The World Between Two Covers: Reading the Globe

This book was not what I thought it would be.

I thought I would be immersed in reviews of books from all across the globe, why choices were made and what the author thought of the experience of reading them.

Instead we got the "politics of world literature - an apologia for the undue influence of the French and mainly the English language on cultures, languages and publishing throughout the world - self flagellation on the pernicious results of cultural imperialism by the West on the rest of the World.

Ho hum.

We just get a list at the end of the 196 books she read to represent the countries whose number she challenges in the first sections of her book.

This book should not be in the literary criticism section of the bookstore and I was show more annoyed that it is marketed as one thing and seeks to become another. Also a bit irritating that she portrays what she is doing as some sort of unique idea when many of us on LT have been doing something similar over an extended period.

Not recommended. show less

In 2012 Ann Morgan, a freelance writer, editor and blogger, set herself the goal of reading one book from every country in the world, sharing her reviews through her blog, AYearofReadingtheWorld.com.

The World Between Two Covers is in small part the story of her reading adventures, but is more fully an academic examination of the challenges she faced in sourcing world literature.

Her first task was to determine exactly what defines a country, apparently there is some dispute, though she eventually settled on a list of 196. Morgan was then faced a number of challenges in selecting representative texts from each country including availability (only around 4% of books published in English are translated from other languages), censorship, show more technology and cultural identity. The World Between Two Covers examines these issues both within a global context, and within the framework of Morgan's personal challenge.

"The truth is, we as individuals will never be wise enough or cultured enough or fast enough or long-lived enough to read the world as deeply and thoroughly as it deserves – and we never have been. We can only fail. So we have a choice: we can stick with what we know, or we can embrace the impossibility of reading world literature properly and jump right in – ‘feel the fear and do it anyway'."

I found The World Between Two Covers to be an interesting read, highlighting the issues at play in reading world literature, especially because I'm in my second year of participating in a similar, though far less ambitious challenge {Around the World in 12 Books}, requiring I read 12 books over the course of the year, each set in a different country, across six continents. This book has inspired me to dig a little deeper than I have previously in selecting books for the challenge. show less

Well, that's over. From the front flap of the book:

Prompted to read a book translated into English from each of the world's 195 UN-recognized countries (plus Taiwan and one extra), Ann sought out classics, folktales, current favorites and commercial triumphs, novels, short stories, memoirs, and countless mixtures of all these things.

The world between two covers, the world to which Ann introduces us with affection and no small measure of wit, is a world rich in the kind of narratives that engage us passionately: we meet an irreverent junk food–obsessed heroine in Kuwait, an explorer from Togo who spent years among the Inuit in Greenland, and a former child circus performer of Roma background seeking sanctuary in Switzerland.

I was show more excited to read this book because I was looking forward to hearing about Morgan's experiences sourcing native literature from each country and her thoughts about what she read. After all, isn't that what the title and flap seem to be offering?

Unfortunately, that's not what I got. What I got was a dissertation on reading globally, writing for a global audience and a whole lot of theorising about imperialism, racism, war and how they relate to writing and publishing. The only time Morgan mentions her experiences with sourcing and reading literature from every UN recognized country at all in this book is when she's using them as citations to support the idea she's espousing at that moment. As to her thoughts about what she read - they're almost non-existent until nearly the end when she discusses her feelings about the perceptions of non-Europeans/North Americans of the British and the Yanks.

I'd have given this book 1 star, but the book does have merit; it's thoughtful, insightful, and well-written. If this is what you're looking for, definitely check out this book. But this wasn't what I was looking for; I was looking for what was advertised on the packet and since I didn't get that my rating is lower than the book objectively deserves. show less

The world came to the UK in 2012 when we hosted the Olympics, and as a challenge Ann Morgan decided that this was the time to discover the literary landscape of the world. Whilst the UK and Europe has a long history of books and reading, a number of countries don’t have this aspect to their culture; sometimes because they have a predominately oral history other times because the authorities don’t permit artistic expression.

First she had to choose the countries that she was to read from. Fairly easy you would think, but nothing is that straightforward. For example, the UK considers Taiwan to be an independent country, but China has a very different opinion on this. Having settled on her list of 196 countries (plus one) the next show more challenge was to find a piece of literary work from that country; that had been written down; and translated into English.

So begins her walk through the world’s fictional topography. For every book she chooses there are lots that she misses out on, but each piece gives a flavour of the culture of the country of origin. This perspective can be lost when the book is translated as you are getting as much from the translator as you were from the author. Throughout the book she considers the state of global literature, the spectre of state censorship and how writing can define a countries national character. There is an interesting chapter on the way that the internet is able to bring together a varied and diverse set of readers, and why so few of the 100,000 books published every year in the UK are translated ones.

But in some ways this book was a bit of a let down. I was hoping for much more on the actual books Morgan read; her feelings and thoughts of the text and stories as she roamed the world. Whilst there is a full list of the books that she read for each of the countries selected at the back of the book, it was such a shame, because the promise of Reading the World as indicated by the title wasn’t really there. show less

Ann Morgan set herself the challenge of reading one book from every country during the course of a year. The individual books are well documented on her blog, and this book takes a step back to give a broader picture of the difficulties of her challenge, reading, translation, globalisation, etc.

If you are casually interested in world literature, or enjoy translated fiction, the topics covered will be of interest, giving a personal and accessible view which more academic books may not offer. I have a couple of gripes: occasionally there were factual errors (capital of Australia, Our Musseque being from Equatorial Guinea); the style was a little long-winded, often paraphrasing herself in consecutive sentences. More rigorous editting show more should have picked these up, or perhaps the intention was for a more chatty style to pick up on the success of the blog. Nevertheless, the book is unique it what it is offering and should offer up ideas for books and help you discover and challenge your own reading prejudices. show less

As someone who loves to read translations, I thought this book would be a good fit for me. I assumed it would be about her reading experience as she read a book from every country in the world. As it turns out, you must go to her online blog to get that feedback. This book was far more academic. It dealt with the ins and outs of translations and publishing in other countries, the difficulties of finding material, etc, etc. Some of the chapters were interesting but overall, it read more like an essay. Not awful, but fairly dry.

I’m glad I found this book at the library. I was all gung ho to buy it at B&N. Glad I didn’t, as it honestly isn’t my kind of book. Ann Morgan explores all the philosophical reasons behind why she decided to read a book from each country of the world...how many countries are there?...what is a country, really?...how do you choose something representative from each place? I wasn’t terribly interested in all that discourse; I kept waiting to hear about the books she chose and read. And the books she chose and read was pretty much confined to a list of twenty pages in the back. Quite disappointing, really.