I’ve just started reading La Catedral del Mar; a novel set in 14th century Medieval Barcelona, by writer Ildefonso Falcones. The book has been a best-seller in Spain for couple of years now and has already sucked me in after only a few pages.
I’m reading it in Spanish, so the page turning is fairly slow. I have my trusty MSDict Spanish dictionary on my Nokia N95, without which the whole experience would be a lot more cumbersome. I can’t really imagine enjoying the laborious chore of turning the pages of my big Spanish-English Tome every few minutes to keep up with the book I’m reading. An electronic dictionary on my phone is just the ticket.
Writers tend to use language uncommon in normal speech, so reading novels means you’re going to come across words that you’ve never heard before. Luckily they tend to stick to certain choices for words, so the dictionary crunching gradually diminishes as you progress through the book.
With this book, I’m finding that I want to read at the pace I would read in English, simply because I want to know what happens next. The book is just exciting. It means I’m starting to let some words go; I have an idea of what they probably mean so I carry on. Of course this doesn’t always work and if I find myself confused, I go back and look up the culprit word and carry on.
What’s nice about reading a really good book in another language is that it makes learning new words so easy. It’s the best way to motivate you to learn. You’re learning to facilitate your enjoyment; the joy of reading.
The book is also now available in English. I saw it in Easons at the weekend.
