Reading the world

Your guide to reading the world

Nov 23, 2015 / Dan Kedmey + Chelsea Catlett

Author Ann Morgan invites book lovers to follow her on a literary journey through 196 countries.

“I’d always thought that I was well-traveled,” says writer Ann Morgan (TED Talk:My year reading a book from every country in the world), but “actually, when I looked at my bookshelves, they told a very different story about me.” Her shelves were crowded with English-language books, mainly from English-speaking countries. From the rest of the world? “Hardly anything,” she says. So in 2012 she set for herself an ambitious goal: Read one book from every country on earth in one year. How did she find the books? Recommendations from locals, which came pouring in after she made an open plea on her blog. Morgan wrote a bookabout her literary journey; now she hopes readers will chart their own journeys with the help of the interactive maps, below. Each country contains a book or an unpublished translation from her reading list, with a teaser review from Morgan. “It’s incredible the breadth of perspective you get,” she says./.../