100BestWIT discussion

What do you think of the list? How many of the books have you read already?

I know there are discussions around the euro-centric nature of the list, I think that is more a reflection of the industry bias and availability. It is useful to be aware, so we can work towards fixing, but I still believe this is a great list. A nice collection of poetry, genres and non-fiction. Would work as a WIT starter kit, for people not knowing where to start.

I’ve read 39 of the books, and 9 of the top ten. (Also of my nominations, 9 of my nominations made the list).

I don't see myself reading it in its entirety, but that's likely because that I'm very far from a starter position. I'll be picking and choosing amongst the older and/or non-Euro sections of it, for sure, because when it comes to WIT, I'm far more interested in buried classics beyond the pale than anything else. Authors having multiple works on any laudatory list is also a pet peeve of mine, but it does give options to those looking, so I won't quibble (that much).

Of the works, I've read 31, am currently reading one (The Vegetarian), and have another eight on the TBR, one of which I plan on starting soon (Go, Went, Gone).

Of the ten I nominated, six made it:
Murasaki Shikibu - The Tale of Genji
Sigrid Undset - Kristin Lavransdatter
Simone de Beauvoir - The Second Sex
Marguerite Yourcenar - Memoirs of Hadrian
Christa Wolf - The Quest for Christa T.
Mariama Bâ - So Long a Letter

And four didn't:
Tatyana Tolstaya - The Slynx
Clarice Lispector - The Passion According to G.H.
Dương Thu Hương - Novel Without a Name
Radwa Ashour - The Woman from Tantoura

I've read 19, and of a few others I read other books by the same author. There aren't many surprising new names on there if you've been paying attention to what was released/talked about these last few years. But it's a nice mix with some books that I was already planning on getting to soon-ish as well as some others that are put back on my radar. Though I'm currently on a non-fiction binge and would have loved more non-fiction to have made it. It's really difficult to find translated non-fiction by women.

As for my nominations, 4 made it and I'm especially happy about spot no. 100 ... hooray my favorite childhood book made the list! The other six are admittedly more away from the beaten pad - and I hope plenty of other people have voted for books like that so I can find them on the ful list when it gets released :)

the six that didn't make it:
Isabelle de Charrière - There Are No Letters Like Yours (non-fiction, 18th century, she also wrote novella's)
Zeina Abirached - The Oriental Piano/ Le piano oriental (non-fiction?, graphic novel)
Zhang Jie - Emerald (novella, I think the English translation is only available in bind-ups with other work)
Siba Al-Harez - The Others (novel)
Veza Canetti - Yellow Street (novel, overlooked classic in my opinion)

And one that is not translated at all:
Astrid Roemer (because it's a crime that a writer of such stature is completely untranslated (in all languages)) - Over de gekte van een vrouw (about the madness of a woman)

I've read 27 and currently reading Death in Spring. Many of these titles were already on my TBR list and their inclusion on this list will definitely motivate me to get to them sooner.
I always struggle with picking up longer works, so I would be particularly interested in tackling some of the big books on this list as part of a group read.

As for my nominations, 7 made the list and the 3 that didn't make it were:
1. Katalin Street by Magda Szabó (but I'm happy that The Door was included)
2. Belladonna by Daša Drndić (but, again, I'm happy that she made the list with Trieste)
3. Silva Rerum by Kristina Sabaliauskaitė (not yet available in English, so I'm not surprised that it didn't make the top 100, but I wanted it to have a place on the list comprised of the best books that have not yet been translated into English)
I'm very curious to see the full "wishlist" of books that people would like to see translated and published in English.

FYI, all top 100 titles are now added to this group's bookshelf and I also created a Goodreads list which you can find here: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

I have only read 13 of the top 100 and only 4 of my nominations made the list. I am almost finished with Seeing Red and hope to start Death in Spring by the end of the month. About half the list is either on my shelves or tbr list so will be ready for the many reads we do.

I've read 11 + half of two others (The Door and Valerie) that I am currently reading.

6 of my votes made the list:

Revenge
Convenience Store Woman
Human Acts
The Vegetarian
Sappho
Confessions

4 didn't:

In Other Words
Vita Nostra - I guess this one depends on your definition of WIT, because it's a husband and wife team, but in my mind if a woman at least partially writes the book it counts
The Only Girl in the World: A Memoir
Medea - but I'm glad Christa Wolf made the list!

Hi, folks! I loved the idea of this group :) Thank you for creating it, Meytal, Michael and Agnese!

I’ve read 36 of the books, and 9 of the top ten. Four of the ten books I nominated got included in the final list: The Door, by Magda Szabó; Flights, by Olga Tokarczuk; The Years, by Annie Ernaux, and Territory of Light, by Yūko Tsushima.

The other books I nominated were: The White Book, by Han Kang; So Much For That Winter, by Dorthe Nors; I Am the Brother of XX, by Fleur Jaeggy; Manja, by Anna Gmeyner; Why the Child is Cooking in the Polenta, by Aglaja Veteranyi; and City Folk and Country Folk, by Sofia Khvoshchinskaya. (My nominations are here: https://theblankgarden.com/2019/07/29...)

I also created a post on my blog to track my progress in reading Meytal's list: https://theblankgarden.com/2019/08/28...

In this post, I marked the books I already read. If any of you fancy a readalong of any the books I haven't read yet, just let me know :)

Happy #100BestWIT reading!

Hi again all.

I've read a little over half the list - but that's partly b/c the list is so recently-listed-prize centric perhaps? I tend to use the longlists as resources to find books I want to read.

I finally read Kristin Lavransdatter & reread The Hour of the Star this month, so I was very pleased about that. (I've owned both for a couple years, and I don't like to own books I've not yet read for some reason.) I'd read the Lispector ages ago, but I got myself a copy & wanted to read that copy. I'm weird like that.

I, too, wanted Katalin Street by Magda Szabó to make the list, and I'd like to see all of the "big three" from Lispector there. I'm about to do a deeper read of The Tale of Genji b/c I finally got my hands on the translation I wanted and the complete book. I saved my pennies so it's mine!

I was thinking about the lack of translated African authors, and I think we can partly blame colonization for that. So many African countries speak English extremely well that instead of writing in, say, one of the Igbo dialects, the books get written originally in English? I could be wrong and am willing to admit that I am - please tell me if I am. I was born in the US, so it's likely.

The reason I make this little hypothesis is I've been speaking with a bunch of language teachers lately from around the world, and many people would like to be able to practice languages, but almost everyone finds that in many countries, people would simply rather speak English (so they can practice that.) Hopefully there will be a revival of more of these languages in the future, but I don't know that we'll be seeing loads of books written in them for the time being.

Meanwhile I've got plenty of books on my TBR...

I'm a late bloomer. read jus' four out of hundred.

Started reading Fish Soup by Margarita García Robayo. Thanks for making this group. Really appreciate.

When casting my own vote, I had trouble choosing a single work by an author I like, favoring more the body of work by an author - this happened with three specific authors: Tatyana Tolstaya, Wislawa Szymborska, and Dubravka Ugresic. I have read multiple books by each of them, and while they all made the list, it was for a book that I haven't read yet.

Did that happen to anyone else?

Ella wrote: "I was thinking about the lack of translated African authors, and I think we can partly blame colonization for that. So many African countries speak English extremely well that instead of writing in, say, one of the Igbo dialects, the books get written originally in English? I could be wrong and am willing to admit that I am - please tell me if I am. I was born in the US, so it's likely."

I think this is a very interesting question! I think that what you suggest is definitely part of it, but I also think part of the problem is that so little is translated from those parts of Africa where English isn't one of the languages spoken. Very little is translated from Francophone African countries - which is especially strange since French is the one language that is most translated into English (as is also reflected in this list). There's a similar problem with Caribbean literature: very few French titles are translated, and translations from the Dutch caribbean are almost non-existent.

Just a note to let everyone know -- if you happen to have Amazon Prime, Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto is currently part of the Prime Reading program (meaning if you are a prime member, you can read it on the kindle app for free.)

I love this one - I read it fairly regularly.

Sanne wrote: "Ella wrote: "I was thinking about the lack of translated African authors, and I think we can partly blame colonization for that. So many African countries speak English extremely well that instead ..."

Thanks, Sanne - yes, I actually was thinking about the French. I think I tend to read a lot of fiction from Nigerian writers, and I used to wonder if they were translated, then a Nigerian friend said, "Ella - why would we translate when we speak mostly English?" Oops.

The point is well-taken re the French-speaking parts of Africa and the Caribbean. I do wonder about why that is. Certainly people are writing. But as we learned again this year, the French themselves seem willing to mostly translate men. Perhaps someone who feels good about their French should start taking on some of these. I've thought seriously about translating recently, but French is perhaps my worst language, so that won't be me.

I was just browsing on Book Outlet & found a couple of the list books available there (unfortunately for me, they are all books I already own...) But I thought perhaps someone might want to go through the list & see if you wanted any: https://bookoutlet.com/Loyalty/Referr...

Book outlet sells remainder copies of books - they are generally in very good condition & if they have some defect, that will be noted (and the price reduced accordingly.)

Michael wrote: "What do you think of the list? How many of the books have you read already?

I know there are discussions around the euro-centric nature of the list, I think that is more a reflection of the indust..."

Certainly a lot of great books on this list — so many I am looking forward to reading! =) I have only read four so far but have another in progress and many that were not already on my TBR list I have now added!

I think that with a 100 title limit that I would have limited it to one book per author as there are authors I did not see on the list and whom I believe should have been included (in particular, Eileen Chang, Fumiko Enchi, Dương Thu Hương, Tatyana Tolstaya, and Maryse Condé).

Just for fun I had a go at making a derivative of this list, only with one book per author and added some classics and books by authors from underrepresented regions:
https://www.listchallenges.com/120-gr...

It further brought into focus for me how many books from India, many countries in Africa, and elsewhere, were published in English to begin with and how few of those published in other languages have yet been translated!

Erin wrote: "Just for fun I had a go at making a derivative of this list, only with one book per author and added some classics and books by authors from underrepresented regions:
https://www.listchallenges.com..."

Always love your lists Erin :)