Beginner Translation

[Gil]

I've been reading suggestions on this forum that beginners, like myself, should try translating small bits of hard, original Latin texts as they work with their grammar primers and other course books. I'm interested in attempting that. I'm looking for a book that has the Latin on one side and English translation on the other (think Loeb) so that I can check to see if I've got my translation right. But Loeb's kind of expensive, so do you have any recommendations? Any author recommendations? Which author do you think is the "easiest" for a beginner to work with?

[thesaurus]

If you're looking to save your money, I'd recommend using a combination of translations freely available online. Caesar's "De Bello Gallico" is a very common beginner's Latin text.

Perseus has the Latin text as well as an English translation (listed under "Editions and translations"). Plus, the dictionary tools should be of great use to you.
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/pt ... 99.02.0002

If you tire of Caesar, just searching around online should turn up plenty of translations of the most popular Latin works.