Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion
Personal Challenges
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Tytti A "Never-Ending" Country Challenge
This is my author map. Just so that I would read books written by people of different nationalities.
Finland, Belgium, USA, UK, Belarus, Zimbabwe (Rhodesia, though Lessing was born in Persia), Estonia, Brazil, France, Russia, Norway
This is my "travelling" map. I can add many countries from one book, if I feel it's "right". 
So it's Finland, UK, USA, Netherlands, France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Turkey, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria... (I think, they travel a lot in The Historian)
This is my European culture map. Only one country per book when the book is set there.
Finland, UK, Estonia, France, Russia, Norway
The "curiosity" US map. If I happen to read books set in USA.
I guess this list of most famous books is as good a start as any.
I'll add Georgia from my favourite GWTW just to get some colour on it and because I can...
And let's add Uncle Tom's Cabin, too, because I won't be reading it again.
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I really like this idea.
Tytti wrote: "Because there seem to be also other "slower" readers here besides me AND there are about 200 countries in the world right now, so getting through them in one year may be a bit too much for the most..."Ahhh good idea! I'll move my "cheater rules" world map, and US states map here.
I like your author idea, too. And maybe I'll do Canadian provinces, as well as US states :-)
MK wrote: "Tytti wrote: "Because there seem to be also other "slower" readers here besides me AND there are about 200 countries in the world right now, so getting through them in one year may be a bit too muc..."I want to do the states and Canadian provinces, too. First I need to figure out how to do the maps.
Connie wrote: "I want to do the states and Canadian provinces, too. First I need to figure out how to do the maps."Connie, I found a link that looks like it will work for US, and for Canada - http://mapathon.com/map2.htm
You click on the one you want, it takes you to a new page that lists the states or provinces, check off the visited one's, copy the code generated from there, paste into a reply here, and hopefully ... voila!
Tytti wrote: "So I invite you to make up your own "longer" challenge."This is wonderful.
I'd like read classics from different countries, to read a book from a country that is considered a classic in that same country, if that makes sense.
Daisy's World Classics Never-endingAfrica
1. Senegal: Une si longue lettre, Mirianna Bâ
2. Zimbabwe: The Girl Who Married a Lion: and Other Tales from Africa
Asia
3. Armenia: Armenian Poems, Alice Stone Blackwell
4. Indonesia (Bali): "Rajapala & Ken Sulasih", ancient Balinese fable, http://www.silverfishbooks.com/index....
5. Maldives: Folk Tales of the Maldives, Xavier Romero-Frias
6. Malaysia: Sejarah Melayu: The Malay Annals, John Leyden trans.
Caribbean
Europe
7. Czech Republic: The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
8. Denmark: The Complete Fairy Tales, Hans Christian Andersen
9. England: Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
10. France: Candide, Voltaire
11. Finland: The Egyptian, Mika Waltari
12. Germany: The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank
13. Greece: The History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides
14. Ireland: Carmilla, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
15. Italy: The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
16. Norway: A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen
17. Russia: The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
18. Scotland: The 39 Steps, John Buchan
19. Spain: Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
20. Sweden: Barabbas, Pär Lagerkvist
Latin America
21. Brazil: The Alchemist, Paulo Cuelho
22. Columbia: One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Márquez
The Middle East
North America
23. Canada: The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
24. USA: The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Oceania
25. Australia: The Thorn Birds Colleen McCullough
Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, China, East Timor, Georgia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea North, Korea South, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Macau, Mongolia, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tibet, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam
I found this blog of a woman who tries to read a book from every country. It's in Finnish but there are two maps and at least you can read the authors' names. Maybe it will give you some hints: http://kirjajokamaasta.blogspot.fi/And another with a list of suggestions from different countries: http://nannankirjakimara.blogspot.fi/...
If I include authors using setting in countries that are not their native countries, my world gets bluer, but perhaps not always as pure in understanding.
I have read books by authors native to these countries. Perhaps it's time to pick up books written by Africans and Asians.
Janet wrote: "If I include authors using setting in countries that are not their native countries, my world gets bluer, but perhaps not always as pure in understanding."That is a problem with some countries, those books are difficult to find. I am not so strict, a well written and researched book by a foreigner can be as good, IMHO, but I would try to find reviews from people that know the country.
You might find some suitable authors/books in the two links I posted.
OK Thanks. I am currently cooking my way around the world via Global Table Adventures. Reading around the world might take even longer than 4 years at one meal a week.
Tytti wrote: "Maybe it will give you some hints."It looks like these links will provide some great suggestions. Thank you.
Janet wrote: "I am currently cooking my way around the world via Global Table Adventures."
I've never heard of this. It looks fun.
As I try to find classics for this challenge I should like to include oral tradition - which may now be written.
For the Around the World Challenge I will include contemporary works of fiction or non-fiction.
I'm moving over here from the 2014 Around the World challenge. I think I'll do better with this if I have no time limits:-).France--In a Dark Wood Wandering
Jamaica--Wide Sargasso Sea
Poland--Schindler's List
Russia--Crime and Punishment
United Kingdom--The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes #3
United States--Wild Girls
Australia--Shame and the Captives
Argentina--The Honorary Consul
Syria--The Sandcastle Girls
China--Dream of the Red Chamber
Japan--A Personal Matter
Scotland--Trainspotting
Libya--In the Country of Men
North Korea--The Orphan Master's Son
Philippines--We Band of Angels
Lithuania--Between Shades of Gray
Netherlands--The Hiding Place
Afghanistan--And the Mountains Echoed
Ethiopia--Cry of the Giraffe
Ireland--Tara Road
Greece--The Magus
I'm also going to do a US states challenge, which I'll keep track of here:Florida--Nature Girl
Massachusetts--Boy, Snow, Bird
Pennsylvania--The Johnstown Flood
Tennessee--Wild Girls
Wisconsin--Death in a Prairie House
California--I Am Legend
Vermont--Water Witches
Connecticut--Dark Rooms
Kansas--The Chaperone
Missouri--O-Zone
Texas--Isaac's Storm
Washington, DC--I am Mary Sutter
Alabama--Go Set a Watchman
New York--This is Where I Leave You
(I'm doing the Tourist 2014 challenge, but totally at my own pace and not in 1 year or something, so I'll keep track here!)Started January 1st 2014
My trip around the world in 2014
This is the first time I'm trying something like this, so I'm excited to see how it goes.
Africa
Antarctica
Asia (2)
Java (Indonesia): Max Havelaar: Or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company by Multatuli April 12th, 2014
Japan: Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden April 17th, 2014
Europe (7)
Belgium: Het recht van de sterkste by Cyriel Buysse March 25th, 2014
Belgium: Houtekiet by Gerard Walschap April 27th, 2014
England: Umbrella by Will Self April 7th, 2014
England: A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle April 30th, 2014
England: The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle May 2nd, 2014
England: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle May 7th, 2014
Russia: Best Russian Short Stories by Thomas Seltzer May 13th, 2014
Middle East
North America (3)
USA: American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis March 5th, 2014
USA: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne April 22nd, 2014
USA: Looking for Alaska by John Green May 18th, 2014
Oceania
South America
And I also want to try the USA tour.
USA Tour (3/50)
Alabama: Looking for Alaska by John Green May 18th, 2014
Massachusetts: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne April 22nd, 2014
New York: American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis March 5th, 2014
I will do the USA tour with states and territories but am going to add books that I have read before and it will not be concluded in a year.Alabama (To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee)
Alaska (Pilgrim's Wilderness by Tom Kizzia)
American Samoa
Arizona
Arkansas (True Grit by Charlie Portis)
California (Elvis Cole/Joe Pike series)
Colorado (Charlie Moon series by James Doss)
Connecticut
Delaware
District of Columbia
Florida (Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen)
Georgia (Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell)
Guam
Hawaii (The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings)
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana (The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat by Edward Moore)
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky (Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe))
Louisiana (Burn by Nevada Barr)
Maine (Cider House Rules by John Irving)
Maryland
Massachusetts (The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry)
Michigan (Winter Study by Nevada Barr)
Minnesota (Cork O'Connor series by William Krueger)
Mississippi (Deep South by Nevada Barr)
Missouri
Montana (Buffalo Girls by Larry McMurtry)
Nebraska (My Antonia by Willa Cather)
Nevada
New Hampshire (Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Piccoult)
New Jersey (Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich)
New Mexico (Ella Clah series by Amy Thurlo)
New York (Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell)
North Carolina (The Fiery Cross by Dorothy Gabaldon)
North Dakota (The Round House by Louise Erdrich)
North Marianas Islands (might be a hard one!)
Ohio
Oklahoma (The Outsiders)
Oregon
Pennsylvania (Catcher in the Rye)
Puerto Rico
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota (Buffalo Girls by Larry McMurtry)
Tennessee (The Rainmaker by John Grisham)
Texas (Track of the Cat by Nevada Barr)
Utah (The Rope by Nevada Barr)
Vermont
Virgin Islands
Virginia (The Racketeer by John Grisham)
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
I've been doing something like this (using my private blog). I'm starting in my hometown (Kennewick, WA) and plan to work through the states, and then do the provinces of Canada and then go on through the world from there. I haven't gotten very far yet. But I'm hoping to make a sort of travelogue.So far, I've read River Marked (hometown), Citizen Vince (Spokane, WA), and am currently reading Truth Like the Sun (Seattle, WA).
I'm including countries mentioned as "Settings" on each book's Goodreads page. Just books finished in 2014.
Mod
(view spoiler)
2017
50) Tunisia An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943
51) Cuba The Old Man and the Sea
Joining in here, just to see how I'm doing :-)The map is as of 1/1/2015
Here is my list: ( continuing from last year - only including 1 book from each location)2014:
United States: Twelve Years a Slave
Russia:Doctor Zhivago
Scotland: Shopaholic Ties the Knot
Canada: Annabel
Solomon Islands: Tales of the South Pacific
England: Sense and Sensibility
Japan: 1Q84
Saudi Arabia: A Hologram for the King
Mexico: Lotería
India: A Passage to India
Rwanda: A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali
France: Half Blood Blues
Belize: Hellgoing: Stories
Iceland: February
Finland: The Year of the Hare
Somalia: A House in the Sky
Germany: Slaughterhouse-Five
Italy: A Bell for Adano
China: A Leaf in the Bitter Wind: A Memoir
Austria: Trying to Save Piggy Sneed
Spain: The Sun Also Rises
South Korea: Lark & Termite
South Africa: The Chess Garden
Ireland: The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany Begins Her Life's Work at 72
West Indies: The Polished Hoe
2015:
Yemen: Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes
Here's my list of books from around the world that I've been counting from the past couple of years. Books are either set in a country, or written by an author from that country, I'm not picky, as I'd like to complete this one day! Never Ending Country Challenge
Africa
Algeria The Stranger
Democratic Republic of the Congo King Leopold's Ghost
Mauritania Guantánamo Diary
Nigeria Americanah
Rwanda We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families
South Africa An African Treasury
Zimbabwe The Grass is Singing
Antarctica
Asia
Afghanistan The Kite Runner
China Empress Orchid
India The Home and the World
Japan Geisha, a Life
Myanmar (Burma) Burmese Days
North Korea Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
Pakistan The Reluctant Fundamentalist
South Korea The Vegetarian
Thailand The Railway Man
Australasia
Australia The Husband's Secret
New Zealand The Luminaries
Europe
Austria Beware of Pity
England The Time Machine
France Madame Bovary
Germany Austerlitz
Greece Crito
Guernsey The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Iceland Burial Rites
Ireland A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Italy The Prince
Netherlands The Diary of a Young Girl
Norway A Doll's House
Russia Notes from Underground
Romania Night
Scotland The Poetry of Robert Burns
Serbia The Tiger's Wife
Spain The Sun Also Rises
Sweden Creditors
Ukraine A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
Middle East
Iran The Complete Persepolis
Palestine Palestine
Turkey Portrait of a Turkish Family
North America
Canada The Handmaid's Tale
Dominican Republic The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Jamaica Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley
Mexico Frida Kahlo
United States The Color Purple
South America
Argentina A History of Reading
Brazil The Alchemist
PLANS!
Since I've been so bad at this challenge, I'm going to start a new approach. Instead of focusing on certain continents, I'm going to slowly start working around the world by alphabet, skipping the countries I've already completed.
A -
Albania - Chronicle in Stone by Ismail Kadare
Andorra - Andorra by Max Frisch
Angola - A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa
Antigua and Barbuda - A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
Armenia - The Crossing Place: A Journey Among the Armenians by Philip Marsden
Aruba - Nights in Aruba by Andrew Holleran
Azerbaijan - Ali and Nino: A Love Story by Kurban Said
Pink, your list looks good. Very interesting selections.
I decided to make a list, with the map it looks really interesting! Though I wont be counting books that only happen in some country, the author must be either born or spent significant (more than ten years) at that country. For example I think Albert Camus counts as both Algerian and French for my list. Making this I realized I really love lists.
Africa
Algeria - The Stranger
South Africa - Youth
Asia
China - Death of a Red Heroine
Japan - Spring Snow
Kyrgyzstan - The White Steamship
Europe
Austria - Woodcutters
Belgium - The Hall of Uselessness: Collected Essays
Czech Republic - The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Finland - Punainen viiva
France - Père Goriot
Germany - The Genealogy of Morals
Ireland - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Italy - The Leopard
Norway - Hunger
Portugal - The Lives of Things
Romania - The Trouble With Being Born
Russia - Autobiography of a Corpse
Scotland - Caravan to Vaccares
Serbia - A Tomb for Boris Davidovich
Spain - Sepharad
Sweden - Sun and Shadow
Switzerland - Jakob von Gunten
United Kingdom - Titus Andronicus
North America
Canada - Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories
United States - Light in August
South America
Argentina - Ficciones
Chile - The Savage Detectives
Colombia - Love in the Time of Cholera
Lastly tour of USA by state the author is born in:
Alabama - With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa
California - Less Than Zero
Florida - A Canticle for Leibowitz
Georgia - The Violent Bear it Away
Hawaii - The Giver
Illinois - The Complete Short Stories
Indiana - Slaughterhouse-Five
Kentucky - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Louisiana - Breakfast at Tiffany's
Maryland - Red Harvest
Minnesota - The Great Gatsby
Mississippi - The Sound and the Fury
Missouri - The Waste Land
New Jersey - The New York Trilogy
New York - Miss Lonelyhearts
North Carolina - The Four Million
North Dakota - A Temple of Texts
Ohio - White Buildings: Poems
Rhode Island - At the Mountains of Madness
South Carolina - Neuromancer
Texas - Stoner
Washington - Ender's Game
Wisconsin - A Fire Upon the Deep
Your list looks great Miikka, you've got some interesting books. I definitely need to work on Scandinavian countries, as well as most of Africa!
I have not targeted any books specifically for this challenge, so it was fun seeing how the map would look like when making the list. Though I am not going to read some book only because I could add it to the list, there certainly are countries that I have already in my to-read list. Finding interesting books for the whole of Africa is a big challenge, but finding the books for the different challenges has been the best part apart from reading them!
I have exactly the same approach, but I suspect that as my map fills up and I'm left with less and less countries, it will need some strategic planning!
Mod
Well done Kathy. I've only checked off four books from Africa, need to work on this.
Update dec 2018: I have added a few read countries this year - and cleaned up the post with spoiler tags. The maps isn't up to date, but close enough :)Status:
Europe: Not too shabby except for the former Yugoslavian states and their neighbors.
Africa: Pretty good 30/55 - have read the majority of the larger countries!
I'll do this in sections so starting at home: Europe (Wow 51 states!)
In short doing pretty good west of the former iron curtain, eastern Europe, not so much!
EUROPE 29/41(?) read
Not Read: Armenia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kosovo, Lithuania, Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Slovakia,
Slovenia (Yugoslavia, My Fatherland).
Countries I have read: (view spoiler)
AFRICA 31/55 read
Not Read: Benin, Burkina Faso, CAR, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Mauretania, Mozambique, Somalia, South Sudan + island states.
Countries I have read: (view spoiler)
AMERICAS North & South 8 countries read
Not Read: Belize, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela.
Countries I have read: (view spoiler)
ASIA (8 countries read)
Countries not read: (view spoiler)
China Lu Xun
India Tagore
Iran Satrapi, Hedayat,
Israel/Palestine Yizhar.
Japan Akutagawa,
Kyrgyzstan Aïtmatov.
Russia (see under Europe)
United Arab Emirates Unnikrishnan
AUS & OCEANIA: (1 country read)
Countries not read: (view spoiler)
New Zealand Ngaio Marsh
I decided to do Europe a couple of months ago, not realising that there was a board. A couple of extra rules for me (apparently I like them, only right now not so much!), I'm trying to read two authors from each country, one male and one female and I trying to read only authors that are completely new to me, so no falling back on my go-to European authors. The hardest part is definitely finding female authors translated into to English
Moray wrote: "Reading 'round Europe
I decided to do Europe a couple of months ago, not realising that there was a board. A couple of extra rules for me (apparently I ..."
-> Great job so far! And good idea to do both a male & a female writer!
Annette and Moray, your European maps look great. I might have to start concentrating on one area at a time. Or at least think of some ideas for possible future books.
Thanks, home turf advantage ;) I'm kinda looking forward to Africa, A very unexplored continent in my reading! Also I need to check up on South America, as I think I'm doing pretty well there, and/or have the books ready on my dusty shelf, but we'll see...Does anyone know of an easier way to keep track and find books. I saw that Goodreads has "Setting" (location) at least for some books, but it didn't seem searchable? (except for one extremely long list of places, states, cities and nations all mixed)
I'm not sure of an easier way to keep track, but for finding books I use the listopia function and search by country/area.
Well I should have home turf advantage for Europe, being in England, but in reality most of my books are by English or American writers. If I do venture into translations they seem to be repeatedly French, German, or Russian. I'm lacking on scandinavian and eastern european books, but have some ideas.
The lists are okay for inspiration, but tend to mix up books about, and books from a country and lean heavily towards the anglo-americans. But yeah the home turf advantage improves if one is from a small country where language education is very much a must so you get expose to a lot more... Also there's the nordic thing: You hear about the nordic council literature prize nominees and a lot of scandinavian book gets translated into the other languages. Let me know if you want suggestions for northern Europa? I take suggestions for eastern european classics!
I think I'll make a shelf - I saw that Moray had one, it makes it easy to peak at each other's selection.
That's true, there's a lot of mix ups on listopia, but it's helpful as long as you do further research. I'll always accept suggestions for Scandinvia, or for eastern Europe, or anywhere else!
This is my tentative list of possible reads
Sweden - Stieg Larsson (The girl with the dragon tattoo)
Norway - Knut Hamsun (Hunger)
Iceland - Halldor Laxness (Independent People)
Denmark -
Romania - Ellie Wiesel (Night)
Czech Republic - Milan Kundera (The Unbearable Lightness of Being)
Colombia - Gabriela Garcia Marquez
Chile - Isabel Allende/ Roberto Bolano
Sierra Leone - Ishmael Beah
Ethiopia - Abraham Verghese
Trinidad - V.S. Naipaul
Belarus - Ryszard Kapuscinkski (The shadow of the sun)
Kenya - Ngugi wa Thiong’o
Ghana - Ayi Kwei Armah
Making a dedicated shelf sounds like a good idea, but I already have individual shelves for each country.
Anetq wrote: "I take suggestions for eastern european classics!"It's a shame one can't add notes easily to books. I know you can make private notes but it's not really helpful for others and it could be easier to use when adding a book. I sent you my list of books and you can check my "European" shelf. (My list doesn't include all the books from my Euro shelf, I haven't done it yet. For example I just found one author from Lithuania.) The shelf doesn't include books by British, Irish or Nordic authors and maybe you can make educated guesses based on their names.
Thanks both of you!@pink Undset is Norwegian! (from age 2 anyway) - but listopia has the official canonized danish literature here: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7... (danish editions, but "other editions" should get you there)
Thanks Annette, I wondered if some of my choices were slightly wrong. This is where it gets tricky to decide who to read and what exactly counts, especially when authors move country, which seems to happen quite a lot with authors I look for.I'll take a look at your link, thanks.
The only person on the list I've heard of is Karen Blixen as I have a couple of her books on my tbr. I'm completely lost with the others. Any you'd recommend?
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So I invite you to make up your own "longer" challenge, whether it is the all European countries or all states in the US or authors from all over the world or a "travelling" challenge where you visit every country...
Actually I just wanted to a place to put my own, and probably very white, map(s). :-P