If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know I’m an avid reader but that I also love a good reading challenge. I frequently participate in readathons to test how many books I can read in a specific time frame. I also love a good reading challenge that gives me a list of prompts and I find titles that meet those specifications and read them within a time period. But even more than that, I like testing myself by playing games with the books I read.
In 2017, one of those personal challenges was to see if I could read a book from a country that started with each of the letters of the alphabet. It sounded great in theory but it’s impossible to accomplish because there are no independent countries that begin with W or X. In 2018, I would have liked to do the challenge again and make it even harder to accomplish by trying to change the countries that I used for each letter. That is also impossible to accomplish seeing that there is only one country that starts with O and Q ( Oman and Qatar) so instead, I’ll wanted to give myself the freedom to reuse the countries, as long as I read from a different author, and maybe even a different genre.
Click the bullets below to see my “read around the world in 2017” book list:
Above was the goal I set at the beginning of 2018. My actual reading didn’t quite cover as many different countries as I would have liked. I read a lot of books that were set in countries around the world, but even with the letters W and X excluded, there were other letters of the alphabet that I didn’t cover. So I decided to list all the books I read in 2018 that were set around the world, listed alphabetically. The concession is that even if I didn’t cover every letter, that I had multiple countries with the same initial. So it wasn’t a complete challenge but it was definitely a good attempt.
- Australia – The Dry
- Australia – Narrow Road To The Deep North
- Barbados – Washington Black
- Canada – Washington Black
- Canada – The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman
- China – The Emperor of Shoes
- Denmark – Meet Me at The Museum
- Egypt – In a Free State by V. S. Naipaul
- France – The Elegance of The Hedgehog
- France – Little Paris Bookshop
- France – Petronille
- France – Life Form
- Finland – The Summer Book
- Germany – Go Went Gone
- Greece – Putney
- India – White Tiger
- India – The Lowland
- India – Midnight’s Children
- India – God of Small Things
- India – Life of Pi
- India – Heat and Dust
- Ireland – From A Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan
- Ireland –John Banville’s The Sea
- Israel – Horse Walks Into A Bar
- Italy – Elena Ferrante Days of Abandonment
- Japan – Trial at Mount Koya
- Japan – Convenience Store Woman
- Japan – Fear and Trembling
- Japan – The Frolic of Beasts
- Jamaica – A Brief History of Seven Killings
- Jamaica – How To Love A Jamaican
- Korea – I’ll Be Right There by Kyung Sook-Shin
- Netherlands – The Dinner
- Netherlands – The Goldfinch
- Netherlands – Flights
- Netherlands – Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
- New Zealand – The Luminaries
- Nigeria – Stay With Me
- Nigeria -Freshwater
- Norway – The Woman In Cabin 10
- Philippines – The Woman Who Had Two Navels
- Poland – The White Book
- Poland – The Complete Maus
- Romania – The Fox was Ever The Hunter
- Romania – The Girl They Left Behind
- South Africa – The Conservationist
- South Africa – The Mandela Plot
- South Africa – Life and Times of Michael K
- South Africa – Disgrace
- Sweden – Pippi Longstocking
- Switzerland – Hotel Du Lac
- Ukraine – Voices from Chernobyl
- United Kingdom – Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine (Scotland)
- United Kingdom – The Remains of the day (England)
- United Kingdom – The Humans (England)
- United Kingdom – Winter (England)
- United Kingdom – The Outcasts of Time (England)
- United Kingdom – The Cellar (England)
- United Kingdom – The Buried Giant (England)
- United Kingdom – Snap (England)
In 2018, I didn’t read from any countries that began with the letters, H, L, M, O, Q, T, V, W, X, Y or Z. Let’s see whether I can complete the alphabet (as much as is possible) in 2019.
Click below to watch my YouTube video where I discuss the list and if you haven’t already, subscribe for more of my videos.
I see two from Romania and suddenly they are on my list!
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haha. I hear you!
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