I've read 106 books this year and just 16 of them are translated titles.
Last year I read 20, and I'm aiming to exceed that.
How about you? Do you read translated crime fiction or do you avoid it?
What titles can you recommend?
Do consider the last 5 novels you've read and tell us how many of them were translated. Record your results in the poll in the right hand column.
Would you like to read more?
Just in case you do, here are the 16 titles I've read so far in 2011.
- 4.7, UNTIL THY WRATH BE PAST, Asa Larsson (Swedish)
- 4.5, VILLAIN, Shuichi Yoshida (Japanese)
- 4.4, THE KILLER'S ART, Mari Jungstedt (Swedish)
- 4.8, AN UNCERTAIN PLACE, Fred Vargas (French)
- 4.7, TRACKERS, Deon Meyer (Afrikaans- South Africa)
- 4.8, KEEPER OF LOST CAUSES, Jussi Adler-Olsen (Denmark)
- 4.8, THE LEOPARD, Jo Nesbo (Norwegian)
- 4.5, THE DEVOTION OF SUSPECT X, Keigo Higashino (Japanese)
- 4.5, FROZEN MOMENT, Camilla Ceder (Swedish)
- 4.5, OPERATION NAPOLEON, Arnaldur Indridason (icelandic)
- 4,4, FROZEN TRACKS, Ake Edwardson (Swedish)
- 4.6, THREE SECONDS, Roslund & Hellstrom (Swedish)
- 4.4, MAIGRET & the MAN on the BOULEVARD, Georges Simenon (French)
- 4.7, THE MAN WHO WENT UP IN SMOKE, Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo (Swedish)
- 4.9, BAD INTENTIONS, Karin Fossum (Norwegian)
- 4.5, MAIGRET & THE HEADLESS CORPSE, Georges Simenon (French)
finished 107 books so far this year, 20 are translated. I'm going to finish the 21st tonight.
ReplyDeleteYes. I like to read about different places and ways of thinking. That sometimes involves reading translations. I don't keep track of how many. I just read mystery books that sound interesting to me.
ReplyDeleteI've read the Larsson trilogy, The Devotion of Suspect X, and the Keeper of Lost Causes aka Mercy. Translations don't bother me at all!
ReplyDeleteSome people argue against translation because we never "know" exactly what the author did with language. The best description I have ever heard of translation is "doing something similar in another language." I once met the translator of Morrison's "Jazz." She used a southern Russian dialect spoken by people who were looked down upon by most Russians in place of the black English. Interesting choice.
ReplyDeleteI love translations!!! I look for them....though that being said, there were none in the last five books I read. This year I've read 8 so far. Hmm, not as many as I thought. I have The Snow Leopard, Blackwater (Kertin Ekman), Rosanna (first Martin Beck mystery), and two Deon Meyers right beside me waiting to be read, plus am looking for the Vargas mystery you read, and the Yrsa Sigurdarsdottir #3. I really enjoy translated mysteries. I read 8 in 2010, and 6 in 2009, so I think I'm improving here too.
ReplyDeleteHaha. No, I don´t read many translated books, but that is because I buy nearly all my English crime fiction in the original language these days. And last week I read Åsa Larson´s novel - in Swedish.
ReplyDeleteI did read a translated novel this week, though. A French one.
Yes - you are an interesting case Dorte. I'm not sure how you should reply in this poll.
ReplyDeleteBernadette - you and Kerrie are machines. I've read 66 books this year, and everyone I know thinks I'm nuts (in terms of how much I read).
ReplyDeleteI like reading translated crime fiction - in terms of opening myself up to crime fiction from other countries. I haven't read as much of it this year as last (when I read translations from German, Swedish, Spanish, Portugese, Afrikaans, and other languages).
This year just some Swedish (Liza Marklund, Henning Mankell) and Afrikaans and Spanish thus far.
I think about 4 out of 66 for me, as opposed to a good dozen last year, at least.
Kerrie: I never pay attention to whether or not a book is translated. If it looks interesting I read it.
ReplyDeleteI've read 65 books so far this year and only 2 are translations. Like Bill I don't take into account whether or not a book has been translated, so I neither avoid them nor seek them out.
ReplyDeleteGosh, I feel like the kid walking behind the speed skaters, but I have read 49 books so far this year.
ReplyDeleteI do like translated mysteries; 15 of the books I read this year are translated works, mostly from Italian, as I've had a yen for Montalbano's exploits and Carofiglio's attorney; Swedish; Norwegian, Finnish, French and Spanish.
The last five were originally published in English as I'm reading Australian crime fiction and on a tear with Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe series.