I was in Cardiff yesterday. Finally getting around to purchasing a pocket Welsh dictionary amongst other things. I also purchased a novella in Welsh for a mere one British pound! I haven’t read it yet, or know if there are more in a series for us cheapskates, the book is labelled as ‘Stori sydyn’ so it may be. Anyway it’s ‘Y Gosb’ by Geraint Evans and published by ‘Y Lolfa’, the blurb states that it is an exciting detective novel, we shall see how exciting it really is!
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There are loads of books in the stori sydyn series, some for a quid, some for 2 but most seem to be for the heady price of £2.99. I know, steady on. I’ve got most of them now, I think. There are some really good reads amongst them.
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The Stori Sydyn series is an excellent initiative. They produce about 5 books a year (coming out towards the start of the year I think). They publish both Welsh and English language books and are designed to encourage adults back into reading. I think they’re perfect for us learners because they get genuinely excellent authors (including the wonderful Manon Steffan Ros) to write really interesting stories (generally) at a level that’s pretty approachable. (Well everything gets more approachable the more you work at it).
Enjoy!
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I’ve ordered a series of books called “cyfres mellt” from siop y siswrn in Wrecsam and will be picking it up tomorrow. There are 6 books in the series and it costs £20 as a boxed set, individually they are £4.95. They are aimed at children in years 7 to 9 so young teenager, which is about right for me at the moment without having to use a dictionary too often.
By the way, make sure to use your local bookshop if you have one, much better than lining the pockets of an already insanely rich international corporation.
Many posts above I mentioned my favourite bookshop!
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I’m reading “Harri Potter a Maen yr Athronydd” which is far as I know, the only book in the Harry Potter series to have been translated into Welsh. I’m really enjoying working through it (slowly!) I remember the English version fairly well so it’s great fun to re-read it in Welsh 
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Harri Potter was discussed here some time ago and I remember that someone had produced vocab lists for every page using Memrise which I found pretty helpful.
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I’m doing the Memrise Harry Potter list which is, unfortunately, in alphabetical order. Geiriau Harri Potter
There is also a page by page list which goes up to page 20? Or does it mean chapter 20. Harri Potter a Maen yr Athronydd. I think @steve_2 would know as the name is somewhat familiar!
Or is one just a reworking of the other?
I’d forgotten that I did that! Yes, I remember checking with the author of the original list who allowed me to reorder it - I found page by page more useful for me. I only got to page 20 because, to be honest, I wasn’t that keen on the book and moved on to something else. (Chatting to a couple of Welsh speakers afterwards they were grumbling about the quality of the translation, but that’s a different matter).
I’ve really got into reading in Welsh recently, it’s getting easier. I’ve been reading a few of the ‘Nofelau Nawr’ series with the vocab help (which isn’t very much help really). I discovered that Y Lolfa have a similar series of novellas for learners, ‘golau gwyrdd’. I’ve just finished ‘Y Ty ar Lon Glasgoed’ by Sonia Edwards
What I like about reading these books is that the stories are often on subject matter I wouldn’t otherwise read in English.
What has been odd to me is the dropping of pronouns, like “Gadewais [i] y ty heb ddweud dim wrth Mam”. I’ve experienced this in two books now. It’s helped me not rely on the ‘i, di, fo, hi, ni, nhw’ but get used to the conjugation.
It’s fascinating reading in a second language. I just wish I could leap into Taliesen, but am really appreciating these learner novels and looking forward to being able to read grown up books!
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I’ve just found out that the many of Roald Dahl’s books have been translated. I think I’d love reading these in Welsh. Has anyone read these books yn Cymraeg? Are they well translated?
I have y twits at home, but gave up after the fourth page. I then read the English version, which I have as well and gave up on that at the same point. They seemed pretty equivalent to me and if you like Roald Dahl or read his work when you were younger then it might be good.
I’ve just read on twitter about the passing of the Welsh author Gareth F. Williams. Sad news indeed. I’ve only read one of his books, Anji, part of the “cyfres copa” series, which I thought was excellent, a little dark on times but a very good and accessible read, more than suitable for learners. I’ve got “Tacsi i hunllef” upstairs but haven’t read it yet as I want to buy and read “Tacsi i’r tywyllwch” first which I’m struggling to find. They are both in the stori sydyn series which I’ve mentioned before. If you are into books that are a little dark and strange, he’s the man for you.
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Some are, some maybe not so much - in terms of flow, feel, ease of reading - we’re reading The Witches at the moment, which feels very natural, but found (for example) James and the Giant Peach much tougher going. I don’t know if they were translated by different people - but the James ATGP seemed much to concerned with exact translation which often seemed really clunky…
Oh dear, we learned from @lynne_freudigmann :-
I used to try to translate as I was listening, which was not working because I would soon lose the plot. I am beginning to realise that I have to use the language in its own right and not translate. For example I know that barod means ‘ready’ and siarad means ‘speak’. I don’t need to translate them.
When writing for children, surely simplicity of language is more important, not less? Paraphrasing into the equivalent Cymraeg phrase is far better than a clunky ‘exact’ but never-used phrase!
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I don’t think they do use simple language - not in English or in Welsh. I think childrens books are thought of as educational and tend to want to throw in a lot more elaboration sometimes than adult books. If you read simple Peppa pig books you need to get familiar with rochodd and chwarddodd, and will never see meddai or dwedodd. The English books are the same rarely will you see simple well spoken words, they use more elaborate words for style and education purposes - vocabulary building for kids I guess. “soch hi hi roch” ebychodd
Just found this link for 300 ways to say “said” in English, now need to work on a Welsh equivalent to be able to read childrens books more easily.
and
I admit defeat! Exclaimed, I can manage, and laughed, but ‘soch’? Swch is snout, I think, so is it like snort? I finally realised ‘roch’ is from groch = loud! But I couldn’t find it’s verbal version. At least my aps don’t have it as shout or yell and I’m too lazy to move my laptop, disturb my little poodle and fetch the Geiriadur Mawr.
I see the point about widening vocabulary but it might just put some children off reading about Peppa a George, so they just stick to watching on TV!
Soch is what a pig says in Welsh.
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As in sochius? 
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