In this installment of the Pushing My Shelf blog series, Shelby talks about reading a translated book.
This month we thought we would do a blog series for the Push Your Shelf Bingo Challenge. The challenge is to complete Bingo squares that “push your shelf.” In other words, read or try something that you might not ordinarily consider; something not typically found on your bookshelf. Find out more here.
To cheer you on some participating staff members* are contributing short blogs that recount their experience completing a Bingo challenge and describing how that square “pushes their shelf”.
* Staff members can play. (Just not win.)
Shelby is an Information Services assistant at the Handley Library.
I have decided to read a book that was translated from its original language. Although I may not be able to speak someone else’s language, I can still understand their writing through the work of a translator. Much of classic literature has been translated through many different languages. Works such as Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, The Stranger by Albert Camus, Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder and Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes have all been translated from their original language into English so that you and I can read them. Fun fact: the most translated book in the world is the Bible, which has been fully translated into over 700 different languages!
I recently read The Seventh Day by Yu Hua. It was originally written in Chinese and then translated to English. 
I thoroughly enjoyed learning about different lifestyles in China.It showed me how both life and death are viewed in Chinese culture.Through the work of translators, I was able to understand and gain empathy for a culture that is different from my own.
If you’re looking to read a book that has been translated from its original language, here are a few:
