The Reading Challenge Group discussion

The polls have spoken, and members have decided to vote for both the Non-Fiction and World challenges to be added in 2015! Us mods are going to have our work cut out for us!

This is the thread where you can discuss the World Challenge in prep for 2015. We still need to finalise the months, which is our biggest task. (Obviously, there are only 7 continents...), so any suggestions for that would be amazing.

I agree with Aitziber's idea, I think it's a good way of doing it.

So the idea is to pick something that was originally written in the lanugage of the month? Am I understanding that correctly?

I like Aitziber's idea!

We're totally cooking up some ideas!

Just joking. The whole point of these threads is to try get awesome ideas from the members.

I do absolutely love the languages, it provides far more options for months. Then again, I am worried that because it's not so straightforward means members might less likely join...

I like Aitziber's idea also. Although I see some months being harder to choose than others. For instance Russian, obviously I am reading Tolstoy for that one there is no question. But wouldnt know where to even begin for a book for Japanese. But we can help each other find books that fit.

Sounds good to me.

I like the trivia angle on this challenge. Not only would you learn more of where the language is spoken and so on, but finding out facts of the author that you choose, for instance, posting the book you choose and where the author is from and maybe a few more tidbits that you learn along the way about that person.

I would suggest books written in a specific language or takes place in that specific region. I think limiting the challenge to language would scare people away.

Roseanne wrote: "I like Aitziber's idea also. Although I see some months being harder to choose than others. For instance Russian, obviously I am reading Tolstoy for that one there is no question. But wouldnt know ..."

Murakami :)

Rob may be right.

@Camille nice, I think I found something I want to read :)

We could do the first 12 or so languages this year and keep the next 12 for 2016 to expand choices.

I love the aspect of doing different languages. However, I have a few questions.

1. Will the languages be pre-decided or can we choose which language we want to read (either the original or the translated version)?

2. Is it absolutely necessary to read only those books/languages, which have translated versions in English?

I ask these two because I was in any case planning to read a few books in Tamil and Marathi in the coming year. These are two languages spoken in India, which have some wonderful books. While some of these books have been translated in English, there are many, which are not and am planning to read both. So was wondering if those would count for this challenge. Of course, this is provided we have a consensus on doing the World Challenge, based on languages.

I am also perfectly fine with reading books from different continents, albeit written in English as I would not want to miss out on those either. However, personally I find the one based on languages truly exciting.

I love that this discussion has been so lively already!!

Aitziber, you have really out a lot of thought and effort into your Language Proposal for this challenge. Thank you for being a driving force toward expanding our horizons.

I am getting the sense that some members are feeling intimidated by the concept of one linguistic focus per month. Perhaps we need to talk about regions and/or countries, as well. For example, the region INDIA/PAKISTAN might include books originally written in the languages listed, as well as an author writing about the region (setting or travels). That would give us the option of spreading our lingual wings but also give us some comfort margin.

I do think we'll do the nominations/vote thing to decide on a common book each month. Perhaps with a thread with discussion of other books/authors for that language/continent/region. And, maybe, we could add an extra point category of bonus points for books written in the language(s) of the month.

I'm just speculating here, as well. No decisions have been made. The Moderators REALLY want as much input as possible. :)

Not sure. Possibly in combination with Adventure. Especially since the World Lt Challenge might not include much travel, and probably not travel in places like the US.

I appreciate your thoughts on that, Aitziber. You have a very clear vision for this challenge and that's great.

I'd like to hear from some others, as well. In what ways did the rest of you envision this challenge?

Thank you so much for your reply and the clarification Aitziber. Honestly speaking, I have been excited about this challenge, ever since you mentioned it for the first time, in the previous thread.

Being an Indian, I am fluent in reading in four Indian languages, namely Hindi, Marathi, Tamil and Gujarati. While I do know that most Hindi books have translations in English, I wasn't sure of the others and to be honest, am still searching whether the Gujarati ones have English translations. :)

As for Tamil and Marathi, there are some books, ones that I was planning to read next year, which do have English translations. These fall in the category of historical fiction and include books like

Shriman Yogi - Originally in Marathi and which has been translated as Shivaji the Great (I couldn't find the link to the book here on Goodreads though)

Mrityunjaya, the death conqueror: The story of Karna - Original again In Marathi but this is the English Translation

Ponniyan Selvan - Originally a Tamil book but which has an English translation, which again for some reason I am not able to link as a book but I believe this is the list of the five books that form this massive tome

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

There must be others and I am looking into it to see how many others I can come up with to logically be able to include the language as part of this challenge. However, I do understand the difficulty of including a language where no translated version is easily available. :( Maybe we could have a general thread as you suggested, where we could discuss books from languages other than those that you have listed to ensure that more people are aware of the existence of such books and also with the hope that these gems will either get translated in the future and that these translations will be easily available :)

Sandy wrote: "Sorry for the piecemeal post. I am on the app so can't edit my previous note.

The website above has Translation Tuesday so it seems that at the very least books in translation is a regular weekly..."

Very nice, Sandy! This link, in particular, is rather helpful. It contains reading lists for several countries and genres.

Renee wrote: "I appreciate your thoughts on that, Aitziber. You have a very clear vision for this challenge and that's great.

I'd like to hear from some others, as well. In what ways did the rest of you envisi..."

I envisioned a monthly focus on an area of the world that has produced great literature. I don't think we should restrict people by language, nor make it so broad as to encompass a vast continent in just one month. Where would be the Canadian literature in a month that focuses on the entire continent of North America, or in a year-long World Lit challenge that excludes English?

Camille said something about using regions, like Eastern Europe, in one of the earlier posts.

I think regions would be good!

Renee wrote: "Camille said something about using regions, like Eastern Europe, in one of the earlier posts."

Like that, yes. :)

Nicely put, Sandy!

Sandy wrote: "I have been giving this challenge some serious thought, and I am afraid that I am a "fence-sitter" on this issue. Personally, I am interested in reading books in translation. This does seem to be t..."

*points up* What Sandy said.

Everyone's got a different jumping-off point here. Some people might have only read modern American literature all their lives, and want to branch out but are nervous about it. We should leave this challenge broad enough that people get to decide for themselves what their comfort zone is, but not so broad that people feel lost amid a sea of choices. Defining regions seems a perfect compromise to me.

Also, let's remember that not everyone on this group defines world literature as everything other than English. To someone who has only read Asian authors their whole lives, branching out would include English authors. Part of the purpose of this group is to include everyone, from all countries and all walks of life, so we shouldn't forget our differences when it comes to this challenge.

After doing some research about regions, I've found a rather good selection of them:

North America
Central America and the Caribbean
South America
Western Europe
Eastern Europe
Africa
Middle East
East Asia
South Asia
Southeast Asia
Australia & South Pacific




Thinking about it, we could easily combine the two ideas.

We could say that the criteria for each month is: written by an author from that region, a book set in that region, or originally written in one of the regions languages?

Holly wrote: "After doing some research about regions, I've found a rather good selections of them:

North America
Central America and the Caribbean
South America
Western Europe
Eastern Europe
Africa
Middle East..."

I like that it includes Central America. Honestly, I'm never clear on whether that's North or South America anyway. ;)

Just updated my post.

(On a separate note, this thread is providing me with way too many procrastination opportunities!)

Holly wrote: "Thinking about it, we could easily combine the two ideas.

We could say that the criteria for each month is: written by an author from that region, a book set in that region, or written in the regions language?"

Even better!

Sounds perfect Holly! It would definitely include more reading options and provide more freedom to all :)

It basically balances on the fact that 'World Literature' is subjective. We could take it to mean a variety of ways (as previously highlighted in this thread), and there's nothing stopping us from incorporating them all and allowing member themselves to decide what they constitute as 'correct' for that months pick.

After all, in other sections of the group, we haven't been overly strict on what people can read for the months etc. It should be the same way here.

Nice Job, Holly!

Let's keep talking. I really want this to work. I'll keep working on "Son of Frankenstein" to try and merge ideas. :D

Also, Holly, you're map is really helpful!

I'm just working out the countries for each section!

*sings* Awesome!

Iasa wrote: "If the challenge is by region, maybe divide Africa into 2 regions?"

I was thinking that, too. Literature from South Africa would be a lot different than literature from Egypt, for instance.

We need an extra month anyway!

Holly wrote: "We need an extra month anyway!"

Works out nicely!

And procrastination is a mouthful!

Never mind that huge pile of paperwork, Renee! Nor those pesky chores! What bills? Lol!

Where would you split Africa?

I'd say... northern, eastern, and western Africa for one month; central and southern Africa for another month. If you google those terms ("north Africa", "central Africa", etc) it gives you a rundown of which countries are included in which.

Iasa wrote: "Faye, I like your new title! (or has it always been that and I've not noticed?)"

Thank you! I was late to the mod-title party, so it's fairly new. :)

We could do 'North-Africa', and 'Sub-Saharan Africa'?

Holly wrote: "We could do 'North-Africa', and 'Sub-Saharan Africa'?"

Sure, that works. :)

Son of Frankenstein...
I took Holly & Camille's regions and morphed them with Wikipedia's list of most commonly spoken languages to see what was represented.

1. North America (predominantly English, Spanish, French)
2. Central America & Caribbean (Spanish)
3. South America (Spanish & Portuguese)
4. Western Europe (German & French)
5. Eastern Europe (includes Russian)
6. Middle East (Arabic)
7. East Asia (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
8. South Asia/Indian sub-continent (Indian languages)
9. South-East Asia (includes Vietnamese)
10. Oceania/Australia (Indonesian Languages)
11. North African
12. Sub-Saharran Africa
(Many languages, including Arabic, French, and English.

Linguistically the East Asians get shorted a bit, since 3 major languages come from there: Chinese (Mandarin/Wu, Japanese, Korean)

Overall though, it is pretty spread out.

Renee, this is a terrific blend of the continental and language suggestions. I say go for it. You'll never get 100% agreement.

Yeah. Every language listed is represented. And, hopefully, in a way that will encourage participation.

Okay, based on this image, I've highlighted some countries within each section.

See under the cut. It's a rather long list, so didn't want to take up the whole thread with it!

(view spoiler)[
North America:
USA
Canada

Central America & the Caribbean:
Mexico
Costa Rica
Haiti
The Bahamas

South America:
Brazil
Argentina
Peru
Chile
Uraguay

West Europe:
United Kingdom
France
Spain
Germany
Italy
Poland
Sweden
Norway

East Europe:
Russia
Belaus
Ukraine
Romania
Serbia

North Africa:
Egypt
Libya
Algeria
Morocco

Sub-saharan Africa:
Ethopia
Madagascar
South Africa
Nigeria
Democratic Republicof the Congo

Middle East:
Saudia Arabia
Iraq
Iran
Jordan
Israel
Yemen

East Asia:
China
Japan
Mongolia
North & South Korea

South Asia:
India
Pakistan
Afghanistan

Southeast Asia:
Thailand
Vietnam
Phillipines
Indonesia

Australia & South Pacific:
Australia
New Zealand
(hide spoiler)]