World Literature Forum
Posted in Sites Of Interest
In my love of books I’ve been a member of many book related communities on the web these past five years. Most of these tend to be general book forums, encompassing as much as possible. To me, this can lack focus and while it can encourage larger membership, the chances of two or more people reading - or at least having knowledge of - the same book is less than a focused subject.
Aside from the general book forums, there are communities online for thrillers; communities for sci-fi, horror, and fantasy; communities for romance; and even communities dedicated to a specific series of books or author. Nowhere online did I find an online forum for the discussion of translated literature.
So to this end, I’ve created World Literature Forum, which I hope will offer an area of the internet for people to discuss, review, recommend and publicise translated works. Fingers crossed.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
April 4th, 2008 at 10:49 am
Whoops! After announcing it, it was brought to my attention that the registration was switched off. It’s been fixed now. I suppose a launch isn’t a launch without a hitch of some sort.
April 4th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Where do you get the time and energy, Stewart? Count me in. I have a few reviews that I’ll populate your site with over the weekend.
BTW - Canadian literature - I’m assuming that goes in the American literature forum - but it doesn’t feel right.
April 4th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
I know. It’s a strange one. For the time being, it’s going to be a strange place with literature from the US appearing under English literature. Likewise Canadian literature, except French Canadian, which is translated and therefore goes under the Americas banner. Once the site gets busier I’ll be able to review the common nationalities and regions and start splitting it out further (e.g. French, Russian, Arabic, Scandinavian, etc.)
April 8th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Nice one Stewart. I’ve mentioned it on ReadySteadyBook.com too. I hope it goes well!
April 8th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Thanks, Mark. I appreciate it.
April 9th, 2008 at 9:57 am
I saw this on Mark’s ReadySteadyBook blog and have signed up. What an excellent idea! I’m currently reading The Loser by Fatos Kongoli, so this is right up my street.
April 9th, 2008 at 10:11 am
Glad to hear it, Logophile. As an idea, I’m surprised there has never been anything done before. But it seems to be a case of if you build it, they will come.
April 9th, 2008 at 11:22 am
That’s one of the most attractive (yet usable) forum designs I’ve ever seen. Nice work! (And good luck with the site…)
April 9th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Thank you, Rob. I pretty much chanced across the design by trial and error over two nights, so it’s nice to know that others find it as attractive as I did.
April 9th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
[…] blog says: Finally, translated literature gets a proper online home for discussion! Stewart over at Booklit has created the rather brilliant World Literature Forum, a community for interested readers to […]
April 11th, 2008 at 1:52 am
Right up my alley, this, but I don’t give out personal info (e.g., birthday) lightly. (Nor counterfactuals.) Think you could rethink the registration requirements?
April 11th, 2008 at 7:18 am
The registration is there to make sure that the site complies with the COPPA (Children Online Privacy Protection Act), which requires under 13s to have written permission to participate. All I’m looking to do is make sure you are over 13, so any date of birth will do. Once on the forum, displaying your date of birth/age/location, etc is optional.
May 1st, 2008 at 8:12 pm
I’d love to register for your forum, but for the life of me, I can’t make head or tail of the funny characters I have to type in to gain access. I’ve negotiated many of these over the past few months and even use them on my own website but yours are just too obscure for someone of my age/eyesight capability!
May 1st, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Thanks, Tom. I ugraded the CAPTCHA yesterday because the software offered a new twist on it, which was random shapes thrown in. I’ve relaxed this now.
May 5th, 2010 at 10:35 pm
Great blog! You may be interested in my own literary trip around the world through literature:
the website is at: http://www.webspinners.org.uk/roundtheworld/
and my own blog of travels so far is at: http://readingtheworld-webspinner.blogspot.com/
Thanks
john
February 1st, 2011 at 5:22 pm
[…] 1. This is a world literature forum with some interesting links and opinions on literature from around the world. […]