Shooting Thoughts: Bridge the Gap With Me

Posted January 29, 2016 by shooting in Uncategorized / 21 Comments

One of my challenges for this year is to do more discussion posts. I often have ideas I want to talk about, but I find that writing these posts often take the longest time. Am I the only one? Anyway, today I want to talking about international entertainment – books, movies, music. Whatever! For me, international is anything that is not from the United States. For people in other countries, it would be any country besides your own! Easy, right? Let’s start discussing…

Let Us Bridge the Gap 
This is something I’ve been meaning to really do on the blog, but I just keep forgetting. First off, I’ll be needing a button so I can properly label these posts. If anyone wants to make one (especially if you’d like to use it on your own blog too) that would be awesome! Otherwise I’ll try my hand at making something simple. 
Anyway, the idea behind Bridge the Gap is to focus on things that are outside of where you live. Sure, living in the United States, I could read about a different state and have something very unique. However, I’d really like to start paying attention to other countries and what they have to offer. Yes, I’ve read books that were published in other countries (or by foreign authors) and yes, I’ve watched foreign films and listened to music from artists in other countries. I’m doing this now! I want to be more aware of it though. Seek out more entertainment and actually write about it on the blog. This doesn’t mean I have to take an outsider’s approach to everything, but I want to acknowledge the places these pieces of entertainment come from.
I know a lot of you reading this are mostly book bloggers, so that means you would seek out books written in other countries. If you do not live in the United States, you can still do this! U.S. books count, especially if your native language isn’t English…but you can also look at all the other places where you don’t live! It’s a way for us as bloggers to come together a bit more, by celebrating the different places where we all live. It seems like books published in the U.S. are the most celebrated and they probably get most of the attention because of the big-name publishers, but that shouldn’t always be the case. Besides, plenty of U.S. publishing companies are now sharing foreign novels by having them translated into English. People say this means the book loses a bit of what it originally was, because not all things can be translated in quite the same way the author might have meant. And yeah, that’s probably true, but we shouldn’t just ignore these books (or those movies with subtitles) because of that!
This discussion is one part telling you that I hope to pay more attention to what other countries are producing, as well as making note on my blog when I am featuring them with a Bridge the Gap button. However, I also want to reach out to the blogosphere as a whole and see if you would like to take this journey with me, if you will. Share what you’re reading, listening too, watching, etc. Give ideas of what other people should check out – whether it’s from your country (non-U.S. natives) or not! 
I’m ready to find more gems. I’m ready to learn about other places and other people. Are you ready to Bridge the Gap with me? 

-Lauren 

21 responses to “Shooting Thoughts: Bridge the Gap With Me

  1. Ah, this is a great challenge. When I think about the books I've read recently that have taken place in another country, they're almost all written by American authors. And that's totally fine, especially when the author takes the time to explore this country – which they all mostly do – but sometimes I wonder if I'm missing anything culturally about those places because it's still an American viewpoint, if that makes sense. Anyways, this is something that I would like to be more conscious of as well – and I'm looking forward to any future features of international entertainment that you find and recommend on the blog. I can recommend any that I find as well 🙂 You know, besides the obvious popular British books and TV series that everyone already knows about.

  2. You are not alone in the whole discussion post approach, Lauren. There have been more than numerous times where I have found inspiration for a discussion post, but when I sit down and face that white blank page, I immediately walk away ha! The prospect of getting my initial thoughts on a certain topic other than book reviews down on a post is daunting and time-consuming.

    In any case, I love this discussion post! I've often been curious as to how one in the States can go about purchasing books from publishing houses in other countries, are they easily accessible to us here for purchase? I'd love to know what books have been translated into English too!

  3. I make it a point to read translated books and books by non-American authors, I don't necessarily go out of my way, it's just a habit I picked up years ago after discovering that there's tons of great books outside of my regular favorite American or British writers. I went through a phase where I was reading a lot of Japanese translations (because I got into Battle Royale- the book, not the graphic novels, and the trilogy of books that the movie Ring is based on). Now I quite like thrillers set in Sweden and the Netherlands and recently read one that was set in Germany.

  4. Fantastic idea! I wouldn't know where to start, though, with authors. I usually stumble on authors from other countries. And then if there's a translation involved? I've rarely come across one of those!!

    Have you tried Canva for making buttons?? It looks real easy to use and it's free 🙂

  5. I read translations from time to time, but I'd like to read more. I must admit some translations have been poor, diminishing my reading pleasure, but others have been wonderful and have allowed me to step into another culture and place.

  6. I have to confess that I'm horrible about reading books that have been published out of the US. I'm looking forward to seeing your picks – maybe I'll find some great new books to read!

  7. This is a great idea. Bec has always been recommending me Aussie books to read but they are harder to get a hold of here so I keep putting it off. No more!

  8. This is a great feature, Lauren! I love reading books by authors who aren't anglophone, even if I love reading in English. I am Norwegian, so I have some Norwegian authors I could share (whose books have been translated to English). Also, I live in Switzerland, so, again, I could share some Swiss authors I enjoy, I know of one off the top of my head whose books have been translated to English. Joel Dicker (you can find his books on Goodreads) is even from Geneva, where I love now.
    Good luck!!

    Lexxie @ (un)Conventional Bookviews

  9. As someone who doesn't live in the US reading books that take place in other countries is kinda the norm for me. I can't remember the last boook I read that actually took place in the Netherlands and it would be interesting to have a book take place here for a change. I do like the idea for this feature, it's fun to learn more about other countries!

  10. This is a really good idea! I always say that I want to read more books set in a variety of places, or written by authors from a variety of places, but then I forget about it. I especially want to try to read historical fiction set in a lot of different countries. It might not be what's focused on, but it's out there, and it should be easy enough for me to find it. Thanks for reminding me about my goal for this, and for spreading such a great idea!

    Thanks for visiting Lost in My Library!

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