= Excellent
= Good/Very Good
= Okay read
= Not recommended
= Ugh! Don't waste your time.
EUROPE - Reading The World
Europe
(click on map to enlarge)
Countries read are in bold blue
Potential books to be read are listed below each country. Books read are in red. An asterisk (*) indicates books I own but have not read yet.
1. Albania (Tirane)
- Broken April, by Ismail Kadare
2. Andorra (Andorra la Vella)
3. Armenia (Yerevan)
4. Austria (Vienna)
- The Fig Eater, by Jody Shield*
- The Terror of Ice and Darkness, by Christoph Ransmayr
5. Belarus (Minsk)
6. Belgium (Brussels)
- Summer in Termuren, by Louis Paul Boon
7. Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo)
- The Cellist of Sarajevo, by Steven Galloway (finished 10 April 2008; rated 5/5; read my review)
- People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks (finished 4 July 2008; rated 5/5; read my review)
8. Bulgaria (Sofia)
9. Cape Verde (Praia)
10. Croatia (Zagreb)
- Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, by Rebecca West
- Cafe Europa, by Slavenka Drakulic
11. Czech Republic (Prague)
- Giraffe, by J.M. Ledgard
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera
12. Denmark (Copenhagen)
- Music and Silence, by Rose Tremain (finished 09 October 2008; rated 5/5; read my review)
- Leeway Cottage, by Beth Gutcheon*
- The Royal Physician’s Visit, by Per Olov Enquist
13. Estonia (Tallinn)
- The Czar’s Madman, by Jaan Kross
14. Finland (Helsinki)
- Let The Northern Lights Erase Your Name, by Vendela Vida (Lapland) (finished 30 September 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
- Seven Brothers, by Aleksis Kivi
15. France (Paris)
- Suite Francaise, by Irene Nemirovsky (finished 17 February 2007; rated 5/5; read my review)
- Sarah’s Key, by Tatiana De Rosnay (finished 02 September 2008; rated 3.5/5; read my review)
- Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert
16. Georgia (Tbilisi)
- Ali and Nino, by Kurban Said
17. Germany (Berlin)
- The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak (finished 28 January 2007; rated 5/5; read my review)
- The Reader, by Bernhard Sclink
- Stones From The River, by Ursula Hegi*
- Paper Kisses: A True Love Story, by Reinhard Kaiser
18. Greece (Athens)
- Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, by Louis De Bernieres
19. Hungary (Budapest)
- Embers, by Sandor Marai (finished 30 March 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
- Fatelessness, by Kmre Kertesz
20. Iceland (Reykjavik)
- Independent People, by Halldor Laxness (finished 05 May 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
- The Fish Can Sing, by Halldor Laxness
21. Ireland (Dublin)
- The Blackwater Lightship, by ColmToibin (finished 9 November 2007; rated 4/5; read my review)
- The Gathering, by Anne Enright (finished 9 March 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
- Silver Wedding, by Maeve Binchy*
- The Law of Dreams, by Peter Behrens
22. Italy (Rome)
- A Thousand Days in Tuscany, by Marlena De Blasi*
- The Almond Picker, by Simonetta Agnello Hornby
- The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco
- The Leopard, by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
23. Latvia (Riga)
24. Liechtenstein (Vaduz)
25. Lithuania (Vilnius)
26. Luxembourg (Luxembourg)
27. Macedonia (Skopje)
- Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, by Rebecca West
28. Malta (Valletta)
29. Moldova (Chisinau)
30. Monaco (Monaco)
- Anything Considered, by Peter Mayle
31. Montenegro (Podgorica)
32. Netherlands (Amsterdam, The Hague)
- The Diary of Anne Frank, by Anne Frank
33. Norway (Oslo)
- Giants in the Earth, by O.E. Rolvaag*
- Sophie’s World, by Jostein Gaarder*
- In the Wake, by Per Peterson
- Kristin Lavransdatter, by Sigrid Undset
34. Poland (Warsaw)
- The Zookeeper’s Wife, by Diane Ackerman (finished 12 May 2008; rated 4/5; read my review)
- Anything by the author Ryszard Kapuscinski
- Nine, by Andrezej Stasiuk
35. Portugal (Lisbon)
- Alentejo Blue, by Monica Ali (finished 22 February 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
36. Romania (Bucharest)
- Land of Green Plums, by Herta Muller
- The Hooligan’s Return, by Norman Manea
37. Russia (Moscow)
- The Madonnas of Leningrad, by Debra Dean (finished 7 May 2007; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
- Doctor Zhivago, by Boris Pasternak (finished 24 November 2007; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
- The Brothers Karmazov, by Fyodor Doestoevsky*
- A Russian Journal, by John Steinbeck*
- War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy*
38. San Marino (San Marino)
39. Serbia (Belgrade)
- Bridge on the Drina, by Ivo Andric
40. Slovakia (Bratislava)
- Zoli, by Colum McCann
41. Slovenia (Ljublijana)
- Veronika Decides To Die, by Paulo Coelho (finished 2 November 2007; rated 3.5/5; read my review)
42. Spain (Madrid)
- The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (finished 7 July 2007; rated 4.75/5; read my review)
- For Whom The Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway (finished 7 April 2007; rated 2.5/5; read my review)
- Guernia, by Dave Boling (finished 14 September 2008; rated 5/5; read my review)
43. Sweden (Stockholm)
- Hanna’s Daughters, by Marianne Fredriksson*
- April Witch, by Majqull Axelsson
- Doctor Glas, by Hjalmar Soderberg
- The Princess of Burundi, by Kjell Eriksson*
44. Switzerland (Bern)
- Hotel Du Lac, by Anita Brookner (finished 22 July 2008; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
45. Ukraine (Kiev)
- Everything is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safran Foer
46. United Kingdom (London)
- Black Swan Green, by David Mitchell (finished 26 March 2007; rated 5/5; set in England; read my review)
- Arthur and George, by Julian Barnes (finished 30 April 2007; rated 4/5; set in England; read my review)
- Old Filth, by Jane Gardam (finished 29 May 2007; rated 3.75/5; set in London and Wales; read my review)
- How Green Was My Valley, by Richard Llewelln (finished 15 August 2007; rated 5/5; set in South Wales; read my review)
- Resistance, by Owen Sheers (finished 6 March 2008; rated 4.5/5; set in Wales; read my review)
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (finished 31 July 2008; rated 5/5; set on Guernsey in the Channel Islands; read my review)
47. Vatican City (na)
Topics: Main Page, Reading The World - A Personal Challenge |
August 8th, 2007 at 4:24 am
I love your world reading project!
For Georgia or Azerbaijan you might want to consider reading “Ali and Nino” by Kurban Said. It’s a love story between a Georgian girl and an Azeri boy, set in early 20th century. It is not a difficult read and is one of the recommended novels for anyone interested in the Caucasus region. Don’t let the term “love story” fool you, it’s a great book that gives a very good insight into the region and its way of life.
For a book about Armenia or by an Armenian writer, you might want to visit Armenian House for inspiration.
August 9th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
Thank you for the great resources, Myrthe! I’ve put your recommendation on my list
August 13th, 2007 at 12:49 am
You’re welcome! I hope that you’ll put a review on your blog once you’ve read “Ali and Nino”. I’d be curious to know what you think of it.
August 13th, 2007 at 9:34 am
I pretty much review every book I read, so when I read it…you will find the review here
Thanks for your interest!
January 6th, 2008 at 7:23 am
I was about to come over and suggest Embers for your Hungary read, but I see you already own it! I read it last year, and I was completely surprised by how much I loved it.
January 6th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Thanks for the recommendation, Eva! This one is coming up on one of my book groups soon, so I will be reading it sooner rather than later
Stay posted for my review!