Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more

Hello! Today is a beautiful day, and I decided it was a good one to talk about laziness and how to turn this fault into an advantage.

I have a lot of trouble learning German, somehow, as the few of you who have heard me struggle with my words might have noticed, and I can't seem to motivate myself enough to start doing nice, clever exercises out of a grammar book, somehow. I know I should, but I can't.

So I decided I would try reading books in good German, and when I was in high school, I decided I would start with Effi Briest. Bad, bad idea. I don't know if any of you ever tried reading Effi Briest. It's a book about a woman trapped in a loveless mariage, who falls in love with another man. Supposedly. I never reached further than page 3. I would have stopped earlier, actually, but page three was the end of the first sentence. We have that joke in French, and we say that if you buy the complete works of Goethe in the original version, all the verbs will be in the last volume... :)

Anyway. Effi Briest did not work, so I guessed Goethe would be a waste of my money too, as for now, and I felt I was not interested in reading Harry Potter all over again in German, somehow. But I had to find something good, that would be gripping enough for me not to want to let it down again, and yet, with a limited vocabulary. So I thought and thought, and decided to buy one of those crappy love stories, cheap chick-litt, as they call it in England. That worked so well reader!!

Well, yes, I know, my German still sucks, but I promise you, reading is such an efficient way to absorb proper structures and vocabs without even knowing it! Especially these kind of books, because they are not exactly written for German scholars, and you don't need to pick up your Duden every three words. As long as you know how to say "love", "sad", and "happy". And "rich", and "beautiful".

And after this slow and shameful beginning, I had to actually read some proper books for the university, worthy of the name, and it had become so much easier! I guess it also has to do with the fact that I was not afraid of the size of the book anymore. I mean, I had read books in English before, but those huge tomes in German, how could I possibly?? Reading bad literature helped me overcome this, and now I am a happy German-book-reader. I had decided I would try my luck with a Swedish one, but I did not manage to open it yet. It is still too frightening... An my Swedish is getting rustier and rustier, so I fear it is not going to happen any time soon...

Anyway, reader, I have to run, I promise you, my next post is goint to be about something clever and researched, not some random idea that crosses my head. I am afraid that's all for today... You still there reader? Thanks for hanging on!