An Update on the #readtheworld Challenge

At the beginning of the month, I announced the Read The World Challenge, where each month I would pick a different country and read books in translation from that country or non-fiction books about that country.

In November, I chose China, and there were some great posts. See the November Wrap-Up for more info on those.

I wanted to post an update to the challenge and what I learned during the first month. Most notably, that it is really stressful trying to find books in translation and read a bunch of books from a specific country when you also have other books you need and want to read.

Moving forward, each month will not have a particular theme, but I am going to read at least three books in translation each month. I have a bowl with the names of every country on earth in it, including some contested areas such as Tibet. Three times each month, I’m going to pull Countries out of the bowl and read a book from each place.

This update to the challenge will allow me to be less stressed out about the whole project while still reading plenty of #intranslation books. I love reading books that were originally written in other countries because it allows us to learn about other cultures and travel to places we may not be able to otherwise. I’m looking forward to reading a lot of new books moving forward.

I really enjoyed having Meonicorn from The Bookish Land do a guest post, and I want to include plenty of guest posts each month. If you are from a country outside of America and you’re interested in writing about the literature of where you’re from, head to the Contact page and shoot me an email.

I hope this isn’t disappointing to anyone. I had fully intended to move forward with the challenge with how I had originally approached it at the beginning of the month, but it was just too much to take on. Choosing three #intranslation books per month is much more doable, and I hope you’ll stick around for those books in December.