Hey there, OnlineItalianClub.com members!

Today we have the third part, the second chapter, of our ‘riassunto’ of Umberto Eco’s book:

‘Il nome della rosa’ – Capitolo 2 – Come un labirinto

It’s linked to from our Literature page, too. And there, you’ll find the ‘Nota introduttiva’ and the first chapter, if you missed them.

There have been lots of comments from people around the world who, like me, have gotten hold of a copy of the original Italian version of the book and are reading it, all together in our ‘book club’!

Thanks to everyone who’s taken the trouble to write something, and long may it continue! We still have nine-tenths of the book to read, so the more support the better.

OK then, so you might be wondering why I started today with ‘Hey there’ rather than my usual salutation.

It’s because the bulk of today’s article is, in fact, not here on the page you’re looking at now, on your smartphone, tablet or computer.

SEE THIS GAP?

That’s where what I spent the last thirty minutes or so writing would have gone, if I hadn’t preferred to post it as a comment on ‘Il nome della rosa’ – Capitolo 2 – Come un labirinto (click the link and scroll down to read it.)

The idea is to suggest a new (rather meta) topic for discussion in the ‘book club’ between now and when the next ‘capitolo’ of our ‘riassunto’ comes out on Friday 10th of April.

So do take a look. And eceptionally, even if you’re not actually reading the book or our ‘riassunto’, your comments are welcome anyway (as it’s a topic of general interest to language-learners, I hope.)

A venerdì, allora!

(Oppure, a dopo, in the comments section…)

‘Il nome della rosa’ – Capitolo 2 – Come un labirinto | Literature page

P.S.

Tuesday’s bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news is here.

It’s FREE!

And if you’re really, really not interested in reading, there’s plenty of other stuff to do on the club website, for example listening and grammar.

Also FREE.

Buondi.

Chapter 1 of our ‘riassunto’ of Umberto Eco’s ‘Il nome della rosa’ is ready. Find it here, along with page references to the real book, for those of you who have bought it and are reading it.

It covers the ‘Primo giorno – PRIMA’ and ‘Primo giorno – TERZA’ sections of the book. If you’re reading the real book, you could use the riassunto after reading, to confirm what you’ve understood (or not). Or look at the riassunto before you start, as a sort of literary ‘buoyancy aid’. Or just ignore it, as you wish.

If you don’t have the text (buy it if you can – there’s a Kindle edition, apparently, and you don’t actually have to possess a Kindle to use it, I’m told), then at least you can follow our progress using the ‘riassunto’, which is linked to from our Literature page.

There will be ten parts to this Book Club, the ‘Nota introduttiva‘, eight chapters of riassunto, and then some sort of concluding discussion, yet to be defined. We’ll see what level of interest is maintained and then decide what form of final interaction we should aim for, with which technology. Use the Literature page to find each part and navigate from one to the other, as you progress.

Now, we need to talk about comments, which are the heart and soul of the whole thing (other than the book, of course). So far thirty-six people have commented, swapped suggestions, or just said “Ciao, I’m in!”

All comments so far have been on the ‘Nota introduttiva‘ page. There were lots of ideas on how to get a copy of the ‘real’ book, which was helpful. And Lana posted a link to the RAI audio-libro version of the story, which you can find here if you’d like to listen as you read, or just listen.

Thanks to (in alphabetical order by first name)…

Alison Ledgerwood, Anne, Barbara Paton, Bettina Grieser Johns, Candy Montero, Claire, Colleen, Debra, Douglas, Elmas, Gerry M Hancock, Helen Hensley, Helen Preston, Isabel, Jane Collins, JaneCroucher, Jonathan L, Kathy James, Lana Blackburn, Lynne F, Margaret, Martha, Mary Wilson, Michael Schultz, minou, Naheda Ismail, Orlaith, Rachel Belgrave, Rob Lee, Rocco, Sieglind, Simeon Underwood, Stella Moore, Steph, Thomas Vanderslice, Valerie, Wendy,

…for helping us get off to a sucessful start!

N.b. If you don’t have the actual book, or the Kindle version, but would like to participate anyway, that’s fine (though we encourage people to buy the book if they are able to.) In which case, following the riassunto should give you a rough idea of the story and which stage we’re at. As I mentioned, use the Literature page as your starting point, to navigate to the right point in the story, and to read discussion relative to that.

OK then, so once you’ve read the ‘Primo giorno – PRIMA’ and ‘Primo giorno – TERZA’ sections of the book and/or our riassunto, then discussions/interactions from now until Tuesday night should be via comments on that page. Scroll down to leave your comment – I’ve done one already, to get us started!

If anyone has a discussion topic for this first section of the book, then do suggest it – in a comment (i.e. WHY was Eco ripping off Conan Doyle? Presumably he had a reason? Was it something intellectual, or just that his other books were too highbrow and he needed the royalties to support his lavish lifestyle?)

Or you could use the comments section to ask for help about something you don’t understand, or complain about boring bits, or report how many pages you have managed to read in a day’s lockdown, or whatever.

See, it’s the comments that are the thing, that make it all interactive, or sort of, and so more fun than just reading on your own at home.

You could even just write something like

“Ciao, I’m Daniel, locked down for 28 days now in Bologna, Italy. I’m about to start Terzo giorno – Nona on p.199, and the whole thing is getting to be easier and more fun than I’d imagined! Three hundred pages to go and, unfortunately, I bet I’ll finish them easily before they let me out of here!”

Another N.b. If you enjoy interacting with someone in the comments, be wary about getting in touch with them via other means. It’s definitely NOT a good idea to leave an email address in a public forum like this – unless it’s a disposable one that you’ll be happy to delete when it fills up with automated spam. I’ll be happy to help people swap contact info (just write to me). Or you could link to some other point of reference, i.e. your social media public profile, so people can contact you that way. “Anyone in Australia who wants to chat in real time,  my Facebook is…” Like I said, though, be wary. Most people are nice, but not everyone.

Così. Buona lettura, allora.

Literature page | Nota introduttiva | Capitolo 1 | Rai audio story

P.S.

Not interested in literature or book clubs? Then go here and find something else to study. There’s plenty!

P.P.S.

Saturday’s bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news is here, and it’s free to read/listen to.

Better, if you subscribe, we’ll email you each thrice-weekly edition as soon as it’s published, also for free!