Who's up for this?

I'm going to start inviting people now so if you get an invite and you're up for this book club, please join and introduce yourself here in this thread. If there's sufficient interest by say, 19 April (arbitrary date) then we'll pick the first book and start :)

To kick off: I'm Josh Mostafa, Anglo-Bengali, raised in the UK, living in the Blue Mountains of Australia. I'm a graduate student of literature at the university of Sydney, I work in digital publishing, and I write a bit in my spare time. I read a fair bit of translated fiction but there's always more!

Hi, I'm Darryl from Atlanta in the US, and I work as a inpatient pediatrician in a children's hospital just north of the city.

I've already read Georg Letham: Physician and Murderer (reviewed here) and The Literary Conference (not reviewed). I own Visitation and On Elegance While Sleeping, and I'll plan to pick up The True Deceiver and Agaat later today.

Hey Darryl, welcome. Do you think the alpha order on three per cent's website would be a good order? You've already read the first one on the list, the Aira one.

If we had a large number of participants and if the books were readily available to everyone I think the alphabetical order would make sense. However, I don't think there will be many other people that will join this group, and the ones who do would probably prefer to read shortlisted books as they acquire them, and the ones they are most interested in first, rather than read books in a particular order. For example, I participate in several theme reads based on authors or literary awards, including Orange January/July (for current and past books longlisted for the Orange Prize) and the Author Theme Reads group, which focuses on books written by one major author and three "mini-authors" every year. I've had an easier time participating in groups like this, where members could choose which books they wanted to read and when, as opposed to group reads of one book at a particular time (for example, I had great intentions of participating in a group read of Georges Perec's Life A User's Manual this spring, but work and other book commitments got in the way).

I saw your note on Club Read, and would like to join. You might put a note in the Reading Globally group as there are probably members there who would be interested in this type of read.

I won't be able to read alphabetically. I will start with George Letham which I own. I've also had my eye on Agaat.

Is this a list that is made every year? Is there a link to a site that lists prior winners/nominees?

#5: The Best Translated Book Awards are relatively new, as there have only been three prior winners of the Fiction and Poetry awards. The BTBAs are awarded by Three Percent of the University of Rochester, which lists the winners and longlisted books. I've listed links to the longlisted fiction books below:

2007 Longlist (fiction & poetry) (awarded in 2008)
2008 Fiction Longlist (awarded in 2009)
2010 Fiction Longlist (awarded in 2010)
2011 Fiction Longlist (to be awarded on April 29, 2011)

The shortlists can be found on the Best Translated Book Award page on Wikipedia.

The previous winners:

2007: Guantanamo by Dorothea Dieckmann, translated from the German by Tim Mohr
2008: Tranquility by Attila Bartis, translated from the Hungarian by Imre Goldstein
2010: The Confessions of Noa Weber by Gail Hareven, translated from the Hebrew by Dalya Bilu

Good points, people, and I'm totally open to switching around the order. I do think that if possible we should try to use some sort of order, as the point of a book club is being able to discuss the books together. Perhaps the Ernst Weiss book would be best to start with since you both have that one already? I don't have any of them, I plan to order them and read them through the year. Happy to go with the consensus / majority :)

I will try to join you for the French and Spanish texts...I've read Láscano Tegui's book and would love to hear what others think of it. I've got Aira's book checked out from the library and it's short, so I'd be down to read/discuss it any time. I really enjoyed his Cómo me hice monja (How I Became a Nun) and want to read more of his books.

The French books, I'll look up and try to check out. I like lists like this because they combine cool new books and older books that have been given a new life in translation.

We've been noticed!

BTBA Reading Group

#8: I'll start On Elegance While Sleeping now, and then read Visitation later this month or next month.

I'm Jimmy from Decatur, GA. (Hi fellow Atlantan Darryl, up there!)

I've already read Visitation (LOOOVED it, I hope it wins) and The True Deceiver (great book, but too bleak for my tastes) and I own (but haven't read) Literary Conference. I've read 3 of Aira's other books, though.

From the longlist, I've also read Hygiene and the Assassin (too much hyperbole for me) and Microscripts (very good).

I'm most excited about reading Georg Letham.

Can't guarantee I'll participate in every single of these book discussions, but I'll definitely join in a few of them.

I'm interested! I've tried to read the shortlist the last two years on my own. The first time I got through 9 and just hated the 10th; this past year, life got in the way after 6 of them. There are a lot of books I'm excited about on this year's list.

Hi--

I'm Chad Post, the publisher of Open Letter and the Three Percent website, and the co-founder of the BTBA.

Anyway, I think this is a fantastic idea, and will try and participate as much as possible. The Weiss book is one of the few shortlist titles I haven't read yet, but am planning on starting it next week. So for personal reasons, I'd love if you started there . . . But really, they're all fantastic and worth discussing.

BTW, if any of you are in NY on the 29th, you should come to the awards ceremony. It's taking place at the Bowery Poetry Club at 8:45-9:30, and will probably party on for a while after that . . .

Hi,

I'm urania, known to some of you. I have read some of the books on the shortlist. I may be in and out of the group, but I'll start reading. Almost everything I've read this year has either been nonfiction or literature in translation.

Hi I'm interested in this also. Am new to the translation scene, so my first question may be a ridiculous one. I'm living in Ireland and was wondering where I could source these books? Would my best bet be online, does anyone know?

>14 Hizzy: Hizzy,

Amazon UK, Book Depository (the UK division), Abebooks (they have a number of UK booksellers). You can also go directly to the publishers site although that may mean extra shipping. Other places--in the US, most if not all of these books are on Kindle. I don't know about Ireland. You might try Waterstones. It also has on online site and a lot of books available on e-readers that those of us living in the US can't obtain via e-readers. Are you Northern Ireland or Southern Ireland. That may make a lot of difference in shipping costs although I have no accurate information to support such a claim.

Welcome everyone. And thanks for the plug on Three Percent, Chad. Glad to see people getting involved, looking forward to this.

Unless there are any objections, shall we start with the Weiss book, then? I've just ordered it from here (I never buy books from shops in Australia because they're so damned expensive...) -
http://www.bookdepository.com/book/9780980033038/Georg-Letham?utm_medium=api&amp...

Thanks Urania, I'm in southern Ireland. I'll give Waterstones a go first, they generally carry a wide range.

I wanted to second an idea mentioned earlier (post 4) about a looser framework for this group; I'd have a hard time committing to obtaining and reading all these books, one at a time, but I'd love to discuss the ones I am able to track down with like-minded individuals.

Would it be possible to create, say, a topic for each author/book, so that everyone who is reading/has read the book in question could contribute their thoughts and opinions? It seems to me that, since we're on the internet and not meeting in person, it's less necessary to have a strict schedule and all read the same book at the same time...

BTW, nice to meet y'all. I'm Matt, and I'm from Indiana.

Just seen the list of topics for this group and looks like we are going with the looser structure - fine by me, although since I prefer to read books blind (i.e. before hearing others' opinions) I won't open those topics till I've read the books.

The ones I've ordered haven't arrived, yet, should be here sometime next week apparently.

Hi: I'm Margaret, and I'm from the Oregon coast. I'm new to LibraryThing and very happy to be joining this group: my reads of late have been uninspiring! I'm off to Amazon.com to order a few of the title on the list and looking forward to participating in the forums. Cheers.

As good way to read new books as any :)

I'll probably be around but I don't plan on opening any topic for a book I had not finished... so doubt I will post a lot. As for order - I am not much for being told what to read when so I'll most likely just be tugging at whichever I feel like (now going to Amazon to see how many are available for Kindle and how many will be physical books) :)

Hi, my name is Rise. Avid reader of books in translation. I'm from the Philippines.

I own and have read The Literary Conference by Aira and, from the longlist, Bad Nature by Marias. I want to read more from the finalists.

My name is Larry, I'm from Grand Island NY and work in Buffalo. I've read George Letham and I in the middle of Jenny Erpenbeck. Both unsettling.