So, for example, when I went to China with my wicked stepmother, we read all the Detective Inspector Chen novels by a wonderful Chinese author whose name I can't pronounce confidently and a friend of mine went to Vietnam recently. So preparation. She read Graham Green and Celeste In, and I'd be interested to hear from other people who read fiction as a way into a new place
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:53
But you've really reminded me that it's such a rich experience to go and find the novelists that really tell the story of that country and take you down the alleyways and into the various books and crannies of the culture. It's so beautiful. It's great to hear you coming from Lisbon. And of course, your accent. We can surmise that you're not from Lisbon. And I know that you're from Zimbabwe. So it's just so great to have your perspective
Sreeja V
@Wordsmith · 0:55
And it's very interesting to be able to really put into context a lot of what's been written eventually when you actually get to see these cultures first hand and experience them. So thank you so much for sharing this through this. Well
Annie Holmes
@AnnieH · 2:24
And I thought, what a great insight that was for me to realize that sort of Anglosaxon puritanical morals and all that of my upbringing were not even the European norm, that there are other ways that a society can see and understand female sexuality, for example. Anyway, that's one example that comes to my mind. But I'd love to hear, I think also the books we read as a child really shape us
And I was trying to think what I wanted to give some examples of what kind of books that would be and, of course, through a blank because my memory fails me and my bookcases have failed me because my bookcases haven't traveled with me. Unfortunately. So that's the downside of moving around and living in other countries is you can't take your bookcases with you always and with them go memories of books you've read
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
Annie Holmes
@AnnieH · 0:35
Hi, Jane. No one told me that you couldn't take your bookcases with you. So I've been hauling mine about the planet. I can throw away lots of things, but somehow I just can't leave my books behind. I thinned them out a bit when I move, but mostly I seem to keep them anyway. Thanks for joining the conversation. And if a sudden thought strikes you, if a sudden memory comes up, I you know where to tell us about it. Thanks