h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My favourite reads tend to change from time to time, but I have realised that some f the books I've really liked are impossible to reccomend to anyone else. For instance, 'If On A Winter's Night a Traveller' by Italo Calvino. Smashing book. But if you were to summarise it, you're reduced to "it's about the annoying phenomenon of getting part-way into a story and not knowing how it goes on". Sounds so incredibly dull.

Or Riddley Walker. "Punch and Judy in post-holocaust Kent"

Not really sure exactly WHY I like either of them, but they're both mesmeric, fascinating books. But I've never yet persuaded anyone else to give them a go, because if you tell them about the book, it sounds so peculiar.

David

Well, I've read 'If on a Winter's Night a Traveller' (in the original Italian - is there a smug git smiley?). I loved it. I loved the passage about gingko leaves, and the one about the writer watching the butterfly, especially. They stick in the mind.

I also read his very weird book 'Invisible Cities' - I think, in English, 'Citta Invisibili' in Italian. Each chapter is the lyrical description of an imaginary city, fantastical and bizarre and enchanting. Technically Marco Polo is telling the Khan all about his travels, but after a while you get the strong suspicion that all the cities are one city, and that city is Venice, and the whole thing is a paean of longing for home. And the last chapter throws you all over again.

Calvino's three 'fantasy' novels, collectively known as 'Our Ancestors', are also very very beautiful and moving. Forgive me, I don't know what they are called in English.

I don't speak (or read) Italian I keep meaning to read more of Calvino's work, though. Other people whose books I've enjoyed in translation (my language skills aren't great) include Eco, Borges, Racine and the ancient Greek tragedians, particularly Aeschylus. I know I must be missing a lot by reading in translation, but I find it much easier! The only language I'd stand a chance in would be French. And maybe Spanish, but probably only children's books!

David

I grew up in Italy, hence the whole Italian thing. Being bilingual has made me very suspicious of translations, I'm afraid, as I can see how not-right they are. Some translators are excellent, like William Feaver, who does Eco's books. And some are pants, written in 'translationese'. I was totally unable to read 'the Brothers Karamzov' because it was so badly written - in English, I'll bet it's marvellous in Russian. Am having same difficulty with 'War and Peace', my copy clearly translated by an A-level student with a thesaurus.