Ann Dunnigan's translation of War and Peace is fabulous for the aristocratic language that Tolstoy used in his book. There's also a lot of reference to weaponry and uniforms from the turn of the eighteenth century. And best of all, it is a terrific yarn.
Wow, I just pulled that book out and found some of my old glossary pages inside. I'm going to look through these again.
Also, William Weaver's translation of Umberto Eco's The Name of The Rose is outstanding for its capturing of fourteenth century scholastic jargon. It's not an easy read, but it's a good treatment of the philosophies of nominalism and semiotics. It's also a murder mystery. I have pages and pages of glossary from reading that book.
I think men get into The Old Man and The Sea more than women do, generally. I have a girlfriend who also thought that it was boring. The old man's travails, battling the marlin, his own worn out body, and then the sharks, brought a tear to my eye the times I've read it.
I've read several of William Weaver's essays on his own, sans Umberto Eco et al, and found him astute. No summaries from my mind here, just that he could be worth looking at. Probably in the NYer.
Re the topic question, there are magazines and magazines. NYer is regarded well in many places for detailed sophisticated command of the english language, whatever you may think of any of various pages' point of view.
thank you all if theres more please
How did you like Grapes of Wrath. How many of the suggested readings have you done? What other books are on your "to read" list?
Reading is great, no doubt about it. reading gives ideas as well as helping improve one's vocabulary. Writing, now writing causes you to use those word, to make them your own. The more you write and read your own writing, trying to make it as succinct as possible, that really improves your vocabulary and thinking too.
This is from personal experience while working for AT&T. As a committee secretary I recorded the minutes of our meetings and provided copies to all committee members and management. I felt that I needed to condense the material while remaining true to the subjects we had considered. No one reads dry lifeless minutes, so I pushed myself to make them "a good read". It worked and actually improved not only my vocabulary and writing skills but the meetings as well.
No good dead goes unpunished; AT&T closed the office. :wink:
Sam
