Oh man, I so wish I could say yes to this! I am not fluent in any languages other than English (unless you include sarcasm), so I don’t read books written in other languages in their original form, only in translation. I did do French immersion in high school and read a bit in French, but only short books and abridged versions, and it was very difficult and never felt like proper reading. Likewise I learned Spanish in my 20s and tried to read a bit in Spanish, but could only manage parallel translations (mirrored pages with Spanish on one side and English on the other). I so wish I could read in other languages though, because no matter how good the translation, it will never be exactly what it was in its original form. Each language has its own rhythm and shades of meaning, and it always loses some of that when it has been translated. Maybe one day I’ll try again!
What about you guys? Any lucky multi-lingual readers among you? I suspect so – do you find that you gain from reading books in their original languages? Have you ever read a book in its original and in translation, and if so did you find that it was different after it had been translated? I’m very curious about this as I’ve never been able to prove my theory!
The Book Blogger Hop is a weekly blog link-up that gives participants a different book-related question to ponder each week, and allows them to share their thoughts, find new blogs to follow and connect with new readers. The Hop was originally created by Jennifer at Crazy for Books and is now hosted by Billy at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. To see a list of upcoming prompts go here.