Earlier today I chatted with a friend about how important reading is for learning about the world around us and outside of our immediate neighbourhood, city, country, continent, etc. What better kickstart to this new project!
I am taking inspiration for this project from another friend’s blog – Lioness at Large – who set up her Around the World reading challenge some time ago, and whose literary travels have also given me the virtual travel bug, especially now that real travel is still somewhat restricted.
So, this what I am looking to do for this project:
Read one book by an author from every country (I’m going by country of birth rather than residence.) OR set in each country. If a book is set in a country other than that of the author’s place of birth, I will count it towards either but not both.
There is no time limit.
I will not include re-reads in the count. I.e. each book will be new to me.
I will include books that I have read since the start of 2021.
Countries for which I have read a book will appear in green.
| Country | Author | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Afghanistan | ||
| Albania | ||
| Algeria | ||
| Andorra | ||
| Angola | ||
| Antigua and Barbuda | ||
| Argentina | ||
| Armenia | ||
| Australia | ||
| Austria | Ida Pfeiffer | Die Reise einer Wienerin in das Heilige Land* |
| Azerbaijan | ||
| Bahamas | ||
| Bahrain | ||
| Bangladesh | ||
| Barbados | ||
| Belarus | ||
| Belgium | ||
| Belize | ||
| Benin | ||
| Bhutan | ||
| Bolivia | ||
| Bosnia-Herzegovina | ||
| Botswana | ||
| Brazil | Patricia Galvao (“Pagu”) | Industrial Park |
| Brunei | ||
| Bulgaria | ||
| Burkina Faso | ||
| Burundi | ||
| Cabo Verde | ||
| Cambodia | ||
| Cameroon | ||
| Canada | ||
| Central African Republic | ||
| Chad | ||
| Chile | ||
| China | Cixin Liu | The Three-Body Problem |
| Colombia | ||
| Comoros | ||
| Congo, Democratic Republic of the | ||
| Congo, Republic of the | ||
| Costa Rica | ||
| Cote d’Ivoire | ||
| Croatia | Dubravka Ugrešić | Baba Yaga Laid an Egg |
| Cuba | ||
| Cyprus | ||
| Czechia | ||
| Denmark | Tove Ditlevsen | Childhood, Youth, Dependency: The Copenhagen Trilogy |
| Djibouti | ||
| Dominica | ||
| Dominican Republic | ||
| Ecuador | ||
| Egypt | ||
| El Salvador | ||
| Equatorial Guinea | ||
| Eritrea | ||
| Estonia | ||
| Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) | ||
| Ethiopia | Maaza Mengiste | The Shadow King |
| Fiji | ||
| Finland | ||
| France | ||
| Gabon | ||
| Gambia | ||
| Georgia | ||
| Germany | Christine Brueckner | Wenn Du Geredet Haettest, Desdemona* |
| Ghana | ||
| Greece | Euripides | Medea |
| Grenada | ||
| Guatemala | ||
| Guinea | ||
| Guinea-Bissau | ||
| Guyana | ||
| Haiti | ||
| Honduras | ||
| Hungary | ||
| Iceland | ||
| India | ||
| Indonesia | ||
| Iran | Shokoofeh Azar | The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree |
| Iraq | ||
| Ireland | ||
| Israel | ||
| Italy | ||
| Jamaica | ||
| Japan | Yoko Ogawa | The Memory Police |
| Jordan | ||
| Kazakhstan | ||
| Kenya | ||
| Kiribati | ||
| Kosovo | ||
| Kuwait | ||
| Kyrgyzstan | ||
| Laos | ||
| Latvia | ||
| Lebanon | ||
| Lesotho | ||
| Liberia | ||
| Libya | ||
| Liechtenstein | ||
| Lithuania | ||
| Luxembourg | ||
| Madagascar | ||
| Malawi | ||
| Malaysia | ||
| Maldives | ||
| Mali | ||
| Malta | ||
| Marshall Islands | ||
| Mauritania | ||
| Mauritius | ||
| Mexico | ||
| Micronesia | ||
| Moldova | ||
| Monaco | ||
| Mongolia | ||
| Montenegro | ||
| Morocco | ||
| Mozambique | ||
| Myanmar | ||
| Namibia | ||
| Nauru | ||
| Nepal | ||
| Netherlands | Marieke Lucas Rijneveld | The Discomfort of Evening |
| New Zealand | Ngaio Marsh | Enter a Murderer |
| Nicaragua | ||
| Niger | ||
| Nigeria | ||
| North Korea | ||
| North Macedonia | ||
| Norway | ||
| Oman | ||
| Pakistan | ||
| Palau | ||
| Palestine | ||
| Panama | ||
| Papua New Guinea | ||
| Paraguay | ||
| Peru | ||
| Philippines | ||
| Poland | Olga Tokarczuk | Flights |
| Portugal | ||
| Qatar | ||
| Romania | ||
| Russia | Ludmilla Ulitskaya | Just the Plague |
| Rwanda | ||
| Saint Kitts and Nevis | ||
| Saint Lucia | ||
| Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | ||
| Samoa | ||
| San Marino | ||
| Sao Tome and Principe | ||
| Saudi Arabia | ||
| Senegal | ||
| Serbia | ||
| Seychelles | ||
| Sierra Leone | ||
| Singapore | ||
| Slovakia | ||
| Slovenia | ||
| Solomon Islands | ||
| Somalia | ||
| South Africa | ||
| South Korea | ||
| South Sudan | ||
| Spain | ||
| Sri Lanka | ||
| Sudan | ||
| Suriname | ||
| Sweden | ||
| Switzerland | ||
| Syria | Louai Al Roumani | Lessons from a Warzone: How to be a Resilient Leader in Times of Crisis |
| Taiwan | ||
| Tajikistan | ||
| Tanzania | ||
| Thailand | ||
| Timor-Leste | ||
| Togo | ||
| Tonga | ||
| Trinidad and Tobago | ||
| Tunisia | ||
| Turkey | Elif Shafak | 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World |
| Turkmenistan | ||
| Tuvalu | ||
| Uganda | ||
| Ukraine | Nicolai Gogol | The Overcoat and Other Stories |
| United Arab Emirates | ||
| United Kingdom | Virginia Woolf | The Waves |
| USA | Mary Doria Russell | The Sparrow |
| Uruguay | ||
| Uzbekistan | ||
| Vanuatu | ||
| Vatican City | ||
| Venezuela | ||
| Vietnam | ||
| Yemen | ||
| Zambia | Namwali Serpell | The Old Drift |
| Zimbabwe | ||
*Titles originally written in German and read in their original.
Broken Tune's Blog 
I did this years ago when I first ‘discovered’ GoodReads. It was fun, and even though I pretty much only read cozies, I covered an impressive amount of the globe, if I do say so myself. 😀 I wish I knew what happened to that map and where I did those original posts.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oooh, brilliant. I would have loved to follow your progress on this. Do you remember which spots on the map you struggled with and which surprised you most?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hoo boy … At the time the hardest would have to have been the Asian countries, and, I think, Eastern Europe. I don’t thnk I ever found any books for EE. As for what surprised me most, I can’t think of any books/countries that surprised me, but I DO remember being surprised that I covered as many countries as I did. If asked before I started I’d have said my reading was limited to US and UK; it was only after starting that I realised I read more widely than expected.
Oh! I do remember LIke Water for Chocolate blowing me away; not because I loved it, but because it was such a weird book. At the time it was a reading departure for me, and I went into it with no expectations. I re-read it a few years ago and was a little disappointed by how *not* weird I found the story the second time around. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hooray! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m really looking forward to this. I’ve a few books lined up already, too, … of course.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Of course! 😀
And also of course, it gets particularly interesting once you hit the countries that don’t get a massive amount of attention … which is the whole point of this project, after all.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Exactly! I’m particularly looking forward to discovering those new-to-me authors.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It‘s an interesting and often rewarding journey …
LikeLiked by 1 person