book recommendations: world literature
books around the world to diversify your reading list
(this post is literally my magnum opus, because it probably took me 10+ hours to compile)
In honor of Han Kang winning the Nobel Prize for Literature (!!! so proud), I thought I’d share one of my favorite lists I’ve ever made (that is ever growing and that I will probably update sometime)—here is a list of books from around the world to diversify your reading! I think one of the best parts of being a reader is being able to glimpse into different cultures around the world that we otherwise would not get a chance to. Most of these are translated, but some are written directly in English (obviously, books from English speaking countries were written in English as well).
If they are translated, I urge you to also look up and acknowledge the translators as well because translating nuance and cultural implications from one language into another is never an easy feat. I like to keep a list of words in different languages that do not have direct one word translations to English—and I don’t think we realize in our day to day lives that language is not just about speaking, but a culmination of history and culture and traditions of the people that lived before us as well.
I tried to find as many books I read or heard good things about, but some countries have a very limited amount of translated literature (and I didn’t want to put ones that I wasn’t 100% sure was a good book, from a credible source). I have not read all of these, but these are all ones that I have heard good things about from friends and people whose reading taste I trust. I think there are about 200 books on here from 50+ countries, so I hope you enjoy. This is in alphabetical order (minus Korean literature, and I get to put that first because I’m Korean).
As always, I’ve linked Goodreads pages for your convenience. If you have any recommendations, feel free to leave them in the comments and I’ll check them out and add it in!