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Help Wanted for an Olympic Challenge

Occlith said:
Did you also give ratings to the list?
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I didn't rate them for the official list, but I rated them as I read and recorded them online by the month..if that makes sense. Since I was posting these lists in three or four forums, sometimes the rating stars didn't transfer and it was just a hassle. Besides, I took a cue from the way the other particpants of the challenge posted their list in their Bookcrossing profiles, without ratings. Actually, there was practically no book talk over there about individual titles, other than to offer or request trades.. or ask for suggestions for a certain country. I got my 'fix' for that here and in my other forums.
 
Starting again, shooting for the 2014 Sochi Games. I just sent a request for
n Literature From the “Axis of Evil:” Writing from Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and Other Enemy Nations, which is a Words Without Borders anthology. I'll be taking book suggestions!
 
Sounds like an interesting book. From the Amazon description:
During the Cold War, writers behind the Iron Curtain—Solzhenitsyn, Kundera, Milosz—were translated and published in the United States, providing an invaluable window on the Soviet regime's effects on daily life and humanizing the individuals living under its conditions.

Yet U.S. Treasury Department regulations made it almost impossible for Americans to gain access to writings from "evil" countries such as Iran and Cuba until recently. Penalties for translating such works or for "enhancing their value" by editing them included stiff fines and potential jail time for the publisher.
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Really?

How about Atiq Rahimi's The Stone Of Patience (Afghanistan)? Fantastic little book.

Pedro Juan Gutierrez' Dirty Havana is supposed to be good, but I haven't read it yet.

The only recent Iranian book I've read is Nairi Nahapetian's Who Killed Ayatollah Kanuni?, which was interesting but in the end rather amateurish.
 
beer good said:
Sounds like an interesting book. From the Amazon description:

Really?

How about Atiq Rahimi's The Stone Of Patience (Afghanistan)? Fantastic little book.

Pedro Juan Gutierrez' Dirty Havana is supposed to be good, but I haven't read it yet.

The only recent Iranian book I've read is Nairi Nahapetian's Who Killed Ayatollah Kanuni?, which was interesting but in the end rather amateurish.
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It was harder to find translated materials from some places the first time around. Looks like things might be better now. I'd like to avoid resorting to Lonely Planet Guides and bone-dry reports as much as possible. I'll look up your suggestions and see what's available. Thanks!
 
beer good said:
Sounds like an interesting book. From the Amazon description:

Really?

How about Atiq Rahimi's The Stone Of Patience (Afghanistan)? Fantastic little book.

Pedro Juan Gutierrez' Dirty Havana is supposed to be good, but I haven't read it yet.

The only recent Iranian book I've read is Nairi Nahapetian's Who Killed Ayatollah Kanuni?, which was interesting but in the end rather amateurish.
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I requested the first two. In what language did you read Who Killed Ayatollah Kanuni? All I could find on Amazon was a French copy.

Also, I'm having trouble finding a definitive list of participating nations...one source lists 205, while another says 217..and one list has something called a United Team. I can't find much about that, and who is on that team. Then one list has Cote d' Ivorie AND Ivory Coast...and Samoa, Western Samoa, and US Samoa...I'm so confused!
 
Ah, OK. I read it in Swedish, so it might not be available in English at all. No great loss, really.

One Iranian classic is Sadegh Hedayat's The Blind Owl, which is... a unique read, to put it mildly. Sort of Kafka on acid. And that one is available in English.
 
beer good said:
Ah, OK. I read it in Swedish, so it might not be available in English at all. No great loss, really.

One Iranian classic is Sadegh Hedayat's The Blind Owl, which is... a unique read, to put it mildly. Sort of Kafka on acid. And that one is available in English.
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"Kafka on acid" sounds like a great name for a rock band:flowers:

I've made a wish list on amazon specifically for this challenge. At this point, I'm having fun collecting candidates. Here's what I've got so far. I need to go back and look at the African titles again to check for author's nationality..but since I'm doing this for myself, I don't know that it matters so much if there's overlap. A good book is a good thing to find.
 
Some great authors on that list (Mircea Cartarescu, yay!) One excellent Ivorian writer is Véronique Tadjo. Then there's Ahmadou Korouma's Allah Is Not Obliged, which didn't impress me completely, but is very much worth reading nonetheless if you want to a picture of some of the harsher sides of politics and warfare in Western Africa.
 
That Catalan Literature thread over on worldliteratureforum has me looking for Andorran writers in translation. I have a feeling that will be a toughie.

But, I must stop now...school is late. Must. Step.Away. From. Computer. Really.:lol:
 
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