If you are a reader look at your bookshelves today. What do you see? Are all your books from authors in your first language? Are they all books that everyone around you reads or what have been praised constantly? Not that a good review is not a sign of a good book, but the question is, are not books also our tools to see what we were not able to see. Maybe for same reason Ann Morgan noticed although she had been reading for years, her books were in a limited circle and it made her change it in 2012 when she read a book from every country in the world.
Reading from authors across the globe can benefit us in following ways:
1) Shared Experiences
Soon after we read a book from an Asian, African or American author we would realize after all differences, how close we are as humans. For example, no matter if one is an immigrant from China or Eastern Europe they may have similar experiences as an immigrant in Canada.
2) Expanding our Horizons
We might focus on what we see happening in front of our eyes while there are moments, feelings and experiences which we would never discover. Books take us to those experiences that are invisible but truer than anything happening in front of our eyes. Narrator’s pain and struggles and challenges would be ours, no matter if we have ever had a similar life. As Haruki Murakami said “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”
3) Discovering New Talents
Not all books of authors who have established names are in the same level. And same fact applies to unknown authors. Then, why do not open a book from someone who has not got the praise from a world known criticizer. Just read a page or two from where ever in the book that you open, you would see if it caught your attention, and if it did, read more pages. One day you might be the one who discovers an unknown brilliant talent.
4) Improving our Creativity
Although books can never be categorized with certain lines between each style, we cannot disregard differences between writing styles across the globe. Reading few lines of each authors such as Alice Munro, Ferit Orhan Pamuk, Haruki Murakami, Abbas Maroufi, Christian Bobin and Ernesto Sabato implies not only their talent, but also their creativity and evolutionary style of writing. This can lead us to improve our creativity no matter if we are a writer, film producer or painter.
I invite you to join us reading books from authors across the globe to cast our eyes toward new horizons, yet as Ann Morgan said, “I don't want to suggest that it's at all possible to get a rounded picture of a country simply by reading one book.”