MobileRead Book Challenges discussion
2014 Individual Challenges
>
HomeInMyShoes 2014 Challenge - Victim of Geography
Travel Itinerary1. Canada - Thomson Highway, The Rez Sisters: A Play in Two Acts
2. United States - John Steinbeck, The Pearl
3. Mexico - Carlos Fuentes, The Death of Artemio Cruz
4. Guatemala - Rodrigo Rey Rosa, The Beggar's Knife
5. Belize - Zee Edgell, Beka Lamb
6. Cuba - Leonardo Padura Fuentes, Havana Blue
7. Dominican Republic - Loida Maritza Perez, Geographies of Home
8. Barbados - George Lamming, Water with Berries
9. Nicaragua - Sergio Ramirez, A Thousand Deaths Plus One
10. El Salvador - Manlio Argueta, One Day of Life
11. Ecuador - Jorge Icaza, The Villagers
12. Peru - Daniel Alarcon, Lost City Radio
13. Chile - Maria Luisa Bombal, House of Mist
14. Argentina - Adolpho Bioy-Casares, Asleep in the Sun
15. Uruguay - Eduardo Galeano, Genesis
16. Brazil - Particia Melo, In Praise of Lies
17. Venezuela - Romula Gallegos, Dona Barbara: A Novel
18. Trinidad and Tobago - Earl Lovelace, The Wine of Astonishment
19. Angola - José Eduardo Agualusa, The Book of Chameleons
20. Zambia - Gaile Parkin, Baking Cakes in Kigali
21. Zimbabwe - Petina Guppah, An Elegy for Easterly: Stories
22. Mozambique - Mia Couto, The Tuner of Silences
23. South Africa - JM Coetzee, Summertime
24. New Zealand - Bernard Beckett, Genesis
25. Australia - David Malouf, Remembering Babylon
26. Indonesia - Andrea Hirata, The Rainbow Troops
27. Malaysia - Preeta Samarasan, Evening Is the Whole Day
28. Vietnam - Duong Thu Huong, Novel Without a Name
29. China - Mo Yan, Shifu, You'll Do Anything for a Laugh
30. South Korea - Young-ha Kim, Your Republic Is Calling You
31. Japan - Ryu Murakami, Audition
32. Russia - Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic
33. Kazahkstan - Mukhamet Shayakhmetov, The Silent Steppe: The Memoir of a Kazakh Nomad Under Stalin
34. Kyrgyzstan - Chingiz Aitmatov, Farewell Gul'sary
35. Uzbekistan - Hamid Ismailov, The Railway
36. Afghanistan - Atiq Rahimi, Earth and Ashes
37. Pakistan - Mohsin Hamid, Moth Smoke
38. India - Tabish Khair, The Bus Stopped
39. Sri Lanka - Romesh Gunesekera, The Sandglass
40. Tanzania - Gabriel Ruhumbika, Village In Uhuru
41. Uganda - Doreen Baingana, Tropical Fish: Tales From Entebbe
42. Kenya - Mukoma wa Ngugi, Nairobi Heat
43. Ethiopia - Maaza Mengiste, Beneath the Lion's Gaze
44. Sudan - Leila Aboulela, Lyrics Alley
45. Libya - Hisham Matar, In the Country of Men
46. Egypt - Alaa Al Aswany, The Yacoubian Building
47. Syria - Rafik Schami, Damascus Nights
48. Turkey - Orhan Pamuk, Silent House
49. Bulgaria - Georgi Gospodinov, Natural Novel
50. Ukraine - Nella Bielski, The Year Is '42
51. Czech Republic - Jachim Topol, Gargling With Tar
52. Poland - Wladyslaw Szpilman, The Pianist
53. Latvia - Sandra Kalniete, Song To Kill A Giant
54. Sweden - Henning Mankell, Faceless Killers
55. Finland - Arto Paasilinna, The Year of the Hare
56. Norway - Mette Newth, The Transformation
57. Germany - Jenny Erpenbeck, Visitation
58. France - Roland Barthes, Mythologies
59. Switzerland - Johanna Spyri, Heidi
60. Austria - Wolf Haas, The Bone Man
61. Italy - Donato Carrisi, The Lost Girls of Rome
62. Albania - Ismail Kadaré, Chronicle in Stone
63. Greece - Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
64. Tunisia - Sabiha al Khemir, The Blue Manuscript
65. Algeria - Boualem Sansal, The German Mujahid
66. Morocco - Abdelkader Benali, Wedding By The Sea
67. Portugal - António Lobo Antunes, South of nowhere: A novel
68. United Kingdom - Charles Stross, The Jennifer Morgue
69. Ireland - Roddy Doyle, Two Pints
70. Iceland - Halldor Laxness, The Atom Station
71. Philippines - José Rizal, Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not)
Repeat Countries1. United States - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games
2. United Kingdom - Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies
3. Austria - Wolf Haas, Resurrection
4. Canada - Todd Devonshire, Rink Burgers
5. United States - Christa Charter, Schooled
6. United States - Roger Zelazny, A Night in the Lonesome October
7. Canada - Perrine Leblanc, Kolia
8. United States, Lucia Perillo, Happiness Is a Chemical in the Brain: Stories
9. United Kingdom - Terry Pratchett, Soul Music
10. Japan - Haruki Murakami, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
Useless StatisticsScoring
Countries: 70
New Countries: 53
Non-English Speaking Countries: 25
Low-Population Countries: 15
Total Points: 185
Region Breakdown please address all issues with regions to the United Nations as I took their breakdown as wrong as it may be for regions, especially Eastern and Central Europe
Eastern Africa 7
Middle Africa 1
Northern Africa 6
Western Africa 0
Southern Africa 1
Central Asia 3
South-Eastern Asia 3
Eastern Asia 3
Southern Asia 4
Western Asia 2
Eastern Europe 5
Northern Europe 7
Southern Europe 4
Western Europe 4
Oceania 2
Micronesia 0
Melanesia 0
Polynesia 0
Caribbean 4
Central America 5
North America 2
South America 7
Miscellaneous
Books Read: 72
Pages Read: 17,998
New Authors: 65
Paper Books: 60
Electronic Books: 12
FIRST!!! (You didn't say "proceed", but I waited almost an hour after your last post.)
Haha.I didn't know that rule. I'm new around here. :)
I usually only have three posts that matter: description; required; actual. Way more flexibility this year.
So does anyone have any recommendations of awards I should be looking at? There's all the obvious ones, but the Mythopoeic one has struck my fancy for off the more regular path.
You could do something revolving around how the National Book Awards temporarily lost their minds: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/boo...
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National...
You can narrow it down to the winners during the "Hollywood years" (1980-1983) by starting with this page containing all winners from all years: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_...
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National...
You can narrow it down to the winners during the "Hollywood years" (1980-1983) by starting with this page containing all winners from all years: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_...
Damian Knight Grand Masters: http://www.sfwa.org/grandmaster/The Damon Knight Memorial Grand Masters (The year indicates the year that the honor was presented.)
2013 - Gene Wolfe
2012 – Connie Willis
2011 – n.a.
2010 – Joe Haldeman
2009 – Harry Harrison
2008 – Michael Moorcock
2007 – James Gunn
2006 – Harlan Ellison
2005 – Anne McCaffrey
2004 – Robert Silverberg
2003 – Ursula K. Le Guin
2001 – Philip José Farmer
2000 – Brian W. Aldiss
1999 – Hal Clement (Harry Stubbs)
1998 – Poul Anderson
1997 – Jack Vance
1996 – A. E. Van Vogt
1995 – Damon Knight
1994 – Frederik Pohl
1991 – Lester Del Rey
1989 – Ray Bradbury
1988 – Alfred Bester
1987 – Isaac Asimov
1986 – Arthur C. Clarke
1984 – Andre Norton
1981 – Fritz Leiber
1979 – L. Sprague de Camp
1977 – Clifford D. Simak
1976 – Jack Williamson
1975 – Robert A. Heinlein
Christa wrote: "You could do something revolving around how the National Book Awards temporarily lost their minds: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/boo......"Nice. I've read some Pen/Faulkner ones previously and I know something would show up.
MrsJoseph wrote: "Damian Knight Grand Masters: http://www.sfwa.org/grandmaster/The Damon Knight Memorial Grand Masters (The year indicates the year that the honor was presented.)
2013 - Gene Wolfe
2012 – Connie ..."
Cool. I read a Pohl one this year. Maybe I should read another Heinlein and one I haven't.
Homeinmyshoes wrote: "Cool. I read a Pohl one this year."
I danced on a Pohl this year.
Just kidding. I didn't. Puns are just irresistible.
:D
I danced on a Pohl this year.
Just kidding. I didn't. Puns are just irresistible.
:D
lol!
But you know, the year's only half over.
Well I dropped the series challenges and went for read a bunch of countries option instead. I'm thinking fifteen different countries. Including the ten Canadian books I'd have to read a minimum of 25 books to cover all of my challenges.
I've dropped all the challenges and now it's officially a geography challenge. Bonus points to the guess the allusion in the title contest.
Tajikstan? Someone's got to have an option for this one. A country with a ruler that builds more gold statues of himself than anyone in history? Sounds like good reading to me.
Okay, the joy of eBooks aside, is Book Depository the best thing on the planet ever?I've received two of my choices for next year already from them:
Uzbekistan: The Railway
Bulgaria: Natural Novel
I just received another book for the read, The Beggar's Knife for Guatemala.I also picked up Song To Kill A Giant from Amazon for Latvia.
I just ordered Beka Lamb from AbeBooks. Cost of book...$1.24, cost of shipping $6.00. Well, I kept it below the $10 I set for the book.
I'm busy burying myself in titles I keep adding to the potential itinerary. It started around 40 bulged to 60, I pared it down to 50 and now it's back to 55.Sammy Hagar, save me.
So many options for a starting book from Canada.Alice Munro's Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories, recent Nobel winner.
Lynn Coady's Hellgoing: Stories which just won the Giller.
Dave Bidini's The Best Game You Can Name for a book on hockey.
Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale as a classic Canadian read.
Mordecai Richler's The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz as I've been negligent for Quebec in my reading.
The Grey Islands by John Steffler.
Random Passage for the time I spent in Newfoundland.
Gail Bowen's Deadly Appearances for a mystery set in my own home town.
If you're looking for advice: The Handmaid's Tale & The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz would be my first choices as they sound fascinating and emotional. Random Passage would be a distant second (or third, as the case may be).
Duddy is definitely high on my list and has been on my PRL ever since I started keeping one. I am leaning towards The Rez Sisters: A Play in Two Acts for Canada. I think 2015 is going to need to be a pay attention to Canada year.My list is up to 70 now. I've purposely kept the books short where possible so I can fit more in. It's a total of 18,100 pages right now so it's within reasonable, but it's not going to leave me much room for the bookclub.
And my map arrived.
Nyssa wrote: "If you're looking for advice: The Handmaid's Tale & The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz would be my first choices as they sound fascinating and emotional. [book:Random P..."Thanks for the input. It's definitely Richler over Atwood for me at this point.
I updated the information section at the top with a youtube video on why it's hard to determine what a country is.
Off but on topic:Hubby and I were discussing Africa the other day and he was complaining about how "bad" the country was.
I had to say "Stop. Africa is NOT a country, Africa is a continent. Made up of a shitton of different countries. So, we hear such bad stuff about Africa due to the countries that are in turmoil. We hear NOTHING about the countries that are just doing their thing. If it bleeds, it leads."
He was like "facepalm." I knew that. But for some reason I always want to think of it as a single country.
And it made me ask a few people. Do you know a lot of people think of Africa as a single country? I didn't!
I don't think it's just Africa, at least not in my country (the Netherlands). When they say North America, they only think of the USA, not the other 22 countries. And even on the news they think England, United Kingdom and Great Britain are the same thing.But yes, many people think of Africa as one big, poor, third world country in my experience.
Bianca wrote: "And even on the news they think England, United Kingdom and Great Britain are the same thing."I fall into that trap a lot, lol! I always have to stop and think about it.
Bianca wrote: "I don't think it's just Africa, at least not in my country (the Netherlands). When they say North America, they only think of the USA, not the other 22 countries. And even on the news they think En..."At least with the North America thing it is reasonably easy to understand at least for me. I grew up with Central America being the odd child out. It's usually part of North, but can be its own, although not a continent and the Caribbean countries fall into the same trap.
As far as the United Kingdom goes, I blame wikipedia.
"England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west. The Irish Sea lies north west of England, whilst the Celtic Sea lies to the south west."
Great Britain is an island. After that I blame Canada's media for using England, United Kingdom and Great Britain synonymously for the most part.
Don't get me started on which countries belong to Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Northern Europe and Southern Europe. There are so many splinter classifications with overlapping membership to make the subclassifications pretty much meaningless except for a pissing war for sovereign and not-so-sovereign states to say, no way are we with the Eastern we are Central or we aren't Northern, we are Western or not those Western infidels, we are Central, or Northern.
I've always known that Africa was many countries, but I was involved with the Red Cross in my youth and had friends and acquaintances from Kenya and Gambia. Even with that though, my African geogrphay knowledge is pretty inept. I'm hoping to rectify that. I've got 16 African soverign states on my list right now.
And if anyone hasn't watched the youtube video is post 1 on How Many Countries are There. It made me giggle a lot.
Ok, Now I feel like an idiot. I did not realize that the Caribbean, among others, was considered part of "North America". I honestly thought NA was Canada, the US, and Mexico. What makes this more embarrassing is the fact that I was born in The Bahamas. In my defence, I was raised and educated here in the States, and geography is not "our" strong suit.
Nyssa wrote: "Ok, Now I feel like an idiot. I did not realize that the Caribbean, among others, was considered part of "North America". I honestly thought NA was Canada, the US, and Mexico. What makes this more ..."Yeah, that's the thing - in the schools I went to (changed states in high school) North America essentially was taught as Canada, USA, and Mexico. We obviously learned about Central America, and the Caribbean, but it was more like "North America and Central America" as opposed to "this is all North America". So it's no wonder there is confusion.
Christa wrote: "Yeah, that's the thing - in the schools I went to (changed states in high school) North America essentially was taught as Canada, USA, and Mexico. We obviously learned about Central America, and the Caribbean, but it was more like "North America and Central America" as opposed to "this is all North America". So it's no wonder there is confusion. "True.
This is what I remember.
Christa wrote: "Yeah, that's the thing - in the schools I went to (changed states in high school) North America essentially was taught as Canada, USA, and Mexico. We obviously learned about Central America, and the Caribbean, but it was more like "North America and Central America" as opposed to "this is all North America". So it's no wonder there is confusion. "Yes, that is what I remember as well.
I realized, after thinking about it for a while, that we really didn't concentrate on geography (outside of world history which equaled Europe mostly) after 3rd or 4th grade.
I will only say that my opinion of the United States was greatly influenced by the three years I spent in St. Louis. I no longer feel critical of poor geography as I was watching the news would include the International portion which, I am not making this shit up, would include stories from Kansas. Kansas! It's the farging state next door people.I am a victim of geography and by that I mean I am a victim of the environment in which I was born and brought up in.
Homeinmyshoes wrote: "I will only say that my opinion of the United States was greatly influenced by the three years I spent in St. Louis. I no longer feel critical of poor geography as I was warching the news would inc..."LOL!!!
That's a different country than St. Louis! It's middle, I think.
Woohoo! My book for Belize showed up in the post yesterday. Beka Lamb by Zee Edgell. I was really happy to have found this one through Abe Books at a really interesting bookstore in New York, Housing Works Bookstore Cafe.I didn't mind paying the shipping for supporting Housing Works for this title.
This title also screams at me why ALL books need to be made electronic. An award-winning book that tells about life in Belize which is unavailable as an e-book and doesn't even appear to be published anymore. Opening the book up last night the font is super tiny. I'm glad I'm trying to read it now and not in twenty years. I'm really looking forward to this one.
Yaaay! :)
All I have to say looking at my potential reading itinerary is "am I insane?" I don't care how short some of the books are, seventy is a big number. A really big number.
I started calculating distances between the capital cities of each country on my itinerary. I'm only on country number 18 and I've travelled 43,241 kilometers. Awesome. I can't wait to get through this exercise.
Homeinmyshoes wrote: "I started calculating distances between the capital cities of each country on my itinerary. I'm only on country number 18 and I've travelled 43,241 kilometers. Awesome. I can't wait to get through ..."This is so cool!
Numbers are the best friend ever. :)I am so ready to start on this journey. I drew the whole route on the map the other day and it's awesome. Can I do it in reality?
Homeinmyshoes wrote: "Numbers are the best friend ever. :)I am so ready to start on this journey. I drew the whole route on the map the other day and it's awesome. Can I do it in reality?"
IDK...how much vaca time do you have, lol?
Hey! I wonder if you can do an interactive map as your tracker. That would be cool.
MrsJoseph (taking back my data & giving GR the middle finger) wrote: "Homeinmyshoes wrote: "Numbers are the best friend ever. :)I am so ready to start on this journey. I drew the whole route on the map the other day and it's awesome. Can I do it in reality?"
IDK....."
I think four weeks plus a few days carryover is insufficient. I need a faster car.
MrsJoseph (taking back my data & giving GR the middle finger) wrote: "Hey! I wonder if you can do an interactive map as your tracker. That would be cool."Interactive might be hard. I should look at something that lets me indicate a colour for each country visited so I could do a cooling trend as the trail goes cold from where I visited. Time to go hunting!
Homeinmyshoes wrote: "I wonder how this works...My Current Map Test"
Hmmm. I got a couple of points to look at BUT it also gave me the option to add something when I first clicked?
MobileRead Book Challenges
Books mentioned in this topic
The Greek Coffin Mystery (other topics)In the Shadow of the Banyan (other topics)
Swan Song (other topics)
Cordelia's Honor (other topics)
Swan Song (other topics)
More...
Starting Country
I’m starting in Canada. I have been remiss in my Canadian reading so I have to start in my own country. This is both a hindrance and an opportunity given Canada’s single international border, but gigantic coastline (see the Mode of Travel section.)
Mode of Travel
I can only travel by land or by water (no air travel). The water travel must be in a straight line on the map I have. If something is in the way, I have to choose another route. From Canada I can get to the United States by land or to Iceland, Ireland, the United Kingdom , Spain, France, Portugal, Morocco. Germany would not be possible. I might be able to skirt Northern Africa and make it to South Africa, or even just go to Japan or New Zealand straight off.
BookClub Amnesty
I can declare a non-travel book for a MobileRead book club selection as I am going to make an effort to be more involved in the book clubs in 2014.
Boredom Amnesty
I can also declare a non-travel book by reading another selection from a previously visited country.
Scotland is Not a Country
Okay, I've been harassed about counting Scotland and potentially Newfoundland as distinct countries when they aren't so I'll rely on the Wikipedia list of Sovereign States as my guide in what constitutes a country. Anything with a parent in parenthesis does not count, so Puerto Rico is out, unless it is the Olympics in which case it does. This video explains why this is an impossible task and if I decide something is a country it is...end of story. I believe my opinion is as good as any country's opinion.
How Many Countries are There?
"What makes a country a country is if other countries think that country is a country." Which makes the real questions, how many countries, which ones, and why those?
Scoring System
1 point for each distinct country. 1 bonus point for a previously unvisited country in my past reading. 1 extra bonus point if the country is outside the hundred most populated countries. 1 extra point if English is not an official language in the country. (The points will be summed up in the Travel Itinerary)
C - for new country visited this year
N - for a new country to me
P - for population bonus point
E - for non-English country
examples: (1:C) (2:CN) (3:CNE) (3:CPE)
Winning
Okay, there's no real winning here, but I'm thinking 100 points to win. While a country like Nigeria seems to be a good one for points, English is an offficial language and it's number 7 in population in the world and I've read a book by a Nigerian author before. 1 measly point. Now, Latvia on the other hand would score 4 points.