Motivation and reading

Motivation for my Welsh is a bit low at the moment, which may be why I haven't managed an entry for a bit (though that might be me making an excuse), though I am always amazed to find it is a week or a couple of weeks between entries as it never feels like that - I am probably not meant to be a frequent blogger, or something

Anyway, in the absence of a device on which to listen to Welsh on the move, I have returned to reading. I have been reading two quite different books: the first a Science fiction about a future Big Brother world apparently run by the US (so perhaps not so fictitous then) in which Welsh is disappearing and has been driven underground (Annwyl Smotyn Bach) and the second is a romantic novel set in Patagonia. Very different books, but both quite challenging to read, because of vocabulary I just don't know. So I find myself wondering what proportion of new (i.e. unknown) words is optimal. With both these, there were passages I had trouble with without a dictionary, though the second Patagonian one was worse as that also has what I presume is South Wales dialect which isnn't even in the dictionary. Hence it gets a bit depressing and demotivating as it seems that however many new words I learn, there are so many I haven't encountered waiting for me in the next book.

I do cheer up though (and regain a bit of motivation) in listening to the audio book I have of Kate Roberts's Te yn y Grug - which I think I have mentioned before. She was born and raised in Rhosgadfan, Caernarfon (which as I commented on excitedly before is where my father was brought up) I love this description of her work from one of the websites: She quarried her own idiom from the local Welsh dialect and from her reading of Welsh literature at the University of Wales, Bangor. Her writing really is wonderful - social history mixed with such a perceptive take on childhood - and writing that is warm and humorous to boot - and, pretty accessible - though I think because it is such good writing and so interesting and of course personally relevant because of where she is writing about maybe I am up for more of an effort in looking up/findning out the words I don't know. So maybe the message is I should read more of her work .