Suggestion of literature for motivate studying

[Ahendu]

I'm learning turkish and I would like to ask some literature suggestion to get more motivated.

I'm looking for prose authors of turkey turkish that are interesting, I usually like classics, my prefered novelists are Dostoievski and Thomas Mann.
Could be poetry too, but I know its harder for begginners.

I long for reading Nava'i, divan poetry and travel ottoman literature in the future, but I know i'll only start learning ottoman and chagatai after modern turkish, and from 20th century literature i know nothing yet.

[Ahendu]

By the way, I could find two books till now:

- Saatleri Ayarlama Ensitüsü - Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar
- Huzur - Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar

By what I read on Wikipedia it seems a good finding!

I got also curious about Sabahattin Ali, but I couldn't find any book of him for sale here.

[linguoboy]

Tanpinar is pretty dense and slow-moving. I tried reading Huzur in the English translation (A Mind at Peace) and didn't get through it all.

The Turkish author I've most enjoyed reading (again, in translation) is Orhan Pamuk, and him I find somewhat uneven. He's at his most interesting when he reminiscing about Istanbul. That's why my favourite works from him are the autobiographical Istanbul—hatıralar ve şehir and the semiautobiographical Benim adım kırmızı. (I haven't read Kafamda bir tuhaflık yet, but it looks to be in much the same vein.) These are all rather long works (each more than 400 pages), so if you wanted something shorter, you could read his short novel Beyaz kale. I didn't find it very rewarding, but the language seems pretty simple and it's not a difficult plot to follow, so it might be a good starting point if you haven't read much Turkish before.

Other authors I've read include Elif Şafak, Buket Uzuner, Perihan Mağden, Mehmet Murat Somer, and Ahmet Altan. Unfortunately, I can't really recommend any of them, as much reactions ranged from boredom (Altan) to annoyance (Mağden, Şafak).

[Ahendu]

Tanpinar is pretty dense and slow-moving. I tried reading Huzur in the English translation (A Mind at Peace) and didn't get through it all.

The Turkish author I've most enjoyed reading (again, in translation) is Orhan Pamuk, and him I find somewhat uneven. He's at his most interesting when he reminiscing about Istanbul. That's why my favourite works from him are the autobiographical Istanbul—hatıralar ve şehir and the semiautobiographical Benim adım kırmızı. (I haven't read Kafamda bir tuhaflık yet, but it looks to be in much the same vein.) These are all rather long works (each more than 400 pages), so if you wanted something shorter, you could read his short novel Beyaz kale. I didn't find it very rewarding, but the language seems pretty simple and it's not a difficult plot to follow, so it might be a good starting point if you haven't read much Turkish before.

Other authors I've read include Elif Şafak, Buket Uzuner, Perihan Mağden, Mehmet Murat Somer, and Ahmet Altan. Unfortunately, I can't really recommend any of them, as much reactions ranged from boredom (Altan) to annoyance (Mağden, Şafak).

Thank you!

I found some new books which made me happy cause its already a small collection:

- Gece Sesleri - Ayse Kulin
- Baba Ve Piç Roman - Elif Şafak
- Mahrem Roman - Elif Şafak
- Puslu Kitalar Atlasi - Ihsan Oktay Anar
- Beyaz Kale - Orhan Pamuk
- Cevdet Bey Ve Ogullari - Orhan Pamuk
- Beyoğlu Kısa Geçmişi, Argosu - Özdemir Kaptan
- Yedinci Gun - Ihsan Oktay Anar
- An Anthology of Modern Turkish Short Stories - Fahir Iz (Edit.)

This anthology I hope it to be bilingual though Im not sure. I also found many translations of books into turkish, but once my original turkish literature collection has already a good number of pages I'll not get translations I guess.
So I found the beyaz kale you mentioned.

I didnt find any Sabahattin Ali book though, so Im thinking on importing it, cause I read some quotes of him and I found very interesting, besides his picture resembles another writer I like so its a good guess.

[Ahendu]

I've just finished reading Madonna in a fur coat, first Turkish literature I've read.

It reminded me of Dostoievski's white nights and Thomas Mann's Tonyo Kroeger.

Lovely, lovely, haunting, really special book.

I would change somethings in the story, of course, (just as I would do with every Dostô story...) but it is still lovely