More amusing linguistic snafus here. Funny, I tell you.
Forfatter: Mirthful
Broken English Spoken Perfectly
A collection of examples of that which we know as Engrish, but with a mostly Scandinavian origin. My favourite was from «A hotel in Vienna» and literally made me laugh til I cried:
In case of fire, do your utmost to alarm the hotel porter.
(I couldn’t help imagining a porter with a particular affinity for horror movies, who would naturally be more difficult than the average person to «alarm».)
All in all: Funny.
Typisk norsk
Det er jo hyggelig å få ting man ønsker seg til jul. Jeg kom aldri så langt som til å se på Typisk norsk på TV, men boka er jo litt mer brukervennlig i og med at man ikke er avhengig av å først finne ut og så huske et spesiellt tidspunkt på akkurat det tidspunktet og være i nærheten av en tv. Sånt er jo bare pes. Boka derimot kan man for eksempel plukke opp når man spiser frokost eller bare tilfeldigvis har noen ledige minutter.
Og det har jeg altså gjort.
Man kan vel si at jeg nå vet langt mer om norsk språkhistorie enn jeg gjorde før jul. Ikke at det egentlig skulle så mye til, selvsagt, og mye av det jeg nå vet har jeg sannsynligvis glemt igjen snart (med en hjerne som lekker som en sil blir det gjerne sånn). Men da kan jeg jo lese boka om igjen. For den var riktig så underholdende. Det var vel kanskje særlig alt «ekstramaterialet» som var underholdende, med det kan man jo også lese igjen. Boka inneholder nemlig, foruten språkhistorie fra unionsoppløsningen til i dag delt inn i tiår, bokstavenes historie, ords opprinnelse, forsøk på gjenoppliving av gamle ord og «Folkets ordbok» som kanskje var noe av det mest fornøyelige, der var det nemlig svært mye nyttig. «Automagisk» har jeg vel hatt i mitt aktive ordforråd en stund, men arrogasme («den nærmest sanselige gleden man kan ha av å plassere en velformulert (men ganske arrogant) replikk på riktig sted til rett tid) for eksempel var en praktisk nyhet.
Boka kan altså i høyeste grad anbefales, og jeg har store planer om å prøve å få med meg i hvert fall ett eller to av programmene i den nye serien. Og så var det å melde seg inn i kjell-bevegelsen, da.
MetaxuCafé (Link)
So far it looks interesting: MetaxuCafé
Books read 2005
- A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine l’Engle
- Without Reservations – Alice Steinbach
- Tortilla Flat – John Steinbeck
- Mean Woman Blues – Julie Smith
- Good Omens – Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
- Friends, Lovers, Chocolate – Alexander McCall Smith
- Espresso Tales – Alexander McCall Smith
- A Woman of Independent Means – Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey
- Reading Lolita in Tehran – Azar Nafisi
- Tuck Everlasting – Natalie Babbitt
- The Blue Afternoon – William Boyd
- Den hellige natten – Tahar Ben Jelloun
- Ravensdale – Kate Fielding
- English Passengers – Matthew Kneale
- Pondus – Fem rette – Frode Øverli
- Det blod som spillts – Åsa Larsson
- Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell – Susanna Clarke
- Blue at the Mizzen – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
- The Hundred Days – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
- The Yellow Admiral – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
- The Commodore – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
- The Wine-Dark Sea – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
- Clarissa Oakes – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
- The Nutmeg of Consolation – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
- The Thirteen-Gun Salute – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
- The Letter of Marque – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
- The Reverse of the Medal – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
- The Far Side of the World – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
- Treason’s Harbour – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
- The Ionian Mission – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
- The Surgeon’s Mate – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
- The Fortune of War – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
- Desolation Island – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
- The Mauritius Command – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
- HMS Surprise – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
- Post Captain – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
- Master & Commander – Patrick O’Brian (reread)
- The Final, Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey – Patrick O’Brian
- Thursday Afternoons – Monica Dickens
- Abandonment – Kate Atkinson
- Nickle and Dimed – Ehrenreich
- 44 Scotland Street – Alexander McCall Smith
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – J. K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – J. K. Rowling (reread)
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – J. K. Rowling (reread)
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – J. K. Rowling (reread)
- The Big Over Easy – Jasper Fforde
- Case Histories – Kate Atkinson
- Raw Spirit – Iain Banks
- Midshipman Bolitho and the ‘Avenger’ – Alexander Kent
- Mr. Midshipman Bolitho – Alexander Kent
- Paying Guests – E. F. Benson
- The Secret Life of Bees – Sue Monk Kidd
- For Her Own Good: Two Centuries of Experts’ Advice to Women – Ehrenreich and English
- Three Men on the Bummel –
- Three Men in a Boat –
- Krig! – Knut Nærum
- Where did it All go Right – Collins
- Home Truths – David Lodge
- Ruffen og det mystiske hullet – Tor Åge Bringsværd
- One Pair of Hands – Monica Dickens
- Samtaler med en svart hund – Tor Åge Bringsværd
- San Fransisco – John Erik Riley
- Morgengaven – Dea Trier Mørch
- Vinterbarn – Dea Trier Mørch
- The Art of Travel – Alain de Botton
- Guds barmhärtighet – Kerstin Ekman
- Marekors – Jo Nesbø
- Sorgenfri – Jo Nesbø
- Rødstrupe – Jo Nesbø
- Flaggermusmannen – Jo Nesbø
- A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning – Lemony Snicket
- Av bokormens liv. Et selvportrett med tommeltott. – Kari Bang
- Ansikt til ansikt – Gunnar Staalesen
- The Girl who Married a Lion – Alexander McCall Smith
- The Amenities of Book-Collecting and Kindred Affections – A. E. Newton
- Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand
- The Whore’s Child – Richard Russo
- The Birthday Party and Other Stories – A. A. Milne
- Honour Among Thieves – Jeffrey Archer
- Chloe Marr – A. A. Milne
- The Amulet of Samarkand – Jonathan Stroud
- Presten – Hanne Ørstavik
- Neither Here Nor There – Bill Bryson
- How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World – Francis Wheen
- The 2 and 1/2 Pillars of Wisdom – Alexander McCall Smith
A Wrinkle in Time
Another bookcrossing rabck, A Wrinkle in Time made it smile when it arrived in my mailbox and it made me smile again as I read it (except just at the end when it made me tear up – I’m a stickler for sentimental endings). I’ve been hearing Madeleine L’Engle’s name mentioned in discussions also involving such books as The Chronicles of Narnia for years, and so I was rather curious to find out what mettle she was made of. And I can tell you it’s very good mettle indeed. The plot and characters are engaging, the language and the concepts used or invented complex enough to make it interesting reading for adults while not so difficult that a 10-year-old wouldn’t be able to handle it.
Without Reservations – Alice Steinbach
I enjoyed Without Reservations, though I think the title is a bit misguiding – Steinbach actually makes plenty of reservations in advance in the «books a place to stay» sense, so the pun doesn’t really work. However, she is pleasant company, and it’s quite refreshing to read travelogues by women, even in this day and age women seem to be less apt to travel on their own than men.
Tortilla Flat
We somehow started talking about Steinbeck on Saturday, and I promptly picked a few of his novels down from the shelf in order to remember to read them. I started this week with Tortilla Flat – the others may have to wait since I have a few bookring books to get through.
Tortilla Flat is about the Paisanos of California. More specifically it is about Danny, who, on coming home from the war suddenly finds himself the owner of two houses. Having been a slacker all his life he feels the burden of property keenly, but giving shelter to his band of friends, Pilon, Jesus Marie, Big Joe Portagee, Pablo and the Pirate, helps to (mostly) dispel the gloom. The friends only work when there is a specific need for it, most of the time they survive by stealing or begging for scraps. When they can get hold of wine they get gloriously drunk and most of their days are spent lazing around on the porch in the sun. They are a likable bunch, despite their tendency to regard other people’s property as fair game, and I have a feeling they’ll stay with me.
Mean Woman Blues – Julie Smith
Mean Woman Blues by Julie Smith was an accidental read, so to say, one of my colleagues got too many books at once from various bookrings and wondered if I wanted to read any of them. It’s the second book (I think second, it may be later) in the tale of Skip Langdon, New Orleans detective, and a character from her past – and previous book(s) – Errol Jacomine, surfaces in unpleasant ways and there is a bit of a showdown. The novel is entertaining enough in a way, but I never got very involved and something left me feeling a bit uneasy. Googling Skip Langdon revealed at least one discussion of whether Smith wasn’t commiting both sexual and racial stereotyping, perhaps that is it? (The gay men are VERY gay, the black people seem to be mostly pretty «primitive» and Skip’s boyfriend is certainly a complete stereotype in this book.) In any case, I’m not likely to read any more of Smith’s novels.
Good Omens
Good Omens arrived in my office as part of a bookcrossing bookring. I’ve never managed to read a Terry Pratchett novel before, and I’ve only really glanced at Neil Gaiman’s graphic novels, so it was really a case of two new writers in one go. I enjoyed it more than I expected to, really. It’s not laugh-out-loud funny, but chuckleworthy in places and bits of the – for lack of a better word – moral of the story will probably stick with me. On the whole pretty good.
(the book’s journal)