Introducing the Project

What is the Reading the World Project?

The Short Answer

The Reading Our World Project is my attempt to read at least one book from a writer from every country in the world.

The Long Answer

I think it’s fair to say that anyone who’s known me for more than, say, an hour would describe me as a voracious reader. I have probably read somewhere in the region of 3,000 books during my adult life, having read very little as a child.

In that time (32+ years), I have read the classics and modern classics. I have read horror and science fiction. I have read graphic novels and comic book collections. I have read poetry, plays and history. I have read politics, philosophy and economics. I have read books in French, Spanish and Dutch (though my verbal skills in each of these languages remain rudimentary). I have read a lot of everything.

Recently, I’ve been reading a lot of Japanese literature after listening to the excellent Reading Japanese Literature podcast, hosted by Allison Fincher. Which started me thinking. How many different nationalities do those 3,000 books represent?

The answer, it turns out, is not very many. Out of 193 countries recognised by the United Nations, plus 4 countries granted ‘observer’ status (Kosovo, Palestine, the Holy See and Taiwan), I have read books by authors from 31 of them. Which is a pitiful amount. And there are some pretty glaring omissions in there too. Although I’ve read books by many British Indian writers, for instance, I have never read a book by an actual Indian writer. And while I have read books set in certain countries (Egypt for instance), I have yet to read a book written by someone born or native to that country.

Hence the current project, which is to read at least one book of any genre, fiction or non-fiction, from every country in the world.

Yet as the old cliché goes, journeys are more important than destinations, and so the aim is not merely to read one book from each country, but to learn about the countries and their culture as I go.

Inevitably there will be authors I discover and fall in love with along the way who will become part of my normal reading experience. In some countries I am also bound to find several authors I wish to read (as with Japan) and will want pause or return to those countries at a later date.

Indeed, I do not intend to read continuously for this project, but spend 3-4 years reading from the remaining 164 countries on the list, mixing them in with the things I would be reading anyway. I might read several books by the same writer, or several authors, before I decide to write about that country and its literary culture.

There is also the very important question: what is a country? As someone whose demographic classification can be best described as: white, able-bodied, hetero-normal male, I am well aware that people who look a lot like me have decided what constitutes a country over the previous two centuries and been pretty arbitrary in drawing the boundaries between the nations they invented. Many of the conflicts going on in the world to this day are the direct result of those acts of international carelessness, ignorance and outright neglect.

As such, this project is not straightforward and I will try to address issues of national and ethnic division as I go. When I read an Iraqi writer, for instance, whom do I chose? A Sunni writer? A Shiite writer? What about the Kurds? Or Yazidis, Assyrians and Turkmens? When I turn my attention to Rwanda, do I read a Hutu or a Tutsi writer? Is it culturally insensitive to even ask that question, born as it is from a western gaze that only sees Africa as continent of conflict and disaster?

These are not questions I can answer at the moment, but they do give another impetus to embark on this project. I want to read Kurdish writers and Tibetans. Books by first nations peoples from all over the world, as well as from other marginalised groups. Borders are arbitrary and the point of doing something like this is to learn something about the world. As a result, I hope the project will evolve as it proceeds.

The easy option would be to read one book from each country on the list, pat myself on the back, and slide further into middle age. However, the UN list is merely a roadmap and a political roadmap at best.

Moreover, it is no exaggeration to say that a country like China is much bigger than, say, Djibouti. How do I deal with the disparity in sizes of country? The answer here, I think, is to pay less attention to the larger (culturally and economically) countries and do more research when I come to somewhere that we, at least in the solipsistic west, do not think about every day. We don’t need to know the cultural history of Japan, China or America to enjoy their literature. Whereas places like Vanuatu, Dominica or Djibouti probably need more context in discussing their culture and how it relates to the writer(s) under consideration.

And this raises another possible objection. What constitutes a writer from a particular nation? I have already noted that I do not equate a British Indian author with being Indian. This isn’t meant to denigrate anyone with dual heritage. But when there are so many born and bred Indian writers resident in a country of over a billion people, I surely don’t need to read a book by someone born and raised in Britain to fill my ‘quota’ of Indian writers. The optics of a white British man doing so would be problematic to say the least.

The best way I can think to solve this culturally sensitive conundrum is to say that for the most part the person must have been born in that country. Or spent most of their life in residence there. If they are an expat living in another country, then the book or books I am reading must at be least tangentially connected to that country. They could be a Jordanian American, for instance, writing about the history or politics of Jordan.

I imagine there will be at least one country on this list that will force me to stretch these rules to breaking point, but we will cross that international border when we come to it, passport, visa and all.

Most of the books will be novels. That is inevitable. Yet I am also interested in reading poetry, biography, social commentary, or any other genre. Wherever possible, I will try to read writers from Spanish or French speaking countries in those languages.

My other rule for completing this project is that my default choice for each country will be female writers. This is simply because that tally of 3,000 books I have read is largely made up of white, male writers and I want to try and read at least a hundred women as I go. Hopefully many more than that.

3-4 years is a pretty relaxed timescale for someone who reads 100+ books most years, but it does also give me plenty of time to fall down some rabbits holes. If you look up African speculative and science fiction, for instance, you’ll see that most African writers in this genre are Nigerian (the most well known authors at least). Nigerian sci-fi is a subset all its own and needs to be researched, read and written about at some point. There are bound to be similar rabbit holes I fall down as I go.

As I say, there will be countries for which one or two authors are simply not enough to adequately explore the literary landscape and I will go further into national canon as and when the  mood takes me. I have plenty more Japanese authors to read in the meantime and will write something about them and other subjects as additional writing later in the course of the project. Like many people, my entry point into Japanese literature was Haruki Murakami, about whom I have already written. I will include that essay as the first extra publication.

As for countries I had already read before I started on this insane project, I will try to return to each of them in turn and chose some less obvious writers. Choosing Flann O’Brien or James Joyce for Ireland, for instance, is hack, even if they are two of my favourite writers. I think we can find someone who lies further beneath the surface of Irish literature. The same is true for America, the UK, France, Italy etc.

For reference, these are the 31 countries I’ve already read from and will return to periodically:

Algeria, Australia, Austria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Czechia (Czech Republic), Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Russia, Senegal, Spain, Switzerland, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States of America

If you are a citizen of a particular country and want to send me recommendations for what writers to read from your country , it would be most welcome. I have a collection of hard print and ebooks that should see me through at least the first year of the project, but I will certainly be grateful for any suggestions.

The first few books I have chosen are all quite short (200 pages or less), so I expect to write and publish the first half a dozen entries on these fairly quickly. After that entries might appear weekly, with specialised pieces coming as and when I write them.

Well that’s about it for my introductory remarks. In embarking on writing about this project, I hope to inspire some of you to move beyond your comfort zones and read and learn about literature from other cultures. I can of course never hope to offer a comprehensive review of 193, 197, or however many countries I end up reviewing during this project, but I hope it will at least be a window and introduction to new and interesting places in the world.

Feedback is welcome. Though I am under no obligation to agree with it (humour).

It should go without saying that this will be a curious, critical examination of the writers of the world and the countries from which they come. I will not pull any punches with regards to oppressive regimes or to the damage colonialism and empire have caused.

As such, at times we are going to have to discuss some upsetting acts and attitudes. If this is something that is liable to upset you, it is probably best you stop reading now. I will try to include trigger and spoiler warnings as and when appropriate.

Thank you for reading this overlong introduction. For the sake of brevity (not to mention work load), I will try and keep most of the regular post below 1,000 words. Special editions will usually run much longer.

Happy reading.

Rob

Coming soon…

Egypt
Finland
Mongolia
South Korea
Afghanistan