Comments | tabacoychanel: All Spaniards, we discovered, knew two English expressions. One was "O.K., baby"

tabacoychanel

All Spaniards, we discovered, knew two English expressions. One was "O.K., baby"

Aug 10, 2010 11:22

... the other was a word used by the Barcelona whores in their dealings with English sailors, and I am afraid the compositors would not print it. ~ George Orwell

Day 06 - A book that makes you sad
Isabel Allende, The House of Spirits. I'm very hit-or-miss when it comes to sprawling multigenerational family sagas with political overtones, but this ( Read more... )

30 days of awesomeness, the irish say "soccer" too, bibliophile

Comments 17

misstopia August 10 2010, 03:48:17 UTC

And Spanish regional politics has always been a pet subject of mine.

What a cool pet subject!

tabacoychanel August 10 2010, 14:58:41 UTC

It is a freakin' AMAZING subject, let me tell you. *looks for cat macro to convey the amazingness of said subject*

Who is that in your icon I feel like I should know him?

misstopia August 10 2010, 17:46:17 UTC

John McEnroe :)

hamsterwoman August 10 2010, 04:40:01 UTC

OTOH I struggle with, say, Borges or Garcia Marquez, because every time I read something of theirs I have to go back and reread at least three times because I'm afraid I missed something, some imagery, some nuance.

For me, I find the richness of their stuff just kind of washes over me. Like, I'm doubtlessly missing all sorts of things, on a conscious level, but that sort of... contributed to the overall dreamlike feeling of their fiction, I guess?

tabacoychanel August 10 2010, 14:54:01 UTC

Ah yes "washes over" is a good description. Sometimes I feel like I'm drowning!

firebluespinel August 10 2010, 14:06:23 UTC

And I don't just say that because his name is Jaime btw.

Liar. :P

tabacoychanel August 10 2010, 14:54:46 UTC

Your icon is so judging me right now.

svenjaliv August 10 2010, 20:13:50 UTC

I'm really liking these book reviews! I haven't read any of the ones on your list so far, but some of them sounds awesome. I've been taking notes. :D

tabacoychanel August 11 2010, 13:31:47 UTC

Haha thanks, I'm glad you're finding them useful!

svenjaliv August 11 2010, 16:08:33 UTC

Also - welcome to soccer fandom! :D (Yes, I should say football, but being Irish, "football" is ambiguous, so soccer it is.) It's awesome. I've been a Borussia Dortmund fan for most of my life, mostly because it was unavoidable when growing up where I did. We like Liverpool. :D

tabacoychanel August 11 2010, 19:11:23 UTC

Really why is football ambiguous? (Lol for five seconds I was sitting here thinking you know, Borussia Dortmund doesn't sound very Irish ...)

Also read this, I'm still chuckling.

Thread 7

maruutsu August 19 2010, 18:58:31 UTC

The House of Spirits is a good book, but at times I gotta say it feels a little too similar (particularly in style and structure) to Gabriel García Márquez's Cien años de soledad. It was her first book, though, and like I said it's very well done, so I don't particularly mind. My favorite book of hers is Daughter of Fortune, though. And her worst is the YA fantasy series she wrote, but I don't recall what they were called. Only thing I remember is how awful and patronizing they were. D:

Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things. IDK, I think my expectations were too high? I just could not get used to the prose, it read as extremely choppy to me, and then I didn't care for any of the characters. Or the ending.

Really? I've also heard it praised like it was the best thing since the Internet or something. My Spanish grammar teacher recommended it to me, so I assumed she'd know what she was talking about. Admittedly, I have high expectations as well. I think I'll put it off now. :/

tabacoychanel August 19 2010, 20:18:25 UTC

Lol forever I hope she isn't recommending it to you on the basis of its grammar? Because the book has a lot of merits but grammar is def not one of them. I'd heard the same sort of praise as you did, ultimately that's why I bought the book.

La casa de los espíritus was the first book I ever read in Spanish (if you don't count García Márquez's La aventura de Miguel Littín, clandestino en Chile, which I don't because hello it's GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ, why are you making me read his NONFICTION *headdesking at my Spanish prof*). I actually have Cien años de soledad on my to-be-read shelf and I want to read it once I finish La sombra del viento.

You mean this YA fantasy? "...the two teens are kidnapped by the "People of the Mist," a tribe possessing the power of turning invisible, and enter a mountain to discover the mythical city of El Dorado." Wow, is it just me or is this summary pandering to every stereotype of indigenous people ever?

I'll have to keep an eye out for Daughter of Fortune! I found La casa de los espíritus really ( ... )

maruutsu August 22 2010, 02:52:37 UTC

My teacher read the Spanish translation of the book, and translators are known for fixing grammar mistakes and unpleasant syntax. So I guess it's not surprising ( ... )