Reading for pleasure! What are you reading now?

[ralphinlaos]

It's also hot and sticky - and rainy - here, as it is most of the year (lovely weather in December and January).

So I, too, barbecue outside a lot - lots of shishkebob (pineapple and green peppers and tomatoes and mushrooms and cucumbers(!) and beef).

Ralph

[anotheradmirer]

I agree with you, Ophelia; dubbed movies are usually just awful. I would much rather see a movie with subtitles. All the American movies which come to Thailand are dubbed into Thai - and I think they use the same three or four people to do the dubbing - they all sound the same.

Yes, Ophelia and ralphinlaos, dubbed movies are awful. I like to see movies with subtitles too.

No, ralphinlaos, not all American movies, or British or French and so on, which come to Thailand are dubbed into Thai. American and European movies can be seen with subtitles at the cinema. There are options, by the way, dubbed or subtitles. I always prefer the latter. It's weird watching all the actors/tresses speaking Thai and, you're definitely right, ralphinlaos, they all sound alike. Moreover, and probably worst of all, "they" don't seem to respect the scripts. They add, they change, they distort. Even my mom, who doesn't know English, likes movies with subtitles. She thinks that there's some essence of the movies missing when they are dubbed. (It's not usual as people who don't know English tend to watch dubbed movies. They don't like to read while watching, that's what they say.) My mom and I don't know French or Korean etc. but we enjoy watching movies the way they were made, not distorted.

[Penelope]

I love the sound of foreign languages - even when I have no knowledge of the language, I can sometimes conclude from which area of the globe they originated.

In our shop last week I heard a man and wife speaking to each other. They were dressed very differently to the rest of us.....and so I asked the man what language they were speaking and where they came from...because I couldn't place it at all. 'Mongolia' he replied. I said, 'Wow!!!!' and they both knew what I meant. How great to go to the Co-op in our little village and meet people from so far away. Furthermore they seemed very pleased that I had spoken to them and that I informed the rest of the queue and the ladies behind the cash tills, where they came from.

The trouble is, we watched a very bleak film from Iceland, with very little dialogue......subtitles......and the language sounded so funny/amusing to our ears....that we kept laughing and ruined the atmosphere.

[Audrey]

Ophelia-

I am so happy to be back I was sad when I didn't get to have any laughs with you guys. It is such a relief my exams being over. Focusing really paid off though, I ended up getting straight A's this semester and I am extremely excited about that. I am still studying French and I am starting to double it with business. That sounds pretty good right? I hope so. The future is extremely scary and I want to make the right decision.

And those French books would be fabulous. I need to start some summer reading, so I can keep up with the language. I thought I would read La Fantome de l'Opera again

[Ophelia]

Congratulations on the great marks Audrey!

The novels I have mentioned in the "Books in French" thread would be just fine for summer reading I think.
If you read any of them let me know what you thought.

[Audrey]

Thank you.

I will make sure to check some of them out

[ralphinlaos]

I just finished reading "A Stained White Radiance" by James Lee Burke (he's one of my favorite authors in the detective fiction genre - along with James Elroy). Burke's detective, Dave Robicheaux, is an interesting character and the settings - in and around New Orleans - are fascinating to me (I've never been in that part of the States). "A Stained White Radiance" is a terrific book, characters who are offbeat and a plot which keeps you interested to the end.

Does anyone else read James Lee Burke? Or James Elroy? Or Ruth Rendall (I like her Inspector Wexford mysteries very much).

Ralph

[Penelope]

I'm not much into Detective Fiction...although I have read the odd one.

Inspector Wexford - is a Detective Series - from Ruth Rendell's novels on our TV - Wexford played by George Baker....and I like those....because he always looks suitably puzzled.

I like people who are permanently puzzled...like me!

[coffeeaddict]

I have just wandered into this thread (and into the forum!).

At the moment, I have Can You Keep a Secret by Sophie Kinsella for my night time reading. Here in Australia it is winter, so I am finding myself snuggling down into bed earlier and earlier each night, and just reading. I like to read easy going stuff at night...some fluffy chick lit is just the thing for me right now because during the day I am reading such things as Sir Gawain & the Green Knight and Antony & Cleopatra, for my lit class!

[Penelope]

Hello Coffeeaddict - Welcome - I have read a couple of Sophie Kinsella's - One was the Confessions of a Shopaholic and the other was a spinnoff from that with a similar title......they were both great fun to read.

I am amazed at your reading 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'.....that was reputed to have been written by a Monk in Shropshire (I think) very close to here.....on the borders of Wales. Are you in the UK?

Sir Gawain is the Welsh equivalent of Sir Gallahad in the King Arthur Legend I think. It is not an easy read is it? But I do like it somehow. Was it written in the Dark Ages? I would be interested to hear what you all think of it and what your tutor says about it. In fact I would love to come and sit in on your classes because that book/poem needs a knowledgable tutor to help the reader appreciate it properly I would have thought.