if you could only read books in one language

so, for the sake of argument let's say that no books have ever been translated - they are only available in the language in which they were first written. you can choose to read the books of only one language - which would it be?

english is the obvious first choice, but what about russian? would you deny yourself the works of dostoevsky, tolstoy, gogol, bulgakov, pushkin? or how about french, the language of voltaire, rousseau, dumas, flaubert? german? spanish? chinese? japanese?

as for me, i'd probably go with english, even though that would mean i'd never be able to read my favourite novel, 'one hundred years of solitude' by gabriel garcia marquez.

hmm that's actually a really tricky one... I'm not sure, but at first thought, probably English or Russian, although Czech would be high on the list. I shall have to think about this some more.

Originally posted by Edwardipov
so, for the sake of argument let's say that no books have ever been translated - they are only available in the language in which they were first written. you can choose to read the books of only one language - which would it be?

english is the obvious first choice, but what about russian? would you deny yourself the works of dostoevsky, tolstoy, gogo ...[text shortened]... be able to read my favourite novel, 'one hundred years of solitude' by gabriel garcia marquez.

Oh dear. I've only read books in English (including translations, particularly of Russian stuff) and French. English I suppose.

I can do a bit of reading in French and in Spanish. I wish that I was fluent in many languages. I find the study of language so interesting. I particularly enjoy studying the origins of phrases.
AS to this question, which is an excellent one, it would be better to read in the original language.

English I guess... I hardly ever read German books anyway, I'm not fluent enough in French to really read that, so I'll stick to English. Not too bad for me, as I hardly read historical things and the likes anyway... more in the direction of M. Crichton, Grisham and Robin Cook... enough of those books in English to keep me reading. (Apart from that, I hardly ever get any reading done... too much to do... eg rhp 😛)

Angie 😀

I'm not sure that I understand the question, but I would really like to read Dante's Inferno in the original Italian.

English, as if i could only read one book it would have to be Tolkiens Lord of the Rings. Mind you parts were written in elvish, so that makes answering your question trickier.

Would like to be able to fully appreciate the poetry of Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Valery in the original language, along with the writings of Genet, Celine, Artaud et al. And that neglects all of the French philosophy and the more classical literature.

Though still not sure whether to dispense with English or not. Hmm...

It would have to be English for me. All my favourite authors write in that language. To name a few ..Wilbur Smith, Frederick Forsyth, David Gemmell, Tom Clancy and a whole host of others.

Originally posted by elvendreamgirl
I can do a bit of reading in French and in Spanish. I wish that I was fluent in many languages. I find the study of language so interesting. I particularly enjoy studying the origins of phrases.
AS to this question, which is an excellent one, it would be better to read in the original language.