From how many languages did you read translated books in 2023?

[George P.]

I didn't see anywhere to give your total for the year in summary so created this topic. Keep your post short- we can look at your name-topic for details, but you could also list the languages.

I surpassed my goal of 11 by reading books translated from 13 languages in 2023:
German, French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, Greek, Farsi (Iranian), Korean, Russian, Portuguese, Romanian, Chinese and Czech.

[Mome_Rath]

Congratulations!

[Luke]

Eleven:

German
Spanish
Danish
French
Italian
Japanese
Polish
Portuguese
Mandarin Chinese
Norwegian
Hebrew

Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature was the source for a chunk of these.

[Mome_Rath]

I wasn't paying attention to the topic title, and just realized you were also looking for the number of languages read in 2023. Last year it was 18; not sure what I'll end up with in 2024.

[Stacia]

Eight languages:
2023 (Catalan, Danish, French, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish).

[Shahar]

10 read in 2023 that are not English or Hebrew
arabic
Islandic
French
italian
Spanish
Hungarian
Yidish
Russian
Danish
Japanese

[Erin]

Translated from 16 Languages.

Arabic, Norwegian (2), French (2), Italian (3), Icelandic, Turkish, Catalan (2), Indonesian, Bulgarian, Russian (3), Hungarian, Korean, Czech, Swedish (2), Dutch, Japanese (2)

I also read 25 books in languages other than English - 11 in German, 11 in Spanish, and 3 in Portuguese.

[Jacque T]

Translated from 6 languages: Spanish (3), Swedish (3), French (5--2 were African authors writing in French), Turkish, Czech, and Japanese (2)

[Stacia]

We're now past the halfway mark in 2024. How is everyone doing on their challenges? I enjoy looking at each person's thread to see what books are being read.

So far in 2024, I have read translations from eight different languages (21 books): French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, & Swedish.

What have been your favorite translated books so far this year?

It's hard for me to pick as I enjoy or appreciate something about all the books I have read. Some standouts include:
The Most Secret Memory of Men by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, tr. from the French by Lara Vergnaud.
Spy x Family, Vol. 1 by Tatsuya Endo, tr. from the Japanese by Casey Loe. (Actually books 1-4 of the series.)
Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky & Boris Strugatsky, tr. from the Russian by Olena Bormashenko.
Comemadre by Roque Larraquy, tr. from the Spanish by Heather Cleary.
Doctor Glas by Hjalmar Söderberg, tr. from the Swedish by Paul Britten Austin.

Runners up would be:
Standing Heavy by Gauz, tr. from the French by Frank Wynne.
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño, tr. from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer.
Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo, tr. from the Spanish by Douglas J. Weatherford.