ByGD
I’m terrible about starting book clubs and reading challenges and never finishing them. But the idea of a “reading around the world” challenge has been going around the internet for a few years and it really appeals to me. So the last time someone’s Reading Around the World book list popped up in my feed, I looked at it a little closer.
ByGD
Despite the fact that I rarely stick with reading challenges Reading Around the World really appeals to me. So I decided to give it a shot this year. I started in Afghanistan with A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear. That worked well, so I moved on to Algeria. Then the pandemic hit and the library closed before the book I chose came in. Typical. But, six months later, the library slowly began to reopen by fulfilling holds that were placed before the pandemic. So I finally got to read my Algerian book pick: So Vast the Prison by Assia Djebar.
ByGD
I’m terrible about starting book clubs and reading challenges and never finishing them. But the idea of a “reading around the world” challenge has been going around the internet for a few years and it really appeals to me. So the last time someone’s Reading Around the World book list popped up in my feed, I looked at it a little closer.
ByGD
When I started researching my upcoming trip to Norway, I was surprised how many Nobel laureates in literature came from that small country. Why three of them had lived in the small town of Lillehammer!
Then I remembered why Norway might be over-represented on that list. I still like to read the literature of a county I’m about to visit, so I put books by Ibsen and Hamsun on hold at the library.
ByGD
I’ve mentioned my history with book clubs more than once. But I’m trying one more time, with #BecauseWe’veRead, because their inaugural choice, Assata An Autobiography was on my TBR list for literally two decades and this was the push I needed to finally pick it up. Their second choice was a book I’d never heard of, Black Skin, White Masks. But I’m working to fill in the gaps in my reading created by Eurocentric Jesuit education, so I continued with the Because We’ve Read curriculum.