For all the year-end 'best of the year' and year-beginning 'books to look forward to' lists the one I find by far the most useful is the Translation Database at Three Percent, listing (pretty much) all the works of fiction translated into English (for the first time) published in the US every year -- and now, as Chad Post reports, 2012 Translation Database is FINALLY Online -- hallelujah ! hallelujah !
You can download it here -- and who wouldn't want their own copy ?
In his post, Chad also goes over some of the numbers -- noting that, as far as fiction goes, there were: "342 translated titles published in 2012, compared to 303 in 2011", a very nice increase (even if the total is still absurdly small).
Always interesting to see what languages works are translated from -- and particularly noteworthy (as Chad also notes) is the Japanese collapse, from 23 to 13 titles, 2011 to 2012. I am a bit surprised that Chinese lingers at a mere 11 titles (one less than in 2011) -- but have noticed the Portuguese increase (up to an impressive 15, making it the 8th most-translated-from language). Most notable increases: German (50, up from 39) and Arabic (25, up from 15)
Interesting also that the top ten publishers seem to have consolidated their market share, accounting for 139 titles in 2012, versus only 107 in 2011, with Dalkey and AmazonCrossing easily leading the way.
(As far as books-read goes, I'm in the mid-70s; still a long way to go .....)
You can download it here -- and who wouldn't want their own copy ?
In his post, Chad also goes over some of the numbers -- noting that, as far as fiction goes, there were: "342 translated titles published in 2012, compared to 303 in 2011", a very nice increase (even if the total is still absurdly small).
Always interesting to see what languages works are translated from -- and particularly noteworthy (as Chad also notes) is the Japanese collapse, from 23 to 13 titles, 2011 to 2012. I am a bit surprised that Chinese lingers at a mere 11 titles (one less than in 2011) -- but have noticed the Portuguese increase (up to an impressive 15, making it the 8th most-translated-from language). Most notable increases: German (50, up from 39) and Arabic (25, up from 15)
Interesting also that the top ten publishers seem to have consolidated their market share, accounting for 139 titles in 2012, versus only 107 in 2011, with Dalkey and AmazonCrossing easily leading the way.
(As far as books-read goes, I'm in the mid-70s; still a long way to go .....)