Book suggestions, please

[Johannas]

Hi there,

 

I've been learning a new language, Swedish, for two years now and have reached the stage where reading helps me a lot with regard to learning new words.

 

I'm actually dyslexic so I've never really enjoyed reading; I never read for pleasure as a kid. Having said that, its important for me to read now, with regard to improving my vocabulary.

 

I guess it might give you an idea as to the kind of books I might like if I outline a few of my favorite films -

 

Atonement, Let there be blood, 12 Angry Men, Machinist, Dolores Claiborne, Into the Wild, Misery...

 

I saw a really good film recently about a man who is jailed for beating his wife. The woman in question then meets a new man, before her husband is released having been through the process of rehabilitation. The old pair then indulge in a secret affair while you are left wondering if he actually has been cured. In the end, the new man is left heart broken. I thought it was a very intelligent film, which left you systematizing with both men in question, as much as with the woman.

 

This is in contrast with the kinds of books which we have read in class, which deal with simplistic race/feminism subjects which usually portray someone as a victim of a white man or group of such men. Anyway, I think the world is a more complicated place and such books are simply tedious in my opinion.

 

I grew up in the country and love life there and would be interested in books which portray the positive aspects of rural life. Im also very interested in music.

 

Anyway, that has been some indication of my interests. A large range of English books are published in the language I'm learning so feel free to offer me you suggestions.

 

Thanks very much,

 

Johannas.

[Guest ii]

Before making any suggestions, I have to ask where you live, simply because of availability of books in Swedish. If you're in Sweden, then I guess there's no problem, or in Finland, you're pretty safe too as in both cases there's practically all books available in Swedish. Also, in those cases books originally in Swedish qualify and you're not soley dependant on translations.

[Johannas]

Yeah, I'm in Sweden! Thanks.

[Johannas]

Hi again,

 

Any suggestions? I'd like to buy some books some time today or tomorrow.

 

Thanks again for your help,

 

Johannas

[Guest ii]

Oh, so sorry. I was busy yesterday...

 

Off the top of my head I'd suggest Mikael Niemi's book, Popularmusik från Vittula, or anything by Erlend Loe. Also see if you can find Leena Lander's House of Dark Butterflies (or something like that, the original name is Tummien perhosten koti, you should be able to find that in the page with the publishing info).

 

If you're feeling ambitious, Anna Karenina from Tolstoy is a great book. And it's surely translated. It has some beautiful nature bits, plus it's really hard to pin down the "good" and the "bad" in that book. (I didn't like Anna one bit, but found myself agreeing with her. Weird.)

 

I also recently really enjoyed Marc Levy's Et si c'était vrai... in which the main character ends up doing something you cannot really approve of but you agree with him. I guess it's translated into something along the lines of "if it only were true...", at least that's the traslation into Finnish I saw. It's very descriptive in style.

 

I'll try to come up with something else. These are all rather different to each other, and I tried to give you some titles the others may not give.