Open Serendipity

Inspired by Nathaniel Bowditch, who, according to the Newbery Award book I read aloud to my kids years ago, taught himself various languages by reading the Bible, I decided to try reading books in French and Spanish as a way to improve my language skills, at least the reading and writing parts.

I tried reading Daughter of Fortune, by Isabelle Allende, in French (my Spanish would be no way good enough to attempt the original!) but alas it was way over my head. I enjoyed it even so, but way too slow, even though I had read it before in English. So I searched through the meager selection of youth literature in French at my library and found the first Harry Potter book! That I was able to read, and it was great fun. Now I have the only other such book (Harry Potter volume III) that interests me, so I’ve been searching for other sources of French books (aside from Amazon in Canada or France, of course).

Today, success! At least enough success to keep my busy for a while. Project Gutenberg not only has text ebooks, they have free audiobooks of classics published before 1923! And they have some books and matching recordings in French! So after I finish my current Harry Potter, I will be reading and listening to Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours by Jules Verne! And I will certainly make a donation to Project Gutenberg (see the Donate link in the left nav on their front page).

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Books by marla