Book Around the World Reading Challenge

Posted by Susan Whelan Mar 19, 2009

I love reading books that are not only set somewhere other than my homeland (Australia) but which also share something about the people and culture of that country or place. The action of some novels could be set anywhere, while others capture something unique about the spirit or history of the place in which they are set.

Book Around the World

I have recently discovered the wonderful world of Reading Challenges and since I love a good list almost as much as I love a good book, I have had difficulty restraining myself from signing up to several 2009 challenges.

I was also excited to find a perpetual challenge at Bonnie Jacob’s Book Around the World blog. The format is quite flexible with no specific start or finish date and no rigid list of requirements. Quite simply, Bonnie is encouraging readers to find books set that somehow represent the country in which they are set and to try to read about as many different countries as possible.

Being a Type A personality, I have gone to extremes with this challenge. I found a list of Countries of the World at a CIA fact book site and have loaded the list onto my personal blog. As I read a book for a particular country, I link a review of that book to the list. I am also including suggested titles next to countries as I come across them for future reference.

Read Books and Travel the World

Bonnie’s challenge is a great incentive to try some new authors and learn something about different cultures and people. For me, it is a particularly great challenge as I will be able to recommend any great books that I come across in World Literatures here at Suite.

I would love to receive any recommendations for titles, especially for some of the more obscure locations. Please add a comment onto this blog if you have any suggestions.

Bonnie has a list of recommended books with reviews on the challenge page at her blog. She also hosts a Book around the States challenge for those who want to have some fun with a literary road trip in the US.