Thursday, June 23, 2005

Another story...

After years of reading Arabic literature, I said to myself one day: "why not try English novels?!"
Actually that was considered a risk for me, as back then my English wasn't as good to read a whole novel on my own. However, as the English proverb says :"what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger", I started wondering between book shelves, wishing to pick a nice one as a trial.
Yet there popped up another problem, I wasn’t qualified enough to make a choice. I never thought of knowing more about foreign literature, apart from some Arabic translated novels, or hearing some names of known writers and novelists like "Charles dickens", "George Orwell", "Shakespeare" or "Bernard show"
People who I already studied some of their work in school and didn't much tasted!

So I browsed aimlessly, until I found this one "Fire in the hills" by "Anna Myers".


Tell you the truth; I picked it up for I was dazzled by the cover at first sight.
And the 1st thing I did after I borrowed the book, is I looked for my cozy bed, my lamb light, then down to reading.
Tell you another truth, this novel is 12 chapters, and till the 6th chapter I could get in nothing so far. The characters were too many that I couldn't focus or take grips of what was going on.
Yet every time I think of quitting, I got charmed with the cover again and the unique atmosphere surrounds me, pushed me to continue, a page after a page and a chapter after another. Even though I didn't understand a word, I was happy still, that was a forward step to challenge myself. I can make it someday

I started by putting my dictionary beside me, and then make a full list of the characters and their significant events and description, trying to put things together. And believe me, I DID IT !!

Seven continuous nights struggling, until I got the main plot with the final line in the 12th chapter: "The war is over!"
And tell you what, I found tears sprung from my eyes unconsciously. I can finally make it on my own.

After exactly 2 years of fight with other novels, I returned again to the same library and borrowed the same book. It was much easier then, that I discovered it's much like as a youngster's book.
However, after understanding, I even loved it more than before. So beautiful and simple story of a young lady trying to handle the responsibility of her family after her mother passed away. With her daily and perpetual changes and problems, you feel you are a part of her family.

And that was the another story of the dearest books to my heart.

Time to go… 73's

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

WoW !! u've actually managed to turn a (pick-a-book-to-read) event into some sort of a saga !!

anyway, i felt you were sort of talkin of a (gone-with-the-wind) similar story ??

secret : i blv that's it's always better to read froiegn lit. coz it sorta transfers you into their new world... it gives you this chance of viewing diferent lands alongside with different ppl and different thoughts.. the thing you ain't findin in arabic lit...

Lasto-adri *Blue* said...

a saga!
yes it could be, and smart is who spindles the story of begging a penny into an epic ;)
thats the magic of words, my friend, that nothing on earth can compete.

yup, i second u in ur opnion as well.
nothing is as good as reading a piece of art in its native languge. that's mainly why i wish upon a star i'd learn all mortal languages as a package :

ps: i just watched "lord of the rings II".. a bit 2 late but WOW and YAY and everything...

Anonymous said...

Tip : save all of your WOW's and YAY's for the (return of the king)... for it has war like no other movie...the sad thing in the triology is that it's not telling the whole book... :(

Lasto-adri *Blue* said...

DON'T TELL ME U HAVE THAT BOOK AS WELL!!!!!!!!

PS: can u give me the name of the library that sells the english books "the one u told me about before" again?!

Olivia said...

Well done Lasto-Adri! Brava! I'm glad you let us see the cover and I now I know why you couldn't put it down. It's romantic, isn't it?

Anonymous said...

Seems like your next term 'd be loaded with books... yapsi !! i've it.. ;)
it's called ( el diwan) n' located in zamalek. (as far as i can remember)...
enjoy !!

Lasto-adri *Blue* said...

olivia:
well its sort of yes..
but romance is not the main theme.. you know she only met that fugitive for a couple of weeks.

the main plot is her suffering to rise her little brothers and sisters.


Sheryous:
its not like "gone with the wind" by the way.. though there is some sort of connection
this one is much much more simplier.. in addition to she didn't have the same complexes of miss scarlet ohara..

ps: ENVY ENVY!!!!
u should try ba2a the arabic novels i have here..
i'll try to make u a list of my stuff.. e7m.. to make it 1 to 1 ;) ;)

shakli ba2a we7sh awi

Anonymous said...

But am not a frequent reader of arabic novels ( rather a once upon a time reader)....
i blv the last thing i've been reading in arabic is ma wra2 el tabee3a !!

it's unfair :@

michelle said...

Congrats Blue, have you read any others?

I know how hard it is, sometimes I read Books in German, and it takes me forever

Lasto-adri *Blue* said...

jia li:
yaa i read alot dear. in fact i was in an english schools, that's mainly whwy my english is better than arabic.
yet right now, i am in the process of working on my arabic abit. i feel quite ashamed to have my native language as ppor as i have it now.

A note

This page is closed, however I will continue blogging in English and Arabic on my new space: http://lastoadri.com/blog Thanks to change RS...