So this year I participate in Asian Readathon - a month long readathon started by readwithcindy.
Here is her video about it.
i found her channel couple of months ago, and was completely charmed by her dick jokes and I was looking forward to this readathon. Also I wanted to write something in English besides shitposts in my tumblr blog.
Here are challenges for a readathon and how I plan to complete them. I wanted to incorporate some books by authors from different ethnicities of Asian part of Russia.
1) Read any book by an Asian author.
Мария Федотова "Игра в камешки"
Playing with stones by Maria Fedotova (sorry for my clumsy translation of the title)
This book was originally written in yakut language and translated into Russian. I found it through another writer in my list, Ariadna Borisova, who translated it.
Maria Fedotova is an even, she was born in a reindeer herder's community in far northern part of Asia, and this small children's book is based on her life and experience. It actually has mixed reviews because a lot of parents complaining about this book being full of heavy themes (who knew there would be heavy themes in the book about life outside of civilization in the area of permafrost with wild animals all around).
2) Read a book featuring an Asian character or written by an Asian author who you can relate to.
Ариадна Борисова. «Люди с солнечными поводьями».
People With Solar Reins by Ariadna Borisova
I don't know if I can relate with main characters of this story but I can relate with an author because she is a woman from Russia like I am.
It's a first book of fantasy series based on yakut mythology. As I can see from the summary this book is about the family chased by some evil spirit because their child will inherit a strong gift of magic from the mother's family. It's a hardcore folklore fantasy with tons of footnotes and glossary in the end.
3) Read a book featuring an Asian character or written by an Asian author who is different from you.
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy
There are only three things I know about this books. 1. It takes place in India. 2. It has an intersex character. 3. It's a classic literary fiction with heavy themes and chattered narrative. The first and the second things make this book suitable for a challenge and the third one will make me suffer a bit. But not as much as I suffered two days ago reading a book about female spies during WWI turned into a trashy chick lit.
4) Read a book recommended by an Asian.
The Boat SBS
Cindy recommended to read it so here am I. Also I'm fascinated by its visual style.
The Boat is a story of refugee from Vietnam on a fishing trawler crowded with other refugees told in a very interesting media format: something between animation and comics.
Also it's free so I put a link here: http://www.sbs.com.au/theboat/
5) Read a group book
Little Fires Everywhere by Сeleste Ng
I've imagined finding a group book would be a quest for me, but I actually have it translated into Russian. I've bot It last year after reading "Everything I never told you" but haven't started it yet because I have this "I don't want to read anything except fics and trashy detectives" period.
And also I'm plan to listen whatever I will find. Maybe some ya fantasy or detectives.
