This project began in the fall of 2014 through a series of serendipitous events: building my first home library which was filling up rapidly with international literature; marrying in that home library which had become the focus of family life with games, puzzles, and even dinners; and a mini-vacation to Amelia Island, Florida where a woman there told me that I should read a book by Carlos somebody - a Spanish author - that had something to do with shadows.
While I have written extensively about this project elsewhere and how I chose my rules, I will post my original 2014 explanation of the rules below. One thing to note is that this project involves reading a work from every group of people who considered themselves a nation from 1900 onward...
Rules for Reading Around the World with A Certain Genius
"1) Fiction only, (though historical fiction is preferred). I am trying to balance out my disproportionate reading of non-fiction. I am under-read in the area of plays and poetry, too, but I am trying not to include poetry for this project unless it's arranged in novel form, (e.g., Identical or Love That Dog - those are both by US authors and wouldn't both count for this project, but I HIGHLY recommend them both).
2) Needs to have a clear cultural voice representative of the geographic area. There are lots of writers who are published in English from different countries originally who studied in the US or Canada or the UK and were educated in the west and are maybe naturalized and write American/Canadian/British/etc. stories. And I am finding some I am dying to read, but I am really looking for the setting of the country itself if possible, (e.g. for this project, I would prefer The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly over Free Food For Millionaires because one is wholly South Korean in context and story and the other is an immigrant narrative in the US - but I will eventually read both!)
3) If I read (or re-read) the title more than five years ago, I can't count it. I have to find a new work.
4) 20th and 21st century material is preferred. That knocks out a ton of stuff I am finding and typically read. I can't believe how little world literature I have actually read that was published after 1900!
5) I am sort of limited in terms of languages. Obviously, I prefer English...and finding things in print for less than 20$ an item is really hard. (2015 Update: I have given up on trying to do this on the cheap. Though I have found that there are like-new copies on Amazon for as little as a penny in some cases.)
6) I am also having a hard time deciding between, "hallmarks," of representative literature and lesser-known works, but I don't have a rule for that yet. It's just something I am reflecting on when trying to make a decision..."
As you might expect, I have made some progress in the last five years, though this project could easily take the rest of my life. For instance, the language barrier has already been an issue. At the time I decided on this project, I had a decent reading knowledge of three languages and confidence I could pick my way through at least one work in three to four more. I started learning German in 2016 for this project as an example, but I will get to my book review for Liechtenstein in a later post!
Aside from the regular reviews you can expect from A Certain Genius, you can also follow along on all of the projects undertaken here for kicks and giggles, as they say.
- A Certain Genius