Reddit reviews Modern Japanese Literature: From 1868 to the Present Day

Here's a list I made a while back, slightly edited:

Argentina: Jorge Luis Borges, Ficciones. Julio Cortazar, Hopscotch.

Italy: Italo Calvino, If on a winter's night a traveler. Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose.

Spain: Don Quixote, of course. Arthur Perez Reverte (The Club Dumas). Carlos Ruiz Zafon (The Shadow of the Wind).

Germany: Thomas Mann (Death in Venice, The Magic Mountain). Gunter Grass (The Tin Drum).

Czech Republic: Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Russia: Tolstoy. Dostoyevsky. Bulgakov. So many of these guys.

Hungary: Sandor Marai, Embers

Bosnia: Ivo Andric, The Vizier's Elephant

Serbia: Milorad Pavic, Dictionary of the Khazars

Denmark: Peter Hoeg, Smilla's Sense of Snow

Greece: Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

Egypt: Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz

Kenya: Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen

Nigeria: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Jagua Nana by Cyprian Ekwensi

Colombia: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Chile: The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

Mexico: The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes

Peru: Conversation in the Cathedral by Mario Vargas Llosa

Cuba: Explosion in a Cathedral by Alejo Carpentier

The Philippines: The Woman Who had Two Navels by Nick Joaquin

Indonesia: This Earth of Mankind by Pramoedya Ananta Toer

Japan: Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, Quicksand, The Key, Seven Japanese Tales, etc. The short story collections The Showa Anthology and Modern Japanese Literature. Yasunari Kawabata, Snow Country.

Also Donald Keene put together a pretty good anthology of stuff in translation that covers a lot of the most important authors from the Meiji era until the late 20th century, you can get a copy for a few bucks on Amazon.

Hi, throwing in my two cents that the best way to improve your reading/grammar and literary knowledge is to dive deep into anthologies and collections. Think of it as a sampling of the 'best of the best' and you are getting a taste of what is considered to be great. Also don't be afraid to pick up a piece of classic literature and think, "Good god, this was considered awesome?" That's ok. Some people don't like premodern literature. Some people LOVE it. Some people HATE it. Some people are all about cyberpunk angsty lit that's a product of our super modern society. Some love poetry...well, you get the picture. The beauty of an anthology is you can survey the goods -- and if you love something you read, odds are it's only a small selection taken from a much bigger book OR the writer is pretty prolific and if you like his style of writing, odds are you are going to LOVE the rest of his work.

Don't know where to begin? I recommend checking out some classics from overseas (which I use as a required book in my courses):

• Anthology of Japanese Literature compiled by Donald Keene
  This will take you from the world origin myth right up to Tokugawa period (from 794 to 1868) I'm partial to world origin myths and the Kamakura period. It's not easy to read but it's a good way to develop critical thinking skills and will broaden your world view!
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Anthology-Japanese-Literature-Mid-Nineteenth-Representative/dp/0802150586/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397829264&sr=8-1&keywords=Anthology+of+Japanese+Literature
  
  
• Anything by a Japanese poet named Matsuo Basho. Feeling down in the dumps? Read a haiku.
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Narrow-Travel-Sketches-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140441859/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1397829577&sr=8-2&keywords=Matsuo+Basho
  
  Ok, so I don't like premodern literature? ^Then ^check ^out ^the ^modern ^stuff!
  
  
• Check out this anthology of Modern Japanese Literature:
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Japanese-Literature-From-Present/dp/0802150950/ref=pd_sim_b_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=04S84RFJ5BQ76B3N06QT
  
  Also, to make yourself super cultured, start reading opera summaries and plays. That's right. Read them. Then go see them.
  
  
• 100 Greatest Operas and their stories is a great place to begin.
  
  Here's a link: http://www.amazon.com/Great-Operas-Their-Stories-Act-/dp/0385054483/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397830047&sr=1-1&keywords=Operas
  
  
  TL;DR: Start reading! Collections and Anthologies are a great place to start.