Discussion posts are some of my favourite posts to read. New ideas get shared that way, or old ideas are revisited and given a new spin. And of course, I get to be my opinionated self as I hoist my views upon others, while pretending to be objective. Or maybe not. I do welcome alternate views and I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
My apologies to those who follow me and noticed that my Confab post was not up on Thursday as it usually is! I was in a post-exam funk of sorts where I just couldn’t really get into the mood of writing a thoughtful post, so I decided to hold off for a couple of days. And I was reading How to Lead a Life of Crime by Kirsten Miller which I just didn’t want to put down to do anything else. Anyway, I’m back and will be in full swing now that exams are over!
I predominantly read books in English, so reviewing them in English was kind of a given. That and the fact that I’ve been mostly educated in English and live in a vastly English-speaking country. English is not the only spoken language around here but I don’t speak the other local languages. Although, English is strictly speaking not my first language. German is. When I was younger and my family moved here my father still made an effort to buy German books. Over time he stopped buying them since I learnt English and German books are more expensive. Recently I discovered that German books are available via The Book Depository at a reasonable price, so I ordered some, and I intend to keep up with both English and German books from now on.
Now, the primary reason I first set up this blog was to document all those books I read. Getting to know the book blogging community made me realize it’s also about the people. I love meeting new people, especially when we share the same interests. Hence books reviews are no longer my primary focus. Still, I want to continue documenting my reading life. This is where it gets a little tricky now. So here’s a list of questions I’m trying to tackle:
- Should I review German books in German or in English?
- Should I set up a separate section for German books or just combine with my English books?
- Should I review books only available in German in German, and books that are available in both languages in English, even if I read it in German?
- Should I review books only available in German in English anyway, in the hopes that they will eventually be translated into English?
- Should I leave them off this blog entirely and set up a German book blog? (Though that would mean extra time and effort to maintain another blog.)
- Should I leave them off this blog and just leave those reviews on Goodreads?
- Should I review in both languages? (Translate one review into the other language?)
- Should I attempt bilingual blogging?
As you can see, my thoughts are all over the place and pretty much muddled. I’ve not really come across any bilingual blogs. Maybe they aren’t all that common or I haven’t been looking hard enough. Also, I’m worried that if I go bilingual, it would confuse readers who understand one language but not the other. So yes, I’m here looking for advice, thoughts, opinions and suggestions. Please be so kind and help out this very confused blogger here. I’ll appreciate it very much!
Are you a bilingual reader/ blogger? How do you address these issues? If you’re a monolingual reader/ blogger, how would you like to see these issues dealt with?
