Spanish letters

I am late to the party. It took me over 10 years to discover a 2012 project by Ann Morgan to read a book from every country in the world. She had realised that she was reading mainly English and North American writers, and decided to remedy the situation by finding and reading one book from every country, in English translation.

The list of book suggestions made my mouth water. It also made me think: what about my own reading geography? 

I read in different languages, that’s for sure. But from which countries do these books originate?

I decided to do a quick breakdown by the author’s country of my readings, mainly in the originals, but some in translation.

English. The UK and US are obviously well represented. But what about other English-speaking countries?

I have read a couple of authors from Canada and Ireland; one British author born in South Africa and another of Ugandan descent.

But: nobody from the Indian subcontinent, nor English-speaking African countries, nor Australia  and New Zealand…

French. Authors from France and Belgium. That’s it. No francophone Africa, North or West! 

Spanish. The widest geographical representation. Authors from Spain (obviously), but also from Argentina, Chile, Columbia, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay.

German. Obviously Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, and an eccentric selection of authors born in other countries but writing in German: Georgia, Japan, Russia, and Turkey.

Latvian. Writers from Latvia.

Russian. Russia, but also books written in Russian by authors from Armenia, Israel, and Ukraine.

Three languages are straightforward.

I read writers from Czechia in Czech, from Italy in Italian, and from Estonia in Estonian.

Greek. It ‘s all Ancient Greek to me! I have not read a single book by a contemporary Greek or Cypriot author!!!

Translations

I rarely read in translation, so the list is pretty short.

I have read books translated into English from Croatian, Hebrew, Hungarian, and Japanese; into French from Polish and Japanese; into Russian from Hungarian, Japanese, Georgian, Kyrgyz, Norwegian, and Swedish; and into Latvian from Hungarian and Japanese.

After looking at this breakdown, time to draw conclusions.

Unexpectedly, the most broadly read continent, by far, is the Americas! I have read books by authors from the US, Canada, and many Latin American countries.

Brazil is the only major gap, but that is because I intend to learn Portuguese and read in the original.

Breakdown by country in Europe is predictable. Whenever I know the language, I read authors from the countries where it is used. The exceptions are rare and confirm the rule. 

Hence, almost total absence of Scandinavian, Balkan, and Central and Eastern European writers. 

What to do about it? I will definitely learn Polish, so Polish authors can wait till then. Same for Portuguese. I envisage to learn one Scandinavian language, perhaps Swedish, so they can wait as well. 

For the rest, I will need to decide, and it will depend. After Estonian, learning Lithuanian suddenly seems so appealing, to be able to converse in all three Baltic languages. I toy with the idea of learning one South Slavic language, but which?

Last not least, Ukrainian literature is amazing, its history is fascinating, and the future of Ukraine is critical for humanity – I should at least learn enough language to read.

For Asia, my reading focuses on three regions. First, Japan, where I have lived, learned the basics of language, and intend to learn properly one day.

Second, Israel, in excellent English translations from Hebrew and some authors writing in Russian.

Third, Caucasus and Central Asia. This particular regional interest may sound unusual but it is not, if you consider that these regions and the Baltics were once part of the Russian and Soviet Empire, which has led to a fair amount of post-colonial solidarity and mutual interest after we regained our independence.

I have no particular interest in other Asian regions right now, but time will tell.

Finally, the glaring absence in my reading geography is Africa. Given that many African writers write in English or French, this gap is probably the easiest to close.