Tanitha's Cosmic Musings

I would love to have finished blogging about the 13 fun reading challenges to set yourself in 2022. However due to full-time working, and other responsibilities, I have time to write blog posts during the weekend, and on my off-days. So, I will probably continue the reading challenges next weekend. But that is okay, as it gives me time to find my next blog posts while I am writing about the challenges.

And so we arrive at reading challenge No. 6: Reading around the world. This is inspired from the book by David Damrosch “Around the world in 80 books”. I would not buy the book just to read a list of books; looking through the net, I found some wonderful lists. You may find that some of them are missing a country or two; some books are only set in the specific country (like for example, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, written by Ernest Hemingway).

What does it mean, for me, for you, to read around the world? Personally, it would mean reading a book from that country’s author that is considered a classic; a contemporary book that shows an aspect of that country that a tourist would not see. Would I undertake such an endeavor? I would love to, and certainly I would like to incorporate more international writers in my reading.

I do have a lot of books, I have accumulated on my kindle, and on my bookshelves. I am certain I can find a few books from authors all over the world. And I will certainly be looking at those lists with books from around the world.

However, as a half-Greek and half-Italian woman, I have a couple of recommendations for you, from my native countries. And these recommendations come in the form of writers. Some you will have of, as they are quite easy to find.

So, from Italy: my absolute favourite, Italo Calvino. I would recommend starting with Marcovaldo or The Seasons in the City and with If On a Winter’s Night A Traveller. But whichever book by Calvino you read, you are in for a treat.

When we were at school, we were made to read a book by Elsa Morante, called Arturo’s Island. But at school, my literature teacher made it boring. So I never really gave it any actual reading. I did not read it for pleasure at the time. Years later, I discovered the book in one of my bookshelves, and read it. And I recommend it highly. A number of people also recommend “History” by the same author; I have not read it as yet, and so I cannot comment. I will finish my recommendations with 2 more authors: Oriana Fallaci and Alberto Moravia. I have not lived in Italy nor have had any contact with any distant relatives of mine in years and years, and so I do not know of more contemporary writers.

A lot of people think of Greece as the land of the ancient gods, or the land of the islands and summer vacations. There is a lot in Greece that people should look up to and a lot that people should run away from, like in every country. I started writing about a lot of other things and digressing from my actual theme, which is books.

I am going to recommend anything by Nikos Kazantzakis. He truly deserved a Nobel prize in literature but never got it, even though he was nominated for 9 consecutive years. I will not say any more, but please if you are to read one Greek writer, choose Kazantzakis. A second writer I recommend, a satirist, one whose novels and stories are hilarious, is Dimitris Psathas. I do not know whether his works have been translated into English. If not, they should be. I cannot describe how many times I laughed with his books, reading in trains, planes and coffee shops.

Do you have a recommendation for reading around the world? Preferably a book from a country that we do not usually see writers from. I am certain that every country has great writers and it will be interesting to see some good translations of their works.