Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion
Personal Challenges
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Tytti A "Never-Ending" Country Challenge
Pink wroteI'll always accept suggestions for Scandinvia, or for eastern Europe, or anywhere else!..."
Pink, I don't think you have anything on your list from Hungary (the map's hard to see on my phone!) I really recommend Magda Szabo and if you need someone for Estonia I adored Jaan Kross's The Czar's Madman. Both really great writers.
I'll always accept suggestions for Scandinvia, or for eastern Europe, or anywhere else!
Th..."
Thanks for the tips, I'll take a look at them :)
I made a list of Danish Literature:https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9... (As most lit.hist. lacking in the gender dept. sorry!)
That's a great list, thanks. I've added a couple of books to my tbr and bookmarked it for further reference. I'm considering reading translated literature as a challenge next year, as I want to read more outside of the western canon.
A list of Eastern European authors and some of their work: http://www.complete-review.com/mainde...You are welcome.
Won't make a list as this is just what I've done without going out to read all these countries. Just checked author nationalities of read books and ticked them off. Indonesia seems to have been highlighted somehow accidently (so ignore that). Now to set out to read the rest, I have a feeling Africa may be difficult basing it on Author Nationality rather than setting...
Good luck Louise, I agree that Africa is quite challenging.
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My Map
Well done Kathy, I haven't updated a single book on here for months.
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Yeah, I forget about this challenge. I need a better way to organize where I have read. But I hate to redo everything. Who knows, maybe I'll start over in 2016 with an organized plan of keeping track.
I'm similar, I forget to update this thread, but I just checked and there's nothing I've read that I can add. Most of my books continue to be by the same few nations. Starting over sounds like hard work, maybe you can edit what you already have for 2016.
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Well done Kathy, I think I'm now at the point that I need to plan books to complete the countries I have left. I still have so many to go, but I just seem to read books from the same 5-10 countries over and over again.
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Yes, so true for me also. My goal is to add 10 new countries this year.
I've updated my maps in message 39 on page 1 - seem to have done okay for my venture into eastern Europe (but still take recommendations!) And have started off Africa, not too shabby!
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4 new countries so far this year
2016
36) Switzerland Heidi
37) South Africa The Story of an African Farm
38) Japan Hiroshima
39) Spain The Wind off the Small Isles
Updated msg 39 - by venturing into the baltics, with two modern female writers - both very good:Estonia Sofi Oksanen (Finnish author, but about Estonia) English version Purge
Latvia Nora Ikstena Livets fest
Please pass on any tips for Lithuania, if you have them?
I have lined up a few more female writers for this challenge:The latest Nobel Prize winner Aleksijevič Svetlana from Belarus. War's Unwomanly Face
Olga Tokarczuk from Poland House of Day, House of Night
Dubravka Ugrešić from Croatia: Thank You for Not Reading (Essays)
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The latest Nobel Prize winner Aleksijevič Svetlana from Belarus. War's Unwomanly Face
[author:Olga Toka..."
Nice.
Annette, I wish I had tips to pass on, but I'm struggling to fill any other countries right now. Mind you, I haven't checked what I've been reading lately, so you never know, I might have crossed some more off unintentionally.
This is a really cool idea. :) You don't get the satisfaction of finishing it, but it gets you to branch out a bit, which I'd like to do. I suppose most of my reading is British and North American, with some French (usually translated) and Russian (always translated - I don't speak Russian) at this point.
Really liked this Aleksijevič Svetlana from Belarus - I read Voices from Chernobyl. Highly recommend it! That Nobel Prize is totally deserved!Ugrešić from Croatia was a bit too whiney; I can only bear so many essays about it being hard being a female writer from an uncool country...
So this is looking pretty good... Shall aim to add Finland and Poland, soon - and then I guess it's time to look at some other parts of the world!
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My Map Here
Kathy, that's great progress!I really have neglected this challenge lately. I'm off to find one or two books that I can read for it.
Anetq wrote: "Really liked this Aleksijevič Svetlana from Belarus - I read Voices from Chernobyl. Highly recommend it! That Nobel Prize is totally deserved!Ugrešić from Croatia was a bit too whiney; I can only..."
You're doing fantastic with Europe. I've been wanting to read something about Chernobyl recently, so I'll check that out.
Joining this one with the map made up from books I've already read, by author nationality.Currently 35 countries.
It's not always easy to understand where you can include someone... I've decided not to call people like Rudyard Kipling and Gerald Durrell Indian, although in a way India may be called their home country, and their work shows it. But as to Khaled Hosseini, I counted him as an Afghan.
What do I do about Tove Jansson? Is she to be counted as Swedish, by mother tongue, or Finnish, by citizenship?
With post- (and even during-) Soviet writers I don't hesitate somehow, I just know.
By the way, for those looking at Middle Asia. Chingiz Aitmatov can definitely be counted as a Kyrgyz writer, and some of his best works are translated into English.
Nente wrote: "By the way, for those looking at Middle Asia. Chingiz Aitmatov can definitely be counted as a Kyrgyz writer, and some of his best works are translated into English."Thanks for the tip, my world map is all holes in Asia! And welcome aboard the challenge :)
For Tove Jansson, I'd say she is definitely Finnish (Finland has two official languages, she just belongs to the swedish speakers in Finland).
Anetq wrote: "For Tove Jansson, I'd say she is definitely Finnish (Finland has two official languages, she just belongs to the swedish speakers in Finland)."Yeah, she was Finnish, no question about it.
And thanks! Chingiz Aitmatov has been translated to Finnish, too. Though I doubt the books are easily available. (Doing this challenge would have been so much easier in 1988...)
Tytti wrote: "Anetq wrote: "For Tove Jansson, I'd say she is definitely Finnish (Finland has two official languages, she just belongs to the swedish speakers in Finland)."Yeah, she was Finnish, no question abo..."
In that case, thanks, I've updated the above map.
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Nice one!
Just like Pink, I'm including books both set in a country and authored by someone from that country. (and still, have a lot to go before this is even close to finished ah)
I hate it when you read a book you can use for a challenge and dislike it. However, updated #78 with Australia & India.
Love this idea! I started the Read the World challenge last year, and I also have a vested interest because I teach World Lit. I completed my map by author, 39 so far and MANY to go. It looks like Africa and South America need some attention.R
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Glad you like the challenge & decided to join. Best of luck on finding a variety of books.
Joy wrote: "Love this idea! I started the Read the World challenge last year, and I also have a vested interest because I teach World Lit. I completed my map by author, 39 so far and MANY to go. It looks like ..."How old are your pupils? Is it a university course? I've never had anything like World lit.
Bet that's a great motivation for the challenge! Enjoy your discoveries.
It is a sophomore college level course, taught currently in two parts: ancients-the Renaissance and Renaissance-present. I am currently working on changing that to a three-part course, because 1. I dislike using the European Renaissance as a benchmark for World Lit. as it feels Eurocentric to me.
2. There is WAY too much material to cover. It is so difficult to decide what to include and what to omit.
So much material! I wonder how you make your choices, but it is a really interesting subject to teach, and I'm glad it even exists!
Joy wrote: "Love this idea! I started the Read the World challenge last year, and I also have a vested interest because I teach World Lit. I completed my map by author, 39 so far and MANY to go. It looks like ..."Sounds like you're off to a great start. I'm also in another group - the armchair traveler that I think you would enjoy.
For people who make up this challenge based on the book setting.Do read an account of a circumnavigation in the Age of Sail - or any nautical adventures set about 200 years back, actually, because they so often deal in grand sweeps of the Atlantic at least: Spain, Portugal, Cabo Verde, Sierra Leone, Brazil, Chile, then South Africa again...
Inspired by a reread of Aubrey-Maturin series.
I am only counting books when the author grew up in the country, - and wherever I can trying to make sure the book is also set in the country.
Some countries I've read a book from don't show up very well: The Maldives, Vanuatu, The Solomon Islands, Nauru, Kiribati and the Federated States of Micronesia.
I've been working on the challenge this year, but South America needs desperate attention. :)
Wow Zoe! You might like to share some of the titles for the smaller countries. Well, at least, if you found them worthy.
So just a status & reading plan...In Europe I've am slowly catching up in the east (behind the iron curtain) - though I still have ways to go in the former Yugoslavia...
My world now looks like this:
Plan:
I guess I could make this my map look better quickly by reading a few I have lined up:
Romania, Turkey, Greenland & Australia.
Looking for Poland? And Kazakhstan? Any ideas?
And how are your maps doing?
For Poland, I'm always happy to recommend Stanisław Lem. If you're not at home with sci-fi, read his Transfiguration Hospital - a shortish novel set in WWII times.If you like fantasy, you can also try The Last Wish by Sapkowski - a nicely imaginative collection of short stories with overarching plotline - pretty grim in places, but not violent for violence' sake.
The Maldives: Dhon Hiyala aai Alifulhu You can find it online.
Vanuatu: Laef Blong Mi: From Village to Nation
Solomon Islands: The Alternative
Fed States of Micronesia: The Book Of Luelen
Niger: The Epic of Askia Mohammed
Chad: Told by Starlight in Chad
Burkina Faso: The Parachute Drop
Mali: The Fortunes of Wangrin
Sudan: Season of Migration to the North
Mauitania Angels of Mauritania and the Curse of the Language This one is also online free, but seriously needs editing. A doctorate student from Mauritania wrote it. Guantanamo Dairy is also written by a Mauritanian, but as far as I know no part of it is set there.
Mozambique: Sleepwalking Land
Nicaragua: Infinity in the Palm of Her Hand: A Novel of Adam and Eve This one is not set in the country.
That is most of the unusual countries I think. If someone wants to know what book I've read from another country - feel free to ask.
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That's usually the case with authors born before WWI when there were big empires and also colonies. (Anni Polva was born in Petrograd but probably didn't speak much Russian...) Many also wrote in another language that is now spoken in the country in question. I guess you just have to look at the person's ethnicity and the country's history.
Edit: The (too) easy way to fill the map a bit more: http://www.akashicbooks.com/subject/n...