A Year of Reading the World
In 2012, Ann Morgan was your typical avid reader. She spent hours immersed in books, deeply invested in their plots and enjoying the escape from reality they provided her. Morgan, like many of us, considered her bookshelf to be diverse with books that represented various cultures, religions, and ethnicities. It wasn’t until she started a blog that she realized her original belief of her bookshelf may be inaccurate. This realization set Morgan off on an exciting, year-long mission.
The blog Morgan started was called “A Year of Reading Women”. She noticed that most books she read were written by men and planned to document her journey of reading books written by female authors. Amidst the process, a gentleman suggested a book titled “Cloudstreet” written by an Australian writer, Tim Winton. The novel, authored by a man, did not qualify for her blog. Nevertheless, Morgan proposed starting another blog next year that would include this book. This new blog would require a certain theme, to which the man who initially proposed the book recommended books from different countries.
The gentleman’s suggestion initially vexed Morgan. She had long believed that she was cultured and actively read books from varied sources. Upon further inspection, though, the majority of the books on her bookshelf were not from many other countries and mainly written in English by American and British authors. There were only a handful of exceptions, including a few Indian, South African, and Australian writers, but not nearly enough for what one would expect from a cultured person.
When Morgan realized the striking reality, she was appalled to discover the limitations she had unknowingly set for herself. She felt that all this time she had closed herself off from the rest of the world. Books from multiple countries, books written by diverse authors, and books that were originally written in other languages were not present on the list of books she had read. Morgan’s shock was soon overcome by determination and ambition.
Coincidentally, the 2012 Olympics would be held in London. This significant event would attract people from all across the globe to come and visit the city. With this in mind, Morgan decided to initiate an international reading project. The task would prove to be ambitious, for Morgan did not just want to read books from different countries; she wanted to read a book from every existing country.
The first phase of the project consisted of developing a list of countries that Morgan would attempt to read a book from. The total number of U.N. recognized countries was 196. On top of the challenging sum of books, it was almost impossible to get a book translated into English from every country. Translated books in the U.K. usually come from countries with strong publishing organizations. This meant that books from places like French-speaking Africa would be unobtainable in the U.K. Translated works make up an abysmally low percentage of the total number of literary works published in the U.K. at just 4.5%.
Undeterred by these obstacles, Morgan pressed on. The reputation of her project grew as an increasing number of people left comments and suggestions online about which books she should read and how to find them. For countries that simply did not have books translated into English, Morgan had to get creative. For Sao Tome and Principe, Morgan purchased a collection of short stories and sent sections of it to translators. Each translator worked on their separate part and sent their translations back to Morgan.
Morgan’s year of reading the world taught her countless lessons. Looking back at her bookshelf, Morgan could now see that, when situated on a global scale, her books represented only a small portion of the world’s literature. The stories she read exposed her more than ever to the world’s diversity and complexity, in addition to the new relationships Morgan built with all the people who went to such great lengths to assist her.
Morgan’s journey can be an inspiration to us all. Her dedication to improve her knowledge and to be open about her constraints spurred on a quest to expand her worldview. Her story illustrates the importance and richness of having a culturally diverse bookshelf. A culturally diverse bookshelf can expand someone’s knowledge, increase their open-mindedness, and open their eyes to the vastness of the world’s beauty.
References:
Morgan, A. (2015 November 23). My year of reading a book from every country [Video]. TED.
NPR. (2018 April 27). Ann Morgan: What can you learn from reading the world?. NPR
