Here’s my plan (because it’s good to have a plan) : I am aiming to read 100 books from 100 different countries in one year.
The plan belongs to the blogger behind the website and the year in question is already more than halfway through. The books read include novels by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón (Spain), Jean Cocteau (France), Chinua Achebe (Nigeria), Gabriel Garcia Márquez (Colombia), Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru), Pedro Juan Gutierrez (Cuba) and Primo Levi (Italy). There are also a host of lesser-known writers. But check them out for yourself.
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Mar 21st, 2007 at 7:49 am
I think something like this is a good idea. Though I read - only tolerably -some foreign languages, I still tend to gravitate towards works written originally in English. Reading Pamuk recently was very liberating, and I must resolve to do better, and go even further afield.
Do you know the Words Without Borders website, an online magazine for international literature? They offer some fine material:
http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/
jb says: Hi Lee. Thanks for the link. I do know the site and use it from time to time. I also only read in English but some of my best reading experiences have been in translation. Dostoevsky, Hamsun, Marquez, just to name a dozen or so.
Mar 21st, 2007 at 11:12 pm
Sounds like a major undertaking. Let us know how it works out.
jb says: I’ll be keeping my eye on it, Fred.