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  • Why do writers write? Because it isn't there. (Thomas Berger)    
  • I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again. (Oscar Wilde)    
  • Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee and just as hard to sleep after. (Anne Morrow Lindbergh)     
  • Writers will happen in the best of families. (Rita Mae Brown)     
  • The best way to become acquainted with a subject is to write a book about it. (Benjamin Disraeli)    
  • Western Europe owes its civilization to translators. (Kelly Louis)    
  • Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards. (Robert Heinlein)     
  • Language is an art, like brewing or baking. (Charles Darwin)    
  • The process of translating comprises in its essence the whole secret of human understanding of the world and of social communication. (Hans Georg Gadamer)    
  • We tend to look through language and not realize how much power language has. (Deborah Tannen)    
  • Arguments over grammar and style are often as fierce as those over IBM versus Mac, and as fruitless as Coke versus Pepsi and boxers versus briefs. (Jack Lynch)    
  • If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster. (Isaac Asimov)     
  • Writing well means never having to say, 'I guess you had to be there.' (Jef Mallett)    
  • No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else's draft. (H. G. Wells)    
  • The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. (George Bernard Shaw)     
  • The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think. (Edwin Schlossberg)     

first book translation

There was one thing left on my work bucket list: A book translation (I have already written a book, which is still available online) . I work on such great things that I had no other entries. And yesterday my work bucket list was cleared, because my first book translation arrived by mail.

'Build your confidence with CBT' is a self help book written by Manja de Neef (the original is called 'Negatief Zelfbeeld'). I had a great time translating and enjoyed the intensie process. I am used to translations which take a few days. The book took up most of November 2014! It was followed by a big rewrite, because my client, Open University Press / McGraw Hill Education, wanted to change a certain figure of speech which was used all over the text. After the rewrite, the publisher was more than satisfied and started the design and print.

I am going to reread the book soon. I has been more than a year and, to be honest, I have forgotten what it was exactly about, but I do remember that I was interested in the whole cognitive behavioural therapy approach. And after that I am going to have to do something about that bucket list. Time for new goals.

More about my translations