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Reading and Listening in Italian? | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
| Tyrion101 Senior Member United States Joined 3695 days ago 153 posts - 174 votes  Speaks: French | Message 1 of 5 30 April 2015 at 1:16am | IP Logged |
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The thing that blew up my French, was reading, and I'd like to know what's out there for
someone at an upper beginner, to intermediate level of Italian to read? It can be any level really, just so I get to see how things are done in the language. I had thought of opera libretti, because I am a huge classical music fan, and a few of my favorite operas are in Italian. I also enjoy listening to news broadcasts, or podcasts, as the people speaking usually tend to be well spoken, and it's easy to check what they are talking about if it is global news, because everyone talks about the same things. What in the way of literature and books is there to read? I don't know anything about the Italian culture beyond classical music. I'm going there next October, and would like a leg up on what I am experiencing when I am there. Edited by Fasulye on 04 August 2015 at 10:49am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5018 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 2 of 5 30 April 2015 at 1:41am | IP Logged |
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Here is a load of Italian books to read for free.
More Italian And a load of more free/public domain books on this HTLAL thread. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4989 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 3 of 5 30 April 2015 at 11:59am | IP Logged |
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Personally I much prefer modern books and find them more useful for my learning: more current and colloquial language, and descriptions of present-day or recent Italian culture. Unlike the more classic works in the links above, they're generally not free, but for me the cost of around £5 per book is worth it for the advantages. I'm lucky that Italian Kindle books are easily available on Amazon UK; I don't know if it's the same in the US.
Depends on your interests though. If you prefer older literature to modern works, then go for it. Translations of English-speaking authors are also an option: you miss out on the cultural aspect, but they're often easier than native-language books, and all the more so if you're already familiar with the story. Reading an Italian translation of an English book that you already know and love could be a good way to ease into reading Italian. A few of the Italian authors I've read and enjoyed: - Niccolò Ammaniti: crazy stories, at times reminds me of Irvine Welsh or Chuck Palahniuk. Can be on the more difficult side, with a lot of descriptive language. - Fabio Volo: not exactly a "quality" author, slightly cheesy romance/comedy stuff, but the language is simple and modern so easy and useful for learners. - Italo Calvino: more literary; quite challenging but beautiful writing. - Fabio Genovesi: modern author, along similar lines to Ammaniti but easier-going and a bit less crazy. - Beppe Severgnini: entertaining non-fiction about Italian culture. In terms of the freely-available classics, I found Italo Svevo's "La coscienza di Zeno" relatively fun and easy to read, although quite long and with some outdated vocabulary. I've also tried some Luigi Pirandello but it wasn't really my thing. Other authors that I'm currently reading or are on my to-read list: Dacia Mariani, Carlo Fruttero, Leonardo Sciascia, Umberto Eco, Ignazio Silone, Carlo Lucarelli. I don't have much to say about them, but they could be worth a look to see if they sound interesting. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| smallwhite Pentaglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5090 days ago 537 posts - 1045 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin, French, Spanish | Message 4 of 5 01 May 2015 at 4:45am | IP Logged |
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I find RAI's R3M's Rassegna stampa estera relatively easy, especially those by Mazzone, Panozzo and Giordano.
And the free eBook Codice Killer (Emozioni nella Nuvola). It's the first book of a series so if you like it there're more. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6379 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 5 of 5 01 May 2015 at 5:02am | IP Logged |
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I've only read Severgnini and I highly recommend him. It's one of the few authors I can read in a distracting environment.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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