World, Writing, Wealth discussion

Along with native language lit, a certain percent of books are being written in other languages and then translated into English and other popular languages.. Paulo Coelho, Lev Tolstoy and hundreds of others arrive translated from their original lingo.
Do you read foreign, translated lit and in what per cents?

I read some in translation, although not as much as I should. It's hard to give meaningful numbers because my day job involves reading a fair amount of works translated from the Russian. But not counting that, probably less than 10%, mainly from the Nordic languages. However, if I could read more in translation, I would: as I mentioned on another thread, most of my reading these days is of ARCs I get through NetGalley or from publishers and authors. Although I deliberately try to seek out foreign authors, there are very few works actually in translation available. A lot of the "multicultural" fiction I can get is written in English, either by US/UK immigrants or by people from countries in Africa and Asia where English is commonly spoken.

I also read things in their original language, mainly Russian, but that is irritatingly hard to get a hold of as well. Even books by very well-known authors in Russia are not normally distributed in the US market unless they're translated, and the the supply for US-based procurers of Russian-language books such as kniga.com is spotty. I can get my hands on both Russian and English-language versions of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky pretty easily, but tracking down books by contemporary authors like Prilepin or Karasyov is a much bigger challenge.

Which is an example of how insular the English-language book market is. It's always surprising and kind of embarrassing how much literature in translation my non-US/UK friends read, but even when I deliberately seek it out, I have a hard time getting any.

I've read a lot of Scandinavian crime fiction in the past 10 years. Recently, I've been into Asa Larsson's books. Laurie Thompson was a great translator who died in 2015. He translated some of her books, as well as those by Mankell and Nesser. He'll be greatly missed.

E.P. wrote: "...tracking down books by contemporary authors like Prilepin or Karasyov is a much bigger challenge...."

A short trip to Russia may get this one sorted -:)

Apart from Russian and English lit, I should probably give credit in my personal reading favorites to Dumas, Verne, Simenon and others translated from French, I assume, as well as some Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Polish lit..

Nik wrote: "E.P. wrote: "...tracking down books by contemporary authors like Prilepin or Karasyov is a much bigger challenge...."

A short trip to Russia may get this one sorted -:)"

I know! Give me a suitcase and two days in Moscow , and I would have this problem sorted! But since not that's not an option, I just have to sit here Stateside and gnash my teeth :)

But seriously, it's ridiculous how little translated or foreign lit is available in the US. If you can go into immigrant communities like Brighton Beach, you can get some, but as far as just walking into a mainstream bookstore or even ordering it from Amazon--tough luck,

E.P. wrote: "as far as just walking into a mainstream bookstore or even ordering it from Amazon--tough luck, ..."

It might take some time, but I believe they will have a viable option for online order of Russian books with worldwide delivery

I sincerely hope so! The Russian-speaking diaspora is quite large at this point and it seems like they must be missing out on some major cash, which we know they don't like to do, by not catering to it.

Do you like/read translated lit?

Yes. I love Scandinavian noir, and it's almost always translated. I've found that some translators are better at it than others.

I do read foreign. I do not not search it out, but I do usually enjoy the books. Some of the classics obviously, but I also enjoy Japanese and Russian Science Fiction. There is something about a different perspective that gives one pause and things to think about.