Widening the Worldview with Global Literature

Widening the Worldviewwith Global Literature

By Lauren Weinhold

Like many online communities, the one that lives on Instagram – often called “bookstagram” by its members – is a passionate group of readers from all over the globe. Thousands of people share book reviews, literary musings, reflections on older materials, and speculations on upcoming releases. This vibrancy thrives on the bookstagram hashtag as a categorization tool, finding other readers’ posts and observations, and continuing the dialogue.

Using this hashtag concept, and the innate desire to share and discuss with other readers —what so many book clubs are built on!—my friend and fellow bookstagrammer and I hatched an idea in early 2020. Rachael of @anovelfamily and I have both run independent reading groups and projects through our Instagram accounts: she had a monthly challenge of reading classic literature over the span of a year under the hashtag 2020Classics, and I had various themed monthly projects that focused on a regional literature, like JanuaryinJapan, or a genre, like ScienceSeptember.

We both expressed a desire to read more global literature, and from this idea, our joint project Read The World 21 took shape. We chose a series of monthly prompts over 21 months—starting in April 2020 through the end of 2021—that focused on specific geographic regions of the world, challenging ourselves as well as any readers who wanted to join us, to read one or more books from this region each month. Additionally, we wanted to promote writers from the regions, seeking out original sources, translations, and publishing companies that specialise in the literature of a region or country. From there, the interpretation was completely open to the readers —any genre, any format. When possible, we aligned the monthly prompts with cultural history or heritage months, and existing reading projects in the bookstagram community.

Our first official month was April 2020, and we focused on the geographic and cultural region of MENA: Middle East and North Africa. Our first month of Read The World 21 came at an interesting time, as the world was experiencing the early days of the coronavirus pandemic and the beginnings of worldwide lockdowns and quarantines. In this time of uncertainty and isolation, people naturally turned to art and literature, and the internet as a way to connect. The project quickly took off, with hundreds of participants reading and sharing on the hashtag and planning for successive months.

At the time of writing, we are in month 7, or 1/3 of the way into this reading project. Several participants have arranged readalongs—reading and discussing books together— and others incorporate Read The World 21 into their own personal goals of reading literature from every country of the world or reading international literary prize winners.

“Read The World 21 is one opportunity to ‘widen your worldview’ through the act of reading global literature, and finding a network of other readers who are passionate to do the same thing.”

Take a look at your reading list this year. Do most of the writers come from 1 or 2 countries? Were the books primarily published in the last 3 years? Have you read a book translated from another language this year?

Read The World 21 is one opportunity to “widen your worldview” through the act of reading global literature, and finding a network of other readers who are passionate todo the same thing.

For more of Lauren’s book reviews and insights, follow her on Instagram @end.notes.

Check out the upcoming reading schedule for #ReadtheWorld21 on the next page.

—2020—

April 2020 – Middle East and North Africa

May 2020 – Pacific Islands / Southeast Asia

June 2020 – Caribbean

July 2020 – Eastern Europe

August 2020 – South Asia

September 2020 – South America

October 2020 – Russia

November 2020 – Indigenous North America / Canada

December 2020 – West and Central Africa

—2021—

January 2021 – Japan

February 2021 – South and East Africa

March 2021 – Korea

April 2021 – Australia / New Zealand

May 2021 – Mexico

June 2021 – Scandinavia

July 2021 – Central America

August 2021 – Balkans

September 2021 – Western Europe

October 2021 – Central Asia / Caucuses

November 2021 – Greater China

December 2021 – United Kingdom /Ireland