Hello! Thank you for taking the time to check out my brand new blog! I hope you enjoy your time here.
My name is Faye, I’m from Canada, and I’m a literature nerd with a BA in English and French. I’ve always been passionate about books, languages, and learning in general, and that passion has led me to discover some amazing works of literature from around the world. This year, and hopefully well into the future, I would like to share my learning journey with others as I embark on this worldwide tour of some of the greatest stories ever told.
Here’s my plan – Each month, I will choose a language and devote time each week towards studying that language, its culture, and most especially its finest literature. Each Friday, I will alternate between posting about how my study of the language is going and an analysis of a piece (or pieces, if they’re short) of literature. Please don’t feel obligated to spend a lot of time studying these languages or works – I completely understand if that’s not your cup of tea. I only want to share what I’ve been learning, and perhaps teach others about some interesting things I come across, rather than try to force work on anyone else. I’ll even try to keep the literary analyses as spoiler-free as possible, so you don’t have to read all of the books in order to follow along with my posts. However, if you do want to study and/or read along with me, I’ll be happy for the company!
As well as the more formal Friday posts, I will post a more informal update each Tuesday with things like top 10 lists, reading wrap-ups that cover all of my reading rather than just the reading done for this project, possibly individual reviews for books that have really captured my interest, and anything else that I might feel like talking about. Basically, Tuesdays are for random booknerdery!
I’ve posted a reading schedule for 2025 here as well as a posting schedule for January here so that you can prepare in advance if you want to read along, or just so you know when to check out the blog for the posts you’re most interested in. Additionally, I’ve set up a contact form that you can fill out if you want to receive an email notification whenever I post to the blog.
Below I will provide more detailed information about my plans for this month (January 2025). I hope I’ll see you along the way! Please let me know below if you have any comments, suggestions, or feedback.
January Plans
January’s focus language is Sumerian, the language of ancient Mesopotamia, and one of the oldest interpretable languages in the world. It was spoken somewhere between 3000-2000 BC/BCE, but writings continued in Sumerian cuneiform for some time afterwards. As you can imagine, this isn’t a language that anyone today speaks fluently! However, Sumerian cuneiform is fascinating, and I intend to watch some tutorials on how to read it here, on the YouTube channel Learn Egyptian and Sumerian.
As for my Sumerian readings this month, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature has both the phonetic Sumerian and English translation of The Kesh Temple Hymn as well as the phonetic Sumerian and English translation of The Instructions of Shuruppag, which are two short texts that pre-date the bigger read of the month – The Epic of Gilgamesh, which I will be reading in the Penguin Epics edition. I’ve read Gilgamesh several times before, but I love it, and it’s considered the oldest surviving story in the world, so it seems like the perfect place to start this reading journey!