Getting back into reading made me aware of weird/bad German booktitle translations
A Darker Shade of Magic (VE Schwab): Die vier Farben der Magie (The Four Colours of Magic).
When I saw this one I was genuinely confused if I missed out on the colours of the magic in the book. Since I'm currently rereading it, I know now that that's not the case. I guess they just wanted to mix the 4 colours of London with the Magic in the title and just went for it??
A Gathering of Shadows (VE Schwab): Die Verzauberung der Schatten (The Enchantment/Bewitchment of the Shadows)
After reading the book I'm fairly sure the shadows weren't very enchanted or bewitched by anything.
Carry On (Rainbow Rowell): Aufstieg und Fall des außerordentlichen Simon Snow (Rise and Fall of the Extraordinary Simon Snow)
Just rolls right off the tongue, especially compared to the ridiculously complicated English title.
A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue (Mackenzi Lee): Cavaliersreise. Die Bekenntnisse eines Gentlemans
So research tells me that apparently “Cavalliersreise” is the old German term for "Grand tour of young nobles". I first read it literally as "Journey of a Chavalier. Confessions of a Gentleman" which makes this sound like an exceptionally boring book imo. This also has one of the worst book covers I've ever seen and I don't even know where to start in describing what's wrong with it honestly.
They Both Die at the End (Adam Silvera): Am Ende Sterben Wir Sowieso (We die at the end anyways)
Close but really doesn't have the same intrigue imo…And one of those cases were a literal translation would have worked no problem so I’m just left wondering why??
An Ember in the Ashes (Sabaa Tahir): Elias & Laia. Die Herrschaft der Masken (Elias & Laia. The Reign of the Masks)
If you had to call it something with the protagonists names in it, Laia and Elias would've sounded much better, just saying.
This Savage Song (Victoria Schwab): Monsters of Verity. Dieses wilde, wilde Lied (This wild, wild Song)
I just can't take this one seriously, it sounds so overly dramatic with the double wild.
Good Omens (Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman)– Ein Gutes Omen (A Good Omen)
I know this is basically the same. But you could have translated it literally with no issue. So why. And while we're at it why is Aziraphale called Erziraphael??? Just why.
