When's the last time you read books like these?

[Baron-connect4-von-smythe]

Both questions, one answer with the best book ever written (in my opinion)
The Count of Monte Cristo
(I believe Alexandre Dumas was half black but I still say it counts)
If you haven't read it go do that now... I mean NOW... Three musketeers(which would also apply to this question) doesn't hold a candle to it!

 

[Bobic]

Hah, I read a novel last year by a Man who was Black, and from a foreign, 'not known for novels'country. 'Things fall apart' by Chinua Achebe. . . It was truly awful, I would not recommend it to anyone, but dammit, I read (most of) it. Where's my prize?


Also, I feel I should add that this questioning says more about the industry than the readers themselves. Yes, pretty much every novel I've read was by a white guy (It's basically, Chinua Achebe and Luo Guanzhong that I know weren't white guys). But you know what, what do you expect when I can name next to no black authors? It has nothing to do with me, and everything to do with the fact that the vast majority of authors are white males. Don't question me, question the publishers and their most likely racist publishing bias.

 

[Vault101]

Both questions, one answer with the best book ever written (in my opinion)
The Count of Monte Cristo
(I believe Alexandre Dumas was half black but I still say it counts)
If you haven't read it go do that now... I mean NOW... Three musketeers(which would also apply to this question) doesn't hold a candle to it!

learned that one from D'Jango XD

unless theyve been black and I havent known...nope...and the last book I read translated was Girl with the Dragon Tattoo...though before that I read a really cool french novella about a guy having an exitenssial crisis because of a Pigeon

 

[Rebel_Raven]

I clicked out of curiosity.

1: I don't read much. I haven't really looked up many authors save Max Brooks, so I can't really say I know.

2: Sun Tzu's Art of War count? I read some Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

 

[Queen Michael]

2) I'm not reading a translated book; I'm reading the Three Kingdoms in the traditional Chinese. So, if I'm translating it in my head, does that count?

Hoooooly spit. I thought I was impressive, reading a Swedish translation of Dreams of Red Chambers, but you've outdone me completely. I tip my fedora to you, and of course it counts!

 

[Queen Michael]

Out of my own curiosity, OP, if you're still reading this far in - what's your answer to your own questions?

Of course I'm still reading, friendo!

The last book I read by somebody I know was black would probably be The Three Musketeers.

The last translated book from a country not known for its novels would be My Girlfriend?s a Geek v. 1.0. It's a Japanese light novel.

 

[Raziel]

To those saying that the author's demographics don't matter, you're kinda missing the point. He's not saying you should judge a novel by those characteristics; he's just trying to identify whether people read books outside of their own demographics. Because if 100 people were to say 'demographics don't matter to me', they may well be right personally, but if none of them have ever read a books by an author outside their own demographic, there's clearly a factor at play: things like this influence our choices subconsciously.

For me and many others the authors race matters not at all. So much so we simply have no idea what their race, and possibly not even gender or name are. The race of the author cannot be influencing choice if you have never known it.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Out of my own curiosity, OP, if you're still reading this far in - what's your answer to your own questions?

Of course I'm still reading, friendo!

The last book I read by somebody I know was black would probably be The Three Musketeers.

Mixed-heritage but if that counts because reasons then sure, read Three Musketeers in Spanish in high school.

 

[PirateRose]

1. Read Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis series back in Jan & Feb.
2. Read Geisha, A Life by Mineko Iwasaki, translated from Japanese, back in August last year. Which I highly recommend if you have read the horrible piece of crap fiction Memoirs of A Geisha. Even just the first five chapters will make you realize why Mineko Iwasaki and half of Japan was so pissed at Arthur Golden. There's a reason that guy hasn't written anything since, no one will talk to him for interviews to inspire his next piece of crap fiction.

 

[peruvianskys]

Damn, I'm impressed! I've read all those writers! Well, I'm not done with Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveller yet, though. And I love Cortázar!

If you like Cortazar and want something newer, try People of Paper! It's great.

http://www.amazon.com/The-People-Paper-Salvador-Plascencia/dp/0156032112/

 

[Suhi89]

My problem isn't with the first question, it's with the exceptions. When was the last black author you read, oh and it can't be any of these novels because of reasons. Although maybe I'm just annoyed because I think it may invalidate my answer to the first question.

Within the last few years I've read Crime and Punishment, War and Peace, The M and M, The Count of Monte Cristo, 100 Years of Solitude, The Alchemist and my next read is probably Anna Karenina. Apparently Dumas was black but I didn't know that until today, so if my next answer doesn't count then he'd be the last black author I read.

I read Noughts and Crosses in September, which was 2 novels ago. But it's very explicitly about race so I don't know if it counts. This thread has made me realise how few black authors I've read, or could even name, so it was a good thread idea, even if I'm annoyed at the exceptions.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Dreams of My Father by Barack Obama for the first one (never finished The Audacity of Hope so I won't count it), and that was years ago, unless I've forgotten one.

As for the second one, that's a bit trickier. English being what it is in the global view, I run into quite a few novels that are about, take place in, or centrally revolve around something or someone in a different country, but are written in English. Not sure if those count for your very pointedly guided questions here, but if they do, then two weeks ago I read Reading Lolita in Tehran Azar Nafisi for the umpteenth time, and most of February I was reading either The Bastard of Istanbul and The Saint of Incipient Insanities, both by Elif Shafak.

If you require a book that was translated, then that would be around December, when I read Natsume Soseki's Kokoro, translated by Edwin McClellan. Before that was probably If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino. Again, I may not remember if one was translated, but I'll at least try to know where the author was from.

Spoiler: tangential bits within

You know, I actually have to disagree with the kneejerk reaction to instantly say that the race/gender/nationality/ethnicity of a writer don't affect the quality of the story. To say that the writer's background doesn't both affect and effect the characters and circumstances is to dismiss whole aspects of how those characters respond to situations and how those circumstances are interpreted by the reader and the characters. As much as one can say that the interactions taking place could be viewed from any perspective regardless of those factors, it's the writer applying their experiences given those factors that distinguish the people and events in these books from those of someone else. The story of an Afghani girl trying to deal with conflicts of culture is a distinct experience from a middle class American girl trying to do the same, and it's with the writer's hand that we gather the depth of the distinction. If the writer has no experience with a subject, then the words ring hollow and it's readily apparent. These may not be the biggest factors of what makes the novel in question memorable or great, but to decide unanimously that the experience of a writer will be the same based on their ethnicity, sexuality, gender, or similar social factors is just laughably naive. Even if it is the spontaneous reaction of the internet right now to demand that all of these factors are negligible as long as the quality is high.

 

[Silvanus]

For me and many others the authors race matters not at all. So much so we simply have no idea what their race, and possibly not even gender or name are. The race of the author cannot be influencing choice if you have never known it.

That's certainly true. I find it a little odd, though; after spending the amount of time it takes to read a book, I can't really imagine glossing over who wrote it. But, then, I do just that with most television series I watch, so I'm aware it's purely personal.

 

[Blow_Pop]

1 last month. I read. A lot. And a lot of varied things. Race, gender, original language, none of it matters. What matters is if it's good writing. I'm at 102 FINISHED books this year and have 20 more checked out from the library currently.

2 currently reading (unless Pakistan is considered a widely translated country)

Also for one, Langston Hughes(The Collected Poems again because I own it), and Zora Neale Hurston(Their Eyes Were Watching God) were the last 2 black authors I read (ok I digress one is very technically straight poetry but damn it they still count and were still excellent)*looks at book list* oh! Forgot K'wan(Animal and Animal II: The Omen). Don't know how but I did. And good gosh darn are his books brilliant. And for sake of argument, the current book I am reading is by a Pakistani woman(Broken Verses by Kamila Shamsie).

Other notable not white authors I've read(within the past 3 years):
Sapphire - Push(black)
Sandra Cisneros - The House on Mango Street & Woman Hollering Creek(I believe she is mexican)
Maya Angelou - I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings(black)
Alaya Dawn Johnson - Moonshine, The Summer Prince(which I adored), Racing the Dark, and The Burning City (black)
Terence Taylor - Bite Marks & Blood Pressure (black)
Tupac Shakur - The Rose That Grew From Concrete(black)
Darrien Lee - The Denim Diaries #s 1-4(black)
Eduardo Galeano - Open Veins of Latin America (which was also translated and originally written in the authors native tongue;author from Uraguay)
Koushun Takami - Battle Royale (also translated) (japanese if I recall)
Faïza Guène - Some Dream For Fools (though not 100% sure she counts...y'know fuck it. Mixed heritage she counts)(french and algeria)

Out of curiosity, why is it just black authors you are singling out? They aren't the only minority writers. And I can find more black authors than I can certain other ethnicity authors.

Also, I went through my reading lists from the past 3 years 3 times to make sure I got them all because they are all wonderful books and authors (at least to me). Don't judge it on it's genre til you try it

Also, haven't read Roots even though I own it(just haven't gotten around to reading it) or Invisible Man. Nor have I read The Three Musketeers even though I own it..ok that's a lie. I started it 3 years ago on my kindle and kept losing my spot so I finally bought it from the library and haven't gotten to reading it yet(aforementioned 20 books checked out from library so personal owned books take a backseat to things that have a due date) and point of interest, don't read books just because the author is black/main character is black. Nor do I read books because the author/main character is white, mexican, pakistani, etc. I have also read a lot of Greek mythology, plays, and poetry. Translated naturally but still have read it. And I adore The Divine Comedy and Faust. Currently working my way through Beowulf (which has the original next to the translation which is why it is taking me over a year to read it) as well. [sub][sub][sub][sub]so not trying to show off and almost all of the books I actually own*cries* I just like books and reading[/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub]

Edit:

To those saying that the author's demographics don't matter, you're kinda missing the point. He's not saying you should judge a novel by those characteristics; he's just trying to identify whether people read books outside of their own demographics. Because if 100 people were to say 'demographics don't matter to me', they may well be right personally, but if none of them have ever read a books by an author outside their own demographic, there's clearly a factor at play: things like this influence our choices subconsciously.

Well, if that's the case... Then, I'm always reading outside my own demographic, given how I'm a black person! Most of the books I've read were made by some white writer in some way. shape, or form with the only exceptions being Japanese novelization that were translated and distributed by the same company that's publishing the manga version of the same story, basically... I mean, the only time I know that the author that wrote the book was black is when someone's trying to make some kind of big deal about the author's ethnic background... Oh my gosh! This very popular fiction book was written by an African-American! You don't see that everyday!!

It could also be that black people aren't published as often. All I know is that it indicates something when few of the people here feel certain they've ever read a black person's novel.

There is something of a ghetto that black fiction (that is, written by or about black people) falls into.

I've read lots of complaints about US bookstores in which black fiction is somehow a separate genre, segregated into its own section. Doesn't matter what the book is about, if it's by a black person or the main character is, it goes in the "Stuff that only black people read, which is all they read" section. For some reason.

I kinda forgot about situations like that happening in certain bookstores... I would be more bummed out about it[footnote]which I should be, given how I want to be a published writer myself...[/footnote] if I wasn't always just going straight to the manga section at any bookstore to check to see if any new and/or existing manga series would tickle my fancy this time...

Wait...you're black? Shit. I thought you were Mexican....wait..that makes me sound worse cause I'm stereotyping So Cal...Fuck....*headdesk* but at least I didn't think you were white????not that I think that makes any of this better. Also, that is the precise reason I DON'T go into bookstores anymore. And prefer the library because all the books are mixed into each other. Except the untranslated books. They have their own section.

 

[GundamSentinel]

1. I haven't got a clue, really. Maybe never, but I probably did at some point. Has that got anything to do with racism on my part? No. I just haven't come across any.

2. Generally I try to read books in their original language. I have read Albert Camus and Günther Grass pretty recently in translation, though.

 

[Do4600]

1. I read Invisible Man in high school. Do playwrights count? Like Langston Hughes? People who read don't read enough plays.

2. Almost constantly, I finished Crime and Punishment last fall and during the winter and I gobbled up The Millennium Trilogy. In between those I read a few assorted manga.

This Summer though I want to focus on a few books: "In Cold Blood" and "Ulysses" I've heard both really require a great deal of attention, so I'll probably not see a word of translated literature until Fall.

 

[Blow_Pop]

1. I read Invisible Man in high school. Do playwrights count? Like Langston Hughes? People who read don't read enough plays.

2. Almost constantly, I finished Crime and Punishment last fall and during the winter and I gobbled up The Millennium Trilogy. In between those I read a few assorted manga.

This Summer though I want to focus on a few books: "In Cold Blood" and "Ulysses" I've heard both really require a great deal of attention, so I'll probably not see a word of translated literature until Fall.

In Cold Blood was brilliant (and fyi Capote was white) and from what I remember, I enjoyed Crime and Punishment the first time I read it. Haven't tried to get a copy of Ulysses yet though.....

But honestly I don't see why Langston Hughes wouldn't count(I've mostly read his poems so far even though I have his collected works)never mind that comment as I just re-read the OP and first page and as a play or a poem isn't a novel it's apparently disqualified from this....though why the OP would disqualify any published work by a non white person I am unsure of but *shrugs*

 

[NestorES]

Last book by a Black writer was 'Zone One' by Colson Whitehead, one of the best of the Zombie genre and I got almost to the end before I realised that the protagonist was Black, it was so well written - read it, its great.

And then there was Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky which I read about a year ago and loved it - what a great, layered novel (even roughly translated as it was) it even had smatterings of Lovecraft in there with the 'thing in the Kremlin' - also a great read if you can handle the length...

 

[Eamar]

It seems like it's a defence reaction because hardly anyone is providing their rationale for not reading a translated book. I see very few comments like "I just read books I like, I never bother to check what language the author wrote it in" or "Doesn't it make us less biased if I don't care what language the book was written in?", yet almost everybody answering no to the race question is saying something like that.

That would be because you tend to actually know when you're reading a translated book. It usually has "translated by..." right there on the cover, plus there's often some sort of foreword about it. Whereas, unless they have a very obviously "ethnic" name or there's a photo on the dust jacket, it's impossible to tell the ethnicity of an author from the book alone. Same goes for gender if they're using initials, and sexual orientation pretty much 100% of the time.

Just reading through this thread I've discovered that I've read books by several authors I never knew were black until now. Hell, Samuel R. Delany is one of my favourite authors and I never bothered to look up anything about him before. It's not defensive to say "I don't know/care", for a lot of people it's just the truth.

 

[adamsaccount]

Well, I dont think I have read anything by a black author but I saw that film Django, from which I learned that the dude who wrote the 3 musketeers was black, but i havent read that either, thats pretty messed up.

Translated is easy, I read about 50 50 translations to english writers , but my favourite was The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano, whos from Chile.