Very true. I'd studied very little English before digging into The Silmarillion as a kid. Couldn't find it in translation locally. Skipping words and phrases where I was unsure. The whole was very nice and a great reading experience, even though it was vastly different from when re-reading the book a few years later.

Good to hear. Douglas Adams is a fantastic writer, it’s painful seeing some Redditors add their own substandard version.

I ordered that one yesterday!

I've picked three and I'll read them all and see which ones I'll be able to write about best. "The Ghost Map", "The Butchering Art", and "The Doctor Dissected" by Caroline McCracken-Flesher. A bit different than the other two, but I found a copy in my budget and went for it.

I wish I found reading to be fun, but I think it’s important enough to keep doing even if it’s a grind for me.

That's good to know, thanks!

I avoided Tehanu for so long because I heard it was “too radical,” but when I actually read the book, I realized the people I heard that from were probably men.

Neuromancer is in my list so now I'm even more excited to try it in the future c:

Maybe "The Ghost Map" by Steven Johnson, about cholera and public health in mid-19th-century London?

The first couple of books I've read in English I couldn't get almost half the words but I got the sense of what was said. It helped that it was books I was familiar with already. Now I'm comfortable with everything.

Oh shoot, should have thought about posting this on that subreddit lol. I will definitely do that!

Gormenghast is as classic as postwar books get.

Car crashes and cancer can strike at any moment!

I reread books alot and always have. Every couple years I read Ringworld by Latrry Niven. I'd bet tat I've rad Jonathan Livingston Seagull a thousand times as a teenager.

Hi, your spoiler alerts aren’t working. Personally I think it’s clear they’re supposed to be there, & I’m sure folks see it,, but I just ran into this a few days ago and can now tell you that the problem is correct punctuation… If you put a period at the end of the section before the exclamation point, It doesn’t read it as a spoiler. Just fyi :)

I liked Cloud Atlas but got stuck for ages on the central story Sloosha’s Crossin’. It just seemed to lose momentum here and the future language was a bit too Jar Jar Binks for me and felt really clunky.

Exactly this, if you are at a level to understand most of the book in your target language then just carry on reading. I look up words only if they repeatedly come up in the past couple of pages and I’m still none the wiser so I quickly look it up. Even then, try not to look up a translation of the word, but look up the word in your target language so you get a definition, not a translation. My tip would also be to take your time. Initially, you might find that reading in your target language is slow and feels easy for your mind to wander and choose the path of least resistance… but keep at it and it goes get easier and starts to flow. You’re training your brain through native level exposure, so initially it will feel tough. Good luck!

Just go for it. Will it always be easy? No. But I think you will glad you did. Also, each book is actually 3 books so could easily take breaks to read other things.

They’re not historical fiction books like Evelyn Hugo or Carrie Soto, they’re more classified as romances but they’re more profound and realistic than contemporary romance novels that are currently being marketed

When my English teacher saw that I'm reading in English she gave me one tip "translate only that words you really don't know, or you cannot figure out what it means by the context" of course I was always checking if I understood correctly, but it really works. And I was always getting a confidence boost when I understood what certain words means

Ooh ok I was thinking of trying them but I heard they're not like her newer books at all so I was hesitant.

But I'm not, though. Maybe I wasn't all that clear. At the moment there's the two fantasy series I listed who don't have paperback editions without the sticker. I've got plenty of other series on my TBR list, so I can just wait with those two until they get new editions. Or until I can comfortably afford the hardbacks.

The content's not in question, because I'm still going to read those books at some point and I've never read them.

Just an adendem . Seek out David Feituch's Hope series if you want a more angsty fantastic space opera. Honestly I love Weber for his simplicity. It streamlines the emotions you feel. When you start one of his books, you know the emotional ride upon which you will find yourself.

Thanks for posting. I first read these when I was a 10 year old boy. I remember how much I loved them. So last night I decided to read them again. Really enjoying my change in perspective as an adult, and still enjoying the masterful storytelling.

I have! They’re great - my favorites are One True Loves and After I Do

>Having a character overcome superior odds through cleverness and skill is great; having them overcome superior odds because their enemies are idiots who just happen to do everything exactly wrong is boring.

Only the very early and the later books suffer from it thought, and the story have "good" reasons for the former.

Honor do not face utterly dumb antagonist on the following books until the Solarian come into play, and there it is indeed way overdone on the many small battle between the various Alliance and Solarian fleets in which Honor actually only leads 2 actions.