2014 Reading

So it's the new year, and as is traditional, folks are posting about various resolutions, goals, plans, plots, challenges, and self-improvement schemes. Well, Readers Mine, I'm usually not much of one for that sort of thing, but this year Dale has decided that she's going to fill in some holes in her film and reading knowledge, the details of which you can find over on Mockingbird's Nest.

Nope, this has nothing to do with the post. But I think it needs to be here, because Joss! And comics!

When it comes to reading and watching films, it's pretty easy to get my interest, and I thought Dale's idea was pretty damn cool, so I've drawn up a list of eight books to help fill in some holes in my own literary knowledge-base. I am happy to say that I am fairly well read when it comes to Western literature, both ancient and modern, and can even say the same for ancient non-Western writing. When it comes to non-Western modern works, however, I'm pretty much ignorant. So my rules for this reading list were 1.) no Western books (including the Americas, Europe, Russia, and the ANZAC nations, 2.) all books must have been written after 1945, the more recently the better, and 3.) I had to choose a maximum of eight, to allow plenty of time for these books, other books, and the rest of life in 2014.

So here's the list, along with the authors' nations of origin:

The Dark Side of Love by Rafik Schami - Syria.

Broken Glass by Alain Mabanckou - Republic of the Congo

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes - South Africa

The Glass Palace: A Novel by Amitav Ghosh - India

Wolf Dreams by Yasmina Khadra - Algeria

The Cage by Kenzo Kitakata - Japan

Please Don't Call me Human by Wang Shuo - China

The Republic of Wine by Mo Yan - China

Hopefully I'll be able to post about each book here after I read it, and those of you who're interested can follow along. I've a couple of more resolution-type things I'm trying this year, but most of them are a bit close to home to share in a space like this, so content yourselves with these eight books, Readers Mine, and - 

Happy New Year!!!