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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
The world came to the UK in 2012 when we hosted the Olympics, and as a challenge Ann Morgan decided that this was the time to discover the literary landscape of the world. Whilst the UK and Europe has a long history of books and reading, a number of countries don’t have this aspect to their culture; sometimes because they have a predominately oral history other times because the authorities don’t permit artistic expression.
First she had to choose the countries that she was to read from. Fairly easy you would think, but nothing is that straightforward. For example, the UK considers Taiwan to be an independent country, but China has a very different opinion on this. Having settled on her list of 196 countries (plus one) the next challenge was to find a piece of literary work from that country; that had been written down; and translated into English.
So begins her walk through the world’s fictional topography. For every book she chooses there are lots that she misses out on, but each piece gives a flavour of the culture of the country of origin. This perspective can be lost when the book is translated as you are getting as much from the translator as you were from the author. Throughout the book she considers the state of global literature, the spectre of state censorship and how writing can define a countries national character. There is an interesting chapter on the way that the internet is able to bring together a varied and diverse set of readers, and why so few of the 100,000 books published every year in the UK are translated ones.
But in some ways this book was a bit of a let down. I was hoping for much more on the actual books Morgan read; her feelings and thoughts of the text and stories as she roamed the world. Whilst there is a full list of the books that she read for each of the countries selected at the back of the book, it was such a shame, because the promise of Reading the World as indicated by the title wasn’t really there.
First she had to choose the countries that she was to read from. Fairly easy you would think, but nothing is that straightforward. For example, the UK considers Taiwan to be an independent country, but China has a very different opinion on this. Having settled on her list of 196 countries (plus one) the next challenge was to find a piece of literary work from that country; that had been written down; and translated into English.
So begins her walk through the world’s fictional topography. For every book she chooses there are lots that she misses out on, but each piece gives a flavour of the culture of the country of origin. This perspective can be lost when the book is translated as you are getting as much from the translator as you were from the author. Throughout the book she considers the state of global literature, the spectre of state censorship and how writing can define a countries national character. There is an interesting chapter on the way that the internet is able to bring together a varied and diverse set of readers, and why so few of the 100,000 books published every year in the UK are translated ones.
But in some ways this book was a bit of a let down. I was hoping for much more on the actual books Morgan read; her feelings and thoughts of the text and stories as she roamed the world. Whilst there is a full list of the books that she read for each of the countries selected at the back of the book, it was such a shame, because the promise of Reading the World as indicated by the title wasn’t really there.
The world came to the UK in 2012 when we hosted the Olympics, and as a challenge Ann Morgan decided that this was the time to discover the literary landscape of the world. Whilst the UK and Europe has a long history of books and reading, a number of countries don’t have this aspect to their culture; sometimes because they have a predominately oral history other times because the authorities don’t permit artistic expression.
First she had to choose the countries that she was to read from. Fairly easy you would think, but nothing is that straightforward. For example, the UK considers Taiwan to be an independent country, but China has a very different opinion on this. Having settled on her list of 196 countries (plus one) the next challenge was to find a piece of literary work from that country; that had been written down; and translated into English.
So begins her walk through the world’s fictional topography. For every book she chooses there are lots that she misses out on, but each piece gives a flavour of the culture of the country of origin. This perspective can be lost when the book is translated as you are getting as much from the translator as you were from the author. Throughout the book she considers the state of global literature, the spectre of state censorship and how writing can define a countries national character. There is an interesting chapter on the way that the internet is able to bring together a varied and diverse set of readers, and why so few of the 100,000 books published every year in the UK are translated ones.
But in some ways this book was a bit of a let down. I was hoping for much more on the actual books Morgan read; her feelings and thoughts of the text and stories as she roamed the world. Whilst there is a full list of the books that she read for each of the countries selected at the back of the book, it was such a shame, because the promise of Reading the World as indicated by the title wasn’t really there.
First she had to choose the countries that she was to read from. Fairly easy you would think, but nothing is that straightforward. For example, the UK considers Taiwan to be an independent country, but China has a very different opinion on this. Having settled on her list of 196 countries (plus one) the next challenge was to find a piece of literary work from that country; that had been written down; and translated into English.
So begins her walk through the world’s fictional topography. For every book she chooses there are lots that she misses out on, but each piece gives a flavour of the culture of the country of origin. This perspective can be lost when the book is translated as you are getting as much from the translator as you were from the author. Throughout the book she considers the state of global literature, the spectre of state censorship and how writing can define a countries national character. There is an interesting chapter on the way that the internet is able to bring together a varied and diverse set of readers, and why so few of the 100,000 books published every year in the UK are translated ones.
But in some ways this book was a bit of a let down. I was hoping for much more on the actual books Morgan read; her feelings and thoughts of the text and stories as she roamed the world. Whilst there is a full list of the books that she read for each of the countries selected at the back of the book, it was such a shame, because the promise of Reading the World as indicated by the title wasn’t really there.