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Now, in general I try not to classify literature by country. What if someone was born in one country but ended up writing in a different country with a different language? Where do they go? Or what about countries like the Ukraine where many of their writers are classified as Russian because they belonged to the Soviet Union for so long? Do I divide by language or geography? It can get pretty difficult but I wanted to have an idea of how widely read I am. I tried to do a little digging and this is what I've come up with.
USA, Canada, Russia, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, South Africa, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, Norway, Holland, Denmark, Greece, Rome, Spain, Mexico, Ukraine, China, Japan, India, Chilli, Argentina and Columbia.
Now this is by no means comprehensive I took a class in Caribbean lit in college but can't remember specifically which islands we read from. Also what do I do with countries that no longer exist like some of the places from my study of the classics (think really ancient)? I'm pretty sure I've read something from Belgium and Peru but can't come up with anything concrete so I didn't put them in. But from the look of it here I'm not so widely read as I had thought. Guess I'll have to remedy that. Anyone have some great suggestions of books from other cultural areas that I haven't covered?
Do you have a favorite country, culture or language selection of books?
I do seem to gravitate toward a lot of books from the UK and set in the UK, and did so even before I moved here. But I love Venice too!
ReplyDeleteI have read a good bit from the UK too.
DeleteOoh, I like your questions. You're right, an author might have moved to a new country.
ReplyDeleteOoh, Wales! Did I forget to mention Wales? Dylan Thomas!
I deleted your other comment, it was just a repeat of this one, hope that's ok.
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ReplyDeleteNo worries. I think I'm doing too many in a row - finally catching up! - and blogger gives me error messages, so I try again until I see the comment...
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting idea. I've never really classified literature by country either. But I think I will check out what my reading world looks like.
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting to think about, though when it comes down to it, I read a book because it looks interesting, not because of the socio/economic/cultural background of the book. Though that may be taken into account.
DeleteI'm guessing most of mine take place in the US, even though I don't live there. lol
ReplyDeleteMost of mine are from the US also, but I do live there. :)
DeleteI've never thought of this before! Now I'm going to pay more attention to where the author lives... I'm totally going to go look up my favorite authors right now, LOL :D
ReplyDeleteWell, don't get too distracted. :)
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ReplyDeleteI'm a homebody when it comes to travel...and when it comes to reading, apparently. I lean towards US authors, especially those from Texas. I like books I can breeze right through, and it seems the familiar sentence patterns and colloquialisms of authors from my neck of the woods make for those kinds of books. More than once, I've found an author whose writing I really like, only to discover later they live in my state.
ReplyDeleteI do enjoy books written by people from England and Australia, too, though. Those have some of the best humor. Combined with the dialectal differences, it really makes me laugh.
Great post! You get today's prize for 'unique'! :D
We all more comfortable with what we know. I love British humor too. I have to be careful which books I listen to on walks though. There's been more than one time that I've had to stop and double over with laughter.
DeleteI've read a few I loved from Japan, and a few from Australia. I'm about to jump into Graffiti Moon, which is another book from Australia.
ReplyDeleteInteresting...
What's funny, is that most of the time I don't even know until someone tells me - Oh! That book came from Germany, lol
I'm more aware of it because of my classes from college. I had several classes that were based on regions so I kinda notice.
DeleteI love reading books based in deserts, Africa or Asian countries. It gives me insight into different cultures and sub-cultures!
ReplyDeleteNas
I love books from Asia too. Though my checkbook doesn't. I always end up craving Chinese or Japanese food.
DeleteI've never thought of this before either, how interesting! I'd like to think I enjoy books written by authors from a fairly diverse spectrum...but I'd bet most would actually be from US/UK, with maybe a little from France...but not much. Makes me want to pay more attention to this in the future. (:
ReplyDeleteWell, most of mine are from the US/UK but I've found some great authors from other places too.
DeleteI'm useless to you about this. I've read from English speaking countries only, with the exception of a few translations. Good luck with broadening your horizons :)
ReplyDeleteMost of the books I've read in translation too.
DeleteI've read a lot of books from the UK lately. Very fun. I like to read from everywhere. They all have something fun and different to add to the world of literature.
ReplyDeleteI love the British sense of humor. Keeps me laughing.
DeleteYou know something? I never really thought of that before. Now I'm curious to find out the location of origin to some of my favorites. :)
ReplyDeleteHave fun with it!
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