Buondì.

Yesterday, feeling rather depressed at my prospects, I applied for a couple of jobs.

In the unlikely event I’m offered either of them, it will mean moving to a different country, being apart from my family for long periods, and working in an office eight hours a day under the supervision of someone further up the hierarchy.

Rather than basically doing what I please, as at the moment.

However, it would also mean a SALARY, actual money in the bank each month.

And lots of it!

Later in the day, I set off to an occasional gig teaching English at a local company, where I spent an hour each with three employees, beneficiaries of such largesse.

They didn’t seem very happy about it, though.

Italians prize permanent jobs, ideally in the state sector, but large companies will do.

And once they get one, keeping it matters above all else…

Why am I mentioning this?

Because this morning, having leapt out of bed full of enthusiasm but with no real idea of what to work on, I finally got around to proof-reading and publishing a new easy Italian reader, Il secondo tragico Fantozzi.

But wait!

Before I tell you about that, another breakfast-time job is to read the email that’s come in overnight, and to check the various websites for spam, comments and the occasional product review.

Of the latter, this morning there were two.

Helen, reviewing Nuovo cinema paradiso, wrote:

I love this film and have watched it a number of times with subtitles. After reading/listening to this book I now feel encouraged to try watching the film without subtitles. All of these easy readers I’ve bought so far have been well worth the money.

Whilst Marlaine, reviewing La sorpresa, had this to say:

This book, like all of the books on this site is great. It is an interesting story, it is written at the advertised level where I can actually get the story and then work through words I don’t know and look at sentence structure. And the icing on the cake, the audio file that comes with it is at a good pace that let’s me feel like I’m getting it without struggling too much. I like how the pace increases as the books become more advanced. The books, audio and online lessons are doing way more for me than the previous hours I put into apps and memorizing.

It was reading such positive feedback that inspired me to finish off the new ‘Fantozzi’, which means reading and listening to the whole thing one final time, fixing the English translations in the glossary wherever necessary, and preparing the .pdfs and the product page in our online shop.

As I was reading, I was laughing out loud – at eight a.m., on a Wednesday, in February!

My wife came in to see what was up. I showed her what I was reading (the chapter about ‘La corazzata Kotiomkin’ – a joke on the classic Russian movie ‘Battleship Potemkin’).

Of course, she knew it well. Everyone does, she said.

Fantozzi’s movie-loving boss forces his whole department to come to his house at the weekend to watch it, and on the evening of a major soccer match to boot!

Caught trying to listen to the football on a hidden radio, Fantozzi is forced to kneel in front of the screen for the remainder of the film (“on chickpeas” – presumably to increase his discomfort…)

OK, I’m convinced.

I don’t want ‘a proper job, with a salary’ after all.

I’ll stay here at my kitchen table, banging away at the computer keyboard, and trust the Marlaines and Helens of this world to appreciate it.

So, back to Il secondo tragico Fantozzi.

This is a .pdf ebook, which is to say that it’s a computer file that should be readable on most devices or can be printed.

At the top of each chapter, there’s a link to the online audio, so you can listen too, if you wish.

Download the free sample chapter (.pdf) to get an idea of the length of the text (basically 8 x 1 page chapters) and the level/complexity.

From the link at the top of Chapter 1 in the sample, you can listen to the whole thing if you want. All eight chapters are on Soundcloud.com, available for anyone to use.

But it’s worth paying for the full text.

Our normal easy reader price is £7.99 but you can grab this one, this first week only, for just £5.99 – so 25% off!

Don’t have a sense of humour?

Then get yourself a bottle of wine, instead (or as well…)

Need insight into how Italians think, and reading/listening practice?

Then this wouldn’t be a bad place to start…

Il secondo tragico Fantozzi | FREE sample chapter (.pdf)

N.b. As the title suggests, Fantozzi has had other misadventures. Read/listen to them in our earlier ebook here: Fantozzi

We also have other ‘ebook of the classic Italian movie’ titles. Click here to see them all.

Or browse our Catalogue, which shows everything, organised by type and level.

Where’s the FREE STUFF?

Everytime I sell something, I get an email moaning that “When I signed up, I was promised three free exercises a week!”

Right, that’s true.

Sorry.

But we do have masses of free materials on the club website, available for you to use at any time, club member or not.

If you haven’t already explored the site to see what’s there, begin from the Start Here page.

Plus, our team is currently producing three bulletins of Easy Italian News each week, also free for anyone to use.

That website, and the club, are both funded by revenues from the sale of ebooks and online lessons.

Hence the marketing.

But anyway, now you’ve read through all the ads, you may as well listen to yesterday’s easy Italian news, right?

A venerdì.