Let’s journey with Haňťa, an alcoholic book lover who struggles at work, love, and life. Haňťa is anyone who has been dismissed or ignored at work. He is someone who deals with addiction. He is a flawed person who feels invisible and small. During the Reading Europe Challenge, we are Reading Prague in August. Join us…
I’ve been reading Europe for years. This year, I decided to add a Reading Europe Challenge to Reading Around the World for curious readers and travelers who, like me, want to learn about a country through its literature. Years ago, I was convinced to travel to the countryside of France, and to Paris, because of…
I enjoy reading books about how people navigate love, loyalty, and conflict, because they provide a glance into how we handle internal monologues and decisions close to the heart. But reading about relationships from around the world offers an even better view of cultural nuances and helps me appreciate the many ways we relate to…
This year I returned to Liberia after three decades. I felt as if I needed to return to the source of my turmoil in order to be brave enough to venture on this new path of reading around the world and to slowly overcome my reclusiveness. I had to do so in order to heal….
Reading is not only about a book in hand. Reading is about the places books can take us. Reading is also an experience. Some books will remind you of a specific phase in your life. Some make you remember the ones who gifted them to you. Others take you back to a place. My reading…
Lovers of literature, welcome to the literary world of Sir. Walter Scott, Robert Burns, and Robert Louis Stevenson—Scotland’s preeminent writers and poets. If you’re looking for a lovely city that accommodates solo travelers who admire literature and culture, try Edinburgh, Scotland. The places I suggest for solo travel on my reading around the world literary…
I went to Argentina and searched for books. While I was familiar with Julio Cortázar and Jorge Luis Borges, my favorite Argentine writers, I wanted to find others. In Buenos Aires, I discovered Victoria Ocampo and Adolfo Bioy Casares. Whether you are reading about Argentina or planning to visit, here are four Argentine writers you…
I enjoy reading memoirs because I find the experience transformative. Memoirs introduce me to the intricacies of a culture or place that I may not have discovered otherwise. When I read personal stories that carry universal truths, I am reminded that I am not alone in this world, that there are people in other continents…
This month, I added another UNESCO World Heritage Site to the Reading Around the World Trail. I visited the UNESCO Villa Ocampo Observatory, in the town of Béccar, in Buenos Aires. Villa Ocampo was once the home of the writer, Victoria Ocampo, an Argentine writer, advocate, and intellectual nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature…
Walk around San Telmo, the oldest neighborhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and you will find art. Art dances on the street, a slow street tango; it lingers in bookstores, on paperbacks written by Jorge Luis Borges; it simmers in coffee cups of artistically designed café con leches, it sits on street corners in frames, canvases,…