reading is traveling words

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”

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Augustine of Hippo

——

 

 

Ok.

 

 

If you are a reader … this is going to be fabulous. Oh. And most of it was generated by a couple of tween/teen <young adult> people who love to read.

 

 

 

So often we have our favorite authors and many of those ‘favorite’ are driven by either where you live or by popular media.

 

 

I hesitate to call it a ‘reading rut’ but if you are not careful … you will see that over time your bookshelves with start having a slightly homogenous feel to it.

 

 

book touch lightly

I say that because that means we often miss out on some fabulous reading out of the mainstream.

 

 

That is why I believe this is fabulous.

 

 

I came across this “list of books from around the world’ on the tumblr site ‘about books and dreams’ which connected me to two different lists I wanted to share.

 

 

 

Suffice it to say … there are a shitload of books listed here and you could spend a lifetime finding & reading all of them.

 

 

 

But … well … what a lifetime, huh?

 

 

books to read

Anyway.

 

 

 

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–         The original list …Read The World – The Peirene 100 Essential Classics From Around The Globe.

 

 

A truly challenging, eclectic and inspiring list compiled entirely by Peirene Press readers:

 

 —

http://www.listchallenges.com/read-the-world-the-peirene-100-essential

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And then I saw a commenter … a young adult … kind of ‘diss’ the list in that snarky young way that young people can pull off <and I loved it>:

 

 

The thought was actually creating a list which is a reflection … a true reflection … of the world population.

 

 

 

What a fabulous idea <and lots of work>.

 

 

 

I do not know who ‘eastiseverywhere’ is … but job well done.

 

 

——————

 

 

 

eastiseverywhere:

 

 

I recently got ticked off over a “Read the World” list that was still really centred on Western books.

 

 

 

Then I started thinking: what if there were a reading list of 100 books that reflected the actual demographics of the world population of 7.152 billion people right now?

 

 

Here are:

 

19 books from China;

world broekn down 100 people

17 from India;

 

4 from the US;

 

3 from Indonesia, Brazil and Pakistan;

 

 

2 from Nigeria, Bangladesh, Japan and Mexico, and 1 each from the Philippines, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Egypt, Germany, Iran, Turkey, DRC, Thailand, France, UK, Italy, Burma, South Africa, South Korea, Colombia, Spain, Ukraine, Tanzania, Kenya, Argentina, Algeria, Poland, Sudan, Uganda, Canada, Iraq, Morocco, Peru, Uzbekistan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Nepal, Afghanistan, Yemen, North Korea, Ghana, Mozambique, Australia and Taiwan.

 

 

50 books are by men.

 

49 are by women.

 

1 is a work of divine revelation.

 

 

 

 

 

Authors (roughly) reflect the ethnic makeup of their nations – e.g. the South African author is Black, not white; the Malaysian author is Malay, not Chinese; one of the PRC authors is non-Han Chinese; one of the American authors is non-white.Bucharest, romania: A woman walks between books displayed on the pavement d

 

 

I’ve tried to represent a range of historical periods and the most acclaimed writers in each section.

 

 

Writers presented are those widely available in English – this is why Ding Ling, Zhang Yueran and Akka Mahadevi weren’t featured: because it’s really hard to find their work in English.

 

 

Also, a writer is only of a nationality if s/he’s got/had citizenship of the area at some point – i.e. Jhumpa Lahiri is American, not Indian.

 

 

Sure, I know this list is problematic – smaller countries, like those of the Caribbean and Oceania, are kind of wiped out. But I’m open to change this. So send in your suggestions for changes if you’ve got them!

 

 

And remember: if you’re gonna read the world, you might as well do it RIGHT.

 

 

————–

 

 

Here is the Full list of Books:

<note 1 from Bruce: of course I would edit the list to match up with my likes & dislikes … for example … for Spain I would include Arturo Perez Revarte … for Russia … well … I could include several others … but you get it … you can edit and add & subtract … but the point is you get exposed to books from around the world>.

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<note 2 from Bruce: this list also becomes more difficult if you maintain representation of the world … for example … France with its extensive list of great literature is limited to one book because of its relative size in the midst of the larger world>

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<note 3 from Bruce: please forgive me for any formatting issues or readability issues … this post was frickin’ difficult to build and format … I would have tortured someone at wordpress if I could ever find someone to wring their proverbial neck … >

—-

 

read fast sorcerer

On with the list ……

 

 

 

CHINA

The Analects of Confucius

The Tao Te Ching of Lao Zi

The Art of War by Sun Zi

The Poems of Li Qingzhao

The Journey to the West by Wu Cheng En

Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Shi Naian

Selected Stories of Lu Xun

Rickshaw Boy by Lao She

The Dyer’s Daughter by Xiao Hong

Love in a Fallen City by Eileen Chang

Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian

The Republic of Wine by Mo Yan

The Girl Who Played Go by Shan Sa

Red Azalea by Anchee Min

The Song of Everlasting Sorrow by Wang Anyi

Daughter of the River by Hong Ying

Wild Swans by Jung Chang

The Good Women of China by Xinran

 

INDIA

 

The Ramayana of Valmiki

The Mahabharata by Vyasa

The Dhammapada of Buddha

The Kural of Tiruvalluvar

The Story of My Experiments With Truth by Mohandas K. Gandhi

Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

The Great Indian Novel by Shashi Tharoor

Five Point Someone: What Not to Do at IIT by Chetan Bhagat

A River Sutra by Gita Mehta

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

Breast Stories by Mahasweta Devi

Fasting, Feasting by Anita Desai

Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Spouse: The Truth About Marriage by Shobhaa De

Moving On by Shashi Deshpande

 

USA

The Poems of Emily Dickinson

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Beloved by Toni Morrison

INDONESIA

Letters from A Javanese Princess by Raden Adjeng Kartini

This Earth of Mankind by Pramoedya Ananta Toer

Saman by Ayu Utami

BRAZIL

Dom Casmurro by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis

Dona Flor and her Two Husbands by Jorge Amado

The Hours of the Star by Clarice Lispector

PAKISTAN

Songs of Blood and Sword by Fatima Bhutto

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif

NIGERIA

Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamande Ngozi Adichie

BANGLADESH

Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore

The Good Muslim by Tahmima Anam

RUSSIA

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

reading 3

The Poems of Anna Akhmatova

JAPAN

reading 2

The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

MEXICO

reading 1

The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

PHILIPPINES

Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco

VIETNAM

When Heaven and Earth Changed Places by Le Ly Hayslip

reading is traveling child

ETHIOPIA

Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengiste

EGYPT

Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz

GERMANY

The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt

IRAN

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

TURKEY

My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

The Congo: From Leopold to Kabila: A People’s History by Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja

 

THAILAND

Letters from Thailand by Botan

FRANCE

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

UK

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

ITALY

The Aeneid by Virgil

BURMA

Letters from Burma by Aung San Suu Kyi

SOUTH AFRICA

Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela

SOUTH KOREA

Please Look After Mother by Kyung Sook Shin

COLOMBIA

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

SPAIN

The Life of St Teresa of Avila by Herself

UKRAINE

The White Guard by Mikail Bulgakhov

TANZANIA

Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah

KENYA

Devil on the Cross by Ngugi wa’Thiongo

ARGENTINA

The Topless Tower by Silvina Ocampo

ALGERIA

Fantasia: An Algerian Calvacade by Assia Djebar

POLAND

The Poems of Wislawa Szymborska

SUDAN

Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih

UGANDA

Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol by Okot p’Bitek

CANADA

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

IRAQ

The Poems of Rabia Basri

MOROCCO

Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits by Laila Lalami

PERU

The Time of the Hero by Mario Vargas Llosa

UZBEKISTAN

The Dancer from Khiva by Bibish

MALAYSIA

Kampung Boy by Lat

SAUDI ARABIA

The Quran

VENEZUELA

Doña Inés vs. Oblivion by Ana Teresa Torres

NEPAL

The End of the World by Sushma Joshi

AFGHANISTAN

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

YEMEN

I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali

NORTH KOREA

Eyes of the Tailless Animals by Soon Ok Lee

GHANA

Changes by Ama Ata Adoo

MOZAMBIQUE

Neighbours: A Story of a Murder by Lília Momplé

AUSTRALIA

Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay

TAIWAN

Notes of a Desolate Man by Chu Ti’en-Wen

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And to be fair to the about books and dreams tumblr author … she added her own list:

 

 

–          I’ll start adding some titles here (trying to stick to novels) and you can send me yours in a message.

 

 

 

Japan:

The Sea of Fertility series by Yukio Mishima, Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto.

México:

books and time

Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo, Battles in the Desert by José Emilio Pacheco, Les Exilés de la Mémoire (Los Rojos de Ultramar) by Jordi Soler, The Labyrinth of Solitude by Octavio Paz, Confabulario by Juan José Arreola, Popol Vuh, The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela, The Nine Guardians (Balún Canán) by Rosario Castellanos, Tear This Heart Out by Ángeles Mastretta.

Germany:

Perfume by Patrick Süskind, Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse, The Tin Drum by Günter Grass (born in Poland).

France:

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (born in Morocco).

Italy:

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino (born in Cuba).

Colombia:

Delirium by Laura Restrepo, Recipes for Sad Women by Héctor Abad Faciolince.

Spain:

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Tell Me Who I Am by Julia Navarro, See How Much I Love You by Luis Leante, Cathedral of the Sea by Ildefonso Falcones.

Argentina:

The Aleph and Other Stories by Jorge Luis Borges, Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar, The Tunnel by Ernesto Sabato.

Canada:

Dear Life by Alice Munro, In Praise of Slowness by Carl Honoré (born in Scotland), Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen.

Peru:

Red April by Santiago Roncagliolo.

Czech Republic:

Slowness by Milan Kundera, Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke.

Israel:

The Nimrod Flipout by Etgar Keret.

Nigeria:

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The African Trilogy by Chinua Achebe.

 

 
Palestine:

Wild Thorns by Sahar Khalifeh

 

 

Portugal:

Blindness by José Saramago, The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa.

 

 
Uruguay:

Memory of Fire series by Eduardo Galeano, The Decapitated Chicken and Other Stories by Horacio Quiroga, The Truce by Mario Benedetti.

——-

 

And then because the blog owner is Brazilian … she asks … can I add more Brazilian literature?

 

 

– Agua Viva, Near to the Wild Heart, and The Passion of G. H by Clarice Lispector

– The Posthumos Memoir of Bras Cubas by Machado de Assis

reading and where you will go

– Winning the Game and High Art by Rubem Fonseca

– They Were Many Horses by Luiz Ruffato

– Blood-drenched Beard by Daniel Galera

——-

 

Well.

 

 

If you can’t find something new to read off of this list … well … you are hopeless.

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Written by Bruce