The problem with translated books

I think it is fair to say that I am quite a fan of reading, and very often it frustrates me to realise my own limitations of being only bilingual, and hence not being able to enjoy books in other languages in their most genuine form.
When I'm reading Inkheart and Inkspell in English, and I don't like them very much, I would wonder what would they be like in German, the original language, and whether it is because the translated books do not do the books justice, since it is supposedly a very popular series.
When I want to read 村上春树, I would be undecided between choosing the translated English or Chinese versions, while thinking at the back of my mind that neither of them will be ever as good as the original Japanese version. Personally, for Japanese books, I would prefer the Chinese version since I have the mindset that they're somehow closer and hopefully will preserve more of the original spirit of the books.
Lately I've been trying to find the book Sad Cypress from the Hercule Poirot series, but the only one I can find is the Chinese version in NLB, which translates to 丝柏的哀歌, and the book is pretty long and wordy, which is very different from other Agatha Christie books, as some of her fans might realise. I've read half of it so far, and I can somehow accept it in Chinese if not for the fact that Poirot = 白罗. Also, the translator is highly capable in Chinese and her literature flair is evident, with me finding pretty nice quotes in the books, but again I hesitate to copy them down because I'm not sure if it is indeed what Agatha Christie wrote in the original English version.
Come to think of it though, if not for these translators, I might never get to read certain foreign books, and I respect them for their own literature style in the translations.
There's this wonderfully cute cartoon style book series called Moomins, which is originally Finnish, if not for the Chinese ones I found one fine day in Jurong library, I would've never realise there's such a pure, cute and sweet cartoon around. The other sweet thing is I notice afterwards that the translator is actually 张小娴, the Hongkong writer I like. 真是英雄所见略同。
Actually, there are so many wonderful English and Chinese books around, so perhaps I should pay more attention to them instead of lamenting on how I can never read a translated book in its full glory, then again, the same thing with animes, TV series and movies, sometimes the foreign ones are so good one just can't help but jump into it even though one doesn't understand the original language.