What are you reading?

[Dominick]

Originally Posted by partofme

I wanted to get the trilogy in one volume instead of getting them separately and I couldn't find any newer copies. I ended up ordering a used one from the 50s that is in pretty rough shape.

The book business appears to be in bad shape. The edition I got of those Russians is badly translated; it's like a German with poor knowledge of both Russian and Dutch that did the work; it's riddled with expressions that don't exist in either of those but do in German. It's also clearly not proofread; it's full of silly things such as 'ais' for 'als', 'l8' instead of '18' and so on.

[partofme]

Originally Posted by Dominick

The book business appears to be in bad shape. The edition I got of those Russians is badly translated; it's like a German with poor knowledge of both Russian and Dutch that did the work; it's riddled with expressions that don't exist in either of those but do in German. It's also clearly not proofread; it's full of silly things such as 'ais' for 'als', 'l8' instead of '18' and so on.

Maybe it's good I got a old copy then.

[Dominick]

Originally Posted by partofme

Maybe it's good I got a old copy then.

Did you check whether it's not a 1st edition ?

[partofme]

Originally Posted by Dominick

Did you check whether it's not a 1st edition ?

It doesn't say oddly enough. Copyright 1951 though.

It's for the three books together so I'm not sure it would be as big of a deal.

[Dominick]

Originally Posted by partofme

It doesn't say oddly enough. Copyright 1951 though.

They may very well be then. Edit : are they by Gnome Press ?

Originally Posted by partofme

It's for the three books together so I'm not sure it would be as big of a deal.

Maybe in 50 years. Patience, patience

[partofme]

Originally Posted by Dominick

They may very well be then. Edit : are they by Gnome Press ?


Maybe in 50 years. Patience, patience

It's Doubleday.

[Dominick]

Originally Posted by partofme

It's Doubleday.

That would appear to have been the distributor for Gnome. I would do some further research into this if I were you. Or if you could post a picture of the book and/or any cataloguing number it has, I'd be happy to do that.

[partofme]

Originally Posted by Dominick

That would appear to have been the distributor for Gnome. I would do some further research into this if I were you. Or if you could post a picture of the book and/or any cataloguing number it has, I'd be happy to do that.

My wife has the camera so I'll get it later but it has almost no info. The only thing in it other than the actual novels is the following:

Copyright 1951 by Isaac Asimov

FOUNDATION is based upon published material originally copyrighted by Street and Smith Publications, Inc.

All Rights Reserved

Only short passages from this book for editorial usage may be reporoduced without prior permissions.

Printed in the United States of America

Then in one other spot it just says : Doubleday & Company, Inc.
Garden City, New York

[Dominick]

Simultaneously reading Dutch (or rather German-corrupted dumbass-edited pseudo-Dutch*) and French (yes, Sucre, we're talking Proust here) and English (other books and forums) has one big drawback. I've never had to look up so many English words.

* The previously mentioned translation is driving me nuts. In one of Turgenev's stories, an Italian family plays a prominent role and part of the dialogues are in Italian. One of the characters often refers to an aristocratic connection of his as 'principe xyz'. OF COURSE that is Italian for prince (see also Machiavelli). But the translator leaves it unchanged and takes it for the Dutch word 'principe'. But that means what 'principle' means in English. Thus one gets idiotic phrases that in English would read : The principle xyz went to Petersburg'.

translator.

[Malvolio]

My last two books:

Sebastian Haffner, Von Bismarck zu Hitler
http://www.amazon.de/Von-Bismarck-Hi...5239735&sr=8-6

Helmut Schmidt, Ausser Dienst - Eine Bilanz
http://www.amazon.de/Ausser-Dienst-B...5240083&sr=1-1

Both are probably only available in German I'm afraid. But they are a really interesting read if you are interested in German history/politics.