Electronic books in Spanish and French
December 10, 2023 5:06 AM Subscribe
I'm working on learning Spanish and French and I want some specific books in those languages, because I have read them multiple times in English....
It seems hard to do this without going into contortions and faking your country out on Amazon. Is there a better way to do this? I'm in the US.
I am looking for any or all of these:
Pat Barker's WW1 Series:
Regeneration
The Eye in the Door
The Ghost Road
This hockey romance I just read (go ahead and make fun, I don't care, it was a blast. I found out there was a hockey romance genre and was like, you're kidding me, and read them and it was fun) called Game Changers by Rachel Reid. It's a series.
If I could get KJ Charles Magpie series I'd be over the moon, for real, but I asked her and she doesn't think they're available.
Slaughterhouse Five/Kurt Vonnegut
Wampaters, Foma, and Granfalloons/Kurt Vonnegut
Prefer to go via Kindle but could also read via a browser if that's an option.
Also interested in general advice about obtaining translations. I tried the library but came up short, could just be my limited search ability so I will try to talk to a librarian this week.
I know there are dual language books (pages next to each other in different languages) and that would be optimal but since I want to immerse myself in these specific books that I know well, where I have context clues, it would be way easier than scraping through Pride and Prejudice the first time. Or, kill me, Faulkner, and the services that provide these dual language books seem to lean toward the earnest and edifying and my criteria is 'something I know well and like'. So.
If my only option is a physical copy, I will roll with that. I just need more experiential learning than just online courses.
It seems hard to do this without going into contortions and faking your country out on Amazon. Is there a better way to do this? I'm in the US.
I am looking for any or all of these:
Pat Barker's WW1 Series:
Regeneration
The Eye in the Door
The Ghost Road
This hockey romance I just read (go ahead and make fun, I don't care, it was a blast. I found out there was a hockey romance genre and was like, you're kidding me, and read them and it was fun) called Game Changers by Rachel Reid. It's a series.
If I could get KJ Charles Magpie series I'd be over the moon, for real, but I asked her and she doesn't think they're available.
Slaughterhouse Five/Kurt Vonnegut
Wampaters, Foma, and Granfalloons/Kurt Vonnegut
Prefer to go via Kindle but could also read via a browser if that's an option.
Also interested in general advice about obtaining translations. I tried the library but came up short, could just be my limited search ability so I will try to talk to a librarian this week.
I know there are dual language books (pages next to each other in different languages) and that would be optimal but since I want to immerse myself in these specific books that I know well, where I have context clues, it would be way easier than scraping through Pride and Prejudice the first time. Or, kill me, Faulkner, and the services that provide these dual language books seem to lean toward the earnest and edifying and my criteria is 'something I know well and like'. So.
If my only option is a physical copy, I will roll with that. I just need more experiential learning than just online courses.
Also: not Rachel Reid but Hannah Grace's hockey romance Icebreaker is available in French.
posted by Jeanne at 7:16 AM on December 10, 2023
posted by Jeanne at 7:16 AM on December 10, 2023
I use WorldCat to find out if the book exists in translation - you can search by author and limit to French and Spanish using the filters. From there you can check if libraries near you have them or at least get the titles which may make it easier to find them with general online searches.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:34 AM on December 10, 2023
posted by jacquilynne at 7:34 AM on December 10, 2023
In the DC area many of the libraries have reciprocal agreements, so I'd use that WorldCat trick and/or Libby's "deep search" to try to find titles at libraries where I can get cards. For whatever reason, of the memberships I have, Arlington County, VA seems to have the most works in other languages. I don't know what libraries are available to you that way, but it may be worth exploring.
Also, this is not what you say you're looking for, but during my college year abroad I found I struggled reading books in translation (bought for the exact same reason you describe) but I enjoyed reading literature that was originally written in the local language. My German classmates were more than happy to recommend German-language novels, and after I got started I could read them at almost the same pace as I could read in English. It helped me a lot with idiomatic German in a way that books in translation couldn't.
posted by fedward at 11:03 AM on December 10, 2023
Also, this is not what you say you're looking for, but during my college year abroad I found I struggled reading books in translation (bought for the exact same reason you describe) but I enjoyed reading literature that was originally written in the local language. My German classmates were more than happy to recommend German-language novels, and after I got started I could read them at almost the same pace as I could read in English. It helped me a lot with idiomatic German in a way that books in translation couldn't.
posted by fedward at 11:03 AM on December 10, 2023
Best answer: It looks like the first two volumes of Game Changers are available in French in ebook form via US Amazon here.
Though, they need to hurry up and translate The Long Game!
posted by LadyOscar at 2:29 PM on December 10, 2023
Though, they need to hurry up and translate The Long Game!
posted by LadyOscar at 2:29 PM on December 10, 2023
Response by poster: Though, they need to hurry up and translate The Long Game!
Ilya pour la victoire! (Ilya FTW)
Grumpy/sunshine! (grincheux/soleil)
Look, I'm already learning!
You guys have been great; this is so helpful. I started with the French hockey romance and with Barker's Regeneration in Spanish. I know Spanish better (as in my French is essentially twenty hours of Duolingo. It's going to be a rough road but the smut will be it's own reward.)
I could not get The Magpie books on the FNAC site; I'm not sure if they might not be able to sell in the US? I didn't see an option to change the currency, or it might be licensing? I loved the Magpie Lord.
I'm in a whole 'you know what's fun? Reading books that are fun.' phase of my life.
We have Libby here and I'll try that again; it was kind of an archeological dig but I'll revisit.
I'm surprised Pat Barker's books are hard to find -- she won the Booker Prize for The Ghost Road and I think it was only twenty years ago.
Thank you!
posted by A Terrible Llama at 3:18 AM on December 11, 2023
Ilya pour la victoire! (Ilya FTW)
Grumpy/sunshine! (grincheux/soleil)
Look, I'm already learning!
You guys have been great; this is so helpful. I started with the French hockey romance and with Barker's Regeneration in Spanish. I know Spanish better (as in my French is essentially twenty hours of Duolingo. It's going to be a rough road but the smut will be it's own reward.)
I could not get The Magpie books on the FNAC site; I'm not sure if they might not be able to sell in the US? I didn't see an option to change the currency, or it might be licensing? I loved the Magpie Lord.
I'm in a whole 'you know what's fun? Reading books that are fun.' phase of my life.
We have Libby here and I'll try that again; it was kind of an archeological dig but I'll revisit.
I'm surprised Pat Barker's books are hard to find -- she won the Booker Prize for The Ghost Road and I think it was only twenty years ago.
Thank you!
posted by A Terrible Llama at 3:18 AM on December 11, 2023
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If you search for an author on Amazon, you'll get a language selection filter in the left column and you can click to select Spanish if that author has books on the Kindle store translated into Spanish. The other source I use for searching is WorldCat, though I can't always get it to accurately turn up translations.
On Kindle:
Regeneración (Regeneration)
El Ojo en la Puerta (The Eye in the Door)
El camino fantasma (The Ghost Road)
Regeneration was translated into French but seems to have been out of print for many years; my Worldcat search didn't turn up anything for the other two Pat Barker books in French.
I'm afraid I can't find anything by Rachel Reid in French or Spanish.
K. J. Charles's Magpie books are available in French in ePub format, but not in Spanish as far as I can discover.
Matadero Cinco (Slaughterhouse-Five) (Kindle)
Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons has been translated into Spanish but I can only find a fairly expensive print copy.
Abattoir 5 (Slaughterhouse-Five, seems to be only available in print)
I don't think Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons has a French translation.
(Note: in places where I've linked to the print copy, I haven't checked to make sure that the site will ship overseas. Usually if you look around hard enough you can find SOME bookstore willing to ship to the US, sometimes for a very large amount of money.)
Good luck! I improved my Spanish a lot this year reading Stephen King and Taylor Jenkins Reid - books are SO much more easily available than they used to be, but still not available enough to always make it easy to read what you want.
posted by Jeanne at 7:11 AM on December 10, 2023