Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

A few of us are doing the Around the World Challenge, so I thought it would be a good idea to create a topic for it it. Plus, we're always happy to add challenges to other people's lists ;)

Here we can talk about it, ask for recommendations, tell people we you've read a book from an usual country, etc.

We don't all work on the same list, because some places are not technically countries, but some of us still added them.

Most of us use this a life-long or at least several years-long goal, because it's more than 200 books to read and some won't be easy to find.

Please, do not post your challenge on this topic, it's better to keep it for discussion. If you want, you can add it to the Infinity and Beyond folder, dedicated to non-ATY challenges.

The list of countries (209 in total):

Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
Andorra
Angola
Antarctica
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Aruba (part of the Netherlands)
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahamas, The
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belgium
Belize
Benin
Bermuda (part of the UK)
Bhutan
Bolivia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil
Brunei
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cambodia
Cameroon
Canada
Cape Verde
Central African Republic
Chad
Chechnya
Chile
China
Colombia
Comoros
Congo, Democratic Republic of the
Costa Rica
Cote d'Ivoire
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Dijbouti
Dominica
Dominican Republic
East Timor
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Estonia
Ethiopia
Faroe Islands (part of Denmark)
Fiji
Finland
France
Gabon
Gambia
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Greenland (part of Denmark)
Grenada
Guatemala
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kiribati
Kosovo
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Latvia
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Maldives
Mali
Malta
Marshall Islands
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mexico
Micronesia
Moldova
Monaco
Mongolia
Montenegro
Morocco
Mozambique
Myanmar
Namibia
Nauru
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
Niue
North Korea
Northern Ireland (part of the UK)
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Palau
Palestine
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Phillipines
Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Qatar
Romania
Russia
Rwanda
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Samoa
San Marino
São Tomé and Príncipe
Saudi Arabia
Scotland (part of the UK)
Senegal
Serbia
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
Somalia
South Africa
South Korea
South Sudan
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Suriname
Swaziland
Sweden
Switzerland
Syria
Taiwan
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Tatarstan (part of Russia)
Thailand
Tibet
Togo
Tonga
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Tuvalu
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Vatican
Venezuela
Vietnam
Wales (part of the UK)
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe

Yessssss. I am so glad you made a topic for this.

Glad to be of service! :D

I was thinking about doing this challenge...
Going to think some more about it :)

Join ussss Lieke, you know you want to ;) ;) ;)

Wow how many countries is that?

I have been pecking away at the around the world challenge this year. I keep getting off track though so I'm not gaining on it very fast. :(

That's a total of 208 countries! That's why it's a multi-year challenge haha

Amy, did you record your list somewhere? I would be very interested to see what you read!

Sophie wrote: "That's a total of 208 countries! That's why it's a multi-year challenge haha

Amy, did you record your list somewhere? I would be very interested to see what you read!"

I added it to my list of challenges here: Amy's Jumble of Past, Present and Future Reading Challenges

I have many of my ideas for reads listed in folders if you want to check out my library. Or better yet, my GR friend Chrissy has TONS of books sorted out by country if you want to find her in my friends list. I'm stealing a LOT of her ideas!

Oh great thank you, I'm going to check your list, stalk yours and Chrissy's bookshelves ;)

Sophie this is a great topic!!!

I made a spreadsheet of the books versus countries I have read, because I was interested to see which countries I have "covered". I've read from 51 different countries. I'll have to tame the spreadsheet to post it as a challenge in the Infinity and Beyond folder.

Many exotic places, like Sierra Leone, Mauritius, Cameroon, Paraguay, Argentina, Guyana and Malaysia I have read books from because I love Gerald Durrell, and once upon a time I devoured all his books.

Another book covering two exotic countries (Kiribati and Tuvalu, formerly Gilbert & Ellis Islands) is A Pattern Of Islands by Arthur Grimble, which I remember liking very much (also read quite a few decades ago).

Amy, your link doesn't seem to be working. :)

I have wanted to do this since hearing about it last year. I just did not know where to start.

Anna wrote: "Sophie this is a great topic!!!

I made a spreadsheet of the books versus countries I have read, because I was interested to see which countries I have "covered". I've read from 51 different countr..."

Hm, not sure what happened there. Let's try again: /topic/show/...

I just caught sight of this and it's peaked my interest. Think I'm gonna start it now!

Just going to leave this here...



It's not all correct as this was made in 1993 but I thought you all might enjoy this if you haven't seen it before.

:D

Amy wrote: "Anna wrote: "Sophie this is a great topic!!!

I made a spreadsheet of the books versus countries I have read, because I was interested to see which countries I have "covered". I've read from 51 dif..."

Amy, it's working now! Thanks! :)

You guys, if you're looking for a book for South Korea, I highly recommend Human Acts. It's short, it's fiction, and it's about a historical event there that I knew nothing about. And it's extremely well written. It's also a book written with multiple points of view, if you're looking for something to fit for Week 2.

Katie wrote: "You guys, if you're looking for a book for South Korea, I highly recommend Human Acts. It's short, it's fiction, and it's about a historical event there that I knew nothing about. A..."

I do not read anything for Korea yet. Thanks for the recommendation!

If you read a book that takes place in multiple countries are you counting for all of those countries or just one?

I just finished making up the spreadsheet for this and tried to fill in some spaces. I am only using the books from this year forward. I know that I have read books from some of these places already and when they are not based in the United States those books tend to stick out.

Just taking a quick look at the books currently on my TBR shows that most of them are set in the US or in fantasy worlds and some are from Canada. That will have to change.

I am using books for multiple countries. I think a lot of others are using one book per country. I started this challenge in September and am only using books I've read some then. I'm trying to finish this challenge in 999 days (is part of another goal thing I'm doing), so I thought it would be too difficult to try to read one book per country in that time.

Anastasia wrote: "If you read a book that takes place in multiple countries are you counting for all of those countries or just one?"

It depends, if one country is used for more than say, 60% of the book i will only use that one country. If two or three countries are used in equal portions, i would probably use all the locations. Does that make sense?

Anastasia wrote: "If you read a book that takes place in multiple countries are you counting for all of those countries or just one?"

I want to use this challenge to know more about the different countries, so if a book teaches me about multiple countries, I count them multiple times.

I just read The Stranger because it was set in Algeria, but I didn't learn anything about it, so I'm not counting it... :(

Thank you Sophia, Amy and Katie. I am going to use a combination of your suggestions.
I too wish to learn about other countries so if it does not have very much information about those countries it does not make sense to count it. If it has equal time in more than one country I will count it in those countries.

Shout out for Book Lust to Go: Recommended Reading for Travelers, Vagabonds, and Dreamers. This book has a chapter for a bunch of locations around the world, countries, states, cities, bodies of water, etc. & then lists books for each place, fiction and nonfiction. This could be a real gem for the Around the World Challenge.

Katie wrote: "Shout out for Book Lust to Go: Recommended Reading for Travelers, Vagabonds, and Dreamers. This book has a chapter for a bunch of locations around the world, countries, states, citie..."

Very interesting! I will jave to look for this!

Well, another challenge on my list now. lol I started a spreadsheet to keep track of the books.

Haha. I can't believe I just came across this thread. I started making a list of books to read last year for each country. I might change some of those books though depending on how hard it is to get a book.

Oh and I have a recommendation for Brazil State of Wonder

I finally started to do some research for books for each country. Just starting at the letter A has convinced me that this is going to be harder than I thought. I thought there would be at least a few books based in other countries already on my TBR, not so much.

Finding books from each country or set in each country, then locating one that looks interesting can be mind boggling. This is definitely a list that is going to take years to accumulate.

Unlike other challenges that I am attempting, I think this one will take a few years.

Yah, I was really gung ho about this challenge when I first found it but I'm seeing now that it will take a very long time to complete. I am a mood reader and it's difficult to find things to fit the international challenge that also fit my current mood so I pick up other things that do fit. I'm not forcing myself to read something just for a challenge.

So I didn't find some awesome, obscure book, but I just read Cry, the Beloved Country for South Africa, and I just want to share that it's a totally amazing book!

This group just showed up on my GR Groups page. I haven't looked much, but think it will probably be quite helpful in finding some books for Africa.
/group/show/...

Amazing, thank you for the link!

Sophie wrote: "A few of us are doing the Around the World Challenge, so I thought it would be a good idea to create a topic for it it. Plus, we're always happy to add challenges to other people's lists ;)

Here w..."

I just started The United States of Africa which is a translation from an author in Djibouti

Thanks Jesse! The concept sounds very interesting but I'm hesitating to add it because of the the negative reviews... I'm looking forward to your thoughts about it!

A Carrion Death takes place in Botswana. There is an entire series if anyone is interested in reading more than one book from each country.

I don't know what it is with Botswana and detectives, but there is also The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.

I just finished No One Thinks Of Greenland which was an unusual read

I am doing this challenge as well. I also am trying to read a book by an author from every country. Some books i'm able to mark off both lists with one book.

There is a GR group called Around the World in 80 Books. It's a great resource for finding and discussing world literature!

If I'm reading a nonfiction book about the history of the temple mount/dome of the rock in old city Jerusalem, what country do I count that for in my ATW challenge?

Ha! That is a good question... What country do you think it is teaching you the most about?

Great thread! That type of read is something of an ongoing challenge with me now for the third year, I try to read something
- that is typcial for the specific country
- where the author is from that country and lives there, at best
(like, I do love Anthony Doerr's books, but "All the Light We Cannot See" does have a lot that is incorrect for instance for Germany like we do not have paychecks, the wages generally do go to accounts with banks - a small detail, but making the book one which does not really teach you that much concerning countries)

My recommendations:
Marina Lewycka „The Lubetkin Legacy" - for topical London, rent situation.

of course, Elena Ferrante, for Naples, Italy
a German writer with a very similar trilogy would be Ulla Hahn: "Das verborgene Wort" (the hidden word, unfortunately, not translated)

Romania: György Dragomán: Der Scheiterhaufen = The Bone Fire /book/show/2.... Covers the last of the communist time and the changes afterwards, combines a coming of age story with magical realism

Vikram Seth: Two lives /book/show/5.... Biographical on the the author's aunt + uncle, he was from India and managed to work as a dentist in GB despite of having to do this with just one arm, she was a Jew born in Germany - lots of insight into Nazi-time, war-time Britain, ....

Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor: "Der Ort, an dem die Reise endet" = Dust. All of Kenya's history in a very powerful language. Not an easy read, but worth it. You might need some Wikipedia for it

Hisham Matar: "Im Land der Männer" = "In the Country of Men".
Lybia under Gaddafi, the situation of women. Again, you might need Wikipedia.

I just finished a novel set in Belguim (at the Brussels 1958 World Fair) titled Expo 58: A Novel by Jonathan Coe. I thought it was terrific!

Thank you so much for your recommendations Stefanie! I'm from Switzerland (the French part), but unfortunately can't read German well enough to read Ulla Hahn, that's a shame. Although maybe I could find a French translation, I need to dig in.

I added The Bone Fire, Dust and In the Country of Men to my ATW list!

Pam, I'm adding an extra difficulty in my challenge by reading books that teach me about the country it's set in. Do you feel that reading Expo 58 gave you a good insight of Belgium?

Sophie wrote: "Thank you so much for your recommendations Stefanie! I'm from Switzerland (the French part), but unfortunately can't read German well enough to read Ulla Hahn, that's a shame. Although maybe I coul..."

Bonne lecture! ;-) And I still have to improve my French to read more comfortably...

Have you in return any recommendations for Switzerland? I have read and enjoyed some Dürrenmatt and Suter but despite of the fact that the books were good, they did not seem to tell me lots about Switzerland ;-)

Sophie - I would say "not so much" on learning about Belgium but more on the social culture in England (since the main character is British) and of the times - post WWII, late 1950s. You do learn about the 1958 Expo, which I had never heard of before!