The Global Reads Book Club

Translators read all day long in their second language and interpreters speak all day long in their working pairs. As language professionals, we want to make sure that, after the workday is over, we keep feeling the joy that originally attracted us to the languages we know. Many of us also enjoy the process of discovering new ideas from different cultures. Reading books in translation and discussing them with other translators offers these benefits, as well as the opportunity to assess published translations in an effort to continually improve our own skills. And reading new books and discussing them with other word lovers is simply a lot of fun. That is the focus of the Global Reads Book Club.

Founded in January 2020, the group has read 27 books, originally written in 21 languages (we have read more than one book translated from French, Spanish and Swedish). To cover new ground in 2024, the club’s fifth year, we are reading books translated from Portuguese, Danish, Catalan, Croatian, Norwegian and Turkish, each for the first time. We have previously read books from a wide range of languages that include Ukrainian, the African language Wolof, Korean, Thai, Japanese, Icelandic and more.

The club reads six books a year and meets every other month on Zoom to discuss the current book. The one hard and fast rule is that any book we read must have been translated into at least one other language. Often, the books we read have been translated into many languages and book club members can read the current selection in the language of their choice. It is often illuminating to compare the original language and the various translations, as read by book club members.

While many of the books are challenging due to their style or subject matter, the body of work that the book club has read has enriched us and helped us think about life from different perspectives than we normally would. The books we have read have clearly shown that different cultures tell stories in ways that diverge from the Anglo tradition of storytelling and open up a dizzying range of narrative possibilities. The books we have read have even been different in their approach to length, often recounting a story in fewer pages than the current English-language trend of large tomes, showing us that powerful ideas can be communicated using fewer words, and sometimes less is definitely more.

We have read books that address universal themes in different ways than we are used to and read styles that are compelling but new to us. Time Shelter written by Georgi Gospodinov, translated from Bulgarian, and Death with Interruptions by Jose Saramago, translated from Portuguese, come to mind as two examples of innovative approaches to telling a story. We have also learned about different cultures’ approaches to literary editing and translation. In this case, one of my personal favorites among the books we have read as a group is a good example, the vibrant graphic novel Your Wish is My Command, written, illustrated and also translated from the original Arabic by Deena Mohamed.

At any given time, there are around 350 people who subscribe to the book club’s email list. The subscribers have self-identified as speaking or reading over 40 languages. Not all languages are working languages, but the talent that translators and interpreters naturally have for languages is celebrated. The email list is used to announce the books to be read and share information about when the next Zoom meeting for the club will be. There are a rotating group of about 15 or so who show up on Zoom to discuss the books live. Attendees usually hail from the United States, Europe and Latin America, and one devoted regular calls in from Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean. There has been interest from translators in Asia as well, but the time difference is difficult to navigate. Hearing thoughts on a given work from a diverse group of individuals is always fascinating, and I learn something new each time we meet. We have come to the consensus as a group that, whether we like a specific book or not, reading it is always worthwhile.

When I founded the Global Reads Book Club, I wasn’t yet aware of the layers of learning that the book club would open up for me and other members. My main focus was basic—to start a group that would bring translators together to read interesting books and discuss them. I also wanted to support books published in translation. A study focused on the US market by Rutherford, Levitt, and Zhang found that only five percent of New York Times Book Reviews are about translated books and that half of those are translated from a handful of languages: French, German, Italian and Spanish. In addition, the University of Rochester’s Three Percent blog states that around only three percent of the total number of books published in the United States are translated works.

My five years of experience researching book selections for the book club shows these statistics ring true. I have found that it can be quite difficult to find a wide range of books that have been translated and are also easily accessible to a general audience, when considering both price and availability. Of course, this also depends on the source language. The difficulty of finding accessible works was painfully obvious when searching for a book translated from an African language as well as other non-European languages. In fact, the African language book that was eventually chosen, The Hidden Notebooks by Boubacar Boris Diop, originally written in Wolof, was first translated to French and then relayed through French to other languages.

The books chosen for the book club need to be accessible to readers around the world so that they can actually read the books chosen, so books must be available in paperback, eBook (Kindle and/or Apple) and sometimes audio, or at least a combination of these formats. As a club, I hope that our purchasing of titles translated from many different languages contributes to supporting translated works as a whole. A few times, our group’s demand for a particular translated work has caused what was in stock online to sell out. Wouldn’t it be great if that were the case for all translated works?

If you would like to join the Global Reads Book Club, you can use the link or the email address below. And, more important than joining this particular book club, make sure you spend time immersed in different cultures and different languages doing activities you enjoy, as a personal accomplishment as well as a good business practice.

About the Author

Eve Lindemuth Bodeux is an ATA-certified French>English translator who has been active in the translation industry for more than two decades. She specializes in translations related to corporate communications, technical marketing, international development and creative works. She is also an independent project manager for a diverse global client base. She co-hosted the Speaking of Translation podcast for 13 years and is the author of the book Maintaining Your Second Language. She is currently Secretary of the American Translators Association. To join the Global Reads Book Club, visit http://bodeuxinternational.com/book-club/ or email eve@bodeuxinternational.com.