Erin’s 2021 Around the World Challenge

[Erin]

I have yet to finish any of my challenges, but I enjoy them, and they have broadened my reading greatly! =)

➜ = in progress

Challenge #1 — Classics Old & New Around the World

Pre-1900
1) The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu (1008, Japan)
2) David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (1850, England)
3) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (1877, Russia) (finished 21-Jun-21)

Post-1900
4) The Wreath by Sigrid Undset (1920, Norway)
5) The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat (1936, Iran) (finished 26-May-21)
6) Palace of Desire by Naguib Mahfouz (1957, Egypt)

Wild Cards
➜7) The Debt of Tears by Cao Xueqin (1791, China)
8) Epitaph of a Small Winner by Machado de Assis (1881, Brazil)
9) The Saga of Gösta Berling by Selma Lagerlöf (1891, Sweden)
10) Ulysses by James Joyce (1922, Ireland)
11) Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (1937, United States)
12) A Question of Power by Bessie Head (1974, Botswana)

Alternates
A1) Swann's Way by Marcel Proust (1913, France)
A2) Women of Sand and Myrrh by Hanan Al-Shaykh (1982, Lebanon)

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

Great list and twist on the challenge.

[Kathleen]

This is so fun, Erin! I'm really looking forward to following your progress on these.

[Luke]

Nice to see you around again, Erin. Perhaps my finally acquiring a decent edition of 'Water Margin'/'Outlaws of the Marsh' played a role in your return ;)

[Ila]

What a varied list! Its good to see Persian/Arabic writers on your list.

[Fee]

Great idea to add books from all over the world. My knowledge about non-European or non-American literature is unfortunately not yet very developed. I added The Blind Owl and Epitaph of a Small Winner to my want to read/shelf.

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

Enjoy your travel challenge, it looks great!

[Carolien]

Such a nice list! I've added Women of Sand and Myrrh to my TBR. Good luck, I've read Their Eyes were watching God and it is a really good read.

[Laurie]

This is a great list. I am focusing on around the world this year too so I look forward to seeing how you like your books as you are reading a couple on my TBR.

[Lynn, New School Classics]

I agree, very nice idea! I hope you enjoy them. I understand, because I have only finished my Old School/New School Challenge once, but just thinking about the categories helps me find new good books. I usually carry the unread ones over to the next year.

[Erin]

Katy wrote: "Great list and twist on the challenge."

Kathleen wrote: "This is so fun, Erin! I'm really looking forward to following your progress on these."

Aubrey wrote: "Nice to see you around again, Erin. Perhaps my finally acquiring a decent edition of 'Water Margin'/'Outlaws of the Marsh' played a role in your return ;)"

Ila wrote: "What a varied list! Its good to see Persian/Arabic writers on your list."

Fee wrote: "Great idea to add books from all over the world. My knowledge about non-European or non-American literature is unfortunately not yet very developed. I added The Blind Owl and..."

Bob wrote: "Enjoy your travel challenge, it looks great!"

Carolien wrote: "Such a nice list! I've added Women of Sand and Myrrh to my TBR. Good luck, I've read Their Eyes were watching God and it is a really good read."

Laurie wrote: "This is a great list. I am focusing on around the world this year too so I look forward to seeing how you like your books as you are reading a couple on my TBR."

Lynn wrote: "I agree, very nice idea! I hope you enjoy them. I understand, because I have only finished my Old School/New School Challenge once, but just thinking about the categories helps me find new good boo..."

Thank you all and sorry for so late a response! My depression takes me out of things entirely at times.

Fee, I was in the same place several years ago — worse even as I knew I was underread in English classics but hadn’t realized, until looking into it, that I could count the translated books I’d read on one hand and I had no idea about world literature! I guess it was a bit of obsessiveness, to create an ultimate “Well-Read” TBR list for myself that I started researching on this site and elsewhere and that process is still ongoing...

Audrey, which translation of Outlaws of the Marsh did you get? It seems there are so many abridged or incomplete translations for the longer epics...

[Luke]

Erin wrote: "Audrey, which translation of Outlaws of the Marsh did you get? It seems there are so many abridged or incomplete translations for the longer epics..."

Erin, I got really lucky and was able to snap up in one go the four volume set that's put out by the same folks who put together my edition of Three Kingdoms, which I ended up having a superb time with. If that's in any way abridged or incomplete, I honestly don't know what an unabridged edition would look like.

[Erin]

Aubrey wrote: "Erin wrote: "Audrey, which translation of Outlaws of the Marsh did you get? It seems there are so many abridged or incomplete translations for the longer epics..."

Erin, I got really lucky and was..."

Nice! Those may be the only complete English translations of each, I’m not sure — definitely a fortuitous find!

I was looking at Indian classics as my knowledge there felt particularly lacking (and too, you know me, trying to put together another “well-read” list) and it appears that the unabridged English edition of The Mahabharata is 10 volumes — that must beat all!