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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
I find it difficult to assign a rating to this book. I can't say that I didn't enjoy reading it because some parts I found really interesting. However, I was glad to see it come to an end, as I found it rambled on a bit. It definitely made me stop and think at times though, and I always consider that a good book. Not much of a 'story' about her year of reading, but definitely about reading and books.
I loved the idea of this book more than the book itself. Expanding your literary world must be intentional, as Morgan discovered, and so she begins working her way through 195 books from 195 separate countries. A book of book reviews sounds great, but Morgan has an academic, meandering style that makes it less pleasurable to read.
In 2012 Ann Morgan, a freelance writer, editor and blogger, set herself the goal of reading one book from every country in the world, sharing her reviews through her blog, AYearofReadingtheWorld.com.
The World Between Two Covers is in small part the story of her reading adventures, but is more fully an academic examination of the challenges she faced in sourcing world literature.
Her first task was to determine exactly what defines a country, apparently there is some dispute, though she eventually settled on a list of 196. Morgan was then faced a number of challenges in selecting representative texts from each country including availability (only around 4% of books published in English are translated from other languages), censorship, technology and cultural identity. The World Between Two Covers examines these issues both within a global context, and within the framework of Morgan's personal challenge.
"The truth is, we as individuals will never be wise enough or cultured enough or fast enough or long-lived enough to read the world as deeply and thoroughly as it deserves – and we never have been. We can only fail. So we have a choice: we can stick with what we know, or we can embrace the impossibility of reading world literature properly and jump right in – ‘feel the fear and do it anyway'."
I found The World Between Two Covers to be an interesting read, highlighting the issues at play in reading world literature, especially because I'm in my second year of participating in a similar, though far less ambitious challenge {Around the World in 12 Books}, requiring I read 12 books over the course of the year, each set in a different country, across six continents. This book has inspired me to dig a little deeper than I have previously in selecting books for the challenge.
I read this book with more thoroughness and curiosity than I expected. It broached many 'issues' surrounding the subject of reading across different cultures and languages. Ann Morgan seasoned the writing with many anecdotes and some beautiful phrasing, which made me feel like the large amount of reading she did for her project and this book did influence her to be more 'writerly,' though maybe that is a projection of mine rather than a detectable cause.
adventurous
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
Very interesting concept and the beginning sections are really great to read with a lot of information which makes you think about your own reading habits and international fiction in general. It does however get quite repetitive and some parts aren't very well edited so they jump around a lot. Perhaps could have gone in to detail around how patterns of fiction vary or what is written about in different points of view. Should either have been a shorter book as a recommendation of introducing more international fiction or a longer piece highlighting the varying issues and topics cultures write about. Either way an enjoyable read that is definitely inspiring me to read more widely.
I feel like I will be approaching my reading differently and more conscientiously having read this book. Most of the chapters are compulsive reads. I really enjoyed learning about the differences in access to and opinions of publishing from around the world. Anecdotes of Morgan overcoming barriers to obtaining works from specific places, especially at the goodwill of others, were perhaps the most compelling parts of the book. I struggled with the chapters on culture shock and representations of the West as they were much too reliant on literary theory rather than the application of Morgan's reading experience. Overall this book was well worth picking up after being on my TBR for too many years.
I'm not going to give this a star rating because I didn't finish it. I've only read the first 45 pages (15% of the actual text, the rest is bibliography), but I am bored out of my skull! I just can't read any more of this well-researched novel-length academic paper. I was hoping it would be more like Tolstoy and the Purple Chair, which I quite enjoyed. What I wanted, and what the blurb makes it sounds like the book is, is a list of what books the author read and to hear her thoughts on the books she read. Instead, it's like the author did a bunch of research on the history and politics of world lit and tried to cram all her research into the book. Oh well. Moving on.
This was very interesting, but for me, the rating came down to expectations vs reality.