Sir Furboy's 2018 Language (and Random Stuff) Category Challenge

I am Stephen, or Sir Furboy. I live in Aberystwyth, on the west coast of Mid Wales. My hobbies include walking, cycling, kayaking and surfing (obviously), although these days I mostly just surf in my kayak. I also like languages, and for a while now have been trying to learn one new language a year. Last year it was Greek (which turns out to be one of the hardest to learn yet, but I made good progress). This year I intend to learn Spanish.

I will probably spend more time on my 75 book challenge thread, here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/281824

However I like the category challenge and so will start another one this year.

In 2016 I read books in six languages, in 2017 I read in seven languages + English. So to continue a theme, I intend to read books in eight languages + English this year.

Additionally I have traditionally had ten categories that I read from, and I will attempt the same again, with only a minor change of categories.

Last year I read books in all 17 categories, but only managed to read my target of 10 books in 11 categories. It is quite hard to fill out the language categories with 10 books (although I read 35 in French!), but not to worry. I will aspire to the same this year, but if I read any in a category, that is not a failure :)

Thus my categories are:

--- LANGUAGES ---

1. Welsh - Category Complete

- 1. Rhewfys Anghenfil Yr Eira - Adam Blade
- 2. Math a'r for-forwyn - Meinir Pierce Jones
- 3. Penillion y Plant - T Llew Jones
- 4. Merch y Pennaeth - Rosemary Sutcliff
- 5. Teulu Bach Nantoer - L M Owen
- 6. Ramboy - Bethan Gwanas
- 7. Ydw i'n Caru Karate - Emily Huws
- 8. I'r tir Tywyll - Elgan Philip Davies
- 9. Y llyfrgell - Fflur Dafydd
- 10. Dynes mewn du - Gwenneth Lilley

2. French

- 1. Collins Easy Learning French Conversation
- 2. Colloquial French
- 3. French Ouverture - Open University
- 4. La balafre - Jean-Claude Mourlevat
- 5. Le quatorze juillet - Open University

3. Dutch

- 1. De Trimbaan - Imme Dros
- 2. Het boek van alle dingen - Guus Kuijer

4. German

- 1. Der Orkling - Wolfgang Hohlbein
- 2. Die Blechtrommel - Günter Grass

5. Italian

6. Greek

- 1. πέντε μέτρα χρόνου - Philipp Winterberg

7. Old English

- 1. The Anglo-Saxon Version of the Story of Apollonius of Tyre

8. Spanish

- 1. Learn Spanish with Paul Noble - Paul Noble
- 2. Spanish for Geniuses: Beginner Grammar and Vocabulary - Andromeda Jones

It's going to be a few more months before I read any actual fiction books written in Spanish in this category, but the category will not be complete until I do.

--- OTHER ---

9. Sci Fi

- 1. Illuminae - Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff
- 2. Slade House - David Mitchell - Well it is SF and it isn't. It probably fits here as well as anywhere.
- 3. Gemina - The Illuminae Files: Book 2 - Amie Kaufman et al.
- 4. Obsidio - The Illuminae Files: book 3 - Amie Kaugman et al.

10. Fantasy

- 1. The Lions of Al Rassan - Guy Gavriel Kay
- 2. God Stalk - P C Hodgell
- 3. The Boy Slave - Anthony Newell
- 4. Rhewfys Anghenfil Yr Eira - Adam Blade
- 5. Darien: Empire of Salt - C F Iggulden
- 6. Every Heart a Doorway - Seanan McGuire
- 7. The Gunslinger - Dark Tower 1 - Stephen King

11. Children & Young Adult

- 1. The Enemy - Charlie Higson
- 2. Illuminae - Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff
- 3. The Marbury Lens - Andrew Smith
- 4. Math a'r for-forwyn - Meinir Pierce Jones (Welsh Language)
- 5. Magisterium: The Silver Mask - Cassandra Clare, Holly Black.
- 6. The Girl With All the Gifts - M R Carey

12. Coming of Age

- 1. Okay for Now - Gary D. Schmidt
- 2. A Boy's Own Story - Edmund White
- 3. The Childhood of Jesus - J M Coetzee - not sure its really coming of age...not sure what it is though.
- 4. Orbiting Jupiter - Gary Schmidt
- 5. First Boy - Gary Schmidt
- 6. What came from the stars - Gary Schmidt

13. Award Winning

- 1. The Casual Vacancy - J K Rowling - Goodreads Choice Awards 2012.
- 2. Y llyfrgell - Fflur Dafydd - Gwobr Goffa Daniel Owen 2009.
- 3. Old Yeller - Fred Giopson - 1957 Newbery Honor, 1959 William Allen White Children's Book Award, and others.
- 4. Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy - Gary Schmidt - 2005 Newbery Honor
- 5. Het boek van alle dingen - Guus Kuijer

14. Historical

- 1. Bane of the Innocent - Oliver Phipps (not very historical as it happens. Will replace this one if I find better)
- 2. Merch y Pennaeth - Rosemary Sutcliff
- 3. Teulu Bach Nantoer - L M Owen
- 4. The Alienist - Caleb Carr
- 5. The American Boy - Andrew Taylor
- 6. Memoirs of a Byzantine Eunuch - Christopher Harris

15. Geographical

- 1. Bones - Gabrielle Lord - Australia
- 2. The Buried Book - D M Pulley - Rural America
- 3. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson - Sweden
- 4. What came from the stars - Gary Schmidt - Plymouth, MA. USA
- 5. Whipping Boy - Gabrielle Lord - Sydney, Australia

16. Classics

- 1. Children of the New Forest - Frederick Marryat
- 2. Die Blechtrommel - Günter Grass (also perhaps historical and geographical categories)
- 3. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
- 4. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
- 5. Savage Sam - Fred Gipson

17. Non Fiction

- 1. Blitzed - Drugs in the Third Reich - Norman Ohler
- 2. Kindle Unlimited: Why you should not sign up - Blake Kelley
- 3. WordPress: Visual QuickStart Guide - Matt Beck et al.
- 4. DK Eyewitness Travel Guide Portugal
- 5. The Wicked Boy - Kate Summerscale
- 6. Lonely Planet Barcelona - Regis St Louis
- 7. The Most Misused Stories in the Bible: Surprising Ways Popular Bible Stories Are Misunderstood - Eric J. Bargerhuff
- 8. Democracy? You think you know? - Open University
- 9. Lonely Planet Portugal
- 10. French Revolution - Open University

18. Current Affairs / Politics

- 1. Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House - Michael Wolff
- 2. How to Stop Brexit - Nick Clegg
- 3. Collusion: How Russia Helped Trump Win the White House - Luke Harding
- 4. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century - Timothy Snyder

--- AND FINALLY ---

I have removed my "I wish I hadn't bothered" category, but will list them below.

- 1. Bane of the Innocent - Oliver Phipps
- 2. The Boy Slave - Anthony Newell
- 3. Memoirs of a Byzantine Eunuch - Christopher Harris
- 4. A Boy's Own Story - Edmund White
- 5. Daddy Love - Joyce Carol Oates

A language a year! Good luck! How do you do it - Rosetta Stone?
I will watch what you put in #18. I have only recently tried to tackle this and am presently slogging through Fire and Fury. It's cool reading what everyone on TV is talking about.

Welcome back! I love seeing all the languages you read in. Have a great reading year!

I also am amazed at all the languages you read in. I've tended to lurk on your previous threads but will try to be more present this year.

Welcome back! I'm looking forward to following your progress with Spanish!

>2 mamzel: I am reading Fire and Fury too! That will be my first read in the category this year. Having said that, I envisaged that some of the reads in the category might be fiction, as I already have a non fiction category.

On language learning, I have never used Rosetta Stone, but will start with an audio course. For Spanish I have purchased Paul Noble's Spanish course. Although the marketing hype is overdone on his courses to the point of being off putting, I have used his courses before (Italian, German) and found they are good for getting a running start at a language by tried and tested techniques of careful tuition, plenty of repetition and verb drills (although he does not call it verb drilling and disguises it quite well). He also uses native speakers on the course.

After that there will be many things I do. Vocabulary training through Memrise or flash cards, following the Duolingo course, following an Open University online course, reading newspaper articles, finding a Spanish podcast, finding some Spanish music I like, finding a conversation partner locally who can speak some Spanish with me, trying to write something in the language, watching Spanish TV or movies, reading a Spanish grammar, and finally reading whole Spanish novels... I am sure I missed something.

It is time consuming, but the point is to get as much Spanish "immersion" as possible. Last year I was less successful than usual with Greek, but managed a lot of the above. I am hoping I will make better progress with Spanish though (partly because of similarities with French and Italian, and partly because there are more Spanish speakers around. Oh and also because it uses the Latin alphabet).

Thanks for stopping by

>3 rabbitprincess: Good to see you again too :)

>4 DeltaQueen50: Well lurkers are welcome too. Thanks for saying hi.

>5 MissWatson: Many thanks, and good to see you too.

>6 sirfurboy: That sort of immersion requires a lot of discipline, not to mention time. I admire you very much for your perseverance.

>6 sirfurboy: Sounds like you are really immersing yourself while you are learning. I never applied myself enough to be fluent in anything but English. My mother was French and I know know that there is no excuse for me not being fluent in French. I know just enough Spanish to get words confused between the two - Miercoles NOT Mercredi!

>9 mamzel: I expect there will be a lot of those words with close cognates! No doubt I will be reporting back much confusion at some point :)

I have now added my first two reads of the year.

1. Blitzed - Drugs in the Third Reich - Norman Ohler

Review is in my 75 books thread. The second one I will copy in the review here as it is a German language book I have just completed:

2. Der Orkling - Wolfgang Hohlbein



A German friend recommended Wolfgang Hohlbein to me, but to date I have not been overly impressed by his stories. This one, however, managed to surprise me. I worked my way very slowly through the first half of the book. By slowly, I mean I put it down for long periods and came back to it and took maybe a year to read it all (despite being quite a short book). I thought it was a somewhat amusing but very standard piece of fantasy fiction set in the world of Dungeons and Dragons. Halflings, Orcs, magic swords... nothing much to recommend it.

And then everything changed, and the book lived up to its hype. The write up on Amazon for the book reads:

"Zwischen Orks und Elben tost eine brutale Schlacht. Inmitten des Getümmels nimmt der Ork Groxmox einen kleinen Kämpfer gefangen - einen Halbling! Keiner von beiden ahnt, dass sie gemeinsam etwas erleben werden. Etwas, das noch weit unfassbarer ist als Magie..."

That is:

"Between orcs and Elves there is brutal battle. In the midst of the fray, the Orc Groxmox captures a small fighter - a halfling! Neither of them suspects that together they will experience something. Something that is far more unbelievable than magic ..."

And without giving any spoilers, I think that write up is a fair summary for once.

An amusing and clever adventure for young adults. It is not going to be a classic, but the key plot twist was better than expected.

>11 sirfurboy: I have found Hohlbein to be very uneven in quality. He writes several books per year, often with co-authors, and for different age groups, and I suspect he sometimes loses tracks of the projects. I was quite pleased with his version of the Nibelungen saga, though: Hagen von Tronje.

>12 MissWatson: I have heard others say he is uneven in quality, and indeed, I think I can now attest to that, although I have only read a few of his books.

Thanks for the recommendation. I am only very vaguely aware of the Nibelungen saga, and so perhaps it is something I should read to get a better understanding of German culture and history. Or myth+history perhaps. I am not sure how much of the saga is historical.

Hagen von Tronje is 500 pages long. I will get the sample now but at my German reading speed, I won't be completing this one any time soon :)

>13 sirfurboy: Oh, I forgot about the length. My copy is set in a pretty large font, so it didn't seem that long. But I guess familiarity with the plot helps, too. Personally, I don't think there's much real history in it, and the more interesting bit is about its rediscovery and instrumentalisation for nationalistic purposes in the 19th century. Disteln für Hagen offers some insight into this.

Welcome back! Glad to see I will still be able to follow your reading here - although I might pop over to the 75ers from time to time and catch up with your thread there.

Hope your 2018 is filled with great reads. We offer Mango Languages at our university where people can study a language on their own. Some of the foreign language professors use it in conjunction with their classes.

>15 lkernagh: Thanks Lori, good to see you too.

>16 thornton37814: Mango languages is new to me, but looks interesting. I have bookmarked the site and will sign up for the free trial at some point soon.

I like the idea of allowing students to do this in your university. It would go well with a liberal arts course.

>17 sirfurboy: In my community we have Mango available through the public library. Maybe yours...?

>18 mamzel: Sadly not here. I did check. I will have to suggest it :)

I have added the following. Reviews in my 75 books thread, but I will add a very brief summary to each

3. Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House - Michael Wolff

In brief, Trump is a moron, and is surrounded by a bunch of people fighting for influence from different backgrounds and failing to manage the loose cannon at the helm. Steve Bannon wants to be the next president.

4. The Anglo-Saxon Version of the Story of Apollonius of Tyre

In brief, the first ever English language novel about a bad king getting his comeuppance, and the good living happily ever after.

5. Kindle Unlimited: Why you should not sign up - Blake Kelley

in brief, a pretty useless book stating what should be obvious about Kindle Unlimited, but I read it because it is the only thing I could find worth reading when I signed up to a free kindle unlimited trial. Don't bother with this one unless you get it free too.

6. Children of the New Forest - Frederick Marryat

In brief, a Victorian children's classic set in the period between the English Civil War and restoration of the monarchy. Good story in a rather Victorian way.

>20 sirfurboy: #5 cracked me up! Besides the available choices, what were their reasons?

>21 mamzel: Reasons for not reading kindle books? Primarily it is down to available choice, which is down to the terms and conditions of Amazon's publishing model. Also, because there are free alternatives, as well as several other Amazon like subscription models, all of which are cheaper and some of which have better coverage.

Thanks for dropping by.

7. Die Blechtrommel - Günter Grass

Full review in my 75 books thread above, but in brief, a confusing book that I took a long time to read (I read it in German but it is available in English as "The Tin Drum"). It is actually very good though, clever, and told by an unreliable narrator who may or may not be insane... my vote is that he is!

Five more books for my list. Again, full reviews are on my 75 books thread, but I give each book a summary review below.

8. How to Stop Brexit - Nick Clegg

Short book in which a Liberal Democrat tells people to join the Labour or Conservative parties. Also plenty of good stuff from one of the few conviction politicians left in the UK.

9. Bones - Gabrielle Lord

Crime story with slightly unrealistic setting that is still used to pretty good effect if you like that kind of thing.

10. Collins Easy Learning French Conversation

Practice French conversation. Good book let down by confusing audio support, and availability of other options.

11. The Enemy - Charlie Higson

A nice zombie adventure for older children and young adults. All the adults turned into zombies leaving the children to fend for themselves. Set in London.

12. The Lions of Al Rassan - Guy Gavriel Kay

A fantasy that is almost (too much almost) Spanish history. Meandering tale with lots of action and gore but I got bored by it and was glad when it was all over.

I am a fan of "zombie" books and I really enjoyed Charlie Higson's series of which The Enemy is the first one. Of course, eventually it was quite repetitive but by then I had been captured by the characters and had to read on.

>25 DeltaQueen50: Yes, the characterisations are good here. I would like to read more of these. So much for reducing the size of my TBR :)

Some more books. Again the full reviews are in my 75 books thread, and very brief reviews follow.

13. The Buried Book - D M Pulley

A surprisingly good mystery set in 1950s rural America surrounding the sudden disappearance of a young boy's mother after she leaves him with relatives on a farm.

14. Bane of the Innocent - Oliver Phipps

Supposedly a historical narrative set in the American civil war. Not much depth here. Nice cover, nice title, underwhelming book.

15. God Stalk - P C Hodgell

A fantasy with a clever narrative and amazing world building. A good read - check out the group read info in the 75 books thread.

16. The Boy Slave - Anthony Newell

Supposedly the start of an Arthurian adventure, but tries to be a Harry Potter clone. Fails on both scores. The title is also odd. No actual slaves in this book.

17. The Casual Vacancy - J K Rowling

Long, slow burning book with only a little resolution, but excellent character study. Hard going. JKR trying to do literature. She does it pretty well for those who want that kind of thing, but the story does not pick up until about page 300!

18. WordPress: Visual QuickStart Guide - Matt Beck et al.

A good intro to WordPress, but not enough on the vital issue of security.

Here are some stats for January:

Books read: 18
Books on my TBR: 124

French books read: 1 (but it was a text book)
German books read: 2
Old English books read: 1
Welsh, Dutch, Italian, Greek, Spanish: None yet

11 of 18 categories started, none complete.

Distance walked: 382 KM (130 KM more than this time last year)

Looks like you had a good January!

Yes indeed, although I wanted to read more books :)

Eight more books below. Again full reviews are in my 75 books thread but quick summaries are below.

19. Rhewfys Anghenfil Yr Eira - Adam Blade

Translated children's series in Welsh. In English it is Beast Quest. Probably best suited for 8-10s and one was enough for me.

20. Collusion: How Russia Helped Trump Win the White House - Luke Harding

Very well researched book into how and why Russia influenced the US election and installed the current Republican regime. I thought it would contradict Fire and Fury, leaving me wondering whether Trump is a moron or an arch conspirator. In fact it tallied very closely with that work, which seems to lend credence to both.

21 Illuminae - Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff

Excellent Young Adult sci fi/space opera. Despite a few small flaws, it creates an engaging, exciting tale. Well written and an unusual but clever presentation.

22. Math a'r for-forwyn - Meinir Pierce Jones (Welsh Language)

Welsh language children's book. Math goes on holiday and discovers a mermaid (as you do). The mermaid lacks music in her life, and Math has to help.

23. Penillion y Plant - T Llew Jones (Welsh Language)

Children's poems. Not nursery rhymes exactly.

24. The Marbury Lens - Andrew Smith

Interesting YA story of a parallel world that can be entered by people who exist in both places by looking through a special lens. Shades of Stephen King's Talisman, but punctuated with bad language, rather gory and some quite graphic sexual adventures - not really YA in my opinion. Would have to have an 18 certificate if it were a film.

25. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson

Another adult tale, but this one at least does not pretend to be anything else. I did not pay for it (got it free on a promotion) and probably would not have done, but in fact I enjoyed it quite a lot (despite some disturbing scenes).

26. Colloquial French

A good basic grammar but not really what I wanted from the title (colloquial French is quite a bit more colloquial than presented here).

>31 sirfurboy: Good to hear that you enjoyed Illuminae as I have that one on my Kindle. I loved the first book in her other trilogy entitled "The Shattered World" but didn't care much for the second so not I am not sure about continuing on with the third.

>31 sirfurboy: Chuckling to myself at the "(as you do)". :)

I like that you review the language instruction books you read -- it makes me want to get back to my own sadly neglected language-learning books. Scottish Gaelic and Welsh are of particular interest to me.

>32 DeltaQueen50: Now I am in two minds whether to read The Shattered World. You loved it, so that is a good recommendation, but if you didn't like how the trilogy panned out... should I bother?

>33 rabbitprincess: Thanks :)

Scottish Gaelic is on my list of languages I would like to learn one day. Having looked at it (but not in any great depth), I can tell you it is a long way from Welsh. Both are Celtic languages and share grammar features, and you can see shared roots in some words, but I could make no sense of anything I saw in Scottish Gaelic.

That is perhaps not surprising. Romance languages are very similar to each other, but they separated into distinct language families much more recently than the separation between Gaelic and Welsh. The same is true of Dutch and German. We know the separation between Gaelic and Welsh (or more properly, Proto-Goidelic and Proto-Brythonic) happened before the arrival of the Romans, and possibly quite a long time before.

I would still love to learn it though.

I'll just paste my review for the next book in here:

27. Merch y Pennaeth - Rosemary Sutcliff

Welsh translation of the book "The Chief's Daughter"



The story takes place in the Bronze Age tribe on the Welsh coast. Nessan is the chief's daughter, and for the tribe, the nearby spring is the only source of water. When this dried up and the priest demands the sacrifice of an Irish captive to appease Y Fam Ddu (The Black Mother), she puts her own life at risk to rescue him.

I have never seen this one of Rosemary Sutcliff's novels available in English, although there must be second hand copies around.

>34 sirfurboy: I have decided that I will probably finish "The Shattered World" trilogy as the third book goes back to the original characters, I believe. Also, I read the 2nd volume in the middle of our moving houses and that may have thrown me off.

>34 sirfurboy: Wow! So I guess the fact that they separated much longer ago than the romance languages means that they've had more time to diverge and look so different from each other?

I took a term's worth of Scottish Gaelic in university and can't really say much more than Ciamar a tha thu/sibh? and Glè mhath, tapadh leat/leibh, as well as random words that I say angrily enough to make them sound like a swear ;) "Ceapaire càise!" (Cheese sandwich!) But I *was* able to use my greetings when I bought a Gaelic book in Wigtown -- the proprietor of the bookstore knew Gaelic too and we had a nice chat about Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, which sounds awesome and intimidating at the same time.

As for Welsh, I had hoped to learn some before our trip there last year, but I ended up learning only snatches while on the trip: namely, the correct pronunciation of place names and "The next stop is..." in Welsh thanks to the bilingual stop announcement system on the Coastliner bus linking Caernarfon and Llandudno.

>36 DeltaQueen50: In that case I think I will read it too. Thanks :)

>37 rabbitprincess: Yes, in general, the further back two languages split, the more different they will be (although the other big influence is how much the speakers intermix).

Scottish Gaelic, of course, was not native to Scotland but brought over by the Irish tribe, the Scotti, who seem to have started arriving at the end of the Roman period, and had established themselves in Western Scotland by the fifth century AD. Prior to that, there had been many centuries of separate development, but Scottish Gaelic encountered Pictish when the Scotti arrived, and it is thought that the chief differences between Scottish Gaelic and Irish, which shares the same root language, can be attributed to Pictish influence.

Modern scholarship is of the view that Pictish was an insular Celtic language, probably derived from Proto Brythonic, so some of those influences may have brought Scottish Gaelic closer to Welsh... but the languages are still far apart.

It sounds like you already know more Gaelic than me, but I was interested to read that the superlative "smashing!" may be derived from Gaelic "'s math sin" (that is good)... only to then discover that this derivation is considered improbable. Oh well. At least I know how to say "that is good" in Gaelic :)

Two more:

28. Teulu Bach Nantoer - L M Owen

The little family of Nantoer. An early 20th century look at Welsh life in a small and poor family that knows sadness but improves itself through education, loyalty and family bonds. Sentimental, but interesting for understanding how Welsh language issues were considered at the time.

29. The Alienist - Caleb Carr

An American Sherlock Holmes character sets out to solve murders of boy prostitutes in the late 19th century, reminiscent of Jack the Ripper (but with boys instead of women). Actually a very good read despite the obvious influences. Now an American TV show that probably messes up the careful attempts at authenticity.

>39 sirfurboy: - Now an American TV show that probably messes up the careful attempts at authenticity. Sadly, you are probably correct. I loved the book - I think it was the acute attention to detail that drew me in - and so will probably avoid the adaptation. I usually find myself disappointed with the movie adaptations, I have such a fixed image in my mind as to the characters and the visualization of stories I read.

>40 lkernagh: Yes, that is always a problem with these adaptions.

>39 sirfurboy: I read The Alienist a long time ago so I can't say if the series is true to the book or not. What it does have is a dark story with well casted actors/actresses. The police corruption of the time is there and Dakota Fanning does a great job as the first female to work in the police department.

>42 mamzel: Yes, I think the book shows the level of corruption very well too.

Stopping by to let you know about the Celtic Mythology book I'd had on my library pile at the beginning of the month, because you'd expressed interest in it. It ended up going back to the library unfinished. The storytelling style was flat and made it impossible for me to suspend the disbelief I normally need to suspend when reading mythology. Because totally weird stuff happens in myths, but if the storytelling style works, you just roll with it. I couldn't roll with it in this book; the flat style made everything seem weirder than it should be.

If you have any suggestions on other Celtic mythology books to try, I'd love recommendations :) On my shelves are W.B. Yeats' Irish Fairy and Folk Tales and a new translation of The Mabinogion by Sioned Davies, and on my to-read list I have An Illustrated Treasury of Scottish Fairy and Folk Tales, by Theresa Breslin.

Thanks for letting me know. It is a pity about the storytelling there, but I know what you mean. It takes a special talent to make old myths more readable.

I have read Theresa Breslin's book, and as I recall, that was well enough done. I have not read Sioned Davies' translation of the Mabinogion, but read it in other translations. There was one old one I read years ago that kept using the term "quoth he" that seemed very strange! I have a modern Welsh translation of it that is quite good.

As to further recommendations - I am not really sure. Some Welsh poetry that is half myth but also half historical would include The Gododdin of Aneurin (written in "the old north", that is the Brythonic - i.e. Welsh - speaking areas of lowland Scotland - it is both an ancient Welsh and ancient Scottish text). There are also the poems of Taliesin, but finding a good modern translation of these may be tricky.

I suspect there are myths from Brittany that I have not discovered yet - but the question is how many of them made it onto paper (or more likely vellum) and then were preserved.

Anyway thanks for reporting back.

Ten more books to add to my list:

30 Ramboy - Bethan Gwanas - Welsh Language

Imagine you were a boy with the superpower to turn into an animal each night. Imagine if that animal was a sheep. Humorous story written in Welsh (although there is an English version).

31. Ydw i'n Caru Karate - Emily Huws - Welsh Language (translates as "I love karate")

A boy joins a karate class so as to deal with two bullies that he calls pi-pi and nicyrs (pee-pee and nickers). The book is written as a series of conversations and letters between him and his friend. The karate class is is not quite as expected and there he meets Mair, who is more self confident and better at karate.

32. Learn Spanish with Paul Noble - Paul Noble

A good introduction to basic Spanish, using a tried and trusted didactic method, but to good effect. I used the audio version although there is a paper version.

33. The American Boy - Andrew Taylor

I thought this was a murder mystery around the life of Edgar Allan Poe, but the historical figure was not really essential to the plot. Still pretty good, but did the author lack the confidence to have it stand on its own without the historical association?

34. I'r tir Tywyll - Elgan Philip Davies - Welsh Language (translates as "Into the dark land").

Second part of a pretty good supernatural mystery set around strange goings on in the village of Blaencelyn.

35. Okay for Now - Gary Schmidt.

Absolutely brilliant book about a young teen growing up in 1969 in difficult circumstances. A great coming of age novel, strong redemption themes, and some clever and sensitive writing. The book is for mid-grade children up to young adults, and perhaps is a little too neat for someone looking for deep and complex adult plots, but I loved it.

36. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

One of my "Classics" category reads. Some classics I instantly can see why they are classic (e.g. War and Peace), others I come away thinking are rather over-rated (I am talking about you, Moby Dick). This one was somewhere in between. Clever, engaging writing on strong themes, and brilliant observations, but ultimately it is a story about a bunch of thoroughly unlikeable people.

37. DK Eyewitness Travel Guide Portugal

My virtual walk is currently taking me through Portugal so I learned a lot about the country with this interesting guide.

38. Slade House - David Mitchell

Brilliant writer doing what he does well. A spooky tale that is an essential link to his later The Bone Clocks. I had not read this before reading the Bone Clcoks, and now see I would have picked up references in that later book much sooner had I read this. The question is... can all David Mitchell books now be seen to be part of one big fantasy series?

39. Darien: Empire of Salt - Conn Iggulden

A master of historical fiction turns to fantasy and spins a good tale. Not perfect, but definitely worth sticking with to find out where his interesting assortment of characters go next.

>45 sirfurboy: The book certainly seemed like a good overview; it included Irish, Welsh, and Scottish stories, but I couldn't even get through the Irish ones. Ah well, it was from the library, so I don't regret the gamble.

I'm glad to hear that the Breslin book was good. I found it through an article on the Guardian where I wishlisted about half the books it talked about (Top 10 books about the Scottish Highlands and Islands)

I've put The Gododdin on my list and will keep an eye out for it!

Happy St. David's Day! One of my professors in university was Welsh, and one day during winter term he had great news for us: a) he had a new granddaughter and b) she had been born on the best day of the year ;)

>49 rabbitprincess: Thanks/Diolch :)

My brother in law and his daughter both have birthdays on March 1st too.

More books to report. As always, longer reviews are in my 75 books thread:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/281824

Very short summaries follow.

40. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

A classic work that I did not know as well as I thought and liked very much.

41. Memoirs of a Byzantine Eunuch - Christopher Harris

Ninth century Byzantine history in the trappings of a story, told by an author whose gifts do not lie in storytelling. Lots about doctrinal disputes of the day and the lives of emperors.

42. Spanish for Geniuses: Beginner Grammar and Vocabulary - Andromeda Jones

Self published Spanish grammar. Lots of good information but grammars usually take a lot more planning than in this one - it would make a handy reference but not so useful for beginners.

43. Gemina - The Illuminae Files: Book 2 - Amie Kaufman et al.

Follow on from the very good Illuminae, but struck me as formulaic space opera. Still a good story, but a good story in the way Star Trek is good. Turn up your willing suspension of disbelief for greatest enjoyment.

44. πέντε μέτρα χρόνου (Greek - 5 metres of Time)

Children's story about a snail that crosses the road on a zebra crossing. Only recommended for very young children (available in multiple languages).

45. Y llyfrgell (Welsh - The Library)

A pretty good story, well written, but the plot is shot full of holes. In places it was downright weird.

Aberystwyth is almost fictional in my mind (due to Malcolm Pryce), so it's funny to "meet" someone who lives there! I just added the TV-series "Hinterland" to my Netflix list and I understand that it takes place in Aberystwyth.

Very impressed with your language-learning. I wish I were as dedicated (currently working on Portuguese, but making not that much headway).

>52 -Eva-: Hi Eva, thanks. :)

Yes, Hinterland is filmed in and around Aberystwyth. Its a fairly miserable series (as these murder/crime series often are). They filmed nearly all of it in the winter, but still you will get to see a lot of this area in it.

Some friend's homes were used for some scenes, and I saw the filming at various locations. The crew also set up in a car park that I walk past several times a day. It was funny seeing police cars in the car park with tape down the side saying that this was not a real police car!

Portuguese is a language I would like to learn one day too.

>53 sirfurboy:
I don't mind bleak crime series (I'm originally from Sweden and we are well-versed in bleak...). There are a lot of TV-shows that are filmed where I live (e.g. Dexter, CSI: Miami, and True Blood) and we most commonly double as Miami, Florida, so it's not rare to have Miami-Dade police department cars driving around. It takes a little getting used to, but luckily they look quite different from our local police cars, so you just do a double-take and move on. :)

Ah yes, Swedish crime series... :)

Doubling for Miami is interesting. Over here, Cardiff often doubles for London in Doctor Who and some other productions.

Time for another update as I make good progress through March:

46. Old Yeller - Fred Gipson

Classic tale of a boy and a dog that befriends him. A bit of a weepy!

47. Magisterium: The Silver Mask - Cassandra Clare, Holly Black.

Getting a bit bored of this series that started very well (despite some very derivative ideas) and settled into something that is more "meh".

48. The Wicked Boy - Kate Summerscale

A non fiction history of a notorious case of a boy who killed his mother in late Victorian London, went to Broadmoor asylum, but was later released, served with great bravery as a medic under fire in the Great War, moved to Australia and lived there quietly but saved the life of a young boy there. Very well researched and presented.

49. The Girl With All the Gifts - M R Carey

Didn't realise this was a zombie apocalypse story... which is good as I might not have bothered if I had known. Turns out it is an excellent take on the trope. Well worth it.

50. A Boy's Own Story - Edmund White

Billed as a classic coming of age story, I found it all rather distasteful. Nearly DNF, but forced myself to carry on to the uneventful end.

51. Lonely Planet Barcelona - Regis St Louis

Excellent guide to Barcelona. Good history and other information along with lots about what to see, where to stay etc.

52. The Childhood of Jesus - J M Coetzee

Without a doubt a clever book, but the story is just weird, uninspiring and has no ending. Deeply allegorical but the allegory is not clear. Would merit studying if it provided a good reason to do so. The author is a Nobel prize winner so many will think that itself makes this worth studying. I am not convinced myself though.

53. The Most Misused Stories in the Bible: Surprising Ways Popular Bible Stories Are Misunderstood - Eric J. Bargerhuff

Essentially what would be 14 very good sermons on 14 Bible stories. Not at all convinced these are the "most misused" and some of the misuses cited are not things I actually heard. So the title is overstated but the content is still good.

54. Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy - Gary Schmidt

A beautiful and very funny book that sensitively explores a very sad event in the history of Maine. Gary Schmidt is a great writer and this book is excellent. Still laughing about the story of Mrs Cobb's last words.

55. Every Heart a Doorway - Seanan McGuire

A very clever idea, nicely executed, but I still managed to find it vaguely annoying. I would recommend it to teenage girls but think I was off the demographic for this one.

I'm glad to see your thoughts on The Wicked Boy. Had considered requesting it from the library and then didn't, for whatever reason. Will probably put it on the to-read list to check out in about 20 years ;)

>56 sirfurboy: I've always avoided reading Old Yeller as the movie makes me cry buckets and I suspect the book would be even more weepy.

ETA: If you want to read more about the world of The Girl With All the Gifts there is The Boy on the Bridge which is a prequel and also very good.

>57 rabbitprincess: Yes, I was glad to find that book did not stop with the murder itself but the author went on to research the whole life story. It became an interesting historical tale of redemption. It was also interesting to read that Broadmoor asylum/prison was a much more enlightened institution than many would expect for the period.

>58 DeltaQueen50: Yes, understandably. I haven't actually seen the movie, but to be honest, I am not sure if there will be much more in the book than the film. This was a character story, so there was grand and complex plot here.

I have The Boy on the Bridge on my TBR, thanks. It was actually a review of the latter book on this site that led me to The Girl With All the Gifts. I will look forward to reading it.

Thanks again.

Okay here are some more reads:

These ones have full descriptions in part 1 of my 75 books thread here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/281824

56. Het boek van alle dingen - Guus Kuijer

A boy is growing up in a Dutch family with an ultra conservative, religious and abusive father. He befriends a witch (he thinks she is a witch) and writes everything that happens in his book of all things. The characterisations are very good in this book.

57. Orbiting Jupiter - Gary Schmidt

A terribly sad book, told with Gary Schmidt's usual great ability. A troubled boy comes to live with new foster parents. The author always manages to find hope in tragedy.

58. De Trimbaan - Imme Dros

A Dutch story about a boy who befriends a family from Suriname. Struggles against racism and a coming out story of gay characters, written in a sensitive way.

59. French Ouverture - Open University

A free OpenLearn French course and free course book.

Find out more about these free courses here:

http://www.open.edu/openlearn

60. First Boy - Gary Schmidt.

Another great story by Gary Schmidt. This one a little less credible than some others but once again some beautiful characterisations and interesting plot.

61. Savage Sam - Fred Gipson

Sequel to Old Yeller. Still has sad bits but not as sad. Somewhat more violent though.

And these ones are reviewed in the second part of my 75 books thread, here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/288675

62. Obsidio - The Illuminae Files: book 3 - Amie Kaugman et al.

Part 3 of this story, still with its clever format, fast paced and interesting story. The story lacks originality, but very successfully rehashes tried and tested themes to produce something that is very good, very readable and just a little formulaic.

63. La balafre - Jean-Claude Mourlevat

French book (title means "the scar"). This is a ghost story that looks back at events in 1940s France. Some hard things happened, making this a melancholy and spooky book, but it is well done.

64. What came from the stars - Gary Schmidt

An alien race are under attack, on the verge of defeat so they put all their knowledge and art into a necklace and send it to Earth where it falls into the lunch box of 11 year old Tommy Pepper. Good children's story, well written. Still felt a little like one of those kids movies.

65. Democracy? You think you know? - Open University

Another course book of a free openlearn course I completed, this time studying types of democracy and alternatives.

66. Dynes mewn du - Gweneth Lilly

A book of short stories with a spooky feel for young people written in Welsh. The title translates as "a woman in black".

With this title, I completed the first of my categories - 10 Welsh books now completed.

67. Daddy Love - Joyce Carol Oates

A supposedly accomplished and highly prolific writer, this was my first, and probably last story by Joyce Carol Oates. Her write ups suggest she has won some prestigious awards, but this book was slow, repetitive, and lacked much of a story. It is about a boy who is kidnapped and his mother who is almost murdered in the kidnapping. A heart rending plot that really never became much more than that. I started reading this in 2013 (when it was just published). Took me 5 years to find the will to finish it. Avoid!

68. Lonely Planet Portugal - Regis St. Louis

Beautifully illustrated and useful guide to Portugal. Lots of good information. I liked the history, culture and key sights parts best.

69. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century - Timothy Snyder

A short treatise that draws lessons from twentieth century history that are directly applicable to what is happening right now. Should be a clarion call, but I suspect it will be ignored by those who probably need to hear it the most.

70. Le quatorze juillet - Open University

An intermediate French course from the Open University. This is the course text, available for free. You can also sign up to the course for free on their website, and there is multimedia content to go with the text.

Oh dear, I remember reading Joyce Carol Oates many years ago and finding her writing a bit of a slog. I was hoping that she would be more appealing to me now but I am beginning to have my doubts.

>64 DeltaQueen50: Indeed, your experience seems to confirm mine. Still, some people must be liking her books.

I have Blonde on my shelves, all 1115 pages of it, but I might just try one of her short story volumes, perhaps I will like her better in small helpings. ;)