2023 Books in Translation Reading Challenge


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2023 Books in Translation Reading Challenge Button

Welcome to the 2023 Books in Translation Reading Challenge! It’s pretty self-explanatory, right? Nevertheless, here are the rules, details, and linkies.

Table of Contents

Rules

  • You can read a book that’s been translated from any language into the language of your choosing. The challenge is not limited to translations to or from English.
  • You can read any genre
  • You can read books meant for any age group
  • Crossovers with other challenges are fine
  • Any format that you choose is also acceptable
  • The challenge will run from January 1 through December 31, 2023
  • A blog is not required for participation; you can also link to reviews on other sites such as GoodReads, Instagram, etc.
  • Sign up anytime throughout the year
  • I’ve tried to keep this simple but if you have any questions, reach out in the comments, via social media (links in my sidebar), or my contact form.
  • Most importantly, have fun!

Reading Suggestions

Looking for suggestions? I have a shelf on GoodReads you can check out. There’s also a Listopia list on GoodReads. Linked reviews from the 2022, 20212016, 201520142013, and 2012 challenges are a great resource too.

Levels

Beginner: Read 1-3 books in translation
Conversationalist: 4-6 books
Bilingual: 7-9 books
Linguist: 10+ books

New and Optional for 2023: Categories

My primary purpose in hosting this challenge is to encourage readers to choose more translated works. As such, I encourage you to read any book that speaks to you.

But I love a challenge list as much as anyone so I chose some translation categories for those of you who might want some ideas or a more difficult challenge. These are completely optional but if you’re inclined, feel free to read from any or all of the twelve categories below!

The optional challenge: read a translated book originally written by…

  • An author from North America (including the Caribbean)
  • An author from South America
  • An author from Europe
  • An author from Africa
  • An author from Asia
  • An author from Oceania
  • An author from a country that one of your ancestors emigrated from (If this doesn’t fit your particular family situation, may I suggest reading a book by an author from a country that’s currently involved in a war or some sort of civil unrest?)
  • An author from a country that you’ve visited or that’s on your bucket list
  • An indigenous/aboriginal/First Nations author
  • An author who’s part of a minority group in your country
  • An author who wrote in a (now) dead language
  • A woman. Virtual high five if the translator is a woman too!

Most of these are self-explanatory. The continental names above link to Wikipedia articles listing the countries in each geographic region.

I also linked to a Wikipedia list of indigenous peoples. Finding these authors in translation might be difficult. But when I chose an indigenous group from the Wikipedia list and searched for “Ainu authors” for example, I found translated books more easily than I expected. This Book Riot article includes a few indigenous authors who have been translated into English as well.

When I decided on the “dead language” prompt, I was primarily thinking of classics written in Latin and Ancient Greek. I’ve linked to a list of extinct languages and it covers quite a lot of ground though, including Old English, Middle English, and other “old” versions of modern languages. Use your best judgment here.

Only about 3% of the books published in the United States are translations. Of those, only about 30% are written by women. Thirty percent of 3% is a frustratingly low number. To create more demand for translated works written by women, August has been designated Women in Translation month. How about celebrating with me? You can find suggestions on this GoodReads list.

Spread the Word

If you like the idea of this challenge, please help me spread the word via social media using #2023booksintranslation. Please also add a link to this post and/or the challenge image to your sign-up and review posts. You can also tag me @IntrovertReader on Twitter, @Introverted.Reader on Instagram, or @IntrovertedReader on Facebook if you’d like and I’ll try to share your posts. Thank you!

Sign Up Posts

I’m signing up at the “Conversationalist” level myself.

Please link directly to the post announcing your intention to participate (Not your home page), or your social media profile (Please keep in mind these links are publicly viewable).

I’ve had questions from GoodReads users about how to sign up through Mister Linky. I created illustrated, downloadable instructions (below). Let me know if you still have questions or need instructions for a different site!

Mister Linky Instructions for GoodReaders

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Review Links

Please link directly to your review and not your blog home page. My suggested format is your name and/or the title of your blog and then the title of the book in parentheses.

Example: Jen @ Introverted Reader (War and Peace)

I’ve also created illustrated, downloadable instructions for sharing GoodReads reviews through Mister Linky. Let me know if you still have questions or need instructions for a different site!

Mister Linky Book Review Instructions for GoodReaders

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Wrap Up Posts

If you’ve completed the challenge, congratulations! If you choose to write a wrap-up post, you may link it here.

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11 Comments

  1. Hi, I’m going to join in the challenge – I include books in translation in my reading fairly regularly, but having the challenge will keep it more on my radar. Thanks!

  2. This is a great challenge! I try to read translated works, but it’s not always an easy thing to do.

    Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!

  3. This is a great challenge! I’m going to sign up and join you, and hopefully do a better job of reading translated books this coming year. I think I’ll go for the Conversationalist level as well… it might be a bit of a stretch given how bad I’ve been at reading translated works these days, but that’s why it’s a “challenge,” right? 😉

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