovras ke li havas la genojn kiuj estas konataj kiel la mistika geno. (Li ja estas sufiĉe agrablulo dum la tuta libro.) Sekva ĉapitro? Li malkovras ke lia reala patro estas katolika episkopo. Do ne, vi ne povas esti murdisto nur ĉar via patro estas, sed Oj vej! vi povas esti sanktulo se via patro estas.

La vort-ludoj estis bonegaj. Multaj adjektivoj-iĝi-verboj, kiuj estas unuj el la kialoj, ke mi amas Esperanton. Ekzemple: trudflegma: truda: adjektivo el trudi, difinas to force, to impose. Do, imposing? forceful? Plus flegma de flegmo: indifference, phlegm. Do, adjektivo (-a difinas adjektivo) difinas forcefully indifferent? Jen kial Esperanto estas interesa. Ho, kaj la sceno kun la kokido estas amuza.

Interesting concept: if your father was a serial murderer, do you carry the genes for murder? Bernard Dubosk's father brutally murdered a bunch of women, burning their bodies in an oven. Well, alleged. He was guillotined still claiming his innocence. Anyway, his son's wife discovers that her new husband is the son of a horrible criminal and worries that their child will inherit the "murder instinct." 

Interestingly, the reader is led to believe that people can't inherit murderous intentions through their parents, yet the main character discovers he has the gene which is known as the mystical gene. (He is, after all, a pretty nice guy throughout the book.) Next chapter? He finds out his real father is a Catholic bishop. So no, you can't be a murderer just because your father is, but boy oh boy you can be a saint if your father is. 

The words were great. Lots of adjectives-turned-into-verbs, which is one of the reasons I love Esperanto. For example: trudflegma: truda: adjective from trudi, meaning to force, impose. So, imposing? forceful? Plus flegma from flegmo: indifference, phlegm. So, an adjective (-a gives that away) meaning forcefully indifferent? This is why Esperanto is fun. Oh, and the scene with the chicken is funny.

Friday Book Beginnings

 Rose City Reader hosts Friday Book Beginnings, and I'm taking part today! Technically I'm not starting the book today, but I should be done with my current read (Kromosomoj) tomorrow. 

The Swarm is the book I posted about yesterday. A big book, I'm so looking forward to reading a good scifi book as it's been a while. 

Juan Narciso Ucañan went to his fate that Wednesday, and no one even noticed.

--The Swarm, by Frank Schatzing. 

November being #GermanLitMonth, this fits. 

Kromosomoj, and an update

 Kromosomoj is going well. I'm a bit over half done. Very good Esperanto, very creative use of word building. 

Speaking of Esperanto, I'm still translating the book Medalionoj, on chapter 2. It's fun trying to find the right words. I've read a few books on translation in the past year or so, and looking to read some more. If I can find The Translation Studies Reader or The Craft of Translation, I'll read those soon. 

Language-wise, besides Esperanto, I'm working still on Middle Egyptian. Just submitted exercises 1.4, 1.5 and 1.6. We have to use a particular transliteration schema called Manuel de Codage. And we're doing adjectives now; they follow the noun btw.

nDr iqr: (an, the) excellent person

sxr iqr: (an, the) excellent plan

Those are just two examples.

I'm only reading two books currently, which is unusual when one of them is a foreign language. I can read two fiction books as long as one is not in English. And a non-fiction book, too. Now I'm reading Kromosomoj, already mentioned, and The Kaiser's Holocaust, about Germany horrible history in South West Africa (Namibia). 

But after?!?! This month is #GermanLitMonth (hosted by Lizzy and Caroline), where one reads a book or three from a German author. My German is only a 1+ (DLPT5, earlier this year), so there won't be any lesen auf Deutsch. But I did pick a book: The Swarm. So I could have gotten the book in Kindle form for 12 bucks. But then I looked for used, and found a copy for 4 bucks. Well, no debate!

And the book is huge. And hardback! 896 pages. EIGHT HUNDRED. No. Four more pages and it would be NINE HUNDRED PAGES. Ho. Lee. You-know-what. 

So looking forward to reading it next. 

Family book club's next pick

 The wife had the next pick in our family book club. We stuck with the horror genre and so she picked a Dean Koontz: Phantoms. I recognized the title immediately and think I saw the film many years ago, with Peter O'Toole. 

I'd never really been into horror, except for The Stand and Swan Song. My choice (Maynard's House) was a haunting, and a relatively tame one at that. Hoping for some chills with this one. 

Another Challenge!

 Found a great reading challenge for 2022, thanks to My Reader's Block. It involves a random number generator based on the number of books on your TBR shelf. And yours truly has a ridiculously large TBR shelf. 1269 books. Holy shit. How'd it get so big? 

So the challenge has goals for each month, two books a month off your TBR shelf. I'll probably do this challenge if only to knock some books off the shelf. And DNF is allowed, so if I start a book and hate it, that still counts in the challenge. 

So, in January 2022, based on the following rules, I'll read:

Number generated randomly (622): A School for Fools, by Sasha Sokolov; and random number after list ordered on "date added" (472): Campusland, by Scott Johnston. 

February will be different. ;)

Empire of the Sun

 What else do you do when you can't sleep? Finish a book, of course. But also, watch the movie adaptation!

Empire of the Sun, by JG Ballard, has been on my TBR shelf for a long time. I first discovered him by paying attention to the credits from Waterworld. Yes, that movie. Supposedly based on Ballard's The Drowned World, so of course I had to read it. 

Wow, so different. And better. 

So next I got his short stories, volume 1. Great stuff in there. Read that 10+ years ago, so don't remember much, except the two or three I skipped as they were way too psychological, a la weirdo stuff from the early 1970s. 

A few years back I tried his Kingdom Come. Didn't like it much. Can't remember how much of it I read, but not much. Maybe I'll attempt it again someday. 

Recently, when I found the Classics Club and had to come up with my 50 classics, I sought out lists. There I found Empire of the Sun. I'd already had it on my shelf, as I said, but I thought here's an excuse to read it. I went to the library last Saturday with my list of 50 on my phone and started at the card catalog. Empire was one of the few the library actually had on its shelves. 

So glad I did. What a great book. I also found the audiobook on Hoopla, so I managed several chapters each day driving to/from work and walking the dog. A chapter or two at night before bed. 

Great book. Great war book. Again, one of my preferred genres. Not quite sure how much of the book was Ballard's own experiences and how much fiction, but I don't care. Not even going to look it up. 

And the film. I'd never seen it, only known that Christian Bale was in it. A very young Bale. And it was incredible. Everyone in the film was great. A bit long, and of course changes and reductions from the book, but altogether a great watch. 

Esperanto Sumoo #72

 Karaj leguloj, the 72nd Esperanto Sumoo is about to start. For those unaware, the Sumoo is a 15-day event whereby you commit to reading a set number of pages per day. In this particular case, the book is written in Esperanto. 

Esperanto is one of my better languages. I have a C1 in writing and reading it, based on the KER exam I took in 2017 in Moscow. For those used to ILR scales, that's equivalent to level 3. I've read dozens of books, many originally in Esperanto, the rest translations from various source languages (Hungarian, English, Russian, и так далее). Weekly I get email notifications about new Esperanto books being published. A quick look at my email and I can say about 5 books a week are published in the language. 

The Sumoo happens six times a year, so this November Sumoo will be the last for 2021. I had a great time in the five previous ones, mostly reading non-fiction but not finishing them. (Finishing is not the point; number of pages is.) This time I've decided on fiction, and reading till I'm done. 

The book is Kromosomoj, by Lorjak. 

The book's 152 pages, so 10 pages a day should do it. The book is sci-fi-like: Is the murder-instinct hereditary? Sounds good, right? 

Timing is everything, and I'm about 20 pages away from finishing the great Empire of the Sun. So, question is: Start another tonight and finish it by Sunday for the Sumoo start? Or just start Kromosomoj right away? Oh, first world problems...

Wuthering Heights

 OK, so finally finished Wuthering Heights, Ms. Jay. Started in 12th grade in 1984 and never finished. Unless you count Cliff's Notes. 

I'm not sure how much I like this book. As I said in my quick GR's review, were 18th century peoples' constitutions so poor that they could drop off after a loud argument? And my goodness, what kind of romance is this? Horrible. 

But the writing. Oh so sweet. I listened to about half of it, for free! (thanks Audible) and read the rest. But amazing how much different this is to Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. The writing, just as good. The story, so much better. I know, I know, decades separate the two. We'll see how much I like this era of writing when I read another from her or her contemporaries. 

This is the first of the 50 classics I endeavor to read over the next five years, based on the list I created for the Classics Club. 

German Literature Month

 I discovered that November is German Literature Month. If you know me, you know I love groups, lists, things like that. So why not German literature (in English, meine Deutsch ist nicht so gut)? 

A few months ago I read (and did a quick review of) The Glass Bees by the wonderful Ernst Jünger, author of the equally great A German Officer in Occupied France. He's also written one called Heliopolis, but I'm having issues trying to find a copy. Therefore, one must look elsewhere.

They Divided the Sky sounds good, and having spent four-plus years in the divided city, this might be a fun read. There's also The Swarm, which might hit both the German lit box and the sci-fi box. 

How about you, dear reader(s), do you have a recommended novel for German Literature Month?