This year The Invisible Cities Project has been so much fun. I have really enjoyed watching what people have been reading from around the world and even trying some new food to eat. I would have liked to do more world cinema but sometimes it is hard to concentrate on the subtitles when you have easy access to a phone, this is why I prefer to see these films at a cinema. I am excited to see what 2022 will bring for the project. In January we will be talking about books, food, cinema from Algeria and Singapore before heading to Guyana and Uganda in February.
As we head into the last month of 2021, we are hoping to find some more time to relax a bit and catch up on our reading goals, I know I have plenty of countries still to catch up on. In addition to that, December is traditionally the month of “end-of-the-year” book lists, tags, and recaps, so we are also announcing our very own Invisible Cities tag!
This tag emerged from our internal host discussions about the future of the project and our experiences during this year, and we realized that it would more interesting and worthwhile to open this discussion up to our community, so we decided to create a tag.
You can join in on the discussion by making your own video, social media/blog post (please use the hashtag #InvisibleCitiesProject) and/or sharing your answers in the dedicated channel on our discord server.
Below are the questions (and my answers)
What’s your favourite book from all the ones you read for the Invisible Cities?
One of my favourite books from the year has to be Minor Detail by Adania Shibli (translated by Elisabeth Jaquette), which was my pick for Palestine. This was such an intense and powerful read and I hope many people had the opportunity to pick this novel up for this reading project, or for any other reason.
Which author that you read for Invisible Cities are you interested in reading more from?
This is a hard question to answer because there are so many great authors out there. I read Mariana Enríquez for Argentina and I am eager to read what ever has been translated from her. Other authors would include Yu Miri, Melba Escobar and Bae Suah.
What’s a non-book related favourite (food, music, movie) you discovered via the Invisible Cities?
I love some of the food my wife made for this project, I think it was so much fun to explore different cuisines while reading books from these countries. I am not sure which was my favourite, but the first thing that came to my mind was the Madagascan vanilla curry.
Any countries you read from for the first time?
This the joy of this reading project, I would love to read from every country in the world. I think this year was the first time I’ve read from Madagascar and Palestine.
A geographic area/country you want to explore more?
I think I need to focus more on Africa. Europe and Asia probably have the most translations and I have spent so much time in South America. Would love to see more translations from Australian countries, especially some of the aboriginal languages.
Recommend one woman in translation book you read for the project.
I tried to focus on reading women in translation, so I think most of my books would work for this prompt, but can I direct you to Minor Detail by Adania Shibli (translated by Elisabeth Jaquette) again?
Do you have any Invisible Cities goals for next year? (reading goals or other activities/media)
I want to do better at keeping up with all the countries. My finances made it difficult this year and I had to rely mainly on the library and Scribd for accessibility, but I am hoping that next year would be easier. I love this project and I am surprised I am still a host after my 2021 efforts.
For more information about this project you can check out my post here: 2021 Reading Project: Invisible Cities
Join the Invisible Cities Discord community here: Discord Invite
Or join the Invisible Cities reading challenge on Storygraph: Invisible Cities
This sounds brilliant, what a good way of reading around the world. I’ll go over and look at your project post and hopefully can organise myself for next year, thanks!
Well done!