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

[Someone Depressing]

1. Honestly, I can't remember. I really don't check the races of writers, or, unless the writer actually interests me, I don't pay much attention to them at all.

2. Siddhartha, it's a book I re-read a lot. Mostly because it's a book I don't understand very well, but want to.

As for 1, I could definetely name a white writer; probably a childrens' writer, only because I actually know that she's white. However, when I'm actually reading a book and know nothing about the author, then I don't tend to picture the author based on the books, it just hasn't happened to me.

I suppose I should pride myself on reading a lot more often (my reading is in inverse proportion to how much I play video games, so I suppose that's something to feel proud of) and I'm becoming a litle more literary.

 

[Queen Michael]

I also started a book called Usurper of the Sun, which is a translated Japanese light novel. I read a lot of manga too if that counts. Japan produces a ton of books but they don't get translated too often unless they're the type that are deemed to have "literary value." This seems to be changing now though, Viz Media has their own book publishing branch and the upcoming Tom Cruise movie Edge of Tomorrow is actually based on a light novel called All You Need is Kill.

I started reading Usurper of the Sun four years ago, but it wasn't my thing. I do plan to read All You Need Is Kill, though.

 

[RobertP]

Why not add a third category, for books that were written over 100 years ago?

Alexandre Dumas is one of my favourite authors. He's French, and one-eighth black. And his books are almost 200 years old, but the best translations are fairly recent (the past 20 years or so).

 

[TheIronRuler]

I've read Albert Cami, Garcia Marks Alexander Dumas, Cell 21, The Good Soldier ?vejk... That's French, Spanish, Swedish and Czech all translated into Hebrew. I don't know much about Black authors - holy hell, I think I haven't read one book by a black author. Does that make me racist?
Naaaaaah.

That does make you wonder... why haven't I read one?

 

[arturolei]

1) Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God (one of my favorite novels) but unfortunately that was years ago in high school, in the early 2000s.

I've read Frantz Fanon's "Les Damnes de la terre" a year or two ago, but I suspect that might not count since: 1) it's not a novel 2)It's about waging a war of liberation and the state of the colonized intellectual in a post-colonial Africa.

2) "Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana", Carlo Emilio Gadda, translated from Italian by William Weaver. This was in 2012.

Since then, I've read dozens of novels though from foreign authors but not translated as I'm ambivalent about translation. I am in favor of learning another language in order to read in that language (or game in that language, Bioshock Infinite in Italian is trippy).

On one hand, I'm not keen on reading works in translation. Translating Vergil in my high school days traumatized me in that it made realize how much is altered/lost when you translate and I sort of became paranoid about translation. I never read Verne until I learned French. I learned Spanish in order to read Borges. One day, I hope to read Kafka and Karl May in the original German.

On the other hand, I love reading works in English translated into Italian, French, or Spanish (not my native languages).
In fact, I encourage people learning foreign languages to read a familiar text they know translated into that foreign language.

It's as close as you can get to traveling to a parallel universe. Everything is the same but uncanny.

For instance, I recently read "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" in Italian (a heartbreaking but illuminating experience).

 

[NeutralDrow]

I read a couple of short stories by black feminist authors for a college class, though I can't remember what they were (most of what I remember from that class's literature was by Chandra Mohanty). Same with books written and translated by foreign authors, though I can still name a few of those; "Playing With Fire" by Chong Rae Cho, "Silence" by Shusaku Endo, "Seven Daoist Immortals," the Bhagavad-Gita, etc...I majored in Asian Studies, needless to say.

The last book I know I read by a black author that I can remember clearly was Their Eyes Were Watching God. That counts for purposes of this thread, right? It was about black people, but it wasn't specifically about being black.

 

[Platypus540]

I have absolutely no idea. I don't really pay attention to the race of the authors, and I really can't remember if anything was translated.

Edit: Howl's Moving Castle was Japanese first right? If so, then that, but it might just be the movie that was Japanese...

 

[redknightalex]

1. A couple of poetry books by Saul Williams. I particularly enjoyed ,said the Shotgun to the Head, which was really a superb work that had a rather coherent idea strung through his poetry. Definitely recommended. Not sure if his race came into play but I can see where some of his poems did allude to it, particularly when he talks about being poor. I may be mistaken on this as it's been close to a year since my last read.

2. Sartre. Jean-Paul Sartre. Finally finished his "No Exit" play, after a year of trying, and it was wonderful. You certainly understand what "hell is other people" means after reading this.

But...I suppose that doesn't count. If I had to go back to my college years of reading Ancient Greek and Latin, sometimes in the original text and other times translated, then I will.

I suppose I can understand why these questions were asked: each brings a different perspective than the traditional white, male, English writer. I will say that reading Ovid in Latin certainly changed my perspectives on Mythology and, strangely, the Bible, and while reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings gives you some historical, intimate perspective (if you hadn't lived through it). I doubt, however, that by not reading these books I should be considered a racist or, apparently worse, color-blind. My favorite book of all-time may very well be Animal Farm by George Orwell and that may trump any race card at play here.

There are just some books you "should" read, some you don't want to for various reasons, and the ones you do get to. For instance I'm not a big reader of American Civil War novels/memoirs/non-fiction (or post), which may be where many of the black authors are, but I just don't find the subject interesting when I have 2000 pages to study for a big exam and a pile of books I'd like to read at some point before I'm 50, including many whose author's may very well be black or Hispanic or Asian (did read The Good Earth but technically Buck is an American while spending a good chunk of her life in China). Why stigmatize those who don't read a certain genre or look-up a person's race or nationality before-hand? Isn't that a tad bit racist?

(Oh, and I've read Things Fall Apart so there's pure Africa in the mix. Strangely, 90% of the books I mentioned came from me reading them as a requirement in either High School or College. I guess I did get my money's worth out of public education.)

 

[Queen Michael]

Edit: Howl's Moving Castle was Japanese first right? If so, then that, but it might just be the movie that was Japanese...

Nope, it was British, mate. Dianna Wynne Jones.

 

[EeviStev]

Well, let's be honest here, people -- if I'd asked for a white writer, every single person would have been able to name at least one writer they knew was white that they'd read. Even though they "don't care about race and never bother to look up what a writer's face looks like." And that says something about our society, though I'm not sure what yet.

Knowing George R. R. Martin is white does not diminish the legitimacy of the claim that race plays no part in the selection of works one reads. There are a number of extremely prominent authors who participate in extensive publicity which so happens to include showing his or her face in public. Would you have us all shield our eyes when they appear on talk shows, crying "No! I cannot possibly know the race of this or any author, lest my claim of not caring about race be rendered void!"?

Then there is the legion of authors who do not enjoy the press bashing down their doors to find out when the next book will be complete. It is quite easy to have heard of such an author, then obtain and peruse his or her written work without ever having seen the colour of his or her skin. Especially if one has no inclination to do so.

You know what this says about our society? People read what they want to read, and are generally not as caught up about race as you may want to think.

 

[Artina89]

If this counts, I have just finished reading the April issue of The National geographic which features contributors from all around the world, the translated book question is easier to answer as the last book I read was Battle Royale by Koushun Takami (or should I say reread, I love Battle Royale).

 

[OniYouji]

Can't say I've ever read a novel by someone of African descent. I have read a book by someone of Indian descent, though that was about Indian life and culture, so I suppose that's the closest I've gotten to fulfilling your first requirement.

As for a translated novel, I did read a Japanese book called Parasite Eve. Really good book, basically a sci-fi horror novel with a great attention to detail. Of course, it was adapted into the survival horror/RPG game series of the same name, but that wasn't until much later.

 

[MrMixelPixel]

1. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe! Oh wait that doesn't count? Fuck.

2. I don't think so? That's a shame. If anyone wants to recommend me something to fix this, be my quest.

 

[MasterOfHisOwnDomain]

I have an unfair 'advantage' in that I'm studying for a BA English, but I'll give it a shot:

I'm curious about this, so let's hear it. When did you last read:

1. A novel by a black writer. Any black writer.

Probably 'Passing' by Nella Larsen, which is a great novella about pathological envy and racial tensions in early twentieth-century New York.

2. A translated novel, written by a foreign writer. But it can't be just anybody from another country than yours -- it has to be one of those countries that doesn't produce a zillion bestsellers.

Probably 'Satantango' by Laszlo Krasznahorkai. Or something by Bulgakov, maybe 'The Heart of a Dog'?