Petroglyph's 2022 TBR challenge

Books from countries I have not read (enough of)

1. Finland:
   Isakskatedralen by Kari Hotakainen. English title: Saint Isaac’s Cathedral Finished: February 2022
   A senior citizen wakes up in a hospital in Helsinki, believing themselves to be in Moskow; they later visit their son in St Petersburg (where the titular cathedral is located). I’ll be reading this in a Swedish translation. (Acquired: 2021)


2. Norway:
   Får jag följa med dig hem by Marie Aubert. English title: Can I go home with you Finished: December 2022
   A short story collection by an author new to me. I’ll be reading this in a Swedish translation. (Acquired: 2021)


3. Denmark:
   Det dør man af by Maja Elverkilde. Finished: December 2022
   A short story collection by an author new to me. I’ll be reading this in the original Danish. (Acquired: 2019)


4. Germany:
   Grand Hotel by Vicki Baum. Finished: October 2022
   Daily life in a residential hotel in Weimar-era Berlin. I’ll be reading this in an English translation. (Acquired: 2020)


5. Hungary:
   A journey round my skull by Frigyes Karinthy. Finished: January 2022
   Distinguished author Frigyes Karinthy finds himself suffering from a brain tumour that causes him all kinds of hallucinations, headaches, and fainting spells. This autobiographical book is a diary of sorts, chronicling both his own reflections and responses and those of his wider circle of intellectuals, socialites and doctors. I’ll be reading this in an English translation. (Acquired: 2021)


6. Sénégal:
   La grève des bàttu: ou Les déchets humains by Aminata Sow Fall. Translated in English as The Beggars' Strike, or, The Dregs of Society. Finished: October 2022
   A short post-colonial novel about an incompetent bureaucrat tasked with removing beggars from the streets. I’ll be reading this in the original French. (Acquired: 2019)


7. Africa:
   Twenty years of the Caine Prize for African Writing, edited by Chris Brazier. Finished: December 2022
   An anthology of twenty English-language short stories that have won the Caine Prize; authors hail from all over the continent. (Acquired: 2021)


8. Japan:
   The Penguin book of Japanese short stories, edited by Jay Rubin. Finished: November 2022
   An anthology of short stories from Japan, ranging from 19th-century classics to present-day authors. I’ll be reading this in an English translation. (Acquired: 2020)

Reading projects

1. Reading more contemporary Swedish authors (I live in Sweden):
   Currently reading: Aprilhäxan by Majgull Axelsson. English title: April witch
   About the supernatural inner life of a quadriplegic woman. (Acquired: 2019)


2. Reading more by the Ancients:
   Metamorphoses by Publius Ovidius Naso Finished: December 2022
   I expect to dip in and out of this for much of the year. (Acquired: 2000)


3. Annual Big French Classic:
   La chatte by Colette. Translated into English as The cat. Finished: November 2022
   A wife’s jealousy of her husband’s affection for his cat. (To be acquired this year)


4. Completist Author:
   At Freddie’s by Penelope Fitzgerald. Finished: November 2022
   I’m planning on reading all nine of Penelope Fitzgerald’s novels, because I find her such a wonderful author. This is number eight in my read-through (fourth in order of publication). This book deals with life at a drama school, and it is the last of her novels to be inspired by places from her life. (To be acquired this year)


5. Annual Big Classic:
   Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. Finished: June 2022
   I might have read an abridged children’s version as a kid, and I’ll soon watch the John Huston / Ray Bradbury film from 1956, but I think I’m finally adult enough for endless couleur locale asides on whaling. (To be acquired this year)


6. Annual Doorstop:
   A brief history of seven killings by Marlon James. Finished: August 2022
   A 2018 SantaThing gift that I held off on reading for this challenge. (Acquired: 2018)


7. Reading more in German:
   Wo warst du, Adam? by Heinrich Böll. English title: And where were you, Adam?
   A series of linked short stories about how German soldiers experienced the final gasps of WWII. One of the oldest unread books I own. (Acquired: 1999)


8. Reading more in Spanish:
   Cenizas de un octubre helado by María Romero Pérez. English title: Ashes of a frozen October.
   I’m trying to teach myself conversational Spanish, and so I’ve acquired a few short children’s/YA books in that language. This is a random YA find, which appears to be about a teenager returning to their hometown and rooting around in the secrets their grandmother wrote down in her diary. (Acquired: 2021)

General Owned-but-Unread

1. Dancer’s Luck by Ann Maxwell. Finished: September 2022
   The second volume in a science fiction series that I may or may not read the next instalment of (I got this book mainly because of its ridiculous cover and its being female-authored SF pulp). Having freed a group of slaves in the first instalment, the main characters now travel around the galaxy to try and bring them back to their home planets; this volume deals with the first stop on that voyage. (Acquired: 2021)


2. Maboul Kitchen by Nadine Monfils. English title: Mémé goes to Hollywood
   An impulsive online purchase. This appears to be a surreal black comedy about an elderly woman in love with Jean-Claude Van Damme. I’ll be reading this in the original French. (Acquired: 2020)


3. Ten thousand light-years from home by James Tiptree Jr..
   I’ve read individual short stories by this author before, and that’s made me want to read more by her. (Acquired: 2020)


4. Currently reading: Milkman by Anna Burns.
   An impulsive purchase because I saw so many people reading this at the time. Also: I haven’t read many authors from Northern Ireland, exactly. (Acquired: 2020)


5. Inconvenient people: lunacy, liberty, and the mad-doctors in England by Sarah Wise.
   I need to read more non-fiction outside my own field (linguistics), and this book is about historical psychiatry. An in-depth look at the treatment of the (allegedly) mentally insane in nineteenth-century England, focusing on involuntary commitment. (Acquired: 2018)


6. In Nederland by Cees Nooteboom. English title: In the Dutch mountains. Finished: August 2022
   A gift from a friend who no longer feels capable of reading Dutch. I’m not quite sure what to expect: it appears to be a fairy-tale like story wrapped inside a post-modern meta-narrative. (Acquired: 2019)


7. At the mouth of the river of bees: stories by Kij Johnson. Finished: December 2022
   A 2019 Santathing gift. I’ve read short fantastic fiction by this author before and I’m glad to get the opportunity to read more by them. (Acquired: 2019)


8. Evil Roots: Killer tales of the botanical gothic, edited by Daisy Butcher. Finished: November 2022
   An anthology of plant-themed tales in the Gothic and Weird traditions. Seems like a fun collection to dip into from time to time. (Acquired: 2019)

I'm back!

2020 got away from me, and 2021 wasn't great for reading, either. Or at least not for putting effort in writing about my reading. Here's hoping that 2022 will see me climb out of a reading slump.

your list makes me wish i can read more non-english books in their original languages :) i do read a lot of japanese literature (i like jay rubin as translator), and even though i enjoy them, i cant help dreaming of what gets lost in the translations...

happy reading :)

Welcome back!!! Hope that you are able to work your way out of the slump.

Moby Dick is one of my all-time favourite classics, hope you like it too. :)

>3 riida:
Reading multiple languages feels like a chore sometimes, though.

>5 Cecrow:
My SO is also a big fan.

I see you've been updating without posting. Curious what you thought of Moby Dick.