The Challenge Factory discussion

Hi everyone! This is my first time hosting a challenge- so I'll apologize in advance if anything is unclear and update as needed.

The goal of this challenge is to read more globally! One of my reading goals this year was to read more diversely so I wanted to create a challenge that assisted in meeting those goals. In this challenge readers will click this link: Random Number Generator to generate a random number between 1 and 12.

Read a book translated from the language of the number you rolled into your own language. Each book is worth 30 points.

1. Spanish/Portuguese
2. French
3. Italian
4. Chinese
5. Japanese
6. Arabic
7. Russian
8. Hindi/Bengali/Punjabi/et al.
9. Polish
10. German
11. Swedish/Norwegian/Danish/Icelandic
12. Wildcard (any language not your own)

Bonus points can be acquired if the book meets any of the following criteria:
Written in the 21st century (+15)
Non-preferred genre (+15)
LGBTQ+ MC (+15)
Greater than 500 pages (+15)
Won an award (+10)
Made into a movie, play or musical (+10)
Previously owned but never read (+10)
Buddy read with a friend! (+5)

Rules:
- No page limits
- No re-reads
- Crossover with other challenges is okay
- You can give yourself as many bonus points as the book qualifies for.
- If you are struggling to find a book you want to read translated from the language you rolled, you can re-roll by deducting 10 points from your overall total.
- If your native language is not English, you can swap English in for whichever number/category your language falls into (if not listed, feel free to pick any of the above).

The challenge ends when you meet your goal:
Easy: 100 points
Intermediate: 250 points
Hard: 500 points

Example:
I click the link and get a 4, Chinese. I decide to read: The Three-Body Problem.
30 points
+15 for being published in the 21st century
+10 for earning (multiple) awards
+10 for being turned into a movie (in China)

Thus The Three-Body Problem earns: 65 points.

**I'll apologize in advance for grouping some languages together and leaving out others. I tried to go by language similarities or geographical regions and was aiming for languages I felt would have the most widely available translations.**

Helpful Resources:

AmazonCrossing
Wikipedia for the Man Booker International Prize
Books translated to English Listopia
Favorite Translated Literature Listopia
Best Translated Fiction Award 2016
Critics say these are the best books translated to english 2017
50 Translated Works every english speaker should read
Japanese Crime Fiction
Books Translated from Polish

If you have any helpful links (especially for non-english speakers) please share them and I'll update the list!

Last note- please update as you read! I'd love to see what everyone is reading for the different prompts.

Participants:

Sarah
Jessica
Nathan
Agnieszka

I'll go ahead and start. My goal is for 250 points before the end of the year.

Roll 1:
12. Wildcard - I'm going with Chinese as I want to continue Cixin Liu's Remembrance of Earth's Past series.

The Dark Forest - 30 points
+15 published in the 21st century
+15 greater than 500 pages

Completed: 5/12/2018 - 3 stars
Total: 60 points/250 points

Roll 2:
6. Arabic - The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz - 30 points

+15 written in the 21st century

Completed: 6/16/2018 - 2 stars
Total: 105/250 points

Roll 3:
4. Chinese - Death's End by Liu Cixin - 30 points

+15 published in the 21st century
+15 greater than 500 pages
+10 won an award (Locus for best Sci-Fi Novel)

Completed: 7/15/2018 - 3 stars
Total: 175/250

Roll 4:
11. Swedish/Norwegian/Danish/Icelandic - TBD

Today Amazon launched a huge promotion offering several popular and free translated books (available for the next 7 days!):

https://www.amazon.com/article/read-t...

I'm also adding a link here and above to Amazon Crossing's page which can link you to translated books from multiple languages:

https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&...

It looks like you can search by languages, new releases, or genre.

I'm in for 250 points.
Roll 1
8. Hindi/Bengali/Punjabi/et al

Before I decide if I'll join the challenge I wanted to know if books written in a foreign language (not translated) would count for this challenge as well.
I borrow from friends and family as many original Polish books as I can since I was only a child when we left Poland almost 30 years ago and struggle with this language more and more. I'm more fluent in English than in Polish :-(
Since I live in Germany I have access to German books (though usually don't like those very much) and if I can I would like to read German, Polish and English books in the original.

BTW: https://www.amazon.com/article/read-t... isn't available in all countries - at least not in Germany.

Agnieszka wrote: "Before I decide if I'll join the challenge I wanted to know if books written in a foreign language (not translated) would count for this challenge as well.
I borrow from friends and family as many..."

Thanks for asking! I think that would be fine- the point isn't necessarily to read translated works but just to get us out of our comfort zones and reading things from around the world, so if you want to read it in the original language it was written in I don't see a problem!

Glad to have some readers joining me! I can't wait to see what everyone else is reading.

I'm in for 250 points. I rolled a 10 so it's time for German books. I can't read German in the original, alas, so let's go for German books in translation in English.

Peeling The Onion, by Gunter Grass (30 + 15 for being contemporary + 15 for being non-preferred genre) (read and reviewed)
Cat and Mouse, by Gunter Grass (30 + 15 for being non-preferred genre + 10 for being adopted into a film, apparently) (read and reviewed)

The Bible As History by Werner Keller (30)
The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife, by Erik Hornung (30) (reading)

Color, Light, Sight, Sense, by Moritz Zwimpfer (30 + 15 for being non-preferred genre)
The Expressionists by Wolf Deiter Deub (30 + 15 for being non-preferred genre) (read and reviewed)

Across The Land and Water, by W.G. Seebald (30 + 15 for being contemporary) (read and reviewed)
After Nature, by W.G. Seebald (30 +15 for being contemporary) (read & reviewed)
A Place In The Country, by W.G. Seebald (30 + 15 for being contemporary)
On The Natural History Of Destruction, by W.G. Seebald (30 + 15 for being contemporary) (read and reviewed)
Austerlitz, by W.G. Seebald (30 + 15 for being contemporary)(read and reviewed; it won awards too +10)
The Emigrants, by W.G. Seebald (30 + 15 for being contemporary)(read and reviewed)
The Rings of Saturn, by W.G. Seebald (30 + 15 for being contemporary)(read, review pending)
Vertigo, by W.G. Seebald (30 + 15 for being contemporary) (read and reviewed; it won awards too +10)

Total: 615 points and a few days of my May reading.
Progress: Mostly done :D

Nathan wrote: "I'm in for 250 points. I rolled a 10 so it's time for German books. I can't read German in the original, alas, so let's go for German books in translation in English.

Peeling The Onion, by Gunter ..."

That looks like a great list Nathan! I just wanted to clarify- you don't have to read all 250 of your points in one language. If you want, you can read one German book, re-roll and try a different language until you reach 250.

But if you have a lot of German in translation on your TBR list this is fine too!

:D There are quite a few German translations in my TBR list, and considering that it's about four days of reading or so, it's no big deal to get a few German books read. I might read more, for example, of Seebald's books of poetry if I like the first two.

Since I can use the original language books I'm in :-)

Globetrotter Challenge
Start date: 4/25/18
Level: Hard (500 points)
Points: 280/500
Books read: 5
no page limit, no re-reads, Randomizer link: https://www.random.org/

1st roll: 10 English New Beginnings by Aspen Moore 5* 4/26 - 30 + 15 (published 2015) + 10 (bought 2016) = 55
2nd roll: 2 French Das Mädchen aus Brooklyn=La fille de Brooklyn by Guillaume Musso 6* 5/2 lit. translation: The Girl form Brooklyn - 30 + 15 (published 2017) = 45
3rd roll: 11 Danish Erbarmen=The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen 3* 5/6 - 30 + 15 (published 2009) + 10 (Won several awards) + 15 (Non-preferred genre = Scandinavian thriller/mysteries) + 10 (Made into a movie) = 80
4th roll: 5 Japanese Wenn der Wind singt=Hear the Wind Sing by Haruki Murakami 4* 5/8 - 30 + 10 (won an award) + 15 (non-preferred genre = Asian literature) = 55
5th roll: 7 Russian Weihnachten in Russland: Der Audiobuch-Adventskalender by Fyodor Dostoyevsky & other Russian authors 3* 5/22 lit. transl.: Christmas in Russia: The Audio Advent Calendar - 30 + 15 (Non-preferred genre = Russian literature) = 45
6th roll: 1 Spanish/Portuguese Das dritte Geheimnis=The Last Pope by Luis Miguel Rocha ?* ?/? - 30 + 15 (first published 2006) = 45
7th roll: # language
8th roll: # language
9th roll: # language
10th roll: # language

Points:
Each book (+30)
Re-roll language (-10)
Written in the 21st century (+15)
Previously owned but never read (+10)
Buddy read with a friend! (+5)
Greater than 500 pages (+15)
Won an award (+10)
Non-preferred genre (+15)
Made into a movie, play or musical (+10)
LGBTQ+ MC (+15)

1 Spanish/Portuguese - Hundert Jahre Einsamkeit
2 French - Fliehender Stern, Sieben Jahre Später
3 Italian - Turin-Reihe
4 Chinese
5 Japanese - Das Museum der Stille by Yōko Ogawa ?* ?/? lit. transl: The Museum of Silence - 30 + 15 (first published 2000) + 15 (non-preferred genre = Asian literature) = 60
6 Arabic - Fractured Destinies
7 Russian - Die Kreutzersonate, Doktor Shiwago
8 Hindi/Bengali/Punjabi/et al.
9 Polish (mostly original) - Nielegalni, Niewierni, Czubak biography, Quo Vadis
10 English
11. Swedish/Norwegian/Danish
12. Wildcard (any language but German)
Korean - A River in Darkness
Finish - Finnisches Blut
Greek -

Globetrotter Challenge part 2

I have another two (similar) questions:

I was born in Poland and learned this language first but have little contact with Polish for almost 30 years now and am most fluent in German would
12. Wildcard (any language not your own) means any language but German or Polish, or can I pick which one? In case it will be German does this mean for - If your native language is not English, you can swap English in for whichever number/category your language falls into (if not listed, feel free to pick any of the above). I have to exchange #10 German for English or can I still pick any number I like as I've done (#8)?
Since I rolled 10 the second question/part is more important right now :-)

Agnieszka wrote: "I have another two (similar) questions:

I was born in Poland and learned this language first but have little contact with Polish for almost 30 years now and am most fluent in German would
12. Wild..."

Hmm... these are excellent questions! Clearly I hadn't thought this through as much as I thought. What if I change "native language" to "primary language" in which case you would swap in English for German instead of Polish. Does that make sense?

**edit: I'm not a strict rule keeper- mostly I came up with this as a fun way for us all to read outside our comfort zones a little more, if you would prefer to pick Polish as your native language, I'm okay with that too.**

Sarah wrote: "Agnieszka wrote: "I have another two (similar) questions:

I was born in Poland and learned this language first but have little contact with Polish for almost 30 years now and am most fluent in Ger..."

Thank you and I see it the same you you - with German as the primary language it makes sense. In this case I'm changing my set up and hope very much I won't roll an 8 - I really have no idea if I would find any book for this one :-)

It seems like you have pretty eclectic taste in reading! If you’re okay reading something translated from one of the many languages they speak in India to English I will try to come up with a list of suggestions for that prompt since I think Jessica rolled an 8 too.

Some suggestions for popular Indian authors:
Amitav Ghosh - I think he technically writes his books in English, but he also lives and India and they are published in Hindi so I would count this as translated even though he does the translation himself.
Mahasweta Devi

Listopia for Indian Literature in English Translation

A few month ago I someone on GR recommended https://ebooksforfree.net/ and I'm checking every few weeks what kind of books they have. Today I discovered they have Indian Instincts: Essays on Freedom and Equality in India & Fractured Destinies the second is a sure translation from Arabic, the first could be from one of the Indian languages/dialects or only an original English book about India - I wasn't able to find out for sure :-(

I grabbed both even if I'm not really hot about them and hope I will find something I like more in one of my libraries or even better never roll #6 or #8 ;-)

The Challenge Factory
Globetrotter Challenge
Duration: 5/1/2018 - Til Done!

Progress: 120 out of 500
The challenge ends when you meet your goal:
Easy: 100 points
Intermediate: 250 points
Hard: 500 points

The goal of this challenge is to read more globally! One of my reading goals this year was to read more diversely so I wanted to create a challenge that assisted in meeting those goals.

The goal of this challenge is to read more globally! One of my reading goals this year was to read more diversely so I wanted to create a challenge that assisted in meeting those goals. In this challenge readers will click this link "Random Number Generator" to generate a random number between 1 and 12.

Read a book translated from the language of the number you rolled into your own language. Each book is worth 30 points.

8. Hindi/Bengali/Punjabi/et al:
The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World by Dalai Lama XIV - ***** - 6/4/2018
- +30 Points per Book
- Written in the 21st century (+15)
- Non-preferred genre (+15)


9. Polish:
The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski - ***** - 1/30/2022 - 352 Pages
- +30 Points per Book
- +10 Won an Award
- +10 Made into a Movie (TV Show)
- +10 Previously Owned but never Read


9. Polish:


Bonus points can be acquired if the book meets any of the following criteria:
Written in the 21st century (+15)
Non-preferred genre (+15)
LGBTQ+ MC (+15)
Greater than 500 pages (+15)
Won an award (+10)
Made into a movie, play or musical (+10)
Previously owned but never read (+10)
Buddy read with a friend! (+5)

Rules:
(view spoiler)[
- No page limits
- No re-reads
- Crossover with other challenges is okay
- You can give yourself as many bonus points as the book qualifies for.
- If you are struggling to find a book you want to read translated from the language you rolled, you can re-roll by deducting 10 points from your overall total.
- If your native language is not English, you can swap English in for whichever number/category your language falls into (if not listed, feel free to pick any of the above).

Example:
I click the link and get a 4, Chinese. I decide to read: The Three-Body Problem.
30 points
+15 for being published in the 21st century
+10 for earning (multiple) awards
+10 for being turned into a movie (in China)

Thus The Three-Body Problem earns: 65 points.

**I'll apologize in advance for grouping some languages together and leaving out others. I tried to go by language similarities or geographical regions and was aiming for languages I felt would have the most widely available translations.** (hide spoiler)]

Globetrotter Challenge
Intermediate
Books 0
Points 0

Rolls
Roll One: 10
Roll Two:
Roll Three:

Languages
1. Spanish/Portuguese
2. French
3. Italian
4. Chinese
5. Japanese
6. Arabic
7. Russian
8. Hindi/Bengali/Punjabi/et al.
9. Polish
10. German
11. Swedish/Norwegian/Danish/Icelandic
12. Wildcard (any language not your own)

Bonus
Written in the 21st century (+15)
Non-preferred genre (+15)
LGBTQ+ MC (+15)
Greater than 500 pages (+15)
Won an award (+10)
Made into a movie, play or musical (+10)
Previously owned but never read (+10)
Buddy read with a friend! (+5)

Hey all- I'm updating Number 11 to include Icelandic. I was going for the Scandinavian languages with that one and missed it. Just wanted you to know in case it widened up your options a bit.