I really enjoyed this post. I appreciated your reflections about reading in another language, which resonates with me.
Did you find reading Romanian difficult because you came across some unknown words, or straightforward? I'm back on Twitter; if not I can go to your Notes page on Substack and compare notes between Catalan and Romanian.
The latter has always intrigued me as a Latin based language with a heavy(?) Slavic superstrate.
As for the bookstores, I'm unsurprised, and it's something Europe gets right. They're not commercial space exclusively but an organic part of the community.
Book signings, readings, activities for children, etc. The commercial bookstore chains aren't worth saving in North America. It used to be the libraries, but it'll now have to be the homes and the small bookstores in small to midsized towns where reading and the love of the written word is rekindled.
I abandoned my Twitter account, too much dumb political drama, the medium of instant posts wasn't good for my mindstate.
I found it surprisingly easy to read and slip into the language. Romanian is a Romance language with a significant ammount of French and Italian loanwords and a mix of Slavic through the Old Slavonic influence of the Church. It also has a bit of German and Greek, but imho the closest relative seems to be Italian.
Now work on translating Orbitor for me.
Translation is something I want to work on.
Alexandru,
I really enjoyed this post. I appreciated your reflections about reading in another language, which resonates with me.
Did you find reading Romanian difficult because you came across some unknown words, or straightforward? I'm back on Twitter; if not I can go to your Notes page on Substack and compare notes between Catalan and Romanian.
The latter has always intrigued me as a Latin based language with a heavy(?) Slavic superstrate.
As for the bookstores, I'm unsurprised, and it's something Europe gets right. They're not commercial space exclusively but an organic part of the community.
Book signings, readings, activities for children, etc. The commercial bookstore chains aren't worth saving in North America. It used to be the libraries, but it'll now have to be the homes and the small bookstores in small to midsized towns where reading and the love of the written word is rekindled.
Thanks for the post. It was great!
xavier
I abandoned my Twitter account, too much dumb political drama, the medium of instant posts wasn't good for my mindstate.
I found it surprisingly easy to read and slip into the language. Romanian is a Romance language with a significant ammount of French and Italian loanwords and a mix of Slavic through the Old Slavonic influence of the Church. It also has a bit of German and Greek, but imho the closest relative seems to be Italian.
Thanks! Interesting. Any children's books you could recommend? I'd like to compare with Romanian with the other Romance languages.
We'll continue the conversation on Notes :)
xavier
Sounds like a good book. I've never read anything by a Romanian writer.
I sincerely hope that the Western affliction of synthetic, spiritual deadness hasn’t yet infected the Romanian writing scene.
They have a different set of issues, mostly stemming from decades of Communist rule and rapid post-communist capitalization.
That makes sense. Everyone has their own challenges.