Buondì. Thanks to those of you who’ve already bought a copy of our newest easy reader ebook, L’imperatore e i giochi. But actually, sales have been rather slow, which is a shame because this is a good one! Perhaps it’s the fault of the free sample chapter (.pdf), which is rather dry. I don’t usually […]
“Ed elli avea del cul fatto trombetta”
Buondì. I couldn’t resist quoting from today’s Dante canto in the title of this article: “ed elli avea del cul fatto trombetta” Which Longfellow translates as: “And he had made a trumpet of his rump” Farting devils are your reward for having reached Canto XXI of Dante’s Inferno! (If you’ve been putting off starting, head […]
What’s in store for fortune-tellers & the last good Emperor
Buondì. It’s raining today, for the first time in months. So I plan to keep this short and get out and enjoy the cool. I might take an umbrella, or I might just get wet. For the fun of it! So… 1.) Dante’s Inferno Canto XX, in which Dante finds out what punishment God has […]
You don’t HAVE TO read this article if you’re TOO BUSY!
Buondì. This is for the lady who wrote to me overnight pointing out that, what with one thing and another, she was much too busy to even read the articles I send out, let alone have a go at the Dante series. I won’t publish her email because she genuinely does seem frantically busy, and […]
Anastasia, a false friend and TWO Books of the Week!
Buondì. With reference to Friday’s article, Can you lick your nose like a cow?, it appears that only one club member can, or could be bothered to send me a photo. Thank you, Anastasia! Moving on then, Canto XVIII is now up on the literature page. Someone, I forget who, wrote to say that after […]
Can you lick your nose like a cow?
Buondì. Can you lick your nose like a cow? The reason I ask is that Dante meets a condemned soul who can, and is quite repulsed! Though perhaps that’s because the guy was an usurer, it’s not clear. Here’s Dante’s description in the original: Qui distorse la bocca e di fuor trasse la lingua, come […]
New Italian easy reader ebook, Inferno Canto XVI, and poems!
Buondì. First order of business today: don’t forget this week’s new easy reader ebook ‘Il mistero della quercia‘. The club has bills to pay. From Monday ‘Il mistero della quercia‘ will sell for the usual ebook price of £7.99 but get it this week and you’ll spend just £5.99! .pdf e-book (other formats – Kindle, […]
– 25% on B2/C1-Level easy reader: Il mistero della quercia
Buondì. As promised last week, today I have a new upper-intermediate/advanced-level Italian easy reader ebook for you. It’s ‘Il mistero della quercia‘. The writer is Francesca Colombo, who did the recent ‘Il bar‘ and ‘Prometeo e la guerra dei titani‘. So if you liked those, you’ll probably like this one, too! The story is set […]
Psst! Wanna hear some gossip?
Buondì. Today’s canto from Dante’s Inferno (Canto XV) is salacious, to say the least. Dante bumps into one of his former teachers, whose fate is to “vagare senza mai fermarsi per la landa desertica, sotto la pioggia di fiamme” (roam the desert without ever stopping under the rain of fire). But what’s the poor man […]
You impious blasphemer!
(This article contains ‘cuss words’. You have been advised…) Buondì. I’ve just spent the last half hour checking words I didn’t know from the latest installment of Dante’s Inferno, Canto XIV. (Catch up with the series so far on our new ‘Italian Literature‘ page.) ‘Empio’, for example, which means impious (like an imp, I suppose, […]