Category: Reviews Page 11 of 21

[:en]Reviews of all shapes, sorts and sizes.[:de]Gedanken über Themen aus den Medien[:]

What Ho!: The Best of Wodehouse

On 1st February 2012

Dieser Eintrag ist auch auf Deutsch verfügbar.

Despite the advancing years I had up until receiving this book for Christmas never read any Wodehouse, though I had been read excerpts in my younger years. Of course, the problem with Wodehouse is that being such a prolific author, it’s difficult to know where to start. And since most Wodehouse readers have their favourites, asking for advice on what to read is a bit like asking which football team you should support.

All of which is precisely why this compendium fits the bill nicely. There’s a little bit of everything here to give the newcomer a real taste of Wodehouse’s world, with stories from Jeeves, Blandings, Ukridge, Mr Mulliner, The Drones, Psmith and Uncle Fred. There’s also a section of golfing stories, and at the back, as a sort of appendix, a collection of letters and sundry other writings. As for the prose itself, well if you really need more convincing, you could always start by perusing the introduction by Stephen Fry.

The only other review of this book to date criticised the quality of the book, and to some extent I must agree. Whilst I found nothing lacking in the book’s manufacture, there were a surprising number of typographical errors to be seen, albeit only small niggly things. Nevertheless, for the price this volume is an absolute steal, a definite must for anyone looking for a glimpse into Wodehouse.

(And having read the lot, I can now say that my jersey is emblazoned with the Blandings crest.)

What Ho!: The Best of Wodehouse

By Fips

On 1st February 2012

In Books, Literature, Reviews

This entry is also available in English.

Trotz meines Alters hatte ich, bis ich dieses Buch als Weihnachtsgeschenk bekam, noch nie etwas von Wodehouse gelesen, obwohl man mir als Kind ein paar Ausschnitte vorgelesen hat. Mit Wodehouse besteht das Problem natürlich darin, dass es schwierig ist sich zu entscheiden, wo man anfangen sollte, da der Mann so produktiv war. Dazu haben die meisten Wodehouse-Leser ihre Lieblingscharaktere schon ausgesucht, also sie um einen Rat zu bitten, ist ähnlich wie danach zu fragen, welche Fußballmannschaft man unterstützen sollte.

Demzufolge eignet sich dieses Kompendium als erster Schritt in Wodehouses Welt. Der Neuling findet hier eine Kostprobe von Jeeves, Blandings, Ukridge, Mr Mulliner, The Drones, Psmith und Uncle Fred. Es gibt sogar eine Auswahl Golf-Geschichten und als Anhang eine Sammlung Briefe und allerlei andere Schreiben.

Die bisher einzige andere Rezension auf Amazon.co.uk warf dem Buch eine nachlässige Qualität vor. Hier stimme ich nur teilweise zu: Obwohl ich an der Anfertigung nichts zu meckern finde, gibt es dennoch eine überraschende Menge an Druckfehlern, obschon nur belanglose Kleinigkeiten. Trotzdem ist dieser Buchband für den Preis ein absolutes Schnäppchen, und ein Muss für jeden, der sich einen ersten Blick in die Wodehousesche Welt verschaffen will.

(Und jetzt, da ich das Ganze gelesen habe, kann ich erklären, dass mein Jersey mit dem Blandings-Wappen beschmückt ist!)

The Photographer’s Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos

By Fips

On 23rd January 2012

In Arts, Books, Photography, Reviews

Dieser Eintrag ist auch auf Deutsch verfügbar.

As someone only just playing around with digital photography, I picked up this book as a complement to Bryan Peterson’s Understanding Exposure to get me started and provide some inspiration. Neither book disappointed. Where Peterson’s book is an excellent starting manual for people new to the world of photography, Freeman’s goes into much greater depth about composition techniques.

The book is divided into 6 chapters, with each chapter further divided into sections dealing with a certain aspect of photographic design. Whilst some sections make reference to others, and in particular to photographs on other pages, in general it is possible to read this book piecemeal, skipping over bits that are of no interest, or returning and dipping into others. Each section abounds with example photographs, many also exploiting instances of photographs that didn’t quite work to further highlight a point.

As many have already said, the writing is at times a little academic, and has the feel of being written with a photography or similar course in mind, but there is little that should prevent the average reader from understanding everything covered here. Freeman quotes a number of other photographers to illustrate his points, as well as dipping into other artistic fields to contrast the particular challenges of photography. One genuine criticism I have of the book is that Freeman sometimes describes certain features of (albeit famous) photographs that, perhaps for economic or legal reasons, do not appear in the book. Whilst said images can easily be found with a quick search on the Internet, it nevertheless detracts from the book’s readability, particular for the novice this book is clearly aimed at.

Just to pick up on two of the most common criticisms many of the negative reviews have on here:

the photographs are rubbish – whilst I personally find this to be pretty harsh criticism, the fact that not every image is a spectacular masterstroke is in my opinion one of the book’s greatest strengths. These may only be ‘ordinary’ photographs, but by illustrating what makes them work it is easy to understand the principles being explored, whether focusing on the basic elements, perspective, timing, exposure etc. For instance, there is a photograph in one section of a house and a tree–an entirely throwaway image, one that you wouldn’t normally linger to look at for more than a split-second–but its inclusion is used as an illustration of using natural elements of the subject as a frame within the picture.
the book has no lessons, it simply describes why some photographs work – this is more valid criticism, and I think down to personal taste. I found the book’s structure to be almost perfect – each section explored one particular concept, with a number of real-world examples used to highlight how this idea can be employed, and why this makes the photograph ‘work’ where a different angle, a different exposure, a different composition etc. failed.

Ultimately, with a value price tag, and Amazon’s “Look Inside” feature, the buyer can’t go wrong with this one. If you agree with other comments that the photographs should be nothing short of spellbinding in order to be able to learn from them, by all means look elsewhere. Nevertheless, this book’s structure and the authorship, combined with ample photographic examples, make for an excellent beginner’s guide for improving composition, and being aware of what is possible behind the lens.

The Photographer’s Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos

By Fips

On 23rd January 2012

In Arts, Books, Photography, Reviews

This post is also available in English.

Als jemand der sich erst kürzlich mit der digitalen Fotografie befasst, nahm ich dieses Buch zusammen mit dem von Bryan Peterson „Understanding Exposure“, um einen Einstieg zu finden und mich inspirieren zu lassen. Keines der Bücher enttäuschte mich. Petersons Buch bietet eine hervorragende Einleitung in die Welt der Fotografie. Dagegen geht Freemans Buch vielmehr ins Detail über die einzelnen Techniken der Bildgestaltung.

Das Buch gliedert sich in 6 Kapitel, wobei jedes Kapitel in weitere Abschnitte unterteilt ist, die von bestimmten Aspekten des fotografischen Designs handeln. Obwohl teilweise aufeinanderaufbauend ist es gut möglich, die einzelnen Kapitel dieses Buches stückchenweise zu verzehren: Man kann sowohl uninteressante Teile völlig überspringen, als auch auf informative Abschnitte zurückkommen. Jedes Modul ist gut mit Beispielfotografien ausgestattet, die die Argumente und Informationen des Autors verdeutlichen.

Wie andere auf Amazon.co.uk schon geschrieben haben, ist die Schreibart teilweise relativ akademisch, und gleicht dem, was man von einem Fotografiekurs erwarten würde, dennoch sollte der Durchschnittsleser das Enthaltene gut verstehen können. Freeman zitiert eine Anzahl Fotografen, um seine Worte zu bekräftigen, und nimmt Beispiele aus anderen künstlerischen Bereichen, um den besonderen Herausforderungen der Fotografie einen Vergleich zu bieten. Meines Erachtens liegt ein wahrer Mangel des Buches darin, dass Freeman manchmal die Besonderheiten einer (zugegeben berühmten) Fotografie aufzählt, ohne dass das Foto im Buche erscheint, wohl aus finanziellen oder rechtlichen Gründen. Trotzdem, obwohl die Bilder mit einer Suchangabe im Internet mühelos zu finden sind, beeinträchtigt dies die Lesbarkeit, besonders für den Fotoanfänger, der ganz klar als Zielperson dieses Buches gilt.

Um zwei der in den negativen Rezensionen am häufigsten auftauchenden Kritiken aufzugreifen:

* die Fotos seien schlecht – persönlich finde ich diese Meinung schon harsch, aber dazu finde ich es von Vorteil, dass nicht jedes Foto ein atemberaubendes Meisterwerk ist. Seien sie bloß alltägliche Fotografien, aber indem man sie unter die Lupe nimmt und hervorhebt, wieso sie gelungen sind, kann man sich umso besser auf die Einzelheiten konzentrieren, sei es Perspektive, Zeitgefühl oder Belichtung. Zum Beispiel gibt es in einem Kapitel ein handelsübliches Bild von einem Haus und einem Baum, ein absolut stinknormales Bild, dem man in der Regel keine zweite Sekunde Achtung schenken würde. Aber das Foto eignet sich als perfektes Vorbild für den Einsatz von den vorhandenen Elementen eines Bildsubjekts als Rahmen.

* das Buch enthalte keine Lektionen und beschreibt lediglich, wieso manche Fotos ‘funktionieren’ – ich finde diese Kritik berechtigt, wenn es auch auf den Geschmack des Lesers ankommt. Für mich war das Buch exzellent strukturiert, indem es das Foto als Konzept in die einzelnen Bestandteile zerlegt und dies anhand von Beispielen untersucht, um zu erklären, wie man diese Ideen einsetzen kann, und wieso diese Bilder ‘funktionieren’, wo ein anderer Winkel, eine andere Belichtung, eine andere Gestaltung fehlgeschlagen hätte.

Mit dem niedrigen Preis und mithilfe von Amazons „Blick ins Buch“ kann der Käufer schließlich keinen großen Fehler machen. Wenn Sie auch der Meinung sind, dass man nur anhand von fesselnden Meisterwerken lernen kann, suchen Sie sich lieber ein anderes Buch aus. Trotzdem liefert dieses Buch dank einer guten Zusammenstellung von gutem Schreiben und ausgiebigen Beispielen ein hervorragendes Anfängerbuch, das einem klar macht, was hinter dem Objektiv alles möglich ist.

Is That a Fish in Your Ear?: Translation and the Meaning of Everything

By Fips

On 11th January 2012

In Books, Languages, Reviews, Translation

Dieser Eintrag ist auch auf Deutsch verfügbar.

In titling his book (or having his book titled?) “Is that a fish in your ear?”, David Bellos has certainly made categorising this work a difficult task. It looks and feels like it should belong firmly in the ‘popular science’ section, yet as other reviewers have pointed out, the writing sits it firmly in a half-way academic category. Still, the material covered should be of interest to a wide range of readers, with the book split into fairly short and relatively self-contained chapters, that one can really dip and choose or skip out the parts that are of little interest. The book covers a very wide range of topics, and skitters over numerous areas such as philosophy, biology, religion and of course linguistics.

One of the first things that struck me about the work as a whole was that Bellos was taking the opportunity to defend his profession, or at least his approach to the business of translation. Chapters often deal with a particular assault on translation or translators, mainly in the form of an every day platitude, which is then investigated, tested and (for the most part) satisfactorily overturned. I found myself disagreeing with his opinions on occasions, but the evidence is presented well enough that the reader can draw his own conclusions most of the time. Neverthelees, there appear to be some contradictions in the book, and some of his arguments felt at times overdrawn. For instance, he criticises a statement made by Nabokov regarding Pushkin’s poetry that ‘to reproduce the rhymes and yet translate the entire poem literally is mathematically impossible’. He then goes on to illustrate how the form of said poetry lent itself well to translation, and that the root of Nabokov’s statement lay in his reluctance to attempt it. Whilst this isn’t necessarily untrue, it doesn’t detract from Nabokov’s original statement about the impossibility of translating both form and content, nor does the statement that other gifted translators give a ‘good approximation of Pushkin’s verse’. Bellos’ own chapter on poetry, as another reviewer well pointed out, if anything confirms Nabokov in his statement.

In his defense of translation, Bellos covers a wide range of fields and periods, from Sumeria through the Bible to the EU, with humour, legalese and interpreting all playing a part. He depaints the difficulties the translator faces, having restrictions of space (e.g. comics), time (e.g. film subtitles/dubbing), dealing with grammatical features that are missing in target or source language, or simply requiring clarification of meaning where there is none to be had. The chapters covering the workings of the EU and the UN are particularly interesting, as is the thread running through the work about the dominant role of English and its potential effects on other languages through the work of translators. Another strong point is Bellos’ inclusion of plenty of examples and anecdotes that help to elucidate his points, both in terms of the difficulties and the successes.

Whilst there were a few statements in the book which I would consider ‘mistakes’, these were always peripheral to the main argument, and the work is otherwise extremely well-researched and detailed. Bellos writes with authority, and despite his strong points of view never comes across as condescending – in fact, a real sense of modesty peers through his writing, especially when dealing with areas of translation that are not his particular field.

Ultimately, this is a book that will definitely appeal to the right reader. Despite my finding some of his arguments to be not particularly convincing, Bellos presents enough information and evidence to allow his readers to make their own minds up. As an overall introduction and summary to the world of translations, this book is a thorough success, most suited to students of language, those considering becoming translators, and perhaps people interested in finding out more about the translations they themselves consume. Yet as others have pointed out, it isn’t as straightforward a read as the title or dustjacket make out, so a quick dip into Amazon’s “Look inside!” feature would probably save a few rumpled foreheads.