You read a lot of high fantasy, but I know you do enjoy certain urban fantasy books. I was wondering how you feel about magic realism? It’s a very Latin American genre, and I think it deserves a lot more widespread recognition. If you’re looking for more translated works, I definitely would recommend trying it out. Probably don’t start with “Like Water for Chocolate.” I read that in Spanish class as my introduction to magic realism, and aside from the fact that I was pretty bad at Spanish at the time, it was a super super bizarre book. That’s not a good place to start, imho, although many people recommend it first.
It is true Brasil imports literature. Probably more than 50% of it. If you take a look at what YA companies sell as "best sellers", you'll be right, they are best sellers elsewhere (normally USA). However, if you look at those books that aren't advertised, smaller editors, you will find mainly Brazilian titles. Titles such as Turma da Mônica (Monica's Gang, if I'm not mistaken), have been Brazilian best sellers for half a century, but this is not our usual selling strategy. 1/5 of any bookstore must be filled with Turma da Monica's titles. So it's definetely not like that.
@@jfortunato8118 I know, but the most part of the books are " classics", we don't have many fantasies or sci-fi, or ' modern' books, I'm not saying this is a bad thing, it's just that we don't have problems with translated books And my comment was just a meme
Merphy: I didn't relate to the parts about philosophy and objects having sentience and taking care of your items Merphy's copy of Cursed Child: Tell me about it
I'm German and for me reading translated books is so normal that I even started to look out for German authors because I wanted to support them, too. Seeing you mentioning a German book, really made me glad. I have to admit that I started Inkheart but never finished it. (I heard the audiobook and saw the movie though) I might try to read it again 😊
Same! I recently bought two books in German because I wanted to see how they have been translated after reading them in English. Sometimes I feel bad for reading a German book because I pressure myself to read English xD It's stupid.
Hey Merphy, translator here. Thank you for saying you appreciate the work translators do. Just a friendly note: it might be a good idea to mention the translator by name because many books (classics especially) have more than one translation so it might be helpful for your viewers to know which translation you read and enjoy, but mainly because the translated book is in many ways the translator's work of art as well as the original author's.
If you feel like reading some norwegian fantasy I really enjoyed the raven rings trilogy by Siri Pettersen! The first book, Odin's Child, was recently translated to english.
Just out of curiosity, when you say: "The translators have done such a phenomenal job. They've been able to capture the authors' writing, their prose, their core messages and their humor in a lot of cases." How do you know, unless you've read both versions? How do we, as readers, know how much of the style of what we are reading is the translator, and how much is the author? This is something I struggle with a lot because I'm Dutch, but I exclusively follow English-speaking booktubers. So the vast majority of books on my TBR are (originally) English. I prefer, however to read in Dutch. It's just faster and a little more relaxing for me, even though I speak English fluently. I'm always wondering if the style of a book (particularly when I don't like it) is true to the original.
I'd like to add that I don't mean this as critique of your video, or translators, or anything at all! This is genuinely a question that's been on my mind since I've been reading more.
My native language is German and I grew up reading books that were translated into German, but I've been reading all my books in English for about a decade, unless the original language happens to be German of course. From what I can tell, it's very hit-or-miss. I think classics tend to be better translated than contemporary books though.
I see what you mean, I suppose the wording could have been better. I just meant the fact that I can read the book seamlessly, feel like I’m having a convo with the author about the themes they’re exploring, and can laugh along with the jokes, the translator must have done an incredible job. But it’s true I’ll never know if everything was conveyed perfectly, just that I appreciate the work they’ve done because I’m able to pull so much from the story even though I’m not reading it in it’s original language
This. I’m reading most of my books in English because I’ve read bad translations way too many times. In Finnish HP Snape calls Harry ’Harry’. Not ’Potter’. Did the translator not read the book? Did they not understand the relationship between Snape and Harry? I almost tore that book to shreads.
Translated books are special place in my heart. My whole family (Mom,Dad and Grandma) loves to read so from young age I always saw everyone reading in their free time and naturally I was drawn to it. Best part was my Grandma was Librarian at local library and since live relitively small community where english is 3rd language most of the books were either in our regional language or translated works. Grandma would bring 3-4 new books every month for everyone to read and some children books for me. But I quickly grew out of the children books coz no verity so I used to seakily read books ment for adults as I thought my parents would get mad if they saw me reading these books(I was like 12 at that point). (the "adult books" were mostly john grisham,agatha christie etc). Read most of these author's works translated and when I grew up little bit and re-read it in english again I enjoyed it even more somehow. This was definitly a factor that started my love for reading and now that I have grownup helped me to keep in touch with my native language. (Sorry for the rant)
OMG!!! Im brazilian! Im sooo happy you liked the posthumous memoirs of brás cubas! I never really see booktubers talking about braziliam books! You should read some more brazilian classics, they are great (try out some more Machado de Assis, he is huge here!)
Original fairytales are really great! When I was a little girl we had these books that had cushioned covers. They were fairytales in original form. I remember reading Rapunzel in original and I loved it!
Well, I'm Brazilian, and I always get so proud when people from other countries talk about our literature, before my comments about it, thanks for reading. Machado de Assis is one of our most famous and most acclaimed authors, his books are really awesome and you got my favorite, my second favorite is Dom Casmurro, but I never read one of his book that I didn't like. Talking about other authors and books, I need to mention two that are classics and I love, but many of my favorites don't have an English edition (If they have I didn't find), The Slum (O Cortiço) - Aluísio de Azevedo, Captains of the sands (Capitães de Areia) - Jorge Amado. I could talk about it forever, but I think is enough for today. If you read, I hope you enjoy.
I love when books really make you feel like the character does like, in being really confident and all of a sudden boom (stormlight archive spoilers) the humans are the voidbringers and we are all shocked to the core with everyone in the book
Omg I've been watching you for almost 2 years now and I didn't know you've read Inkheart! It's one of my favourite books of all time (I like the sequels as well but I don't feel as much of a connection to them somehow). This makes me so happy because I don't think it's that known internationally
Oh my, that's high praise for Backman. Personally I haven't read Backman yet, despite me being Swedish and consequently having access to the original versions. I have now ordered some of his books. And subscribed to your channel. Keep up the good work.
Since I'm Welsh, I also have to talk about the Mabinogion! If you love Tolkien stories like Beren and Luthien, the Mabinogion was a huge inspiration for his work and it's the shining beacon of Welsh literature. It's translated into english from welsh by Sioned Davies in the more recent copies which I would highly recommend.
The Count of Monte Cristo is the best soap opera ever written and I loved every chapter. Truly one of the best stories ever written. Easily a top 5 book for me.
Merphy -- sometime you should do a book report on The Inheritance Cycle. I would love to see your thoughts on the books! (Keep it going, I love you so much.)
I'm from Finland so most books I read are either in English or translated to Finnish from other languages. I'm currently reading The Count of Monte-Cristo because you recommended it. :D But what I would recommend to you... I think you might like Sofi Oksanen. I really love her books. Puhdistus (Purge in English) was great, but I really loved Stalinin lehmät (Stalin's cows) and Baby Jane as well. You might like other Finnish authors too. Sinuhe by Mika Waltari is one of my all time favorites (although it took me a while to get over Nefernefernefer). Rosa Liksom is wonderful as well. I really loved Compartment number 6. And if you want to read some historical romance based in Finland, I'd recommend Kaari Utrio (if you can find any of her books in English). Oh, oh, and I highly recommend Mia Kankimäki and Things that Make One's Heart Beat Faster. It really does make your heart beat faster. I always enjoy your videos so much. So thank you for them. And by the way, I bought The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse because you recommended it and absolutely adored it. Then I recommended it to my friend (their kid is our goddaughter) and her husband completely fell in love with it while reading it to their daughter. He said it changed him in ways no book has ever been able to and he reads a lot. :) So yeah, you're affecting families in Finland too. :)
I have been reading a lot of translated short stories lately and really loving them. Sunspot Jungle Vol 1 and 2 have a huge variety of authors from all corner of speculative fiction and its been so cool seeing stories from all over the world!
Favorite Translated Books: One Hundred Years of Solitude, Fullmetal Alchemist, The Stranger, and The Odyssey - specifically the Emily Wilson translation.
If you haven't read "The Neverending Story" by Michael Ende (German) yet, it is SOOOO worth it. Quite different from the movie. I read the book so many times as a child. it's amazing! Michael Ende also wrote "Momo" which is also amazingly good. Astrid Lindgren (Swedish) wrote gorgeous childrens stories, that are great for grownups too. I recommend "Ronia the Robber's Daughter" and "The Brothers Lionheart", but there are many good ones.
Two short but really good german classics (plays) are "The visit" and "The physicists". As more modern work I enjoyed Dörte Hansen her book (e.g. this house is mine ) where she's writing about relationships, what home means and family , never read a book that could describe living in northern germany that well.
I love that you love One Piece. It is truly a masterpiece and people who refuse to read mangas don't know what they are missing out on. And omg Inkheart! Probably every german person will say this in this comment section but: I didn't know that so many people read Inkheart and I love it! I literally read book one in one day and then went out bought the rest and finished the series on a weekend and it is one of my most treasured memoires of my childhood ♥
Growing up, I never really payed attention to if a book was translated or not, so some of these came as a surprise. *Facepalm* I LOVED Inkheart! The Neverrnding Story is another great book, and I've really been enjoying War and Peace (the dude ties a policeman to a bear! Lol 😂). I'm sure there are many others, I just don't know what's been translated from other languages. I'll definitely pay more attention to that in the future.
The Les Miserables book is so worth reading, it is so incredible! An amazing nonfiction is the Secret Piano, written by a Chinese woman about her experience through the horrific Cultural Revolution. Also really liked A Man Called Ove and Factfullness.
Found your channel looking for harry potter book reviews but I love that you're giving manga a chance. Would recommend the work of Naoki Urasawa. Attack on Titan might be good as well.
If you want a classic that is scary, but surprisingly gratifying, you could try Don Quixote. It was written in 1605 and, yet, the humour, the characters and everything is still apealling for people in our age. Sure, the language is a bit different, but you get used to it after some pages... and there are a lot of pages to get used to.
Hello Merphy. I recently found out your channel. Recently I bought a Harry Potter box set. I'm a huge fan of the series however I never liked reading, and I only read book 3 since it was offered to me when I was young. I didn't really have the time and money to buy a set of my own so I've waited until last month to buy the set. I'm portuguese and there's a translation however I think if I read in the original language, the book would hit different, and it did. After I read book 3 in english and re-read the same book in my native language. Your channel is opening some doors for me in terms of books, I'm really enjoying reading and I'm searching to your channel to see which ones are worth buying so... thanks!
It's hilarious how famous Marie Kondo became in the west. Japanese people are some of the biggest horders I know. Organized Mess is the Japanese aestetic because our houses and home are so much smaller compared to Western homes. (I live in Japan).
I'm Brazilian and most of the books I've read had been translated from English, so here my favorite books from non-English speaking countries (and that have been translated into English): Captains of the sands (Brazil), House of the spirits (Chile), Blindness (Portugal), Toilers of the sea (France)
I want to read The Count of Monte Cristo so bad!!! I read The Three Musketeers by him and it was GREAT. I read it in French since it's my first language. And I didn't know The Beauty and the Beast was originally French!!! I have to read this too!
What a nice video! But now I’m wondering: have you ever read the book you love in another language? Or have you ever considered learning that language to read the book and get the author’s message in its purest form?
Being a fan of anime and manga, translation is always appreciated. Even a lot of fans can do great work bringing the stories to a new language when an official translation isn't available, at times superior to the official ones.
My author recommendations: Julio Cortazar - the end of the game and other stories (Argentina) Monica Ojeda - Jaw (Ecuador) Jose Mauro de Vasconcelos - My sweet orange tree (Brazil) Mo Yan - Life and death are wearing me out (China)
The Count of Monte Cristo is my all time favourite standalone. It was my second classic ever and I only remember being bored for one chapter! I read it when I was 13!
Ooh this is great. I've been wanting to make an effort to read more translated books and didn't realise that a lot of these books from my childhood were translated. I'm a translator in training (not literature though) so I've read some 'classics' in the languages I study both in translation and originals but I want to read more far afield, so any recommendations people have I'll appreciate!
Maybe you want to check out Chess Story (by Stefan Zweig). It's a German classic and I think you've been sent an English version via your PO Box a while ago. You don't need to know chess at all, it's just an amazing exploration of the mind and trauma and it's a very short read😊🥰
I love that book with all my heart, but I think Merphy would hate it (because of the magical realism and romantic relationships) - but I could be wrong.
0:08 it's not surprising at all because I assume not every subscriber is native English speaker, so we are reading translated literature or in English if we can do it. So we'd love to hear what translated books you read/love. Like visa versa
I was talking to a friend yesterday about your last video and the fact that you loved Machado de Assis and we hated it when we read it at school. And we remember his prose to be INSUFERABLE. So we wondered if the translation to English changed this and made the book more readable. I'm actually curious now about how it reads in English in comparision to the original text in Portuguese.
Maybe you can make a new series where each episode would be recommendation for books written in different languages. I am Serbian and would absolutely love to see your reaction to some serbian books.
The English translated books I highly recommend are - Before the coffee gets cold and The miracles of the Namiya General Store, and the Hunchback of Notre-dame. You will love them!
ahhh i definitely can't wait to read more translated fiction! i've only started getting interested in it after reading Confessions by Kanae Minato which is translated from Japanese. It's a thriller and I normally don't enjoy thrillers but I highly recommend it! It was so unexpected but it became one of my new all time favorites:)
I would recommend "the Method" by Juli Zeh. It was written by a German author and it was the only book that we read in school that I actually liked. It's a dystopian story about a state where health is the highest priority.
Actually with Inkheart its not that maggie is in the story but the characters got out Like almost all of them especially the bad guys and they try to kidnap them because they want the ultimate „bad guy“ (their boss) to get read out to this world too so they can take over it
Mine would be, Kafka on the shore (japanese) Before the coffee gets cold (Japanese) The girl with the dragon tattoo (swedish I think) Don Quixote (spanish) Arsene lupin (french)
Have you read "Lord of all Things" by Andreas Eschbach? It is translated from German, and although German is my first language I listened to it in English and loved the translation! Recommended if you are into light Sci-Fi (i.e. futuristc technology but set on Earth)
I can recommend 2 books written in german. Widely known: "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer" by Patrick Süskind. Historical fiction, it takes place in 18th century France and draws you into the book with all senses. Rarely known fantasy: CORUUM Volume 1 by Michael R. Baier. About an archaeological excavations of a mayan place, that is way more than it first seems.
You got the Inkheart story backwards! xD I think you're confusing it with her mom maybe? Mo accidentally reads his wife into the book called Inkheart when Maggie was a baby and in return, couple characters come out of the book including the villain of the story, Capricorn. The main plot of the Inkheart is that Capricorn kidnaps Mo to read something out of the Inkheart and Maggie's trying to save her dad. (Spoiler alert) Maggie doesn't go into a book until the 2nd book and she reads herself in.
You might like the Letter for the King! It was translated from Dutch I think... it’s literally my favorite book, but it might be a little too young for you...(also, it’s nothing like the tv show-barf)😆
Does it count if the author translates it themselves? I think Isabel Allende usually writes her books first in Spanish and then English. Some of the many normal translations: 'One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich' (Russian), 'The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared' (Swedish), 'Where the Wild Ladies Are' (Japanese: ajungleoftales.blogspot.com/2021/04/first-impressions-review-where-wild.html ), 'Don Quixote' (Spanish), 'The Master and Margarita' (Russian: ajungleoftales.blogspot.com/2020/08/first-impressions-review-master-and.html ), every manga I've ever loved (Gah, someone please get on to translating the 'Seraph of the End' light novels and tell me where I can buy the paper version of 'Happiness': ajungleoftales.blogspot.com/2021/04/first-impressions-review-happiness-by.html !).
I read "looking for Alaska" by John Green twice, first in English, then in German. The German translation was good, but it was hard for me to take it serious, because they translated "pudge", the main characters nickname, as "Pummel". I guess this is about as close a translation as you can get, but it´s just a super ridiculous word in German that no-one really uses, especcially not teenagers.
My top five would be Serengeti Shall Not Die, The Iliad, The Neverending Story, Grim’s fairytales, and Planet of the Apes. Not sure I’ve read enough translated books to make a top ten.
Many classics have more than one translation and I find it’s hit or miss to find the one that does the original justice. An example: My favorite novel by Jules Verne is Deux Ans de Vacances. There are 2 translations to German and both are abridged. Comparing the original to those translations is a nightmare In one scene two characters are having a discussion. Translation 1: let’s not translate this passage Translation 2: two characters? Nope, let three people talk I seriously don’t get it. A translation has to stick to the original as close as possible. If not then it’s an interpretation. Another example: I own a copy of The Count of Monte Christo for ages and have read it more than once. I only found out recently that my version is abridged. The unabridged German translation was first published a couple of years ago and it’s 1,500 pages instead of my 400. WHAT?? Excuse me?? I immediately bought a copy and I’m currently reading it.
You could read the Tragedy of Man by Madách, a Hungarian play. It's one of Hungary's greatest piece. Its about Adam (from the Bible), who goes on a time travel journey to look how humanity changed. Lucifer is trying to convince him that everything is horrible ex. French revolution.... he had to read it for school... its a masterpiece, makes you think... and its Christian... so all the good points are there :D you should check it out
Rec for croatian classic: Croatian tales of long ago by Ivana Brlić Mažuranić. Children stories with slavic mythology and takeaway messages. I loved it. It is on Gutenberg site as well.
Most things by Thea Beckman (*actually* Dutch) are worth reading, such as Crusade in Jeans (Kruistocht in spijkerbroek), but not all of them have been translated yet. I am a translator, however (thank you for the compliments to my profession!), so I may get on to that one day.
As a non- native speaker of English, people who say that they don’t read translated books on principle always confuse me. Yes, there are bad translations, but the majority of translators does a great job.
I usually prefer the english copy, (if we are talking about an english author ofc) of a book since that is the original view of the author. I'm not saying the translation is worse, I just like reading what the author wanted me to read.
I love reading so much but honestly reading in english sometimes just... feels like work. I don't have this feeling when I watch a TV show or youtube anymore and I also startet listingen to audiobooks in english but for the most part I read the (german) transation if I get the chance to because it's just more fun to me.
To be fair, I have talked about all these books along with any other book in many videos, I’ve just had several people request I highlight them in a video of their own
Yes, I agree that for example putting "translated works" as a prompt in a readathon or a tbr game is something only native english speakers do, because it is simply not that widespread to sell and read translated books in US, UK and Canada. All other countries have TONS of translated books in their bookstores, usually much more than they have originally written in their own languages. Personally when "translated" comes up in a reading challenge I usually take it as "something not written in my mother tongue AND also not written in English" 😀
In Poland we always distinguish our literature from others. I think it's so important for us because we want to underline that we are proud of OUR works and they are equally good. You know, just old insecurities
Merphy: it's Inkheart Me: aaaay, Tintenherz! I wasn't expecting that, but it's a great book and I loved reading it when I was younger. I definitely need to revisit it some time.
The Count of Monte Cristo is also my favorite book. Big warning for people looking into this book though, a lot of these versions are abridged. So make sure you are buying the right book.
@@cecilie... It seems to be unabridged. So it should be good. It seems to be the generally recommended online. I went for the audiobook version myself.
The Inkheart trilogy was one of my favorite memories of childhood. I listened to the audiobooks 2 years ago and, while having noticed some issues with plot, was very happy that I could revisit such a magical world I wish existed because it would mean all my other favorite worlds could exist too 🗺 📚
I personally am not the biggest fan of Inkheart, but Cornelia Funke also wrote the ghost hunter series, which I absolutely loved as a kid. I am German, so I didn´t read them translated (I´m guessing from your name that you did), so I´m not sure if they are called ghost-hunter in English, or even if there are English translations, but if there are, check them out, if you like.
@@eliasbischoff176 Thsnks, Elias, for letting me know about Ghost-Hunter. I’m German by blood but don’t speak it. I’ll definitely try to find and read this series 📚 ✌️
I am Lebanese but I read mostly in French because it’s easier than arabic 😂 so at first most of the books I read were translated to French from English (Harry Potter, The Hobbit,....) but know I am more at ease with reading bigger books in English, like a Game of Thrones or Mistborn,.... So I really am grateful for the fact that I had acces to translated books at first for me to dive in amazing universes even with the language barrier...
Since you read in 2 languages, as I do, would you say that you could switch from one language to another in a series? I found that I started Harry Potter in English, and just couldn't read it in French; it had another "feel" to the story.
If you like books about books, I would recommend "The City of Dreaming Books" by Walter Moers (German author). I love nearly every book from him. He is most famous for his creation of "Captain Bluebear" (a german kids show) and wrote even a book about this character "The 13.5 Lives Of Captain Bluebear"
OMG. Ich Love the City of dreaming books too. I got it for Christmas two years ago and even though every around me said that it is a children's book I really enjoyed it. Also because it was so dreamy and passionate about books. And really unique.
