Introduce yourself

[Stewart]

I'll go first. Name is Stewart and I'm from Glasgow, UK. Not yet thirty and with a manic interest in reading, which has been developing into a worldwide concern. I read and review books on my blog, booklit and have been doing so for almost a year now.

[Beth]

Beth from Illinois in the United States. Also an avid reader who is developing an awareness and appreciation of world literature.

[LizzySiddal]

LizzySiddal - currently domiciled in Lanarkshire, Scotland. Particular interests in CanLit (my brother lives there), GermanLit (I used to live there) and ScottishLit (because that's where I am now). But I'll read anything that takes my interest. I blog at Lizzy's Literary Life and am documenting my particular addiction to the works of Brian Moore along with other mooreophiles at The Moore The Merrier.

[Stewart]

Welcome on in, Beth and LizzySiddal.

[sprollie]

Sprollie. Writer of novels and blog posts.
Based in Cornwall.
Fond of vegetarian pasties.
Obsessed with dogs.
I review at Vulpes Libris.
Glad to be here.

[Patrick Murtha]

I think this is a very promising board, and I am looking forward to seeing it develop. As for me...an enthusiastic reader of good books of all kinds; also a student of film, music, art, history, and other subjects. Resident in Northeast Wisconsin, I've also lived in the New York, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco areas. My bachelor's degree is in American studies and my master's degree is in education. I've taught English, history, and the social sciences at the high school, college, and adult education levels; I'm currently in corporate human resources.

[globalbhutaneseliterature]

Global Bhutanese Literature Organization - A common platform of Bhutanese writers and readers.

OUR LITERATURE TODAY
Global Bhutanese Literature Organization - Home

[Colette Jones]

I'm one of the mooreophiles mentioned by Lizzy above, although I'm getting very behind on the Mooreathon. Colette Jones is a favourite character, quite new to me, as I only read Gerard Woodward's trilogy recently.

In the avatar pic is my cat Tiggy. I think you'll agree he is gorgeous.

This looks to be a promising site, Stewart.

[Stewart]

I'm one of the mooreophiles mentioned by Lizzy above, although I'm getting very behind on the Mooreathon.

Hi, Colette Jones. If I can finally get around to reading The Lonely Passion Of Judith Hearne then I'll be sure to add my review. The book has been sitting on the shelf for months now. Not so bad as those that have been sitting for years, mind.

[Colette Jones]

It's hard when there's so many good books out there. I will never get through my unread books but I love them anyway.

I am interested in translation and the nuances which may or may not come through. Unfortunately I can not read anything in a language other than English so I can't make the judgment myself whether the translator got it right or not.

Of the translated works I have read, G?nter Grass' Crabwalk comes to mind as one I thoroughly appreciated.

I know there should be a couple dots over that "u" but I'm not sure how to make "foreign" letters in my post. I guess for this forum I had better figure out how!

Edit: Thanks for the tip in the next post. Name corrected above.

[ganesh_fma]

it is good to see this interest for world literature.
please try yasunuri kawabata's :the sound of the mountain.

it is exceptional

[Gretchen]

I'm from Germany and came across this forum yesterday, which made me register here and buy some reviewed books immediately. So, I've gained verrrry good experiences with this forum already and am looking forward to gaining some more.

[promtbr]

Welcome Farruh and Selwa!

made me register here and buy some reviewed books immediately.

Welcome Gretchen. I see you have already experienced the 'dark side' of the influences of this awesome forum...It tends shrink your pocket book (and shelf space)

All of you new members feel free to contribute posts...One doesn't have to be glib, erudite, witty, or "intellectually arrogant" to post. The only requirement is a passion for good books and literature...(look at my posts for 'chrisake...)

[awapointe]

Hallo. My name is Jumoke. I'm a Nigerian writer, and I love to read and write. I've gone through the past discussions in this forum, and I think this is a great place to be!

[A Common Reader]

Hi Stewart - I didn't know you had a book blog. It looks really good and I will visit again soon.

I'm Tom from the coast of East Sussex, who after a lenghty career in computing (since 1973 when computers were a little differnt to how they are today) managed to get early retirment last November (bliss, bliss, bliss).

Many interests, but books are a huge part of my life and always have been.

My wife and I have a personal website at www.southcoastsounds.org.uk which provides more information about me than you'd want to know.

[miriring]

Hello,
I am a literature teacher in highschool. In the last 15 years I work as the head of literature studies in 100 high schools.
Reading is for me a pleasure as much as a tool for work. I read during my life books from almost every place on this world (even poetry from Angola and Sao Tome).
I can read in 6 languages, so the pleasure of reading the original is something I enjoy very much.
The last 10 years I concentrated in Portuguese literature from Portugal. Poets and Authors such as Fernando Pessoa, Saramago, Lidia Joege and many more.
I am married and have 3 children and 2 grandsons.

[Beth]

I can read in 6 languages, so the pleasure of reading the original is something I enjoy very much.

Wow! Very pleased to meet you, miriring. I'd imagine teaching literature to high schoolers would be exciting as they seem to be the perfect age for becoming real literature lovers. Sounds like a fun career.

[miriring]

Hello Beth,
Thank you for your message.
I did find it interesting to teach literature to teenagers.
Not an easy work nowadays as children do not read as much as we did in our youth.
I am an optimistic person and from my experience (also with my private children), they start reading at a certain age and when they read Kafka or Borges, Tolstoi or Dostoiveski being a bit mature, they enjoy reading much more than in their highschool period.
I can tell you only that I tried hard to look for "tricks" that my students will read the original texts and not summaries of the texts (which are available in any internet site).
I must confess that I had more leasure in teaching or instructing teachers. It was also a chalenge to convince teachers to enter into classes with texts by so called "hard" to read....

[Eric]

Unless I've missed or forgotten something, it looks as if I have never introduced myself here. As I post quite a lot, I think I ought to amend that.

I am an expat Englishman, born in Yorkshire. I read Swedish at the University of East Anglia in the 1970s. I have taught English as a Foreign Language. Nowadays, I translate literature, mainly from Estonian, a language resembling Finnish and spoken by only about one million people (i.e. about three times as many as speak Icelandic). I can read a few others, at various levels from advanced to beginners'.

I like to explore different literatures and genres, and don't necessarily want to rush out and buy the latest translation from any given language, because translation is what I do for a living. So reading translations can become a bit of a busman's holiday. But obviously, there are very many languages where I have to rely on finding the book in translation. For me, this doesn't only mean translations into English. As I can read Dutch and Swedish well, books translated into those two languages are also accessible to me.

What concerns me about Britain is the fact that there are so few books in translation compared with most countries surrounding Britain, if you glance at a map of Europe. I have lived in a few different countries, and the bookshops are always well-stocked with translations - except in Britain where contemporary literature from Europe is hardly represented at all. I hope information websites and chatsites like this one can help change British attitudes to books originating in other languages, especially European ones.

I read more prose than poetry, but have of late got more interested in poetry too. I like short-stories. Non-fiction is also an area that people seem to talk relatively little about, when the term "reading books" is used. History books and books about countries help put national literatures in context. I regard national literatures as a kind of package; the more you get to know about the country itself, the period, and the people writing at the time, plus the other art forms, the more you see national literatures as entities, rather than a ragbag of discrete authors.

Sometimes, I go on forays into English literature, but don't have the time to delve. I once had an Anthony Powell binge, and read all twelve of his "Dance" suite of novels. But my attempts at reading more George Eliot, Anthony Trollope and Charles Morgan have not yet got off the ground. Although it is essential for a translator to read plenty of English literature from various periods, in order to maintain a wide vocabulary and facility of expression.

[liberta' va cercando]

Well, I'm new here. I study comparative literature at a certain Canadian university. Main interests are Joyce, Italian post/modernism, critical theory and contemporary fiction. I also read French and (some) Russian. I look forward to some good discussions here.