Journalist Ann Morgan embarks on a mission to read a book from every country
What does your bookshelf say about you?
When Ann Morgan, a journalist and author in the UK, studied her bookshelf, she was surprised by what she found, and more importantly, what she didn鈥檛 鈥� and the results inspired her to embark on a unique yearlong reading challenge.
"I looked at my bookshelves after someone made a comment making me think about my reading habits,鈥� she told Public Radio International鈥檚 鈥�.鈥� And I suddenly realized that all the books on the bookshelves were by British or American writers. There really wasn't much else. A few Australian writers maybe, a couple of Indian novels, but nothing else really," she says.
And that is how she embarked on a yearlong project to read her way around the globe by reading a book from every country.
That鈥檚 197 books in one year. Which works out to about four books per week or one book every 1.87 days. And that鈥檚 after the challenge of finding a book to represent every country.
Overwhelmed with the task ahead and not knowing where to begin, Morgan started a blog in 2011, AYearOfReadingtheWorld.com, asking readers to help her find books from all corners of the globe.
Responses poured in from everywhere from Malaysia and Burundi to even South Sudan, then the world鈥檚 newest country.聽
鈥淚t had come out of a massive civil war and had huge challenges to overcome. There weren't roads, there weren't hospitals, and I was pretty sure there weren't publishers really doing much work there,鈥� Morgan tells PRI.
Still, a writer from South Sudan, Julia Duany, wrote a story just for Morgan and her reading project.
Morgan also received book recommendations from blog readers in Rwanda (Philip Gourevitch鈥檚 鈥淲e Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with our Families鈥�), the Seychelles (Glynn Burridge鈥檚聽鈥淰oices鈥�), Yemen (Wajdi al-Ahdal鈥檚 鈥淎 Land without Jasmine鈥�), Liechtenstein (CC Bergius鈥檚 鈥淭he Noble Forger鈥�), Lesotho (Thomas Mofolo鈥檚 鈥淐haka鈥�), Kyrgyzstan (Chinghiz Aitmatov鈥檚 鈥淛amilia鈥�), Cape Verde (Germano Almeida鈥檚 鈥淭he Last Will & Testament of Senhor da Silva Ara煤jo), Dijibouti (Abdourahman Waberi鈥檚 鈥淚n the United States of Africa鈥�), and Vatican City (Luigi Marinello & The Millenari鈥檚聽鈥淪hroud of Secrecy,鈥澛爋r聽鈥淕one with the Wind in the Vatican鈥�), among scores of others.
And while the challenge may have a whiff of stuntsmanship, we think there鈥檚 a deeper purpose behind Morgan鈥檚 endeavor, one that should inspire all of us to broaden our own libraries. Books introduce readers to new worlds and different perspectives 鈥� and if the teller of our stories come largely from one part of the world, we miss out on the myriad points of view of writers around the globe.
As Morgan said, reading books from different countries forced her to 鈥渟ee the world through the eyes of other people.鈥�
Quoting 鈥淭he Corsair,鈥� a Qatari novel by writer Abdul Aziz al Mahmoud, Morgan tells PRI, 鈥淵ou would think differently if this land were your land and these people were your people.鈥�
For your own literary trip around the world, check out Morgan鈥檚 book list .
Husna Haq is a Monitor correspondent.
