Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge discussion

Use this space to discuss books you're reading or that might fit the twenty-third Read Harder task, from Ausma Zehanat Khan, author of the Esa Khattak/Rachel Getty mystery series, including The Unquiet Dead, The Language of Secrets, and the forthcoming Among the Ruins.

Suggested posts that might help are available here:

Markings by Dag Hammarskjöld

It's about his personal spiritual journey.

Ugh, this one is going to be tough for me. I never trust translations, especially of poetry. Though I would consider a side-by-side English/French or English/Italian volume. Any suggestions for that?

It's not the translations for me. It's the poems! I don't really enjoy poetry. Not a whole book of it, anyway.

Using this as a push to read a collection by Pablo Neruda his Then Come Back: The Lost Neruda Poems.

I think this task is not too bad if you read the poems in between other books.

I've got a question -- would "Eugene Onegin" count for this task? It's a novel, but it's in verse.

Trudie wrote: "Using this as a push to read a collection by Pablo Neruda his Then Come Back: The Lost Neruda Poems.

I think this task is not too bad if you read the poems in between other books."

Thank you for reminding me that Pablo Neruda had been recommended to me some time ago! I think I will give Odes to Common Things a try.

This might be a somewhat unusual choice for this task, but if you're interested in the translation part of this task more than the poetry part, you might enjoy 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei.

I'm going to jump on the Pablo Neruda train with 'The book of Questions'.

Catie wrote: "This might be a somewhat unusual choice for this task, but if you're interested in the translation part of this task more than the poetry part, you might enjoy [book:19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei|..."

OK, that looks intriguing. I'm not big on poetry either (horrible flashbacks to some high school classes).

In case anyone from Book Riot is reading these posts, I'd like to express my frustration and disappointment over the 2017 challenge tasks. I really enjoyed the 2015 and 2016 challenges, but am not even sure if I will participate in 2017. It seems like Book Riot is trying so hard to come up with unique tasks that the tasks are getting very obscure and limiting as the 2017 tasks are so narrowly defined. Argh...

Here are a couple of suggestions:

Mr Cogito by Zbigniew Herbert, translated from Polish by John Carpenter and Bogdana Carpenter. This is a slim volume (62 pages in my print version) of persona poems in which the narrator, Mr Cogito, tackles the sense of identity, self, humanity. Copyright 1974 (original) and 1993 (translations). Some titles of some of the poems: "Mr Cogito Looks at his Face in the Mirror," "Mr Cogito and the Pearl," "Ordinariness of the Soul," "What Mr Cogito Thinks About Hell."

For the Living and the Dead, by Tomas Tranströmer, 1995, translated from the Swedish by Joanna Bankier, Robert Bly, Samuel Charters, Robin Fulton, and Malena Mörling; edited by Daniel Halpern. Another slim volume (70 pages) made even slimmer by the fact that the second part of the volume is a prose memoir Tranströmer wrote at about age 60. Some of the poetry titles: "The Forgotten Captain," "Six Winters," "Madrigal," "Golden Wasp".

Mona wrote: "Pauline wrote: "In case anyone from Book Riot is reading these posts, I'd like to express my frustration and disappointment over the 2017 challenge tasks. I really enjoyed the 2015 and 2016 challen..."

I agree fully with this, and our fellow readers have already made some good suggestions. I am not a poetry reader either, but I am glad to be pushed to expand my boundaries.

Catie wrote: "This might be a somewhat unusual choice for this task, but if you're interested in the translation part of this task more than the poetry part, you might enjoy [book:19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei|..."

Oh, wow, that looks fascinating! I may end up reading that one, too!

Any suggestions for a collection translated from Spanish with the original text included?

This list might help:

I'm not a poetry person so I've been struggling with this one & taking inspiration from all of your great suggestions. Then I just remembered that I have Barren Harvest: Selected Poems of Dane Zajc (translated from Slovenian) on my bookshelf thanks to a recommendation from one of my @Litsy friends!

mel wrote: "Any suggestions for a collection translated from Spanish with the original text included?"

Pablo Medina and Mark Statman's translation of Poet in New York: A Bilingual Edition (Federico García Lorca) includes both the original Spanish and the English translation! :) I think that's what I'll be reading for this task.

Stumbled across this, which sounds fitting and fascinating: I Am the Beggar of the World: Landays from Contemporary Afghanistan. Might be a good pick for non-fans of poetry - each one is only two lines long...

I highly recommend View with a Grain of Sand by Wisawa Szymborska. There are some wonderful poems in this collection and some are amusing.
www.africa-eu.com/book/show/10203.Vie...

Pauline wrote: "In case anyone from Book Riot is reading these posts, I'd like to express my frustration and disappointment over the 2017 challenge tasks. I really enjoyed the 2015 and 2016 challenges, but am not ..."

I would also kindly disagree with this. I would be more disappointed if categories were repeated over and over. But the whole point of the challenge to read new things, so even if some of these seem difficult, the categories are still worthwhile. This might be the year I finally complete the challenge in it's entirety!

Pauline wrote: "In case anyone from Book Riot is reading these posts, I'd like to express my frustration and disappointment over the 2017 challenge tasks. I really enjoyed the 2015 and 2016 challenges, but am not ..."

Yea. I'm worried I won't be able to find books that fit the challenges and actually enjoy them. Where as last year I felt it pushed me out of my comfort zone while still being flexible enough I could find things I'd like.

I posted feminist book recs for most of the tasks ; the list has 100+ books that will fit the challenge.

I understand the worry with some of these; this task and the micropress one stumped me for a while (I'm definitely not a poetry person), but they're all very doable with some extra digging around.

Karen wrote: "I've got a question -- would "Eugene Onegin" count for this task? It's a novel, but it's in verse."

I would be inclined to disqualify Eugene Onegin based on the "theme other than love" criterion, since love is a major theme of the novel.

What about The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle? The poems are in English and Spanish, but I'm not clear on which language they were written in.

Pauline wrote: "In case anyone from Book Riot is reading these posts, I'd like to express my frustration and disappointment over the 2017 challenge tasks. I really enjoyed the 2015 and 2016 challenges, but am not ..."

I feel the same way a bit. Reading any poetry is a challenge for me so this category with the double limitation just isn't much fun. I am going to give 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei a shot.

Melissa wrote: "I posted feminist book recs for most of the tasks here; the list has 100+ books that will fit the challenge.

I understand the worry with some of these; this task and the micropress one stumped me ..."

Outstanding! My last two picks came from this list! Thanks!

Going with Anxiety of Words: Contemporary Poetry by Korean Women. Looks wonderful

I just found love for poetry this year and I would love for you to read some if the poetry I have read during 2016. It might change your mind.
Unfortunately it is all published in Danish only :(

Henriette, would you please share some of your favourite Danish poetry? I don't read Danish, but have some family members who do. It would definitely count for me as Reading Harder.

Thank you

HeatherLynn - of course I will!
I have read and loved:

Bjørn Rasmussen: Ming (about the authors longing for his father, who died rather young, homosexuality and mental disorder - very fragile and strong at the same time. And Bjørn is such a wonderfull person in all his insecurity and megalomania - he is not a personal friend, but I have hung out with a lot of people in the literary environment in Denmark and Denmark is really small ☺️)

Olga Ravn: Jeg æder mig selv som lyng (about becoming a mother and living with your body in a new way)

Carsten René Nielsen: Husundersøgelser (this one is actually translated to English and published by BOA Editions under the title House Inspections).

Anna Klahn: Fra den afdødes hus (about a loss - so touching! I cried! Several times)

Inger Christensen: Sommerfugledalen (a new Classic in danish poetry, but beautiful never the less).

Christel Wiinblad: Min lillebror (about the suicide of the author's brother. Beautiful!)

Melissa wrote: "I posted feminist book recs for most of the tasks here; the list has 100+ books that will fit the challenge.

I understand the worry with some of these; this task and the micropress one stumped me ..."

Thanks a lot! I just found what to read for a lot of my tasks

Catie wrote: "This might be a somewhat unusual choice for this task, but if you're interested in the translation part of this task more than the poetry part, you might enjoy [book:19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei|..."

Thanks! I'll be reading this for my challenge

Since I just got my new copy in I think I'll read Li Po and Tu Fu: Poems. I wish I could find my David Hinton translations but they're missing ;-;

I'd like to suggest The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle. It's fantastic and beautiful.

Cate wrote: "What about The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle? The poems are in English and Spanish, but I'm not clear on which language they were written in."

Such a remarkable book.

I've not read any of these, but, if you're looking for translations into English, Ghassan Zaqtan seems like a good choice here. Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me: And Other Poems (translated by Fady Joudah) won the Griffin Prize in 2013.

I stumbled on this through a mention of another Zaqtan work in BookRiot's "underrated reads of 2016."

Joudah also seems to have translated poetry by Mahmoud Darwish-محمود درويش, another Palestinian poet: If I Were Another: Poems and The Butterfly's Burden.

If anyone is still looking for ideas for this prompt, today The Guardian posted an article, "Hits and Misses: indie publishers pick their hits and misses for 2016." In the article one of the publishers wrote about The Foreign Passion. The author, Christian Aliaga, is from Argentina. Here's a link to a review.

I would like to read Bruce Guernsey's From Rain book of collected poems. I saw him read from this collection a few semesters ago. It was fabulous. What is everyone else reading?

I mentioned this task to one of my co-workers because I, like many of you have expressed, am not a big poetry reader. She immediately asked if I had read any Rilke (Rainer Maria Rilke), to which I replied "Never heard of him!" She highly recommended his work, telling me he is her favorite poet. His bio says he is Austrian and much of his works revolve around more existential themes, from what I can tell. Hope that helps!

Karen wrote: "I've got a question -- would "Eugene Onegin" count for this task? It's a novel, but it's in verse."

The intention of the task is a collection of poetry, but that's your call.

Pauline wrote: "In case anyone from Book Riot is reading these posts, I'd like to express my frustration and disappointment over the 2017 challenge tasks. I really enjoyed the 2015 and 2016 challenges, but am not ..."

I am sorry you feel that way. In writing this year's challenge, I was looking for a balance of "easier" tasks and more specific or "harder" task, and I'm sorry that you feel like this list didn't fit your balance. We are also working on posts and videos to help with some of the tasks that might be a little more obscure so you won't be completely without resources. Respectfully, if you've done the past two challenges and haven't felt stretched in your reading, maybe 2017 is the year to actually read beyond your boundaries -- as the challenge is intended?

Ashley wrote: "I mentioned this task to one of my co-workers because I, like many of you have expressed, am not a big poetry reader. She immediately asked if I had read any Rilke (Rainer Maria Rilke), to which I ..."

Rilke is a great choice! I have not read his work since college, which was a very very long time ago. I am inspired.

Can someone provide me to link with Melissa's 100+ feminist books that would work for many of these categories? Having trouble finding it...

I'm going to read Bestiary: Poems by Donika Kelly. I know absolutely nothing about poetry, but this seems to fit the criteria for this challenge.

I wanted to challenge myself with this to make sure I'm reading a poet who writes in a language I don't speak, and whose work I have not read before. I have been leaning towards Rumi - are there collections of his work that are not on the subject of love, and does anyone have a translator they recommend?

Carolyn wrote: "Can someone provide me to link with Melissa's 100+ feminist books that would work for many of these categories? Having trouble finding it..."

Here you go:

I want to read Penguin's Little Black Classic Three Tang Dynasty Poets, which could work for this (and is short!), but I'm not sure if it's 'on a theme' enough to satisfy this challenge?

So I've been meaning to read Lionel Fogarty's work for a while and I'm wondering if it would count for this challenge.

It's not actually translated, but he writes in Aboriginal English.