Reading on a Rainy Day

When I said at the beginning of this year that I want to read only one book from each country, my goal was more to try reading from different countries, get a feel for all these different books, and try to infuse international reading habits into my reading. I did not anticipate that it was going to be so hard finding good books from other countries within easy reach. Being a mood reader, probably like many of you, I don't feel like reading any book at any time. Sometimes I want my book to make me laugh and sometimes I want it to make me think. Sometimes, I just want it to surprise me, stay away from conventions, and whack my head in a crazy awesome way. But when you go to the library with a set of restrictions, you're already limiting your book pile considerably. That's what happened to me most of the time. There are certain countries I am already sick of finding recommendations from. And that has nothing to do with the country, just the amount of time I invested in lo...

One of my favorite things to talk about is diversity in books. Diversity in characters, locations, themes, complexions, and authors. What is more beautiful than walking into a sandbox with plenty of differences to go around? That said, it is very hard to make sure there is some diversity in the books I read. Fancy this situation: At the end of a tiring day at work, I walk into my local library, happy to be in there, planning to only return a book. But the new books shelf catches my eye and so I head in there to see what books are enjoying some of the sunshine. 99% of the time, there are only mostly American and some British books in there. Even if I do see an odd Nigerian or Chinese title in there, how likely I am to pick one of those as opposed to a shiny American title that everyone has been raving about? Not very. Last year, I decided to read serendipitously. I picked books at random from the library, sometimes after hearing a blogger talk about it, and sometimes just...

Last week, I started reading We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo, after hearing from many about how good it was. I had read a few African literature before, though, as the main character in We Need New Names , Darling, points out, Africa is not one country but a continent of fifty-some countries. When I started reading the book, I was disappointed by how slow I was having to read it just to understand what the narrator was trying to say. Rereading chapters, and sometimes, restarting a book after already reading a couple of pages or chapters, is very normal for me. That helps me reorient myself in the book's atmosphere and relax into the book's world. With We Need New Names , restarting did help, but the writing continued to be a tad difficult. Darling had only done a few years of school, and her English, while better than that of her friends and family, was still very shaky and could use a lot of refinement. As We Need New Names is narrated by her, it is written mostl...

I have been craving some African literature lately. For no special reason than just because. It has been a long time since I read anything in Africa - the last ones were probably Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan (Some of the stories in that book moved me but the collection itself did not make a huge impact on me), The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin and The Hairdresser of Harare by Tendai Huchu (both of which I loved). I have watched quite a few movies, set in some of the African countries (Rwanda, Egypt, South Africa, Libya, Nigeria, to name a few), mostly war or revolution-themed, and those movies have left a lasting impression, enough to make me want to watch or read more. So now is probably a good time than any. There are anywhere between 52 and 61 countries in Africa, depending on your source, but according to this site , 55 is the number of them that are recognized. That is a lot of countries to choose from and I was hoping to choose three wo...

This year, I decided to read more international. I don't like it that I have to be so mindful of my reading to make sure I read more diversely - I wish books set in far remote corners of the world were more accessible and also hyped a lot. Hype helps, sometimes. But if I were to blindfold myself and choose a book that came my way, an overwhelming percentage of them would be set in the US or written by US authors. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It's just that I wish to read more from international authors and if mindfully picking a book is what I should do to make that happen, that's probably what I would do. This is the way I pictured my goal. I am allowed to read only one book from any country this year. Excluding ARCs (because it's not fair to add them to the equation), audiobooks (because I would prefer "listenability" when it comes to them than any other attribute), and nonfiction titles (because I only read nonfiction if I like the subject)...