I love reading in any form. I love long novels and short stories, textbooks (less), papers (much less), poems (a lot), comics, and others.
Thank to my friend Eva Lien, last year I came to know about an intriguing initiative. What is it? It is a way to travel with your imagination, to know about places you have never been to, it is easy to do that and useful, to know other cultures, to understand a bit of history (who does not need a refresh of world history?!), to enlarge your horizons and learn a bit more of something you did not know before.
The original idea comes from Ann Morgan and her “A year of reading the world” experiment. Starting from the 196 independent countries as recognized from the United Nations, she read one book for each country. She immediately found out how difficult it is to find books from some countries. Try going to some well known bookshops in your city, and ask for a novel from… Malawi. Or Tajikistan. Or Lichtenstein! Not easy at all.
I am not following her list, but started my own one. I started last year, on the 1st of January, 2016….and, SHAME ON ME!, I have read just a few books so far. But, I must admit, I have read plenty of other stuff for research and teaching during the whole year…anyway, no excuses: next year I’ll do more. In the meantime, I suggest you doing this, and you’ll easily understand the benefits of such an experiment.
My list is below: some of those books are suggested (and some… not really).
Enjoy! And share your lists, if you like.
- Albania: Elvis Malaj, Dal tuo terrazzo si vede casa mia
- Argentina: Claudia Piñeiro, Le vedove del giovedì (Las viudas de los jueves)
- Brazil: Raduan Nassar, Un bicchiere di rabbia (Um copo de cólera)
- Canada: Miriam Toews, In fuga con la zia (The Flying Troutmans)
- China: Qiu Xiaolong, La misteriosa morte della compagna Guan (Death of a red heroine)
- Egypt: ‘Ala Al-Aswani, Palazzo Yacoubian (‘Imarat Ya’Qubian)
- England: Alan Bennett, La signora nel furgone (The Lady in the Van)
- France: Daniel Pennac, Signori Bambini (Messieurs Les Enfants)
- Hungary: Magda Szabó, Per Elisa (Fur Elise)
- Iceland: Gunnar Gunnarsson, Il pastore d’Islanda (Advent)
- India: Anita Nair, Cuccette per signora (Ladies Coupé)
- Indonesia: Pramoedya Ananta Toer, This Earth of Mankind (Bumi Manusia)
- Iran: Azar Nafisi, Leggere Lolita a Teheran (Reading Lolita in Tehran)
- Israel: Benjamin Tammuz, Il minotauro (Minotaur)
- Norway: Per Petterson, Fuori a rubar cavalli (Ut og stiaele hester)
- Pakistan: Malala Yousafzai, Io sono Malala (I am Malala)
- Peru: Mario Vargas Llosa, Chi ha ucciso Palomino Molero? (¿Quién mató a Palomino Molero?)
- Poland: Israel J. Singer, La famiglia Karnowski (Di mispohe Karnovski)
- Portugal: Josè Saramago, Memoriale del Convento (Memorial do Convento)
- South Africa: Nelson Mandela, Le mie storie africane (Madiba Magic. Nelson Mandela’s Favourite Stories for Children)
- Spain: Angeles Donate, Il club delle lettere segrete (El invierno che tomamos carta en el asunto)
- Sweden: Selezione di fiabe e leggende da Gultan Olof Hylten-Cavallius e George Stephens, Fiabe svedesi (Svenska folk-sagor ock äfventyr)
- USA: Louise May Alcott, Piccoli Uomini (Little Men)