Introduction: Books to Take You to Another World
I am reading the world as well as reading books that teach me the 10 key skills needed for future jobs. But most of the books that I have been reading are books to make me more marketable and valuable, so that I will thrive in the future. People often want to know which books I have read so far while reading the world. I have put together a list of books to take you to another world to help you to understand different cultures and perspectives. This is a spotlight on diverse books to give you a glimpse into another person’s world and perspective.
Spotlight on Diverse Books
I am moving across continents, listing the books written by authors who were born there. There are a few instances where a story is set in one place, but the author was born somewhere else. All the books that I recommend are books that I have read. But I want to say that I read them over a period of five years. Now that I have put together this list, I realize that I have to read more books from specific continents. Since I have read so many books by authors born in North America and Europe, I have listed only a small percentage of the books that I have read.
The list below has a lot of books. I am not expecting you to read them all in a year, or even read all of them over a time period. We are different, and we have different interests, so you must do what feels right to you. It is important for you to read the world to develop the cultural awareness you need to succeed today. Being culturally aware, also helps you to get along with people who are different from you. Consider the books on the list as book recommendations.
Have you read?
Read the World Extreme Reading Challenge 2016
Global Reading Challenge: Virtual Literary Tour
Books That Changed The World: The 50 Most Influential Books in Human History by Andrew Taylor
Review of The Great Books by Anthony O’Hear, Professor of Philosophy
Review: Who the Hell is Pansy O’Hara – The Fascinating Stories Behind 50 of the Best-Loved Books
Best-Loved Folktales of the World by Joanna Cole, Book Review
Reading Africa: Books to Take You to Another World
July’s People, Nadine Gordimer, South Africa
Nervous Conditions
, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Zimbabwe
We Should All Be Feminists
, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nigeria
Things Fall Apart
, Chinua Achebe, Nigeria
Season of Migration to the North
, Tayeb Salih, Sudan
Have you read?
We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – My Thoughts
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, a Book Review
Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih, Review
Reading Asia: Books to Take You to Another World
Norwegian Wood Publisher: Vintage, Haruki Murakami, Japan
The Devotion of Suspect X
, Keigo Higashino and Alexander O. Smith
The Journey to the West
, Anthony C. Yu, China
Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior, Chögyam Trungpa, Tibet
Ru: A Novel, Kim Thúy, Vietnam, Canada
Gilgamesh: A New English Version, Mesopotamia (Iraq)
Reading Australia/Oceania: Books to Take You to Another World
My Brilliant Career, Miles Franklin, Australia
Bittersweet: A Novel
, Colleen McCullough, Australia
A Man Lay Dead: Inspector Roderick Alleyn #1 (Inspector Roderick Alleyn), Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand
Reading Europe: Books to Take You to Another World
Hunger: A Novel, Knut Hamsun, Norway
Out Stealing Horses: A Novel, Per Petterson, Norway
The Bookseller of Kabul, Asne Seirstad, Norway
Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse, Germany
Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Brothers Grimm, Germany
The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Germany
Lord of the Flies, Centenary Edition, William Golding, United Kingdom
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon, United Kingdom
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, United Kingdom
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams, United Kingdom
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens, United Kingdom
Black Beauty, Anna Sewell, United Kingdom
Pippi Longstocking, Astrid Lindgren, Sweden
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, Jonas Jonasson, Sweden
The Laughing Policeman (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard), Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, Sweden
The Trial, Franz Kafka, Austria
The Shooting Party (Penguin Classics), Anton Chekhov, Russia
Pinocchio (Puffin Classics), Carlo Collodi (The original, not the “Disneyfied” version), Italy
Scaramouche
, Rafael Sabatini, Italy
The Unbearable Lightness of Being: A Novel, Milan Kundera, Czech Republic, France
Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Hans Christian Andersen, Denmark
The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, France
Zorba the Greek
, Nikos Kazantzakis
The Trial and Death of Socrates: Four Dialogues (Dover Thrift Editions), Plato, Greece
Medea of Euripides, Euripides, Greece
Jason and the Golden Fleece: (The Argonautica), Apollonius, Greece
Slowness: A Novel, Milan Kundera, Czech Republic
Aesop’s Fables (Oxford World’s Classics), Ancient Greece
The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank, Holland
Two Pints, Roddy Doyle, Ireland
Under the Glacier, Halldór Laxness, Iceland
Silence of the Grave (Reykjavik Murder Mysteries, No. 2), Arnaldur Indriðason, Iceland
Have you read?
Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis, Review #theclassics
Reading North America: Books to Take You to Another World
Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang, Mordecai Richler, Canada
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Mordecai Richler, Canada
Whale Music, Paul Quarrington, Canada
A Jest of God (Phoenix Fiction), Margaret Laurence, Canada
The Handmaid’s Tale
, Margaret Atwood, Canada
On the Road: The Original Scroll (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition), Jack Kerouac, United States
A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle, United States
The Giver, Gathering Blue, Messenger, Lois Lowry (The Worlds of Lois Lowry 3-Copy Boxed Set (The Giver, Messenger, Gathering Blue)), United States
Son, Lois Lowry, United States
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway, United States
The Outsiders, SE Hinton, United States
The Catcher in the Rye, J D Salinger, United States
No Telephone to Heaven, Michelle Cliff, Jamaica
Brother Man (Macmillan Caribbean Writers Series), Roger Mais, Jamaica
The Duppy, Anthony C. Winkler, Jamaica
The Lunatic
, Anthony C. Winkler, Jamaica
The Dew Breaker, Edwidge Danticat, Haiti
Have you read?
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Review
Reading South America: Books to Take You to Another World
Love in the Time of Cholera (Oprah’s Book Club), Gabriel García Márquez, Colombia
Ficciones (English Translation), Jorges Luis Borges, Argentina
Other Books
The Coroner’s Lunch, Colin Cotterill, United Kingdom (The story is set in Laos, the author was born in the UK and now lives in Thailand)
Witch-Doctor’s Apprentice
, Nicole Maxwell, United States (The author was born in the US, but she spent a lot of time in Latin America
Have you read?
Witch-Doctor’s Apprentice – Nicole Maxwell
Final Thoughts: Books to Take You to Another World
I review only a small percentage of the books that I read. When I read for entertainment, I read the book quickly, and do not take notes because it can interrupt the flow. If there are good ideas in the book, after I finish reading, I will jot them down using the Google Keep app, which I can easily access.
In this post, I include the links to the books that I have reviewed. For many of the books, I may have written a one paragraph summary on this blog. A few years ago, when my mother died unexpectedly, I read the world to heal my broken heart. I binged read, and went on a world tour through the books I read. During that time, twice a week, I wrote summaries of the books I read that week. You can access the summaries at Global Reading Challenge: Virtual Literary Tour.
Let some of these books take you to another world!
The Great Books: A Journey through 2,500 Years of the West’s Classic Literature
Books that Changed the World: The 50 Most Influential Books in Human HistoryWho the Hell Is Pansy O'Hara?: The Fascinating Stories Behind 50 of the World's Best-Loved BooksBest-Loved Folktales of the World (The Anchor folktale library)
