Read books since I started the reading challenge in January 2017.
I did it! I have read books by authors from 30 nations (if I include Sápmi which I do). Not in a year which was the original challenge but in a bit under 1.5 years. I struggled a bit in the beginning but gradually I got better at finding great books from countries I normally don’t read from and I became braver in my reading choices.
What have I learnt?
In the beginning I was a bit too ambitious in my reading choices which slowed down my progress. If my goal had been to read one book per country and never return it would have made sense to make that one book really count. However, that’s not what I was trying to do. Instead I was gradually expanding my reading comfort zone and for that it helped to keep it simple. Often the cultural context of a novel was unfamiliar and it made more sense to select books that was not too demanding in other ways. I therefore dropped any ambition that the books I selected had to be particularly literary and I preferentially opted for shorter novels. Along the way I also got better at finding great literature in translation, identified a few interesting indie publishers and found many excellent international bloggers .
Good sources of literature in translation
And other stories publishes an eclectic collection of mostly translated fiction. Among them The Lime Tree by César Aira (which I liked) and The Seamstress and the Wind by the same author (which I found too weird).
Ayebia specialises in literature by African and Carribean authors. I’m currently enjoying their anthology African Love Stories (edited by Ama Ata Aidoo). Thank you Darkowaa for the review that introduced me to it!
My favourite discovery in translated fiction has been Peirene Press which publishes translated fiction by mostly European authors. I would have preferred a wider reach but Peirene Press has some other advantages that makes up for it. Most importantly all the books I have read from them (3) have been excellent. They also only publish shorter works (maximum about 200 pages) which makes me much more willing to risk trying a new author. And I like the look of their books…
A few relevant blog posts I found along the way
Beginner’s guide to Baltic Literature by Agnese
Ann Morgan’s list of books from her blog “A year of reading the world”
I would like to add more links here, please let me know if you have recommendations of similar resources from other regions (excluding literature from the UK and the US which is easy to find anyway).
What’s next?
I won’t start another reading challenge rightaway but I will keep tracking author’s country or origin for my reading. Hopefully it will show that I keep exploring new reading grounds. Next year I consider once more trying to limit my book buying but to give myself a free pass for books from countries I normally don’t read from to encourage more diverse reading choices.
Well done! I love translated literature but I’m rubbish at challenges!
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I’m a bit competitive so I find that it helps me get out of my comfort zone. But I have to be careful with it to avoid turning reading into a chore.
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Congratulations on completing the reading challenge! Thank you for mentioning my post. I’m glad you found it helpful.
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It’s an excellent list you made, I plan to use it again the next time I want to read something from the Baltic States.
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Thanks for the shout out! I’m glad African Book Addict! has been a great resource for ya 🙂
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It’s really great! I had problems finding African authors beside the big-name prize winners but you have helped me find a much broader selection. Thanks!
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What an accomplishment! Congrats!
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Thank you!
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Congrats on doing so many countries I slowly add them now as 114 countries in the blog so now adding depth to the countries I can
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Thank you!
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