Friday Linkups: Destination Unknown

It's Friday so I'm linking up with Book Blogger Hop hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer, Book Beginnings on Friday hosted by Rose City Reader and The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice.

Today's book blogger question is:  Do you read books in translation?  What are the last 3 you read?

My Answer:  Not really.  Recently, I read The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera which I believe was originally published in Spanish and I think a lot of the charm and emotion was lost in the translation.  I think much of the original sentiment can get lost when the language changes so even if the story stays basically the same as readers some of the possibilities for an emotional connection gets lost.  I wouldn't necessarily avoid a translated book but I would probably be more hesitant.

For Book Beginnings on Friday and the Friday 56 I'm revisiting Agatha Christie.  Today's book was published in 1954 under the original title of So Many Steps to Death.  After a decade or 2 of country house murders Agatha takes us once again on a few international adventures.

The Beginning:  "The Man behind the desk moved a heavy glass paper weight four inches to the right.  His face was not so much thoughtful or abstracted as expressionless.  He had the pale complexion that comes from living most of the day in artificial light.  This man, you felt, was an indoor man."


The 56: (from page 56 of my 1987 paperback)
Jessop thought: "There's passion there - and guts - and somewhere, damped but not quenched, there's a gay spirit that's tough - and that enjoys life and searches out for adventure."
"You'll do", he said to her.  "You're an apt pupil."

This is a rather fun book, full of secrets and hidden identities.  Very different from some of the more proper Poirots and Marples.