January 1 – December 31, 2009
I am very carefully choosing my time-limited challenges for 2009. Frances from Nonsuch Book is hosting Lost in Translation – a challenge designed for participants to read six (6) books in translation. Frances has created a dedicated page for this challenge here.
I found a couple of interesting articles with ideas [...]
Posts under ‘Reading The World - A Personal Challenge’
Lost in Translation Challenge – 2009
SOUTH AMERICA – Reading The World
SOUTH AMERICAN Countries
(Bolded Blue Indicates Books Read)
Asterisk (*) indicates books I already own, but have yet to read.
1. Argentina (
Buenos Aires)2. Bolivia (Sucre)
3. Brazil (Brasilia)
War of the End of the World, by Mario Vargas Llosa
4. Chile (Santiago)
5. Colombia (Bogota)
6. Ecuador (Quito)
7. Guyana (Georgetown)
8. Parguay (Asuncion)
9. Peru (Lima)
The Bridge of San Luis Rey, by Thornton Wilder (finished 23 December 2007; rated 3/5; read my review)
10. Suriname (Paramaribo)
11. Uruguay (Montevideo)
12. Venezuela (Caracas)
NORTH AMERICA – Reading The World
NORTH AMERICAN Countries
(Bolded Blue Indicates Books Read)
2. Bahamas (Nassau)
3. Barbados (Bridgetown)
4. Belize (Belmopan)
5. Canada (Ottawa)
Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood (finished 13 May 2007; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
The Outlander, by Gil Adamson (finished 27 December 2007; rated 5/5; read my review)
The Way The Crow Flies, by Ann-Marie MacDonald*
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, by Wayne Johnston (Newfoundland)
Mercy Among the Children, by David Adams Richards (New Brunswick)
6. Costa Rica (San Jose)
7. Cuba (Havana)
8. Dominica (Roseau)
9. Dominican Republic (Santo Domingo)
10. El Salvador (San Salvador)
11. Grenada (St. George’s)
12. Guatemala (Guatemala City)
13. Haiti (Port-au-Prince)
Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat
14. Honduras (Tegucigaipa)
15. Jamaica (Kingston)
16. Mexico (Mexico City)
Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo, by Hayden Herrera
Consider This, Senora, by Harriet Doerr
17. Nicaragua (Managua)
18. Panama (Panama City)
19. Saint Kitts and Nevis (Basseterre)
20. Saint Lucia (Castries)
21. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (Kingstown)
22. Trinidad and Tobago (Port-of-Spain)
The Lonely Londoners, by Sam Selvon
23. United States (Washington D.C.)
To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee (finished 21 March 2007; rated 5/5; read my review)
Travels With Charley in Search of America, by John Steinbeck (finished 29 March 2007; rated 5/5; read my review)
Summer Crossing, by Truman Capote (finished 21 July 2007; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
AUSTRALIA/OCEANIA – Reading The World
Australia – Oceania Countries
(Bolded Blue Indicates Books Read)
The Idea of Perfection, by Kate Grenville*
The Secret River, by Kate Grenville
2. Fiji (Suva)
3. Kiribati (Bairiki)
4. Marshall Islands (Majuro)
5. Micronesia (Palikir)
6. Nauru (no official capital)
7. New Zealand (Wellington)
The Colour, by Rose Tremain
8. Palau (Koror)
9. Paua new Guinea (Port Moresby)
10. Samoa (Apia)
11. Solomon Islands (Honiara)
12. Tonga (Nuku’alofa)
13. Tuvalu (Funafuti)
14. Vanuatu (Port-Vila)
ASIA – Reading The World
Asian Countries
(Bolded Blue Indicates Books Read)
Asterisk (*) indicates books I already own but have yet to read.
1. Afganaistan (
Kabul)The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini*
2. Azerbaijan (Baku)
3. Bahrain (Manama)
4. Bangladesh (Dhaka)
5. Bhutan (Thimphu)
6. Brune (Bander Seri Begawan)
7. Burma/Myanmar (Yangon)
The Glass Palace, by Amitav Ghosh
8. Cambodia (Phnom Penh)
First They Killed My Father, by Loung Ung
9. China (Beijin)
Peony in Love, by Lisa See (finished 18 June 2007; rated 3.75/5; read my review)
The Good Earth, by Pearl Buck (finished 28 November 2007; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
Wild Swans, by Jung Chang
Oracle Bones, by Peter Hessler
10. Cyprus (Nicosia)
11. East Timor (Dili)
12. India (New Delhi)
The Space Between Us, by Thrity Umrigar (finished 21 April 2007; rated 3.5/5; read my review)
The God of Small Things, by Arundhai Roy (finished 29 September 207; rated 5/5; read my review)
Hullabaloo In The Guava Orchard (finished 21 December 2007; rated 3/5; read my review)
Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts*
13. Indonesia (Jakarta)
14. Iran (Tehran)
My Father’s Notebook, by Kader Abdolah
Let Me Tell You Where I’ve Been: New Writing by Women of the Iranian Diaspora, by Persis M. Karim
The Blood of Flowers, by Anita Amirrezvani
15. Iraq (Baghdad)
16. Israel (Jerusalem)
17. Japan (Tokyo)
Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden*
Shipwrecks, by Akira Yoshimura
18. Jordan (Amman)
Pillars of Salt, by Fadia Faqir
19. Kazakstan (Astana)
20. Korea, North (Pyongyang)
21. Korea, South (Seoul)
22. Kuwait (Kuwait City)
23. Kyrgyzstan (Bishkek)
24. Laos (Vientiane)
25. Lebanon (Beirut)
26. Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur)
27. Maldivs (Male)
28. Mongolia (Ulan Bator)
29. Nepal (Kathmandu)
30. Oman (Muscat)
31. Pakistan (Islamabad)
32. Philippines (Manila)
33. Qatar (Doha)
34. Saudi Arabia (Riyadh)
35. Singapore (Singapore City)
36. Sri Lanka (Colombo)
37. Syria (Damascus)
38. Tajikistan (Dushanbe)
39. Tibet (Lhasa)
40. Thailand (Bangkok)
41. Turkey (Ankara)
Birds Without Wings, by Louis De Bernieres (finished 28 July 2007; rated 4/5; read my review)
Bliss, by O.Z. Livaneli*
42. Turkmenistan (Ashgabat)
43. United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi)
44. Uzbekistan (Tashkent)
45. Vietnam (Hanoi)
46. Yeman (Sana)
EUROPE – Reading The World
EUROPEAN Countries
(Bolded Blue Indicates Books Read)
Asterisk (*) indicates books I already own, but have not read yet.
1. Albania (Tirane)
2. Andorra (Andorra la Vella)
3. Armenia (Yerevan)
4. Austria (Vienna)
The Terror of Ice and Darkness, by Christoph Ransmayr
5. Belarus (Minsk)
6. Belgium (Brussels)
7. Bosnia andHerzegovina (Sarajevo)
8. Bulgaria (Sofia)
9. Cape Verde (Praia)
10. Coatia (Zagreb)
11. Czech Republic (Prague)
12. Denmark (Copenhagen)
The Royal Physician’s Visit, by Per Olov Enquist
13. Estonia (Tallinn)
14. Finland (Helsinki)
15. France (Paris)
16. Georgia (Tbilisi)
17. Germany (Berlin)
The Reader, by Berhard Schlink*
Stones From The River, by Ursula Hegi*
Paper Kisses: A True Love Story, by Reinhard Kaiser
18. Greece (Athens)
19. Hungary (Budapest)
20. Iceland (Reykjavik)
The Fish Can Sing, by Halldor Laxness
21. Ireland (Dublin)
The Blackwater Lightship, by Colm Toibin (finished 09 November 2007; read my review)
The Law of Dreams, by Peter Behrens
22. Italy (Rome)
The Almond Picker, by Simonetta Agnello Hornby
23. Latvia (Riga)
24. Liechtenstein (Vaduz)
25. Lithuania (Vilnius)
26. Luxembourg (Luxembourg)
27. Macedonia (Skopje)
28. Malta (Valletta)
29. Moldova (Chisinau)
30. Monaco (Monaco)
31. Montenegro (Podgorica)
32. Netherlands (Amsterdam, The Hague)
33. Norway (Oslo)
In the Wake, by Per Peterson
Kristin Lavransdatter, by Sigrid Undset
34. Poland (Warsaw)
Nine, by Andrezej Stasiuk
35. Portugal (Lisbon)
36. Romania (Bucharest)
37. Russia (Moscow)
The Brothers Karmazov, by Fyodor Doestoevsky*
Dr. Zhivago, by Boris Pasternak (finished 24 November 2007; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
A Russian Journal, by John Steinbeck
38. San Marino (San Marino)
39. Serbia (Belgrade)
40. Slovakia (Bratislava)
41. Slovenia (Ljubljana)
42. Spain (Madrid)
For Whom The Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway (finished 7 April 2007; rated 2.5/5; read my review)
43. Sweden (Stockholm)
April Witch, by Majqull Axelsson
Doctor Glas, by Hjalmar Soderberg
The Princess of Burundi, by Kjell Eriksson*
44. Switzerland (Bern)
45. Ukraine (Kiev)
46. United Kingdom (London)
Arthur and George, by Julian Barnes (finished 30 April 2007; rated 4/5; read my review)
Old Filth, by Jane Gardam (finished 29 May 2007; rated 3.75/5; read my review)
How Green Was My Valley, by Richard Llewelln – South Wales (finished August 15, 2007; rated 5/5; read my review)
AFRICA – Reading the World
THE LIST for AFRICAN COUNTRIES
(Bolded Blue indicates books already read)
Asterisk (*) indicates books I already own by have not read yet.
1. Algeria (Algers)
2. Angora (Luanda)
3. Benin (Port-Novo)
4. Botswana (Gaborone)
5. Burkina Faso (Ouagadougou)
6. Burundi (Bujumbura)
7. Cameroon (Yaounde)
8. Central African Republic (Bangui)
9. Chad (N’Djamena)
10. Comoros (Moroni)
11. Congo (Brazzaville)
A Bend in the River, by V.S. Naipal*
12. Congo, Democratic Republic of (Kinshasa)
13. Cote d’Ivoire/Ivory Coast (Yamoussoukro)
Whiteman, by Tony D’Souza
The Suns of Independence, by Ahmadou Kourouma
14. Djibouti (Djibouti)
15. Egypt (Cairo)
Three Novels of Ancient Egypt, by Naguib Mahfouz*
The Yacoubian Building, by Alaa Al Aswany
16. Equatoria Guinea (Malabo)
17. Eritrea (Asmara)
18. Ethiopia (Addis Ababa)
Sweetness in the Belly, by Camilla Gibb
19. Gabon (Liberville)
20. Gambia (Banjul)
21. Ghana (Accra)
22. Guinea (Conakry)
23. Guinea-Bissau (Bissau)
24. Kenya (Nairobi)
Out of Africa and Shadows on Grass, by Isak Dinesen
25. Lesotho (Maseru)
26. Liberia (Monrovia)
27. Libya (Tripoli)
28. Madagascar (Antananarivo)
29. Malawi (Lilongwe)
30. Mali (Bamako)
31. Mauritania (Nouakchott)
32. Mauritius (Port Louis)
33. Morocco (Rabat)
34. Mozambique (Maputo)
35. Namibia (Windhoek)
36. Niger (Niamey)
37. Nigeria (Abuja)
Purple Hibiscus, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (finished 24 January 2007; rated 5/5; read my review)
38. Rwanda (Kigali)
39. Sao Tome and Principe (Sao Tome)
40. Senegal (Dakar)
Scarlet Song, by Mariama Ba
The Ambiguous Adventure, by Cheikh Hamidou Kane
41. Seychelles (Victoria)
42. Sierra Leone (Freetown)
43. Somalia (Mogadishu)
44. South Africa (Pretoria, Cape Town, Bleoemfontein)
Life and Times of Michael K, by J.M. Coetzee (finished 17 February 2008; rated 4/5; read my review)
Playing in the Light, by Zoe Wicomb
Cry The Beloved Country, by Alan Paton
45. Sudan (Khartoum)
Acts of Faith, by Phillip Caputo*
46. Swaziland (Mbabane)
47. Tanzania (Dodoma)
Desertion, by Abdulrazak
48. Togo (Lome)
49. Tunisia (Tunis)
50. Uganda (Kampala)
51. Zambia (Lusaka)
52. Zimbabwe (Harare)
Nervous Conditions, by Tsitsi Dangarembga
Rainbow’s End, by Lauren St. John
Reading The World
In the last year, I have become interested in reading world literature. I was surprised the other day when I sat down and reviewed my 2007 reads and found I’d read many books either set in other countries, or authored by foreign writers.
Several lit-bloggers have proposed world literature challenges: Reading Across Borders, Around the World in 80 Books, and Book Around the World. One of my favorite blogs is Around the World in 100 Books – a blog devoted to reading world literature.
So, I have decided to set up my own plan to read around the world. I’m not setting a deadline. I’m not formally joining any of the challenges (except for Reading Across Borders which is an ongoing challenge I’m doing).
There is some disagreement among scholars how many countries actually exist. The numbers range from 189 to 194. I have decided to use the list compiled by WorldAtlas.com and found here. My goal is to read at least one book for each country listed. The book(s) I choose will either be in translation from that country, primarily set in that country or written by an author from that country. I want to get a sense of each country from the books I read.
I plan to gather my ideas about books from several sources, including (but not limited to) the following:
1. Michelle’s blog at 3m3a and her list of potential books from around the world
2. Bonnie’s blog at Book Around The World
3. The wonderful blog Around The World in 100 Books
4. Books in Translation Yahoo group
5. The magazine World Literature Today
create your own visited countries map or vertaling Duits NederlandsIf you would like to customize a map like this for YOUR world reading, you may do so by visiting this site.












