This week's BTT topic ("Name a book (or books) from a country other than your own that you love. Or aren’t there any?") is a good one, but it presents an almost impossible task. At least, it seems pretty daunting to me.Because so many of my favorite books are from countries other than my own, once I get started listing them, we could be here for the rest of the week. And choosing just one favorite would be seriously impossible.
What would it be? Lewis Carroll's Alice books? See – that's two already. Just about anything by Barbara Pym or Anthony Powell? Wuthering Heights? Something by P.D. James, Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers? Du Maurier's Rebecca? Virginia Woolf's Orlando?
And that's just the British Isles. What about Borges' Ficciones? Magister Ludi by Hermann Hesse? Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being? Nabokov's Lolita? The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez Reverte?
See my point? And I could go on. But I won't (you lucky people, you!). What I will do is direct you to a list of favorites, written several years ago (I really should update it one of these days), and then take myself off to look at your answers. Should be fun because you've got a long list, too – am I right? And I love reading lists of books almost as much as I love reading the books themselves!
What an array of books you have there. I don't have near that many. hehe
ReplyDeleteAh! The Unbearable Lightness of Being is one of my favorite books and I forgot about it! Great answer.
ReplyDeleteI'm starting a new meme today called What Were They Thinking? over at The Crowded Leaf.. Stop by if you want to participate!
What a great list you named and there is more? lol
ReplyDeleteCMash
My first language is Swedish but I've been reading in English for forty years, so I had to make this question more challenging for myself by excluding English/American writers as well as Swedish. If you like, read my answer here.
ReplyDeleteIt is always great to discover great reads regardless of the country or nationality of the author. Here's my BTT for this week.
ReplyDeleteClandestine Sanctuary
Love Rebecca, as well as Alice. I've tried reading Wuthering Heights TWICE and I still don't care for it...I know I'm in the minority on that one!
ReplyDeleteA couple writers I really like in translation are Emile Zola and Shusaku Endo. Also, Umberto Eco.
ReplyDeleteNone of them write many novellas, however, which is too bad because I'm stopping by to say that the November Novella Challenge is back and I hope you'll join us again!
http://novembernovellachallenge.blogspot.com/
Is there one in particular you'd designate as an outstanding favorite?
ReplyDeleteA lot of the time, I'm not even aware of the nationality of the authors I read.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how I could possibly answer a question like this, LOL! too many to list.
ReplyDelete