Gaelic books and reading links

I thought it might be useful to have a thread for links. Please feel free to add links closely connected with Scottish Gaelic BOOKS and READING. Not for general Gaelic links - e.g. we don't need a link to Sabhal Mor Ostaig, but a link to their excellent library would be fine - in fact, here it is:

http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/Foghlam/Leabharlann/index_en.html

and here is the website of Aonghas MacNeacail (aka Aonghas Dubh), poet:

http://www.aonghasmacneacail.co.uk/publications.htm

and, of course, the indispensible Comhairle nan Leabhraichean / Gaelic Books Council:

https://lsh507.securepod.com/gaelicbooks.org/merchantmanager/index.php

http://www.sorleymaclean.org/

Excellent bilingual website devoted to great Gaelic poet Sorley MacLean / Somhairle Mac Gill-Eathain

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/higher/gaelic/reading/dictionary_skills/revision/1...

How to get the most out of a dictionary entry. It's for schools, so it doesn't even assume you know alphabetical order (what are they teaching them, these days?), but there is useful stuff there.

For completeness, here's the Gaelic Books Council's Reading Group link:

https://lsh507.securepod.com/gaelicbooks.org/merchantmanager/

A review of An Introduction to Gaelic Fiction by Moray Watson. The reviewer is Kevin MacNeil, author of a novel in English called The Stornoway Way and Love and Zen in the Outer Hebrides, a collection of poetry in Gaelic and English. I think he's a bit picky, myself, but see what you think.

http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/ScotLit/ASLS/SWE/TBI/TBIIssue10/MacNeil.pdf

http://www.publishing.stir.ac.uk/2013/05/11/gaelic-publishing-in-the-21st-centur...

Interesting account of a talk on Gaelic publishing in the 21st century given by John Storey of the Gaelic Books Council (Comhairle nan Leabhraichean) to publishing students at the University of Stirling.

http://arcfinity.tumblr.com/post/50642045399/were-talking-to-tim-armstrong-autho...

Author interview with Tim Armstrong, author of Air Cuan Dubh Drilseach, the first Gaelic science fiction novel. The title means "on the glittering black ocean". It's also the title of Tim Armstrong's blog, which you can find here:

http://drilseach.net/

Tim, who comes from Seattle, is a member of popular Gaelic punk band Mill a h-uile Rud. One of the most important features of his science-fiction universe is that in space, everybody speaks Gaelic.

Funnily enough, I am currently reading a short story (also s-f) which he contributed to the anthology Saorsa - so far, so good.

http://www.memrise.com/course/64167/air-cuan-dubh-drilseach/

and yet anotherAir Cuan Dubh Drilseach link. This takes you to a Memrise course, made by the author, who hopes you will do it before you read each chapter of the book. Memrise is free to use, and helps you memorise things by feeding you the data and the memory "tests" at scientifically calculated intervals - this is their claim, anyway. I've tried it a bit, and I do find it helpful.

He also has a list of all the vocab on his blog - but explained in Gaelic. If this is useful to you, he recommends you look at the list one chapter at a time, in order not to spoil the story.

This is a great idea - by absorbing some of the vocabulary BEFORE you start reading, the reading itself should be a more seamless and enjoyable experience.

As it happens, I am in a brilliant position to test this. I can compare reading the short story - same genre, same author - without the Memrise course, and reading the novel after doing the course. I'll let you know.

Of course, there's nothing to stop you doing this the other way round, or adding courses for other books / works. I have been checking out Memrise, to see if it works better than Flashcard Exchange, where I have added a lot of vocab. The only drawback so far is that Memrise does not let you look at the whole list - you have to follow the "course" where it is doled out at the said scientific intervals.

Comments and thoughts welcomed.

http://smathsin.co.uk/smathsin/

'Smathsin! The Gaelic kids' comic, now online and published by Storlann - with "talking" speech bubbles.

Martainn Mac an t-Saor's list of 10 books that have been important to him

http://www.booksfromscotland.com/Features/Readers-Choices/Martin-MacIntyre

What an interesting list, and now I'm thinking about which ten books I'd put on my list. Which ones are on yours?

Maybe I'll write Tim Armstrong as ask what's on his list.

Hmm... Good idea! I'll get thinking!

OK, here's a quick-and-dirty list of 10 Gaelic books important to me. It is not a "top 10", which would take forever, but 10 books that are significant to me, or to Gaelic in general (IM not so HO). Not in order of merit.

1. Dwelly - no Dwelly, no comment! Still the best.

2. Teach Yourself Gaelic Boyd Robertson - the text book I use to teach. It is not the best imaginable, but a useful tool, somewhere between dry-as-dust and grammar-lite.

3. An Leabhar Mòr Theo Dorgan ed. - Not enough Gaelic books are beautiful. This is not only an inspiring art project but an important collection of Scottish and Irish texts.

4. Tìr a' Mhurain Paul Strand - not a Gaelic book per se, but wonderful photographs of South Uist life and people by American photographer Paul Strand, taken in the 1950s. Basically, my relatives as art.

5. Eadar Fealla-Dhà is Glaschu Iain Mac a' Ghobhainn - the first book of Gaelic poetry I bought, in the 1970s, and still my favourite Gaelic poet. I puzzled them out (or failed to) word by word, and began to hear the music in the words.

6. Nua-Bhàrdachd Ghàidhlig George Campbell Hay
The most important early collection of modern Gaelic poetry.

7. The Voice of the Bard Timothy Neat - A book in English, but containing lots of Gaelic poetry, celebrating living Gaelic poets - mainly un-famous, except in their own locality. The true spirit of Gaelic poetry, springing from the life of a Gaelic-speaking community.

8. Obair-Iarainn Ailtireil ann an Steòrnabhagh Ali Davey More Gaelic non-fiction, please! Especially if it is as beautifully produced as this homage to lovingly maintained cast-iron railings, gates, pipework and roof decorations in Stornoway.

9. Air Cuan Dubh Drilseach Tim Armstrong - kept you waiting for this one, didn't I? Not only the first full length science-fiction novel in Gaelic (there have been short stories), but a rare blast of fun and excitement - qualities not nearly common enough in the short history of the Gaelic novel. And with online vocabulary support showing the way to the future.

10. An Introduction to Gaelic Fiction Moray Watson - valuable survey of Gaelic literature to date. Lets you put the trees into a wood, so to speak, and helps decide what to read. Another one in English, I'm afraid!

Of course, now I have listed ten, I can think of at least ten others I should have included. Wot, no Sorley? I'm ashamed to say I have not read very much of his poetry, though I have heard him speak it, and have met him. I still find it a bit hard work - my fault, not his! No collections of short stories either, though I have enjoyed many, and no Bible, as I have read very little of it (in any language!).

Ah well, what are these lists for, if not to stimulate debate?

What about your ten? Or five, if ten feels like more Gaelic than you have actually read.

Here are my top 9 in no particular order. I had to stop at 9 because I had too many choices for #10.

1. Creachadh na Clàrsach, by Ruaraidh MacThòmais
My favorite Gaelic poet; poems that appear to be simple but which convey truths on multiple levels

2. Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan
Dwelly!

3. Na Beanntaichean Gorma agus Sgeulachdan Eile à Ceap Breatainn, collected and edited by John Shaw
A wonderful selection of old Cape Breton stories; stories that make for good reading and even better listening

4. Faclan is Abairtean à Ros an Iar, compiled by Roy Wentworth
Another dictionary with more than 1000 pages; what's not to love?

5. An Tùil, edited by Ronald Black
A big fat collection of all the best 20th-century poetry

6. Tilleadh Dhachaidh, by Aonghas Pàdraig Caimbeul
Longer than a short story, shorter than a novel; the story of a train trip from Aberdeen to Kyle of Lochalsh with excursions into history, etymology, geography, and philosophy thrown in for good measure and a ghost

7. Bùrn is Aran, by Iain Mac a' Ghobhainn
My first (and still my favorite) book of short stories, bought at the wonderful Leakey's Bookshop in Inverness

8. Cothrom Ionnsachaidh, by Ronald Black
Do students still call this "the big red scary book"? My favorite Gaelic text book

9. Cat a' Mhinisteir, compiled by Hamish Whyte and Meg Bateman
The minister's cat is many things; a book of adjectives in which the cat illustrates his attributes letter by letter

10. I can't quite decide

I love the big, scary red book - though I've never heard it called that. It gives and explains the parts of Gaelic grammar that other books do not reach.

Burn is Aran may be the book responsible for so many hours of unrelieved bleakness in my early Gaelic student days. Does it contain the story set just after Culloden, where a mother is forced by Government soldiers to choose which of her two sons will be put to death?

I regretted not including in my list Words and Expressions from South Uist by Fr Allan MacDonald. Was it one of your candidates for no. 10?

Anyone else like to nominate a book or two?

No, I'm not sure where that Mac a' Ghobhainn story comes from. There's plenty of bleakness in Burn is Aran though. My favorite story in it is An Duine Dubh, in which an old woman living alone buys silk underwear from a peddler. When I began reading Mac a' Ghobhainn's short stories I fell in love with the richness of the images his simple language conveys.

And yes, the South Uist book was one of my choices for no. 10. I've never really used it as a dictionary, but it's full of wonderful words and a mystery or two. The other day I was paging through it and came across an entry that begins: Cùgrabhad, 128, the fabulous King of Cats. Google has been no help in finding out more about Gùgrabhad.

Another contender for no. 10 is the copy of Gaelic Without Groans that my sister bought forty years ago when she was an exchange student at the University of Edinburgh. I still enjoy the cartoons in it, and it was the first Gaelic teaching text I ever saw. It was challenging, to say the least, but it opened the door to an amazing adventure.

By the way, did you see that Màrtainn Mac an t-Saoir has just won the Donald Meek Award for his new novel? It's a book for teenagers called A Challaig seo, Chall Ò, and Acair will be publishing it in the fall.

>15 cailleach70: Try this link re the King of Cats
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King_of_the_Cats

and this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_S%C3%ACth#Soul-stealing

>I hadn't seen the news about Màrtainn - excellent. Can't seem to find anything about the book itself, though.

http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/books/novel-will-come-out-in-english-gaelic-on...

Just out - Aonghas Padraig Caimbeul's new novel. In another first for Gaelic publishing, it will be released simultaneously in Gaelic and in English.

An Nighean air an Aiseag
The Girl on the Ferryboat

That's an interesting publishing choice. I've become a fan of APC and look forward to reading it. I'll buy it in Gaelic; I wonder if I can talk my library into stocking it in English.

Very interesting and informative blog about Gaelic publishing and RLS - reversing language shift.

Gaelic version:
http://liamalasdair.wordpress.com/

English version:
http://liamalastair.wordpress.com/

And a quote:

As my Gaelic teacher, Joan NicDhòmhnaill, says, “Mar as moth’ a leughas tu, ’s ann as fheàrr a sgrìobhas tu. Mar as moth’ a sgrìobhas tu, ’s ann as fheàrr a bhruidhneas tu.” “The more you read, the better you write. The more you write, the better you speak.” A helpful adage for the Gaelic learner – read, read, read!

Hear, hear!

(edited to correct link)

http://www.ansgeulachdghoirid.com/stories.aspx?ID=3

Beautifully presented site allows you to read and/or listen to some well-known Gaelic short stories, and to access relevant online resources and study guides.

Yup, it's been a while.