Do you lose your literary reflex when reading a book in a different language?

[scaltz]

I mean for example when I read German books like the Kafka ones (a language which I'm school and socially fluent), I seem to lose some of my literary instincts; my analysis ability decreases and i'm reading in a much slower pace! I also can't seem to find the right words when writing an essay, analysis as fast as I do in English (my hands are literally thinking when I write in English and not my brain). Also, I also tend to forget easier some of the plots when reading in a different language which is really bizarre considering languages are basically just a set of words that one has to memorize (I know there's still grammar and stuff but I'm simplifying it). For example, even though the meaning of Tag (day in German) is permanently stuck in my brain, i've got a higher chance of remembering 'day'!

Well that is a bit exaggerated, well it's the same notion but with many words.

Does the same thing happen to you people?:confused5:

[The Comedian]

I wish I could answer your question, but the only other language I used to know how to read was Latin. . . . but I LOVE your phrase " literary reflex".

[scaltz]

Hahaha, I don't know the appropriate word for it :P.

[kiki1982]

haha. Nice expression that.

As to your question. The more you read, I think, the more your 'literary reflex' restores itself.

But yes, you are right, in the beginning it is hard to do what you normally do because only reading costs an awful lot of energy. Le Notre-Dame de Paris is taking me ages, not becuase I do not understand it, but because Hugo is not the easiest and he sometimes goes off into a wood of words and grammar that is hard to comprehend, beside which he is sometimes boring (sshh do not say it too loudly ;)). Dumas, let's say, is easier to read for me (I suppose also for French speakers...).

But the more practice, the more perfection... Who cares if you have to do two months over one book? If you have read it, then great!

[Dodo25]

@OP
I don't share your impression. I am fluent in both German and English (German being my native language), and I read and interpret texts about equally quickly. Except the texts are very hard like i.e. Paradise Lost, in those cases it takes me a bit more time for English because my vocabulary there is not quite as big as my German one.

One reason to explain this might be that I learned a lot of my 'literary skills' in English (one year with a great English teacher compared to like 5 years boring German teachers).

I don't even read much German anymore though. I think it's a boring language. This reflects itself in the fact that I make less grammar mistakes writing essays in English than in German.

[kelby_lake]

I find it strange when you've been studying a language intensely, you start thinking in it. I have actually had thoughts in French...

[scaltz]

I find it strange when you've been studying a language intensely, you start thinking in it. I have actually had thoughts in French...

Hahaha well that's not the case for me. Even though I speak 5 languages which is uncommon for my young age (16 y/o), I still have a language of preference when I'm thinking which is probably English. Maybe it's because the quantity of languages that I speak that it overwhelms me...I don't know. What I know is that I understand everything completely in all these 5 languages.

[mal4mac]

Hahaha well that's not the case for me. Even though I speak 5 languages which is uncommon for my young age (16 y/o), I still have a language of preference when I'm thinking which is probably English. Maybe it's because the quantity of languages that I speak that it overwhelms me...I don't know. What I know is that I understand everything completely in all these 5 languages.

Is it really that uncommon? Federer speaks at least four fluently, and he's a jock :) I remember reading a biography of a top physicist who could converse in many languages, but held it to be a minor accomplishment compared to his knowledge of physics. Have you read the major works of the five main authors in the languages you speak? That would be quite impressive for a 16 y/o. Try a biography of J.S. Mill or Schopenhauer to read about some really impressive language feats...

[Madame X]

Is it really that uncommon? Federer speaks at least four fluently, and he's a jock :)

Federer is sort of an exception, though; ever heard Nadal? And English doesn’t really count anyway. :biggrin5:


I remember reading a biography of a top physicist who could converse in many languages, but held it to be a minor accomplishment compared to his knowledge of physics. Have you read the major works of the five main authors in the languages you speak? That would be quite impressive for a 16 y/o. Try a biography of J.S. Mill or Schopenhauer to read about some really impressive language feats...

Being raised a polyglot kinda detracts from its impressiveness, I think. If such is the case...only speculating. :wink5: Even so, I find actually being able to articulate oneself fluently, or fluidly, in a foreign language the more impressive feat since -I'll somewhat agree with your physicist- reading, pragmatically at least, doesn’t really demand much more than a passive knowledge of any given language anyway (although I completely agree with Kiki about Hugo :crazy:). Thus, for a literary-minded (one might also -perhaps fallaciously- assume, language-minded) person, apart from some of the inevitable archaisms of those often long-dead individuals regarded as the planet's biggest and bestest writers, with a good dictionary and some grammar under the belt (some cultural proximity wouldn't hurt either), it’s not really that hard to get through, say, La coscienza di Zeno and have a thorough enough understanding of what it was about. Catching every nuance and/or appreciating the alien-aesthetics of the language in question, however...which you might justly say is hardly negligible...might just take a day or two longer…indeed, I still can’t read Italian without getting irritated at its utter ‘Italian-ness’. :frown2:

[mal4mac]

Don't be too hard on Nadal, at least he gives English a go. Supposedly David Beckham refuses to give interviews in Italian, even though he is reputed to speak it fairly well. He's worried that a minor slip will make him look silly. People are too image conscious...

[scaltz]

Is it really that uncommon? Federer speaks at least four fluently, and he's a jock :) I remember reading a biography of a top physicist who could converse in many languages, but held it to be a minor accomplishment compared to his knowledge of physics. Have you read the major works of the five main authors in the languages you speak? That would be quite impressive for a 16 y/o. Try a biography of J.S. Mill or Schopenhauer to read about some really impressive language feats...

Now that you mention it, I also live In Switzerland :biggrin5:. Geneva to be precise.

Reading wise( I gotta stop making my own expressions), yes I do and will read books on their respective language; I mean, why waste your time learning a language when at the end you're just going to use them on travels? Learning a language is not only for conversing to other people and knowing this country's culture, it's also reading their books, contemporary or not,





Federer is sort of an exception, though; ever heard Nadal? And English doesn’t really count anyway. :biggrin5:



Being raised a polyglot kinda detracts from its impressiveness, I think. If such is the case...only speculating. :wink5: Even so, I find actually being able to articulate oneself fluently, or fluidly, in a foreign language the more impressive feat since -I'll somewhat agree with your physicist- reading, pragmatically at least, doesn’t really demand much more than a passive knowledge of any given language anyway (although I completely agree with Kiki about Hugo :crazy:). Thus, for a literary-minded (one might also -perhaps fallaciously- assume, language-minded) person, apart from some of the inevitable archaisms of those often long-dead individuals regarded as the planet's biggest and bestest writers, with a good dictionary and some grammar under the belt (some cultural proximity wouldn't hurt either), it’s not really that hard to get through, say, La coscienza di Zeno and have a thorough enough understanding of what it was about. Catching every nuance and/or appreciating the alien-aesthetics of the language in question, however...which you might justly say is hardly negligible...might just take a day or two longer…indeed, I still can’t read Italian without getting irritated at its utter ‘Italian-ness’. :frown2:



Mmmm, would you deepen your point regarding one's articulation in a foreign language? Do you mean at explaining things or at just talking freely at another language? for those two are quite different? Arguing and explaining in a foreign language, in an oral manner, is a much more impressive feat than talking freely about something [in a foreign language].

And for the Italian-ness part, I think I have the same problem albeit for a different reason. I don't know but it just turns me off seeing lotsa words in a French book as opposed to having a lots of words in an English book, that's why I prefer having my French books on the hardbound edition. The space between the words and sentences are larger. I don't know why I react this way but haha that's me. The culture though doesn't really bother me, I mean, if that's their culture then fine. I don't really see myself complaining on how the Spanish culture(literary-wise) is so different to the Filipino culture even though the latter got conquered (or vice-versa, my reasoning wasn't that logic but it's tiring to modify the it).

[scaltz]

Is it really that uncommon? Federer speaks at least four fluently, and he's a jock :) I remember reading a biography of a top physicist who could converse in many languages, but held it to be a minor accomplishment compared to his knowledge of physics. Have you read the major works of the five main authors in the languages you speak? That would be quite impressive for a 16 y/o. Try a biography of J.S. Mill or Schopenhauer to read about some really impressive language feats...

Actually, Physics is quite a sensitive matter for me. I think that even though he's a physicist, I think that he still has a preference over a certain language for the American and the European Science varies GREATLY (formula-wise) and understanding/analysing a Physics question is quite hard in a foreign language. On my note that it's about Science and formulas but hey, if you misunderstood a question, a concept, etc. Won't your whole reasoning be wrong? Simply because of misunderstanding this question?



Don't be too hard on Nadal, at least he gives English a go. Supposedly David Beckham refuses to give interviews in Italian, even though he is reputed to speak it fairly well. He's worried that a minor slip will make him look silly. People are too image conscious...

I remember giving an oral presentation in French, I was quite terrified for I couldn't verbalize my thoughts and that isn't fear about my image but rather fear about how people will misunderstand me. If you have read Paper Towns, one may note how humans misunderstood each other on a daily basis, imagine a close-minded person misunderstand you then spread rumors about you. How would that make you feel?

[Wilde woman]

In answer to the original, yes. Isn't it natural that one has fewer "literary instincts" when one reads in a language that is not one's own? It's something I encountered when I first dove into Italian literature, after having two years of Italian classes at university. But I feel it's something you slowly regain the more you read and become familiar with the second (or third or fourth or fifth) language.


Being raised a polyglot kinda detracts from its impressiveness, I think.

As an American, I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, America is so different from most European countries in that it is so monolingual that even though English is not our official language, it is pretty much de facto. For most Americans, even we ethnic minorities, it's quite easy to go through life without needing another language. And since America's educational system doesn't value quality foreign language education AT ALL, you rarely meet a native-born American who can fluently speak more than two languages. (And most bilingual speakers are minorities - Hispanics or Chinese or Koreans who grew up speaking their native language in the household.) So on the one hand, I admire and envy polyglots. As a grad student who will need several (Indo-European) languages for my studies, I almost wish I'd grown up in Europe where multilingualism is a fact of life.

On the other hand, I agree with Madame X that being raised as a polyglot detracts from its impressiveness. I'm an American-born Chinese, but I consider my native language English. Because language instruction in secondary schools here is so poor, I learned most of my languages (except Mandarin) at the university level, which was a struggle. Had I been given instruction or even speaking situations where Spanish or French was required, I've no doubt I'd be a better speaker/reader/writer today.


Even so, I find actually being able to articulate oneself fluently, or fluidly, in a foreign language the more impressive feat since -I'll somewhat agree with your physicist- reading, pragmatically at least, doesn’t really demand much more than a passive knowledge of any given language anyway

Agreed, but with some reservations. Reading is, I think, much easier a process than speaking. (Cognitive linguistics has shown that reading and speaking the same language use different parts of the brain, which is why some may find doing one easier than the other.) But this is assuming that the foreign language in question uses an alphabet you're familiar with. Have you ever tried reading in Chinese or Arabic? Even if you've studied the language, it's quite easy to lose the finer points of meaning and/or historical allusions in a culture with which you might be unfamiliar.


Catching every nuance and/or appreciating the alien-aesthetics of the language in question, however...which you might justly say is hardly negligible...might just take a day or two longer…

This is where I have to disagree. What do you mean by "alien-aesthetics"? I find it doubtful that one can fully master the aesthetics of any foreign-language work in a single day or two. If you're talking about Italian, does this mean you could master the finer points of the Divine Comedy in a day or two?

[blazeofglory]

I had this problem so much earlier. I am a writer in Nepali and reading books in Nepali is so natural, easy, fascinating and of course effortless. Reading lines in English is tedious and I suffer a vocabulary-limitation. I have to time and again look up a dictionary for words. It is really difficult with internalizing words and sentence structures in English. The biggest problem is with use of articles and predispositions for a foreign student.

Now I am a little used to it and I can understand it better now as I read books and magazines quite a lot in English

Now I can express my ideas through English but fascinating them with my English is a pretty hard job and of course I have still to go a long way.

I am a fast reader in Nepali and few sentences stop me, but in England I am sluggish. Maybe in a decade or so I can feel comfortable with reading a book in English

[kiki1982]

The thing is, with reading - and in a foreign language that is the main challenge -, that one should read and understand - read/understand - read/understand etc. When that happens, the literary instinct, I find, goes easier, because the 'understand' incorporates that 'understand' in terms of reading ('oh this must be a reference to there, that might be a symbol for that' and so on). With a foreign language, as you start reading, there is a delay. You do not explicitly 'think' about what the meaning of the sentence is, but you do not read and understand at the same moment. Maybe somewhere along the line some of it gets lost, like on a line providing electricity, and so your real 'understanding' in terms of books is more difficult, although you have actually understood the sentence. And that is the problem at first and which causes slowness in itself. I can still remember the laborious times before I could do this in French...


So on the one hand, I admire and envy polyglots. As a grad student who will need several (Indo-European) languages for my studies, I almost wish I'd grown up in Europe where multilingualism is a fact of life.

Well, don't bank on it. The leading nation is Luxembourg with its standard, almost, 5-language baggage: Luxemburgish (yes it does exist, although it is actually Mosel-Frankish with spelling, people in my area understand them), French, German, English and another (mostly Spanish or Italian); then follows Belgium with Dutch, French, English and German (preferably as that is an official language), then follow a few other nations I think (mainly Scandinavia as they have EXCELLENT English), possibly on the same level as Belgium, then follow the two-language ones and then dangle on the bottom... France (although they are slowly learning English now) and... the UK... They do not even have a stimulus to learn English or something... The froggies they don't like, neither the krauts (although that changed a little bit after the World Cup) and why the hell should one learn Polish? Some of them try (:rolleyes:) to speak Spanish, but even then complain that it is difficult. However, there is a minority that does speak something else, but it's not as large and certainly doesn't go for five in one go.

I just suppose it is not really being used to another language being spoken, but rather to learning to understand something you can't at first. It is amazing how fast it goes. One lesson of Russian and you can already say hello and understand the response or give one yourself! If one is not trained to be able to put one's mind to it, all language-learning goes out of the window. It is sad, but it is like that. It's mostly a question of just self-confidence: 'I can do it, I can learn a langaueg perfectly.' or the rest, just learn and shut up. If one doesn't have that in one's mind, then one gives up after the first sentence one doesn't understand (wich there are a lot at first ;)).


Agreed, but with some reservations. Reading is, I think, much easier a process than speaking. (Cognitive linguistics has shown that reading and speaking the same language use different parts of the brain, which is why some may find doing one easier than the other.) But this is assuming that the foreign language in question uses an alphabet you're familiar with. Have you ever tried reading in Chinese or Arabic? Even if you've studied the language, it's quite easy to lose the finer points of meaning and/or historical allusions in a culture with which you might be unfamiliar.

I agree with that. It is definitey easier to read than to speak for me. For my husband it is the opposite. Speaks fluent Russian and French (amongst others), but has never touched a book in those languages... I read an awful lot of German, but you should hear my German! Ok, people put up with it, and say 'it is very good' :rolleyes:, yeah, right. I must be a perfectionist then... Anyway, I find that historical things come with time. I believe, maybe that's a little strange, that the further you get into a language, the more you can acquire its culture and ways and the more you can actually 'get' things behind the language. But of course, it might actually come also with reading more in the language, as such acquiring more information which you can remember upon reading something.

[mal4mac]

Kiki - why do you think we like the Germans more after the World Cup? Which World Cup? Actually, I don't see that it has affected matters either way. We found our narrow victory in 1966 quite amusing, and are a bit upset about how well the Germans usually do. I don't think most British dislike the Spanish, French or Germans, but just don't see the need to learn their languages. They learn ours, so why bother?! Especially when, as you so amply illustrated, our efforts are generally not appreciated and usually get raised eyebrows...

Clive James learned French by reading Proust - just slowly going through it, learning words and grammar 'as needed'. Took him a decade, but he seemed to have fun, and it at least gave him the material for a really funny essay...

[Madame X]

Mmmm, would you deepen your point regarding one's articulation in a foreign language? Do you mean at explaining things or at just talking freely at another language? for those two are quite different? Arguing and explaining in a foreign language, in an oral manner, is a much more impressive feat than talking freely about something [in a foreign language].

I, personally, wouldn’t really deem anyone fluent, or even competent, in a language in which he couldn’t do much more than talk about the weather (although I know what a popular subject it is :wink5:). Talking freely, to me, encompasses the ability to delve into ‘deeper’ discussion, without tripping all over yourself, at will; I think the non-(English language)native posters in this thread, for example, accomplish this admirably. Of course, the natives, too. :thumbsup:

[Madame X]

Agreed, but with some reservations. Reading is, I think, much easier a process than speaking. (Cognitive linguistics has shown that reading and speaking the same language use different parts of the brain, which is why some may find doing one easier than the other.) But this is assuming that the foreign language in question uses an alphabet you're familiar with. Have you ever tried reading in Chinese or Arabic? Even if you've studied the language, it's quite easy to lose the finer points of meaning and/or historical allusions in a culture with which you might be unfamiliar.

If Greek counts, then yes. :biggrin5: While still in the domain of European culture, I still won’t pretend to grasp every reference, allusion, or special meaning intended to be invoked by any particular succession of words on a page, but I can certainly more or less glean enough practical sense from the text to know who-said-what, etc. But yes, cultural disparities can understandably affect one’s appreciation of a work,…then again, not even all natives are unanimous about who they’d crown the Literary Deity of their country/language so, yeah, at a certain point it still becomes a bit hard to mark the divide between linguistic/cultural incompetence and plain old taste.


This is where I have to disagree. What do you mean by "alien-aesthetics"? I find it doubtful that one can fully master the aesthetics of any foreign-language work in a single day or two. If you're talking about Italian, does this mean you could master the finer points of the Divine Comedy in a day or two?

Hehe, if I were serious your incredulity would be well-warranted, but yeah, seeing as there’s nothing to indicate otherwise, I’ll take the blame for that one. :nod: Just to clarify: ‘alien-aesthetics’ can be as simple as the “sound” of a language to a foreign ear; I’m not really partial to Italian which means that the literature, despite me being comfortable with the grammar, simply doesn’t -and, alas, probably never will- go down quite as smoothly as, say, German (which I adore).

[kiki1982]

Kiki - why do you think we like the Germans more after the World Cup? Which World Cup? Actually, I don't see that it has affected matters either way. We found our narrow victory in 1966 quite amusing, and are a bit upset about how well the Germans usually do. I don't think most British dislike the Spanish, French or Germans, but just don't see the need to learn their languages. They learn ours, so why bother?! Especially when, as you so amply illustrated, our efforts are generally not appreciated and usually get raised eyebrows...

Clive James learned French by reading Proust - just slowly going through it, learning words and grammar 'as needed'. Took him a decade, but he seemed to have fun, and it at least gave him the material for a really funny essay...

I have an English husband who definitely has seen a difference in how people think about the Germans since the World Cup 2006 that took place there. From nasty war-makers they went to 'ok person apparently'. And friendly!They couldn't shut up about how friendly they were, and they spoke English perfectly all of them!

What about the need to learn their language so you can actually go and ask something to them without being detected as a tourist. You'll get a lot friendlier service, I tell you. Even better, in France, you will get service as such. Try to go to a small French village and ask something in English... Guaranteed that no-one speaks it. In Germany you'll probably be lucky. And even better reason: to be able to read their books which are WAY better in their original language. Particularly the Germans have a lyrical ability in their mere language that I find not having been done by the English and I am including Byron and Shakespeare in that. There is something about German that is so amazingly beautiful.

Then the froggies like contents. They have marvellous poetry too, but they rather go for the contents of it.

What about learning those two to have a real idea?

[mal4mac]

I have an English husband who definitely has seen a difference in how people think about the Germans since the World Cup 2006 that took place there. From nasty war-makers they went to 'ok person apparently'. And friendly!They couldn't shut up about how friendly they were, and they spoke English perfectly all of them!

What about the need to learn their language so you can actually go and ask something to them without being detected as a tourist. You'll get a lot friendlier service, I tell you. Even better, in France, you will get service as such. Try to go to a small French village and ask something in English... Guaranteed that no-one speaks it. In Germany you'll probably be lucky. And even better reason: to be able to read their books which are WAY better in their original language. Particularly the Germans have a lyrical ability in their mere language that I find not having been done by the English and I am including Byron and Shakespeare in that. There is something about German that is so amazingly beautiful.

Then the froggies like contents. They have marvellous poetry too, but they rather go for the contents of it.

What about learning those two to have a real idea?

Your husband must move in different circles to me. In my 'working class Northern' and 'University' circles I've never really encountered serious anti-German feeling at all. We do mock them of course (Basil Fawlty's hotel sketch being the funniest example...) But we mock everyone, none more than ourselves. Even British racists don't really attack the Germans, probably because they don't have a large immigrant community in the UK. Of course, Hitler & gang still come in for a lot of stick (funny and serious!) but most British people are not so stupid as to equate modern Germans with that bunch of criminals.

I don't have a great ability at learning languages, and I don't enjoy it. At school, I'd do "middling well" in French & German after a great deal of effort, whereas I came top in science, maths, History, English etc, with little effort, and I enjoyed those subjects. My bog standard comprehensive was run by insane people and I somehow ended up doing French & German to age 16, when I wanted to do History and Geography, so I also ended up with great resentment against learning languages. I actually failed French on purpose... Ho hum, childish attitude, yes. But I was a child...

All in all, I think learning foreign languages is, to me, like a tone deaf person with bad co-ordination trying to learn to play a musical instrument.

I'm actually trying to learn some Latin, at the moment, so I can understand the words of Mozart's requiem, but it's a hard slog! At the rate I'm going, I think it would take me a lifetime to read Faust in the original German. In the same time I could probably read a hundred masterpieces in translation, or a hundred original English masterpieces. Given I haven't that much time left, I think I'll stick to translations...

[kiki1982]

There was a definite tendency of people not taking Germans seriously, including teachers in schools even as close as ten years ago... You must have a very strange circle then...

Comprehensive education is the worst thing they have done to language learning. You namely do not learn without exercising and without theory. Focussing on speech alone limits one tremendously in trying to read and write. Making the English classes comprehensive means that they hae stopped to teach grammar as such which means that a language like German, ad even French I would say, becomes unlearnable because one doesn't know obejct from subject and hence, cannot know which case or place the words should be placed in.

Latin... Well, take German times two... I'd prefer to learn French, German and Russian (which I am doing now) to Latin. Sometimes illogical and very concentrated language. There are prepositions, but most of them are incorporated in words in certain cases like the Abblative which can be used in a number of meanings. So very strange things occur when you talk about a bunch of people that are fencing the courtyard off with a wall. The wall, the word on its own, would be written in the Abblative case and you would be expected to realise that it was used in the kind of instrumental meaning. And then there are verbs with their direct object not in the Akkusative (normally), but in the Abblative again. So then you have to know that your Abblative is not used for place or something but for the direct object which can be confusing if you have a thing that could be both. Good luck I'd say.

[mal4mac]

I took Germans *very* seriously at school, reading all the popular works by Einstein and Heisenberg that I could find. My physics teacher had a German surname... If they had taught German by getting us to translate Einstein I might have done better... I just hated the stupid French & German textbooks - endless boring sentences to translate like "Jaques and Marie go to the library". Who can be bothered...

[RJbibliophil]

I mean for example when I read German books like the Kafka ones (a language which I'm school and socially fluent), I seem to lose some of my literary instincts; my analysis ability decreases and i'm reading in a much slower pace! I also can't seem to find the right words when writing an essay, analysis as fast as I do in English (my hands are literally thinking when I write in English and not my brain). Also, I also tend to forget easier some of the plots when reading in a different language which is really bizarre considering languages are basically just a set of words that one has to memorize (I know there's still grammar and stuff but I'm simplifying it). For example, even though the meaning of Tag (day in German) is permanently stuck in my brain, i've got a higher chance of remembering 'day'!

Well that is a bit exaggerated, well it's the same notion but with many words.

Does the same thing happen to you people?:confused5:



Hahaha well that's not the case for me. Even though I speak 5 languages which is uncommon for my young age (16 y/o), I still have a language of preference when I'm thinking which is probably English. Maybe it's because the quantity of languages that I speak that it overwhelms me...I don't know. What I know is that I understand everything completely in all these 5 languages.

I grew up bilingual-- Norwegian American-- but I've spent all my school years in the US. English is the language that I generally read and use and think in. I'm also fluent in Norwegian, but when I read Norwegian books, which isn't often, since there aren't that many good ones, it does take a lot more work. And that is just because I don't know Norwegian inside and out like I do English.

I'm also going to say that language is a whole lot more than just words and grammar. It's something way bigger, encompassing the whole culture of a people. If you don't have the words to think about an idea, you cannot experience it. Language is like life-blood or something.

So to answer your question: yes, I do loose some of my literary reflex when working with Norwegian simply because I have never fully learned that language inside and out.

[Mockingbird_z]

a very interesting discussion you have here.
I have read all of your posts ans I come to think that I must reread all of the books I have ever read in English (the only foreign language I have so far learned) because I may not have grasped the idea of these books.
I am afraid this can develop into a kind of a fobia - "not-deep-enough-reading" fobia.
all I know is that the more you read in a language (and give your reading enough thinking) the more you master your ability of understanding.
it's like never-ending process. Once you started you got to go all the way through.

[scaltz]

a very interesting discussion you have here.
I have read all of your posts ans I come to think that I must reread all of the books I have ever read in English (the only foreign language I have so far learned) because I may not have grasped the idea of these books.
I am afraid this can develop into a kind of a fobia - "not-deep-enough-reading" fobia.
all I know is that the more you read in a language (and give your reading enough thinking) the more you master your ability of understanding.
it's like never-ending process. Once you started you got to go all the way through.

Well being complete is better than being incomplete right? However beware, like Oscar Wilde said: "Reading isn't reading if you don't enjoy what you read." (or something similar).