Oi, you are taking elephant steps. Reading is something else. The basic motivation for reading is not to get more understanding of different cultures, that may be a pleasant side side effect. Reading is for the pleasure of reading, in whatever language you're can handle. Fiction, autobiografies, history, poetry. Try Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo. Translations are never as good as the original.

Something I remember now. I had read Kafka's America before I first came to New York and visited a friend in Hoboken. The streets there reminded me strongly of Kafka's descriptions; this was precisely the America from his book. Yet Kafka has never been to America. This sort of contradicts what I've said. Sorry. Bit weird.