Reading All Around the World
There are nearly 200 countries on our planet; let's see if we can read books from all of them! Or, since that's a large commitment, pick 50, 100, or whatever, as long as you have a minimum of 50.
I've been wishing for a while for some sort of project that involves reading something from every country, but this is a tricky prospect, since it is not always easy to find books from some countries. Clearly this isn't something that will fit into a year-long challenge -- not for most of us! So Esther of Chapter Adventures and I got together and thought a more long-term, open-ended project would be a good plan. Esther designed this brilliant image!
The basic rules:
The longer version:
Lots of us want to read our way around the world! Let's do it together. Since it's not easy to get a book from the Comoros or North Korea, our rules have to be somewhat flexible....
You may read literature by a person from the country, or non-fiction about the history, culture, language, etc. of the country. Fiction set in a country but not written by a person who lives there does not count, because we are trying to get an inside view as much as possible; in fact, you may wish to make an effort to choose books by long-term residents rather than by people who have moved there more recently and written about it, but that is entirely up to you because I am not your mother, nor am I here to judge fine distinctions. By no means does the book have to be new; if your choice for Japan is the 900-year-old Tale of Genji, that's great.
You do not have to plan your list ahead of time; I would advise you not to. Just make a list of the countries you plan to read in, and fill them in as you go along. This is an adventure, so don't pick all easy ones! Challenge yourself.
Since this is such a big project, I've decided to allow you to retroactively fill in slots for six months -- if you read a great novel from Azerbaijan five months ago and want to count it in this project, that is OK. No counting the French novel from five years ago, though! Six months is as far back as you can go from your join date.
There are badges, because we love badges! Thanks to the fantastic Esther for designing them, and find them at the end of this page.
Read in whatever language you prefer and if you can read something in the original, by all means do so. We can discuss the nuances of reading translated works and how nice it would be to be able to read Tolstoy and Tagore in the original, too.
Where can we find recommendations -- lists of books from around the world? There are lots. Here are a few, and you can also try googling: if you're looking for a book from Madagascar, searching on "Madagascar literature" will bring up some wonderful resources.
A juried list of Africa's 100 Best Books of the 20th Century, published in 2002
Ann Morgan's Year of Reading the World List has something from every country! These are mostly modern literature.
Goodreads' list of books by country
A Google Doc of books read for Women in Translation Month in 2016
If you have recommendations, by all means send them to me and I'll build a list for us all to consult.
Build a Google map if you like, and share it on your blog. It's pretty easy to do; here's the Howling Frog map.
How many countries are there? Good question! It depends on who you ask. As far as I'm concerned, you may define your own list. If you want to recognize Kosovo, Palestine and Taiwan as countries, do so; or don't. That's your responsibility, not mine. Here's a fairly exhaustive list of 197, which is 193 UN members, two observers (Vatican City, Palestine), and two territories (Kosovo, Taiwan) recognized by some folks but not others.
Good luck and may the Force be with you! We'll all need it.
I've been wishing for a while for some sort of project that involves reading something from every country, but this is a tricky prospect, since it is not always easy to find books from some countries. Clearly this isn't something that will fit into a year-long challenge -- not for most of us! So Esther of Chapter Adventures and I got together and thought a more long-term, open-ended project would be a good plan. Esther designed this brilliant image!
The basic rules:
- Pick 50+ countries or go for the gold with all of them! The number depends on you.
- Sign up at the project page here.
- Read either fiction by a writer living in/from the country, OR a non-fiction book about it, such as memoir, history, culture, language.
- Tweet your posts with #readingallaround
- There are no time constraints. You can decide on a timeline, but don't worry if you don't make it. If you're going for the full list, I'd recommend five years at least to complete it.
- Keep track of your reading. Maybe fill in a list or build a Google map of all your books and countries. Maintain it at your blog and post about the books you read.
- When you finish a continent, grab one of the badges below! Put them on your blog for all to admire.
- When you reach your goal, celebrate!
The longer version:
Lots of us want to read our way around the world! Let's do it together. Since it's not easy to get a book from the Comoros or North Korea, our rules have to be somewhat flexible....
You may read literature by a person from the country, or non-fiction about the history, culture, language, etc. of the country. Fiction set in a country but not written by a person who lives there does not count, because we are trying to get an inside view as much as possible; in fact, you may wish to make an effort to choose books by long-term residents rather than by people who have moved there more recently and written about it, but that is entirely up to you because I am not your mother, nor am I here to judge fine distinctions. By no means does the book have to be new; if your choice for Japan is the 900-year-old Tale of Genji, that's great.
You do not have to plan your list ahead of time; I would advise you not to. Just make a list of the countries you plan to read in, and fill them in as you go along. This is an adventure, so don't pick all easy ones! Challenge yourself.
Since this is such a big project, I've decided to allow you to retroactively fill in slots for six months -- if you read a great novel from Azerbaijan five months ago and want to count it in this project, that is OK. No counting the French novel from five years ago, though! Six months is as far back as you can go from your join date.
There are badges, because we love badges! Thanks to the fantastic Esther for designing them, and find them at the end of this page.
Read in whatever language you prefer and if you can read something in the original, by all means do so. We can discuss the nuances of reading translated works and how nice it would be to be able to read Tolstoy and Tagore in the original, too.
Where can we find recommendations -- lists of books from around the world? There are lots. Here are a few, and you can also try googling: if you're looking for a book from Madagascar, searching on "Madagascar literature" will bring up some wonderful resources.
A juried list of Africa's 100 Best Books of the 20th Century, published in 2002
Ann Morgan's Year of Reading the World List has something from every country! These are mostly modern literature.
Goodreads' list of books by country
A Google Doc of books read for Women in Translation Month in 2016
If you have recommendations, by all means send them to me and I'll build a list for us all to consult.
Build a Google map if you like, and share it on your blog. It's pretty easy to do; here's the Howling Frog map.
How many countries are there? Good question! It depends on who you ask. As far as I'm concerned, you may define your own list. If you want to recognize Kosovo, Palestine and Taiwan as countries, do so; or don't. That's your responsibility, not mine. Here's a fairly exhaustive list of 197, which is 193 UN members, two observers (Vatican City, Palestine), and two territories (Kosovo, Taiwan) recognized by some folks but not others.
- Afghanistan
- Albania
- Algeria A Sister to Scheherazade, by Assia Djebar , The Plague, by Albert Camus
- Andorra: The Teacher of Cheops, by Albert Salvado
- Angola: The Book of Chameleons, by Jose Eduardo Agualusa
- Antigua and Barbuda: Annie John, by Jamaica Kincaid
- Argentina -- The Seven Madmen, by Roberto Arlt, The Aleph and Other Stories, by Jorge Juis Borges
- Armenia
- Australia -- The Biggest Estate on Earth, by Bill Gammage, Cloudstreet, by Tim Winton, Dark Emu, by Bruce Pascoe
- Austria
- Azerbaijan: Ali and Nino, by Kurban Said
- Bahamas
- Bahrain
- Bangladesh -- A Golden Age, by Tahmima Anam
- Barbados
- Belarus -- Voices From Chernobyl, by Svetlana Alexievich
- Belgium
- Belize
- Benin
- Bhutan
- Bolivia
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Botswana
- Brazil
- Brunei
- Bulgaria: Bai Ganyo, by Aleko Konstantinov, Everything Happens As it Does, by Albena Stambolova,
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi: Baho! by Roland Rugero
- Cabo Verde
- Cambodia: To Destroy You Is No Loss, by Teeda Butt Mam and Joan Criddle
- Cameroon: Essential Encounters, by Therese Kuoh-Moukoury
- Canada
- Central African Republic (CAR)
- Chad
- Chile: Seeing Red, by Lina Meruane
- China: Selected Stories of Lu Hsun
- Colombia
- Comoros
- Democratic Republic of the Congo: Tram 83, by Fiston Mwanza Mujila
- Republic of the Congo: Jazz and Palm Wine, by Emmanuel Dongala
- Costa Rica
- Cote d'Ivoire
- Croatia: Girl at War, by Sara Novic
- Cuba
- Cyprus
- Czechia: The Widow Killer, by Pavel Kohout, Walpurgisnacht, by Gustav Meyrink
- Denmark: Marie Grubbe, by J. P. Jacobsen
- Djibouti
- Dominica
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- Egypt: Isis, by Nawaal El Saadawi
- El Salvador
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Estonia: Purge, by Sofi Oksanen
- Ethiopia
- Fiji
- Finland: Letters from Klara, by Tove Jansson
- France: Treasure of the City of Ladies, by Christine de Pizan , The Man in the Iron Mask, by Alexandre Dumas,
- Gabon
- Gambia
- Georgia: The Brueghel Moon, by Tamar Chiladze, The Hand of a Great Master, by Konstanineh Gamsakhardia
- Germany : Steppenwolf, by Hermann Hesse, The Glass Bead Game, by Hermann Hesse, Undine and other Stories by La Motte Fouque
- Ghana
- Greece: The Scapegoat, by Sophia Nikolaidou
- Grenada
- Guatemala
- Guinea: The Dark Child, by Camara Laye
- Guinea-Bissau: The Ultimate Tragedy, by Abdulai Sila
- Guyana
- Haiti
- Honduras
- Hungary: Black Renaissance, by Miklos Szentkuthy
- Iceland
- India: Untouchable, by Mulk Raj Anand; Train to Pakistan, by Khushwant Singh; One Night @ the call Center, by Chetan Bhagat
- Indonesia: This Earth of Mankind, by Pramoedya Ananta Toer; A Child of All Nations, by Toer; Footsteps, by Toer;
- Iran: Women Without Men, by Shahrnush Parsipur
- Iraq
- Ireland: The Third Policeman, by Flann O'Brien
- Israel
- Italy
- Jamaica
- Japan: Rashomon and other stories, by Ryunsuke Akutagawa, The Sea and Poison, by Shusaku Endo, Kappa, by Ryunsuke Akutagawa, Amrita, by Banana Yoshimoto,
- Jordan
- Kazakhstan
- Kenya
- Kiribati
- Kosovo
- Kuwait
- Kyrgyzstan: Jamilia, by Chingiz Aitmatov
- Laos
- Latvia: I Grew Up in Latvia, by Zigrid Vidners
- Lebanon -- Autumn Equinox, by Jabbour Douaihy
- Lesotho
- Liberia
- Libya
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Macedonia
- Madagascar
- Malawi
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Mali
- Malta
- Marshall Islands: Marshall Islands Legends and Stories, coll. by Daniel Kelin II
- Mauritania
- Mauritius
- Mexico: The Underdogs, by Mariano Azuela
- Micronesia
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Mongolia: The Blue Sky, by Galsan Tschinag
- Montenegro: The Dawning, by Milka Bajic Poderegin
- Morocco
- Mozambique: The First Wife, by Paulina Chiziane
- Myanmar (Burma)
- Namibia
- Nauru
- Nepal
- Netherlands
- New Zealand: Witi Ihimaera: His Best Stories, by Witi Ihimaera, Whale Rider, by Witi Ihimaera
- Nicaragua
- Niger
- Nigeria: My Sister, the Serial Killer, by Oyinkan Braithwaite, The Palm-Wine Drinkard, by Amos Tutuola, The Bride Price, by Buchi Emecheta , Forest of a Thousand Daemons, by D. O. Fagunwa
- North Korea: The Accusation, by Bandi
- Norway: Four Stories by Sigrid Undset
- Oman
- Pakistan
- Palau
- Palestine
- Panama
- Papua New Guinea
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Philippines
- Poland: The Faithful River, by Stefan Zeromski, Pan Tadeusz, by Adam Mickiewicz, The Glatstein Chronicles, by Jacob Glatstein
- Portugal
- Qatar
- Romania
- Russia: My Universities, by Maxim Gorky, There Once Lived a Mother Who Loved Her Children, by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, The Foundation Pit, by Andrei Platonov, Boris Godounov, by Pushkin, Secondhand Time, by Svetlana Alexievich (USSR),
- Rwanda
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Samoa
- San Marino
- Sao Tome and Principe
- Saudi Arabia: Tales of the Marvelous and News of the Strange: Medieval Arabic Stories
- Senegal
- Serbia
- Seychelles
- Sierra Leone: Radiance of Tomorrow, by Ishmael Beah
- Singapore
- Slovakia
- Slovenia: Alamut, by Vladimir Bartol
- Solomon Islands
- Somalia
- South Africa: Born a Crime, by Trevor Noah
- South Korea: And So Flows History, by Hahn Moo-Sook
- South Sudan
- Spain
- Sri Lanka
- Sudan: Lyrics Alley, by Leila Aboulela
- Suriname
- Swaziland
- Sweden: The Sibyl, by Par Lagerkvist
- Switzerland
- Syria
- Taiwan
- Tajikistan
- Tanzania
- Thailand
- Tibet (bonus!) -- Old Demons, New Deities, ed. by Tenzin Dickie
- Timor-Leste
- Togo
- Tonga
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Tunisia
- Turkey
- Turkmenistan: Death of the Snake Catcher, by Ak Welsapar
- Tuvalu
- Uganda
- Ukraine
- United Arab Emirates (UAE)
- United Kingdom (UK): The Go-Between, by L. P. Hartley
- United States of America (USA) : Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
- Uruguay
- Uzbekistan
- Vanuatu
- Vatican City (Holy See)
- Venezuela
- Vietnam: Paradise of the Blind, by Duong Thu Huong
- Yemen
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe: The Book of Memory, by Petina Gappah
Good luck and may the Force be with you! We'll all need it.
Comments
I'm in.
Heather, thanks for the tip! I'm stealing that one.
Just a thought - you might get more links that way.
http://www.biblioatlas.com/2017/04/reading-all-around-world.html
Kristina