Wordless Wednesday

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David Sedaris

I’m going to see David Sedaris tomorrow with some friends at the State Theater. I’m so excited! I’ve never seen him live before, although I have listened to clips of him perform. This is one of my favorite pieces about learning French: My favorite book of his is Me Talk Pretty One Day, from which [...]

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Bits and Bobs

via Bookshelves of Doom This is pretty neat, if you care about translation. It’s always interesting to hear how different translators do their work, and then compare it to what I do. When Done Right, Little Gets Lost In Translation At least some of the people want to read their pretty books, and not just [...]

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The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai

Shanghai businessman Li Jing is having dinner with his father at a hotel restaurant when the unthinkable happens–there is a massive gas explosion in the kitchen, and the building collapses. When he wakes up in the hospital, where he was taken after a massive shard of glass pierced his skull, Li Jing is diagnosed with [...]

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The Big Reveal

The NY Times has an interesting article about literary translations: Translation as Literary Ambassador. And with that as my introduction, I can now spill the beans about the project I was working on this summer that ate up so much of my time: Amish Prayers. A Collection of Inspiring Prayers Used by the Amish and [...]

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Linkies!

Here’s some interesting bookish links: Kirkus 2010 Best Books for Children and Teens I have sadly read only a very few of these books. But should I ever run out of things to read, this will be a good place to start. A Screenwriter’s Hogwarts Decade I had no idea that the same person had [...]

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Merde, Alors

I have read and enjoyed both of Firoozeh Dumas’ books, Funny in Farsi and Laughing Without an Accent. I can certainly relate to her experiences moving to a foreign country as a child and trying to learn the language and fit in. And because I speak French, I find this piece to be quite amusing. [...]

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Gift of the Gab

Seen on Twitter: 20 Awesomely Untranslatable Words from Around the World I love lists like this. Because I speak two other languages, and know smatterings of several more, there are lots of these rattling around in my head. Knowing that while two languages may both be aware of a concept but only one has a [...]

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Save the Words!

I have adopted some words that need saving. Won’t you join me? A mere five minutes of your time will save these words from being cut from the OED. I adopted “blateration,” “senticous,” and “cynicocratical.” Save the Words Find out more in this GeekDad article and NPR story. (My very own Geek Dad sent me [...]

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Links

A collection of book and/or library related links that I’ve been sitting on for a while: Goodbye, cruel words: English. It’s dead to me. Watch and learn: How music videos are triggering a literacy boom At Schiphol, an Unlikely Sanctuary of Books Banned in the U.S.A: A Bookish Quiz And two special smelly links: In [...]

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