If by "great" you mean influential, then definitely India's epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata would fit the bill IMO.
Wikipedia has this to say about Mahabharata:
> The Mahābhārata is the longest epic poem known and has been described as "the longest poem ever written".[7][8] Its longest version consists of over 100,000 śloka or over 200,000 individual verse lines (each shloka is a couplet), and long prose passages. At about 1.8 million words in total, the Mahābhārata is roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined, or about four times the length of the Rāmāyaṇa.[9][10] W. J. Johnson has compared the importance of the Mahābhārata in the context of world civilization to that of the Bible, the works of William Shakespeare, the works of Homer, Greek drama, or the Quran.[11] Within the Indian tradition it is sometimes called the Fifth Veda.
But if by “great” you mean a lot of fun to read, then I’m skeptical. I grew up with these stories since my mother and grandmother told them as bedtime stories. As I learned to read I picked up the comic book versions (known as Amar Chitra Katha) and later the novels.
As far as the stories themselves go, they’re pretty drab. The plot is predictable, dialogue is meh, characters (apart from 2) are more like caricatures than real people, the morals are as subtle as bludgeons, they drag on for no reason. I would not recommend them to anyone.
That’s not to say they’re not important books. They were and are influential. Today’s books might be better but they owe a debt of gratitude to the classics. So in some ways reading the Mahabharata today and complaining it isn’t great is similar to complaining that Seinfeld Isn’t Funny. Plus I will say, at least half a billion people love these stories and worship the characters as Gods. If that makes you curious, pick them up.
On top of that, there are hundreds of versions of Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata with different themes and story[1]. Excluding retellings in different languages with a different style and changes story depending on languages, region & religion. My mother tongue (Kannada) alone has more than 10 ancient version or so which I heard of.
It seems that old writers had a different idea of storytelling. They were focused more on the theme & prosody[2] than the story. I think it set the bar very high since everyone know the base story. No wonder they had this complex structure and ideas for prosody[2]
Giving my 2 cents here: Mahabharat was the first epic which I fell in love with. It is fair to draw parallels with the Trojan War in terms of scale & sheer amount of narrative. It's ultimately about a war, there are gods & demigods involved, and it's tragic. Many complex storylines, plot twists, motives are intertwined. The centrestage is set to 5 demigod brothers who fight a war for their birthright, to rule their kingdom. There's Krishna involved; if you ever wanted to know the context of Dharma and Karma (Bhagvat Gita) this is where you'll find it. Characters act out of greed, lust, power, pride; you won't be so sure about who are the good guys (which IMO is the best kind of story). My favorite character is Karna, the 6th brother who was separated at birth and has to fight against his brothers for his friendship. 10/10 would recommend.
From where I stand, Hispanic and Slavic literature is fairly unknown and underrated on the other side of the pond.
Ramón del Valle Inclán's "Lights of Bohemia": A great portrait of Madrid and the dirty guts of the Spain from 100 years ago, written in a gorgeously precise, dark and multifaceted range of vocabulary.
Ortega y Gasset's "Rebellion of the Masses". It is centered in the individual "I am me and my circumstances" and its evolution since the enlightenment.
Sapkowski's "Witcher". Look for a good translation, lots of Slavic mythology tidbits and wonderfully juicy curse words.
Stanislaw Lem's "The Star Diaries". Nice if you like to fantasize about buying pieces for your spaceship in a shopping centre or think about chair-like aliens with 11 different sexes (in the book).
Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "A hundred years of solitude". The book is all about "realismo fantástico", joining the real and imaginary words in an unforgettable blend.
I guess it boils down to the lack of accurate translations. As a certain Jarosław Grzędowicz put answering a question why his works haven't been translated yet(paraphrased):
English native speakers in general are not too fond of translations not done by other English native speakers. Unfortunately there aren't many English native speakers who happen to be experts in Polish literature. On top of that all four of them are lumberjacks.
Can you please provide more examples of Slavic literature? I am only aware of Russian authors. Any idea if the english translation of Witcher by Danusia Stok is good? I am very curious about Slavic culture and recently blogged about "Slavs"[1], I would love to add a literature section to my post.
Seconded. They are excellent. I must re-read them.
Water Margin[0] came to UK on TV in the early 80s from Japanese TV. Gained quite a following.
Journey to the West came to the UK as Monkey[1] (again a Japanese adaptation) around the same time. It was the most ridiculous, weird thing on TV. Most people at school were addicted to it. It became a cult classic. Sadly Saiyuki 2 never made it to the UK.
I think it’s interesting because even when a person outside of China is exposed to them, they might not realise the influence. Close to a million people a day play Dota 2 but I doubt they know that the Monkey King (https://youtube.com/watch?v=guGFT27SavM) is the main character of Journey to the West.
About these 4 books, are there any translations or Kindle versions you recommend?
José Saramago's the double. They made a film based on this with jake gyllenhall but not sure how well known the book and saramego is in the US, both book and film are excellent.
A girl is a half formed thing by Elmer mcbride is the best thing I've read in years with a really unique writing style. It's an incredible tragic book though... Check out first chapter online here to see if you like the style.
I didn't like the one book by Dostoyevsky that we had in English literature class in high school. I think it was the one about Raskolnikov. Found it heavy / morbid / not much interesting. But I've read some novels by other Russian authors (a while ago), and IIRC found some by Chekhov good. Some novels I read about life on farms during the Soviet times were interesting too, cannot remember the authors or book titles right now.
The drawings / illustrations in Asterix and Tintin comics are just great. I like them almost more than the stories or characters, especially for the Asterix ones. The drawings of scenery are very evocative, and expressions on the faces of the people in the comics seem very realistic, despite being drawn with just a few lines, relatively speaking.
Another great point about Asterix comics (so I read), is that they were initially written in French, and later translated into English (I've only read them in English) - and still there are many puns and word plays in the English versions. I don't know how they managed to do it, or whether they created different puns for the English versions. Likely the latter, because I guess the puns would not translate well across languages.
It's not just those two. Most French/Belgian comics [1] are unknown in the US. There have been tons of talented newcomers since the 1990s, and some cursory Googling suggests me that most are not translated to English yet. (Some are available in German.)
The first half of the opening chapter is the best intro to any work of comic fiction I've read.
At face value it's a simple road trip story (by boat), but the episodes of hypochondria and camaraderie still feel contemporary and fun — it is written and to be read for the pure joy of it, and you need look for no deeper meaning.
This is one of my absolute favorites. I've since searched for a book that would make me laugh as hard, without success. Not even JKJ's other works come close.
Robert Musil's "The Man Without Qualities" [1] is by far the most outstanding novel i have read, as it stretches the limits of what language can express past anything i tought possible. The protagonist is a mathematician whose scientific mind applies allegorical dissections over a wide range of existential themes concerning humanity and feelings. The polarity makes it for an extraordinary read.
Hermann Broch "The Death of Virgil". The novel creates out of a dying poet a rich, profound vision both of civilization and of primal concerns of all mankind.
Austrian authors where on another level in the late 30s and 40s of the 20th century.
Finally, Victor Pelevin's "Empire V: The Prince of Hamlet" [3] You gain instruction into the vampire life and by extension the humans which vampires feed and the nature of god and existence itself, with interesting meditations on existence, theology, matter, illusion and withering attacks on fashion, advertising, politics, the Davos elite, literature and particularly the nature of money.
Usually not into fantasy, but La Horde du Contrevent is a French fantasy classic, written by Alain Damasio, which was published in 2004. He went later on to collaborate on a few games that might be more known in the US (Life Is Strange, Remember Me). Damasio has a creative use of the language, but which must then make it hellish to translate into any other language. According to Wikipedia, it has only been translated in Italian.
These are harder because I feel like they’re all pretty well known, but maybe they’re not actually read. Like, known bc people have heard the name, but are not read as much anymore.
* Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
* Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
* Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Actually unknown (but super good) domestic:
* Stuff by Larry McMurtry (only famous for lonesome dove)
Also noteworthy, from Georges Perec: A Void (La Disparition), which was written entirely without using the letter "e" (and which the translation reproduces brilliantly well).
How about Agatha Christie and P.G. Wodehouse novels (fiction)? Asking, not saying (whether they are relatively unknown in the US). They are very popular in India, and of course must be so in the UK, since both authors were from there.
A lot of subtle humor (British-style, mainly about the aristocracy's ways, but fun to read) in the Wodehouse books. And Christie has many good novels in the detective genre. I actually don't find many detective novels good in the literal sense of being good stories about detection of crime, I like them more for the descriptions, conversation and atmosphere.
These stats for Christie from Wikipedia are impressive:
[ Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling novelist of all time. Her novels have sold roughly 2 billion copies, and her estate claims that her works come third in the rankings of the world's most-widely published books,[5] behind only Shakespeare's works and the Bible. According to Index Translationum, she remains the most-translated individual author – having been translated into at least 103 languages.[6] And Then There Were None is Christie's best-selling novel, with 100 million sales to date, making it the world's best-selling mystery ever, and one of the best-selling books of all time. ]
In terms of nonfiction books, Understanding Power by Noam Chomsky has been eye-opening. I would strongly recommend reading the footnotes alongside it, though they double the length of the book.
Even if you don't agree with Chomsky's politics or all of his conclusions, his analysis of American foreign and domestic policy is worth hearing.
"Epitaph Of A Small Winner" and "Dom Casmurro" by Machado de Assis. He's written a great many other books besides those, but they're the best of the bunch. In Brazil he's a national hero, but while much of his work is available in English it's astoundingly under-appreciated.
Vachana Sahitya is a form of rhythmic writing in Kannada that evolved in the 11th century CE as a part of the Sharana movement, a revolt against all the social evils of the traditionalistic society that time. Subject varying from their revolutionary ideas regarding human rights, society, democracy, god, and life.
I loved this book. Everyone has a different opinion on what the best translation is, so it’s worth briefly scanning a few different ones to see which you like best. I had a really hard time getting into the Ginsburg translation, but really enjoyed the Pevear/Volokhonsky one.
Also, this site: http://masterandmargarita.eu/en/ is a great resource if you’re not familiar with 1930s Soviet history and the Gospels (both canonical and apocryphal). Without knowledge of those things you won’t get nearly as much out of the book as you could.
Anything by Bulgakov really. Heart of a Dog is fantastic too. If you like your Russian literature surrealist then Daniil Kharms is worth seeking out, and of course you can go back to the master: Gogol, and his Nose (quick plug, I produced a PD collection of Gogol shorts for SE: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/nikolai-gogol/short-fictio... )
Written in 1030's by a Slovenian, it's a historical fiction novel set in the in 11th century what is now Iran. It tells the story of how a radical leader of an Islamic faction, based in the impenetrable mountain fortress "Alamut", manipulates young men into perfect obedience and turns them against his enemies through the use of drugs and a fake paradise full of women purporting to be heaven.
It is also one of the major inspirations for the Assassin's Creed series of games.
Erskine Childers' "The Riddle of the Sands", an analysis of German naval ambitions pre-WWI masquerading as a tense work of fiction.
Joshua Slocum's "Sailing Alone Around the World". Slocum does that.
George Ade, any of his works: he was the logical successor as a humorist to Mark Twain, yet his work doesn't wear all that well since he was in love with turn-of-the-20th-century slang. With some effort his portrayals of character turn surprisingly deep and sympathetic.
Yes. Despite having a shared language, many U.K. books are not widely read in the U.S. Authors like P.G. Wodehouse and Georgette Heyer are considered a bit niche in the U.S.
Others:
- Enid Blyton's children books - Five Find Outers, Secret Seven, Malory Towers etc.
- C.S. Forester - Horatio Hornblower series
Non-English authors:
- Georges Simenon - Inspector Maigret series (French detective genre)
Some foreign authors whose popularity is rising in the U.S. at the moment
- Elena Ferrante (Italian)
- Karl Ove Knausgaard (Norwegian)
On a related note, Wikipedia has a more comprehensive list of best-selling world authors [1]. Ironically many of top writers in the English language aren't widely read in America.
[+] [-] Arun2009|7 years ago|reply
Wikipedia has this to say about Mahabharata:
> The Mahābhārata is the longest epic poem known and has been described as "the longest poem ever written".[7][8] Its longest version consists of over 100,000 śloka or over 200,000 individual verse lines (each shloka is a couplet), and long prose passages. At about 1.8 million words in total, the Mahābhārata is roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined, or about four times the length of the Rāmāyaṇa.[9][10] W. J. Johnson has compared the importance of the Mahābhārata in the context of world civilization to that of the Bible, the works of William Shakespeare, the works of Homer, Greek drama, or the Quran.[11] Within the Indian tradition it is sometimes called the Fifth Veda.
[+] [-] _jgdh|7 years ago|reply
As far as the stories themselves go, they’re pretty drab. The plot is predictable, dialogue is meh, characters (apart from 2) are more like caricatures than real people, the morals are as subtle as bludgeons, they drag on for no reason. I would not recommend them to anyone.
That’s not to say they’re not important books. They were and are influential. Today’s books might be better but they owe a debt of gratitude to the classics. So in some ways reading the Mahabharata today and complaining it isn’t great is similar to complaining that Seinfeld Isn’t Funny. Plus I will say, at least half a billion people love these stories and worship the characters as Gods. If that makes you curious, pick them up.
[+] [-] akashakya|7 years ago|reply
It seems that old writers had a different idea of storytelling. They were focused more on the theme & prosody[2] than the story. I think it set the bar very high since everyone know the base story. No wonder they had this complex structure and ideas for prosody[2]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama_in_Jainism
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit_prosody
[+] [-] the_greyd|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kamaal|7 years ago|reply
I wouldn't call them less famous or less known.
[+] [-] closeparen|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jxub|7 years ago|reply
Ramón del Valle Inclán's "Lights of Bohemia": A great portrait of Madrid and the dirty guts of the Spain from 100 years ago, written in a gorgeously precise, dark and multifaceted range of vocabulary.
Ortega y Gasset's "Rebellion of the Masses". It is centered in the individual "I am me and my circumstances" and its evolution since the enlightenment.
Sapkowski's "Witcher". Look for a good translation, lots of Slavic mythology tidbits and wonderfully juicy curse words.
Stanislaw Lem's "The Star Diaries". Nice if you like to fantasize about buying pieces for your spaceship in a shopping centre or think about chair-like aliens with 11 different sexes (in the book).
Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "A hundred years of solitude". The book is all about "realismo fantástico", joining the real and imaginary words in an unforgettable blend.
[+] [-] Tade0|7 years ago|reply
English native speakers in general are not too fond of translations not done by other English native speakers. Unfortunately there aren't many English native speakers who happen to be experts in Polish literature. On top of that all four of them are lumberjacks.
[+] [-] wenc|7 years ago|reply
Isabel Allende also enjoyed a period of brief popularity in the U.S. (for House of Spirits).
[+] [-] lappet|7 years ago|reply
[1] https://raviramanujam.com/post/blog/slavs.html
[+] [-] zawerf|7 years ago|reply
Specifically:
Water Margin
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Journey to the West
Dream of the Red Chamber
They are referenced in everything in asian media and there a bajillion tv/movie adaptations of them but they are relatively unknown in the west.
[+] [-] oldcynic|7 years ago|reply
Water Margin[0] came to UK on TV in the early 80s from Japanese TV. Gained quite a following.
Journey to the West came to the UK as Monkey[1] (again a Japanese adaptation) around the same time. It was the most ridiculous, weird thing on TV. Most people at school were addicted to it. It became a cult classic. Sadly Saiyuki 2 never made it to the UK.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Water_Margin_(1973_TV_seri... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_(TV_series)
[+] [-] _jgdh|7 years ago|reply
About these 4 books, are there any translations or Kindle versions you recommend?
[+] [-] jackgolding|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] avmich|7 years ago|reply
One of my favorites is "A billion years before the end of the world" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitely_Maybe_(novel) .
[+] [-] Thersites|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] LandR|7 years ago|reply
Mans search for meaning by Victor Frankl.
Anything by Dostoyevsky.
José Saramago's the double. They made a film based on this with jake gyllenhall but not sure how well known the book and saramego is in the US, both book and film are excellent.
A girl is a half formed thing by Elmer mcbride is the best thing I've read in years with a really unique writing style. It's an incredible tragic book though... Check out first chapter online here to see if you like the style.
http://www.flare.com/celebrity/must-read-the-first-chapter-o...
[+] [-] wenc|7 years ago|reply
> Anything by Dostoyevsky.
These are extremely well-known in the U.S.
Dostoevsky is considered heavy literature however. It's well known but not often read.
[+] [-] vram22|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] closeparen|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gjkood|7 years ago|reply
Asterix comics [1]
Tintin comics [2]
Yes, I know Spielberg's Tintin animated movie is well known but I doubt most people in the US have heard of the entire series of Tintin comics.
I couldn't devour these fast enough when I was growing up.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3...
[2] https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3...
[+] [-] vram22|7 years ago|reply
Another great point about Asterix comics (so I read), is that they were initially written in French, and later translated into English (I've only read them in English) - and still there are many puns and word plays in the English versions. I don't know how they managed to do it, or whether they created different puns for the English versions. Likely the latter, because I guess the puns would not translate well across languages.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterix
[+] [-] Noos|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ddebernardy|7 years ago|reply
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Belgian_comics
[+] [-] paulborza|7 years ago|reply
https://www.google.com/search?q=pif+and+hercule
[+] [-] neom|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] modernerd|7 years ago|reply
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/308/308-h/308-h.htm
The first half of the opening chapter is the best intro to any work of comic fiction I've read.
At face value it's a simple road trip story (by boat), but the episodes of hypochondria and camaraderie still feel contemporary and fun — it is written and to be read for the pure joy of it, and you need look for no deeper meaning.
[+] [-] jkbyc|7 years ago|reply
If you like Jerome K. Jerome, you should also check out Saturnin: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1724928.Saturnin It has a great poetic and funny style of classical Czech works. There's a movie too. Just in case someone is interested, a movie with a similar funny and poetic style https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutting_It_Short (Postřižiny) and I'd also recommend checking out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_and_Her_Week_of_Wonder... - a surrealistic horror film...I love the soundtrack https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPyPEraG74c ...and to make it relevant to the original request, there's a book of the same name by Vitezslav Nezval (I haven't read it though)
[+] [-] kirubakaran|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] icebraining|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] splittingTimes|7 years ago|reply
Hermann Broch "The Death of Virgil". The novel creates out of a dying poet a rich, profound vision both of civilization and of primal concerns of all mankind.
Austrian authors where on another level in the late 30s and 40s of the 20th century.
Finally, Victor Pelevin's "Empire V: The Prince of Hamlet" [3] You gain instruction into the vampire life and by extension the humans which vampires feed and the nature of god and existence itself, with interesting meditations on existence, theology, matter, illusion and withering attacks on fashion, advertising, politics, the Davos elite, literature and particularly the nature of money.
===
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Without_Qualities
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Virgil
[3] https://www.amazon.de/Empire-Prince-Hamlet-Victor-Pelevin/dp...
[+] [-] egourlao|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] asimpletune|7 years ago|reply
* Life: a users manual by George s Perec.
* Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal
* Auto-da-fe by Elias Canetti
Domestic:
These are harder because I feel like they’re all pretty well known, but maybe they’re not actually read. Like, known bc people have heard the name, but are not read as much anymore.
* Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
* Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
* Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Actually unknown (but super good) domestic:
* Stuff by Larry McMurtry (only famous for lonesome dove)
[+] [-] egourlao|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] howenterprisey|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vram22|7 years ago|reply
A lot of subtle humor (British-style, mainly about the aristocracy's ways, but fun to read) in the Wodehouse books. And Christie has many good novels in the detective genre. I actually don't find many detective novels good in the literal sense of being good stories about detection of crime, I like them more for the descriptions, conversation and atmosphere.
These stats for Christie from Wikipedia are impressive:
[ Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling novelist of all time. Her novels have sold roughly 2 billion copies, and her estate claims that her works come third in the rankings of the world's most-widely published books,[5] behind only Shakespeare's works and the Bible. According to Index Translationum, she remains the most-translated individual author – having been translated into at least 103 languages.[6] And Then There Were None is Christie's best-selling novel, with 100 million sales to date, making it the world's best-selling mystery ever, and one of the best-selling books of all time. ]
[+] [-] sima-qian|7 years ago|reply
Even if you don't agree with Chomsky's politics or all of his conclusions, his analysis of American foreign and domestic policy is worth hearing.
[+] [-] genjipress|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] akashakya|7 years ago|reply
Vachana Sahitya is a form of rhythmic writing in Kannada that evolved in the 11th century CE as a part of the Sharana movement, a revolt against all the social evils of the traditionalistic society that time. Subject varying from their revolutionary ideas regarding human rights, society, democracy, god, and life.
It's not actually a book, more like Haiku maybe.
[1] http://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=kLs3AAAAIAAJ&oi...
http://www.manushi-india.org/pdfs_issues/articles/Talking%20...
http://vsnanc.org/newsite/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/AllamaP...
[+] [-] hprotagonist|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] defen|7 years ago|reply
Also, this site: http://masterandmargarita.eu/en/ is a great resource if you’re not familiar with 1930s Soviet history and the Gospels (both canonical and apocryphal). Without knowledge of those things you won’t get nearly as much out of the book as you could.
[+] [-] robin_reala|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rixrax|7 years ago|reply
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_Margarita
[+] [-] kjrose|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cromulen|7 years ago|reply
Written in 1030's by a Slovenian, it's a historical fiction novel set in the in 11th century what is now Iran. It tells the story of how a radical leader of an Islamic faction, based in the impenetrable mountain fortress "Alamut", manipulates young men into perfect obedience and turns them against his enemies through the use of drugs and a fake paradise full of women purporting to be heaven.
It is also one of the major inspirations for the Assassin's Creed series of games.
[+] [-] jet_silver|7 years ago|reply
Joshua Slocum's "Sailing Alone Around the World". Slocum does that.
George Ade, any of his works: he was the logical successor as a humorist to Mark Twain, yet his work doesn't wear all that well since he was in love with turn-of-the-20th-century slang. With some effort his portrayals of character turn surprisingly deep and sympathetic.
[+] [-] resource0x|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gtycomb|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wenc|7 years ago|reply
Others:
- Enid Blyton's children books - Five Find Outers, Secret Seven, Malory Towers etc.
- C.S. Forester - Horatio Hornblower series
Non-English authors:
- Georges Simenon - Inspector Maigret series (French detective genre)
- Sigrid Undset - Kristin Lavransdatter (Scandinavian)
Some foreign authors whose popularity is rising in the U.S. at the moment
- Elena Ferrante (Italian)
- Karl Ove Knausgaard (Norwegian)
On a related note, Wikipedia has a more comprehensive list of best-selling world authors [1]. Ironically many of top writers in the English language aren't widely read in America.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_fiction_a...
[+] [-] gjkood|7 years ago|reply