disintegrated biscuit (that's the way the cookie crumbles)
mathematician by numbers, programmer by the light of my PowerBook display, physicist by night, linguist by dint of cunning, writer by drinking tea, taking baths, and going for walks.
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Books in FrenchFairly early in my French learning, I was lucky enough to come across Le Mystère de la Patience, the French translation of The Solitaire Mystery at a fair. I know the story well, having read it about five times in English, so I was able to follow it pretty well even in French. I should warn you that unless you already know the story, it's probably not a good book to start with... it has a complicated plot which could be difficult to follow even in English.
Since then I've read a couple of other books in French. Some are much easier than others. I found I could read the French translation of There's a boy in here (which I have never read in English) on the bus, whereas for La Terre à en Perdre la Boule I really needed to have a dictionary on hand. It's always good to look up words even if I think I know what they mean... sometimes they turn out to mean something quite different.
Since 2007 is the tercentenary of Leonhard Euler, I've just read Euler's Lettres à une Princesse d'Allemagne. Maths is another of those things that I can understand in just about any language, and I'm thrilled to be able to read the original words of such a prominent mathematician.
I also occasionally dip into the French version of Gödel, Escher, Bach... now there's something I wouldn't read on a bus, it's too much fun to compare it with the English.
I'm currently reading a couple of books on linguistics by Emil Benveniste, which were given to me by a Parisien friend who has studied more linguistics than I have.This page has been accessed  times since 2024-07-06 19:51:00 Last updated: 2007-09-08 11:25:12
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