Is ther a site where this is possible? I am not looking for books on learning Italian, but in novels (modern, not too hard, not Dante) to increase vocabulary and fluency. I know Amazon.com has some, is there another source? Thanks anyone for your help.

Two steps to one of the possible answers:

1. Click on Slowtravel Italy, Italian Language Resources, then scroll down the page and

2. Click on Internetbookshop.

This one appears to do shippings worldwide:

http://www.internetbookshop.it/

oops! Just realized you're talking about the same website Doru - sorry!

I have ordered from IBS (internetbookshop.it) many times but the shipping is rather expensive because they base it on a percentage of the price rather than the weight and since I buy a lot of DVDs that don't weigh much, I'm a little unhappy at the cost. They do ship 2-day so it's fast but there is no alternative/cheaper method of shipping available.

I just recently ordered from another site: bol.it that is a divison of Mondolibri. They have a maximum of 29 euros for shipping to the US. I haven't received the package yet so I can't say if it's a slower method or what type of service they provide but I expect it will be fine.

Sundaze, you probably have an idea of what you'd like to read, but if you don't... if the Harry Potter books interest you at all, I'd recommend them for intermediate level reading. I started reading them in French a few years ago, and through the course of reading one of them, my vocabulary really improved. I started the book having to look up many words in the dictionary, but by the time I finished, I was getting 95% of it from context.

I really advice AGAINST the HP Italian translations. Most names have been pointlessly and stupidly changed.

Alice, I almost fainted when I first heard the stupid translations of the names in HP when I saw HP 5 in Italian a couple of weeks ago!
But I think that Sundaze will probably survive to that and succeed enjoying the read anyway...

Hey Guilia and David and Alice -- Thanks but I am not reading Harry Potter in ANY language. Someone talked me into starting the first book (in English) and it is not the kind of book I like, Nice thought, though, and I am probably missing something. I did get some books from the site suggested above and it is going well. Also I am punishing myself with a few pages a day of Il Gattopardo by Tomasi de Lampedusa. Very difficult.

Sundaze, even if I do like HP, I understand your point... but David's advice was good.... my English improved greatly reading Alice, The wind in the willows, HP...

Thanks Giulia. Next time I am in Italy (leaving in 7 weeks!!!) I plan to load get a bunch of books. What would you recommend? And anyone else who wants to help me with recommendations. My preference would be books originally written in Italian as opposed to English books translated into Italian. Thanks for helping me!

Gianni Rodari's books? ... just my first thought about "children's" books...in my experience they are easier as the syntax is not too hard and you can concentrate on vocabulary and use of the language... I'll think about more!
If you will visit or have visited Lago d'Orta you have to read "C'era due volte il Barone Lamberto"

Good advice, Giulia.

Alice, regardless of the name substitutions in HP, there's a lot of value to be had for people who are learning Italian, if they're so inclined, by reading those books. Name substitutions do not the entire novel make! I don't think one should categorically dismiss the translations of the entire series of books based on that criteria alone.

But this is interesting,.... When I read three of the HP books in French, I thought that the French name substitutions were charming - truly. I wonder if native French speakers would think that they are as bad as you think the Italian ones are. I'm going to ask on the French Lang. Forum. It could be a matter of lack of real, vernacular, native-like familiarity with the language. For instance, my French is good, but I haven't had the experience of prolonged immersion in the language and culture that might influence my reaction. Just a thought....

I suggest reading Italian detective stories, gialli. Granted, I am a fan of well-written mysteries in English as well, but the advantage as I see it is that the syntax is generally simple, and the tenses uncomplicated.

On the other hand, I have tried reading the wonderful stories of Giorgio Bassani, and the syntax is so time consuming to unravel, that I finally gave up. (Hmm, note to self, try Bassani again. )

Thanks, Marian, good idea, I also like detective stories in English. However helpful for learning, I just can't get interested in Harry Potter. I am curious, though, how did they translate "quiddich" (or whatever) into French and Italian?

In the French version, Quidditch, I mean, Quiddich is Quidditch!

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Quiddich is Quiddich!
But Dumbledore is Albus Silente and the worse ever are poor Neville Longbottom called Neville Paciock and Parvati Patil renamed Calì (!!!! didn't sound enough Indian in Italian??? ).

I seem to recall Jonathan saying his wife read one of the Umberto Eco novels in italian. Might have been Name of the Rose, but I'm not sure. I am taking a pause from reading The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana in english at the moment and I can imagine this would be interesting to read in Italian because he references books and films from all over the place, not just Italian sources. So you'd be reading in Italian about how the character remembers a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film, for example.

She's read quite a few of them now, including Misteriosa Fiamma. Last summer I read it (in English!), but it was fascinating (and time consuming!) to keep on popping over to her copy to have a look at what had been changed.

Queen Loana fans might be interested in this exhaustive looking website: a wiki-based annotation of the novel, in English.

Eco is way too long & complicated for my reading ability, but I'm enjoying steadily working through Calvino's Marcovaldo stories. Nice, short, quirky tales. But, although they're aimed (sort of) at a young readership, the language isn't totally simple...

Jonathan

I agree, Jonathan- Eco's novels are often above my head.

I do love his essay collections, though. Two that spring to mind are Diario Minimo and Il Secondo Diario Minimo. I know I have a few more, and will check my bookshelves when I get home.

quote:

I agree, Jonathan- Eco's novels are often above my head.

I agree with Jonathan... and Maureen. Eco in English is hard enough. I had to really concentrate on The Name of the Rose. I've also recently read some of his scholarly essays on semiotics (theories of representation and signification) - NOT easy!

I find Eco's syntax puzzling and I speak the same lanaguage as he does. Some "gialli" writers instead build intriguing stories that also offer interesting insights into italian life, history and society with a simple and straightforward Italian. Andrea Camilleri (creator of Montalbano) is unfortunately not one of these: his novels are pretty good, but he writes in a modified and watered-down Sicilian dialect that can be quite hard to read.
Check out books by Massimo Carlotto (his most famous series has as main chracter a detective called "alligatore", but his later books are IMHO more interesting), Marcello Fois (Sardinian writer, although he now lives in Bologna most of his novels are still set in Sardinia), Barbara Garlaschelli (a short stori is availalbe on-line here), Leonardo Gori (his Capitano Bruno Arcieri lives and works in Florence), Carlo Lucarelli (his earliest novels were set in the 1940's, later he turned to contemporarly thrille and mysteries, but he laos wrote a number of non fiction books), Santo Piazzese (discovered by Camilleri, his books are set in Palermo), NIcoletta Vallorani (she started as a translateor of both mysteries and SF, she now writes... Mysteries and SF!).

This is my experience, having started with zero Italian in 2002, but with knowledge of other two Latin-derived languages, and with recommendations from our Alice Twain and our Paolo, plus about 15 class lessons at High Beginner level.

I assiduously read books in Italian a couple of months before a trip and exclusively during the trips.

I read Primo Levi (he was my first ), Elsa Morante, Stefano Benni (humour/satire), Alberto Moravia, Georgio Bassani, Beppe Severgnini- a mish-mash. There were a few more, which I abandoned or forgot. I have the I Promessi Sposi, a present from a very optimistic Italian friend, but I didn't go there yet.

My method is to read and have a dictionary nearby. I'd rather read a phrase three times than look up the dictionary; I look up the dictionary if I feel it is essential to consult it in order to understand the paragraph; sometimes, just forge ahead and hope that the chips will fall right...

My opinion on my present ease of reading/understanding scale (for me) at first read without other resources:

Primo Levi 85%
Elsa Morante 90-95%
Stefano Benni 80-90% (love him! )
Alberto Moravia 95%
Georgio Bassani 65-70% (his syntax and vocabulary kill me)
Beppe Severgnini 90-95%

As a recommendation, from the above list I would say Moravia would be the best to read while learning Italian, for the simplicity and directness of his style and for the heavy use of dialog.

Based on the recommendations from Maureen and Alice, I have ordered today from the library to try my first Eco (Diario minimo and Il secondo diario minimo) and Marcello Fois (memoria del vuoto). We have an amazing public library, but the choices in Italian are somewhat limited.

Stand corrected by Alice: Elsa Morante, not Elsa Merante as originally written.

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Just in case someone else wants to read her books, it's Elsa Morante, not Merante ^___^

Also, "gialli" novels by Piero Colaprico and Pietro Valpreda. Colaprico is a journalist, while Valpreda was a sort of mystery book, or rather hard boiled novel character. He was a classical dancer and an anarchist, in 1969 he was accused of having placed a bomb at Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura in piazza fontana, not far from Milano's Duomo. The bomb killed 16 people and a few days after two anarchists were arrested: Valpreda and his friend Giuseppe Pinelli. After three more days, Pinelli died falling off a window of the Questura palace, where he was being interrogated, in a very obscure way. Valpreda was kept in prison for several months, but in the meantime new traces led to a different path. In 1971 two fascist were arrested, franco Freda and Giovanni Ventura members of Ordine Nuovo, an illegal fascist group. Valpreda spent three years in prison, but was never condamned for the piazza Fontana bomb. The piazza Fontana trial was moved from Milano to Catanzaro (in Calabria) and it lasted until 1979, when the fascists were sentenced to life for placing the bomb and Valpreda to 4 and a half years for "associazione sovversiva" (subversive association). Also the chief of SID, the Italian secret services, was considered guilty of trying to hide what really happened. It took Valpreda seven more years to prove that he was indeed completely innocent of the piazza Fontana bomb and be finally rehabilitated. After being released, Valpreda kept working as a dancer first and later opened a bar and wrote his autobiography and co-wrote with Colaprico three novels set in or near Milano and with retired a Caranbiniere as main character. After Valpreda's death, just a few years ago, Colaprico kept working on the "maresciallo Binda" character writing more books.

As I write, there is still no definitive sentence on the piazza Fontana bombing. The last trial was closed in 2005 with the absolution of all the defendants: in 2007 the Italians still don't know who killed 16 people with a bomb in 1996.