Welcome from Your Moderator! [ Edited ]

[ConnieAnnKirk]

Welcome, readers, to the B&N.com Book Club for Hermann Hesse's SIDDHARTHA! I look forward to sharing impressions of this book with you during the month of January. If I can be of any help during the course of our discussion, please feel free to reply to this message with your questions or comments or IM (instant message) me directly. I'll do what I can to help!

So, pour a cup of cocoa and let's warm up together this January with a good book and good conversation!

Discussion begins January 2nd and will run through February 1st, 2008.

~ConnieK

Message Edited by ConnieK on 12-27-2007 08:52 PM

[Sunltcloud]

Do you have a preference for one or the other translation? I own the one by Hilda Rosner; a newer edition of her translation is still available at B&N. However, I also discovered and bought the Barnes & Noble Classics edition, published in 2007,in which the translator is Rika Lesser. When I started to read both translations out loud and compared them to the German original I had the feeling that Rika Lesser comes closer to Hermann Hesse's rhythm. But why do modern publishers burden us with 30 or 40 pages of introductions, notes, chronology, biographical detail, questions and answers? Do they not trust us to think and to find answers ourselves? Don't they understand that we bow to a new god of "found knowledge" named GOOGLE?

[ConnieAnnKirk]

Hi, Sunltcloud! The B&N edition is the one featured, quite naturally, for this B&N.com book club (a picture of it, with a link, is at the top right of the club screen for other club readers who are interested). As far as introductions, etc., go--the book club does not specifically address the ancillary material in the B&N classics editions (unless readers themselves want to discuss something from them and bring it up)--most readers in the clubs tend to focus on the main text only.

Hope this helps!

~ConnieK

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Sunltcloud wrote:
Do you have a preference for one or the other translation? I own the one by Hilda Rosner; a newer edition of her translation is still available at B&N. However, I also discovered and bought the Barnes & Noble Classics edition, published in 2007,in which the translator is Rika Lesser. When I started to read both translations out loud and compared them to the German original I had the feeling that Rika Lesser comes closer to Hermann Hesse's rhythm. But why do modern publishers burden us with 30 or 40 pages of introductions, notes, chronology, biographical detail, questions and answers? Do they not trust us to think and to find answers ourselves? Don't they understand that we bow to a new god of "found knowledge" named GOOGLE?

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Message Edited by ConnieK on 12-30-2007 10:05 AM

[Sunltcloud]

Thanks for pointing out the picture and link. I have to remember to enlarge the screen to make sure I see more than just the posts. I just happened to think about various editions and wanted to point out differences because so many people had read the book a long time ago and might use an older translation.

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ConnieK wrote:
Hi, Sunltcloud! The B&N edition is the one featured, quite naturally, for this B&N.com book club (a picture of it, with a link, is at the top right of the club screen for other club readers who are interested). As far as introductions, etc., go--the book club does not specifically address the ancillary material in the B&N classics editions (unless readers themselves want to discuss something from them and bring it up)--most readers in the clubs tend to focus on the main text only.

Hope this helps!

~ConnieK

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Sunltcloud wrote:
Do you have a preference for one or the other translation? I own the one by Hilda Rosner; a newer edition of her translation is still available at B&N. However, I also discovered and bought the Barnes & Noble Classics edition, published in 2007,in which the translator is Rika Lesser. When I started to read both translations out loud and compared them to the German original I had the feeling that Rika Lesser comes closer to Hermann Hesse's rhythm. But why do modern publishers burden us with 30 or 40 pages of introductions, notes, chronology, biographical detail, questions and answers? Do they not trust us to think and to find answers ourselves? Don't they understand that we bow to a new god of "found knowledge" named GOOGLE?

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Message Edited by ConnieK on 12-30-2007 10:05 AM

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[ConnieAnnKirk]

No problem, Sunltcloud--using any edition is fine, really, for the book clubs.

Happy New Year!

~ConnieK

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Sunltcloud wrote:
Thanks for pointing out the picture and link. I have to remember to enlarge the screen to make sure I see more than just the posts. I just happened to think about various editions and wanted to point out differences because so many people had read the book a long time ago and might use an older translation.

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