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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
I learned so much from this book! It's such a daunting challenge to take on and I really feel that Morgan killed it. The discoveries she made about the publishing industry and standards that we tend to set for what counts as a "published book." This isn't the most exciting read in the world, but it's really interesting, and surprisingly insightful.
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
I really enjoyed this book which has inspired me to look for more translated literature and perhaps start a project of my own.
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
adventurous
challenging
informative
relaxing
medium-paced
The massive undertaking of reading a book from every country in the world fell to Ann Morgan, who went on one literary trip and ended up taking a different journey. I think some reviewers expected a different book and held the end product to that standard. In acknowledgement of the change in direction, I’ll give Morgan credit for realizing she had a new task. Instead of holding on to 196+1 reviews (which she did on her blog, ahem), she went deep on the arduous task of sourcing books, the publishing scene in some countries that don’t crank out a zillion books a week, and what constitutes a country in the first place. The writing is a little dry in spots, but I’ll give Ann five stars here because I respect the change in plans, as well as the new insights. Way to go!
Such interesting insights into the world of publishing and translation.
I am not usually a fan of books about books, but I am a big fan of this one. Written by Ann Morgan (of the ayearofreadingtheworld blog), this is a guide book for all interested in Weltlitteratur or world literature. You do not need to read the blog to get the most from this book, but the author is able to go into much more depth about how we perhaps should “read” the world. There is a nice double meaning there but for readers from the Anglo-American, it is hard to understand the “normal” mindset that we bring to reading and interpreting stories – which this book rather subversively uncovers.
All of which is very interesting and worthy but to be selfish, Ann Morgan has opened my eyes to many many writers outside of the western literature tradition, and to be honest, these books are simply more interesting and fun han the ones I grew up with!
All of which is very interesting and worthy but to be selfish, Ann Morgan has opened my eyes to many many writers outside of the western literature tradition, and to be honest, these books are simply more interesting and fun han the ones I grew up with!
Cool premise, but I lost steam before I made it all the way to through.
DNF 25%
This is a fine book it’s just not what I wanted. I wanted a full description of her journey, what books she read and how she felt about them, how she found them, how she liked them, and instead it’s this dry wordy thing about world literature. Which is fine, it’s just not what I wanted to read.
It’s also very repetitive which I don’t appreciate. There’s only so many times you can say “it’s hard to find books from other countries translated into English” before it just gets boring. I feel like it would have been better as an essay collection. Also, she doesn’t establish herself very well at the beginning so I have no idea why I should trust her opinion on these matters or even who she is other than someone who reads all the time.
I think I’m just not the right audience for this one.
This is a fine book it’s just not what I wanted. I wanted a full description of her journey, what books she read and how she felt about them, how she found them, how she liked them, and instead it’s this dry wordy thing about world literature. Which is fine, it’s just not what I wanted to read.
It’s also very repetitive which I don’t appreciate. There’s only so many times you can say “it’s hard to find books from other countries translated into English” before it just gets boring. I feel like it would have been better as an essay collection. Also, she doesn’t establish herself very well at the beginning so I have no idea why I should trust her opinion on these matters or even who she is other than someone who reads all the time.
I think I’m just not the right audience for this one.
I DNFed this book, something I haven’t done for a long time. It’s not that the book was bad just misleading. What I was looking for was an account of the author’s experiences reading books from around the world, her thoughts, opinions, feelings with some of the geopolitical stuff weaved in. Instead it reads like a series of dry international politics lectures or a PhD thesis. I think her original blog is more like what I was looking for.
I am actually not claiming to have thoroughly read this, but did it give it a good basic scan through each of the chapters. Was drawn to it because it talks about books from other countries and I run a book discussion group that does this very thing. Was expecting more of a reading list, but this is more about why international authors don't get the hype and marketing of British and American authors. There are translation issues, ex-patriot issues, and quite a few other infrastructure matters within the publishing industry that keep these authors from American readers. It sheds light on this important matter, but it is dense reading which was a bit off-putting.