Wow, has it really been that long? Have I really been that busy? I knew I was busy, but not that busy!
I worked like the proverbial trojan in 2012, devoting much of my time to freelance projects that paid the bills and somewhat eased the pain of buying a house. But now with my daughter sleeping (a little) better, I have more time on my hands in 2013 and I've decided to use it more wisely.
I have mused here before on whether reading really is work, and in 2013 I've decided that it is. Earlier today (yes, it's been that kind of a day), I mentioned on my other blog about how useful reading The ATA Chronicle was (and about the role of revisers in the whole translation process, which, come to think of it, may be of interest to you too. I've linked to it in the previous sentence, even though it's hard to find using this template).
So, in my book, reading really is work. Already, I read all kinds of things for work. Tell you what, here's a list and you might stumble upon something you like too:
I read the Chicago Manual of Style (occasionally)
I read Le Devoir for its wonderful book reviews and for ideas about which book to translate next
I read authors like Cormac McCarthy and Roddy Doyle because I love them and in the hopes that some of their style will rub off on me
I read Translation Review
I read books about marketing my books
I read books by presses I admire and enjoy (like Open Letter Books) and would one day like to translate for
I read books by Baraka Books, who I translate for already
I read articles on books published in translation, to see what kind of things particular presses are interested in
I read articles on published translations to see what the translators think of the creative process
And, now that you've got me started, I listen to podcasts for work too:
I listen to the magnificent Frank Delaney's Re:Joyce, which goes through Ulysses line by line and makes it all make sense (usually during my screen breaks - each podcast is only 6 or 7 minutes)
I listen to Ideas from CBC Radio, which occasionally talks about literary translation
I listen to the New Yorker fiction podcast, especially to hear Deborah Treisman's voice
I listen to Two Voices, from the Center for the Art of Translation
I listen to Bazzo.tv for its Club de lecture, where I first discovered Eric Dupont's Bestiaire
I now watch the Druckfrisch podcast, which took me a while to track down because The New Yorker randomly translated its name as "Hot Off the Presses" in this article
I listen to the Reading the World podcast
I listen to the funny and irreverent Three Percent podcast, mainly for news on professional sports
And where would I be without my RSS feeds or the gorgeous Feedly to display them on? Here are a few of my favourites:
Intralingo
Catherine Translates
love german books
And, finally, on Twitter I follow the likes of:
Granta Magazine
And Other Stories
Anglocom (for top translation ideas from French to English)
Subversive Copy Editor
Stan Carey (on language)
On top of all that, I tweet myself for the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA_USA), which brings together a series of links well worth reading on international literary translation each day, and I tweet a link or two of my own, on the finer points of grammar at grammararticles and on more literary translation articles at xlationarticles.
And I wonder why I've been busy!