Travel the World in Books Reading Challenge > Likes and Comments
Here's a site where you can find the names of the countries:http://www.listofcountriesoftheworld....
I'm prob going to do mine by where the authors are from as I have gotten books to read from authors from all over the world including Australia, France, Canada, and the UK thus far. we'll see. I get a bunch of Read 4 reviews from authors from all over the world. and I'd love to read books set in the countries too.
This is similar to an annual challenge I'm doing for another group. That was was set on each of the continents, and I read one fiction and one non-fiction for each. I really enjoyed it and learnt a lot as I went! I am up to my last book there now, so will do this one next year :)
Oh I must go see...What I want to give more thought to this time round is whether the book is set in the country, or whether the author comes from that country. But if I'm not careful it could double the quantity to read!
I think I read a book this year that was set in a fictional UK town but the author who wrote it was from the South of France which was cool so am not sure if that would count for the challenge or not. I've read an Austrailia author's fantasy book too.
I think up to now I've just thought they could be either! So with your book Amber, if the setting is recognisably the UK, even though the names are changed, it could count as that. Also, if the author is French, then it could count for that either.When I read The Book Thief I counted it for my Australian fiction read, even though it was set in Nazi Germany! But the author was Australian, so I reckon it qualified.
My Spot for this challenge:1. Africa-The Queen of Green: A Collection of Contemporary Cautionary Tales from Africa
2.Italy-The Enchanted April
3.Finland-The Year of the Hare
4. Ireland-Angela's Ashes
5. Japan-Memoirs of a Geisha
I'll join this one too. I'll add/update as I go.Started: 2015
1. Australia - Playing Beatie Bow by Ruth Park - 7/1/15
2. The Netherlands - The Diary of a Young Girl by Otto Frank - 9/1/15
3. Canada - White Fang by Jack London - 14/1/15
4. France - Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - 23/4/15
5. America - The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath - 14/5/15
6. England - A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess - 28/5/15
7. Africa - Gorillas in the Mist by Dian Fossey - 1/7/15
8. Sweden - The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson - 8/9/15
This is great and I'd love to join, please. I'll be updating in this thread as I go as well as in my personal thread. :) Travel the World Challenge
Duration: 2015
Read So Far: [12]
Traveling the World Google Map
- Czech Republic: The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera review
- Ecuador: Galápagos by Kurt Vonnegut review
- Egypt: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry review
- England: Middlemarch by George Eliot review
- France: The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery review
- India: A Passage to India by E.M. Forster review
- New Zealand: The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton review
- Nigeria: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe review
- Russia: Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol review
- USA: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides review
- Wales: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs review
- Zimbabwe: We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo review
Amber wrote: "Go ahead Ariel and have fun. :)"Thanks! Oh, do we have a master map btw on Google Maps for this? That might be pretty cool if everyone used different colored markers.
Stephanie wrote: "Ariel, love how you have yours set up with the map and reviews!!! You may have inspired me to expand me challenge!!! I have to check out how to do the map though..."Thank you, Stephanie! That's great and let me know if I can help. It took me a bit to figure it where I could put everything.
Amber wrote: "I am not for sure Ariel. LOL. :)"Haha, no worries. It might be too much to ask everyone to add as they go. But a cool idea for some time maybe.
Updated message 28 with a trip to Wales yesterday in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs.
I did a form of this challenge last year and it was a great way to discover new authors I don't think I would have even considered! Glad that this group is instituting -- may try it again after I finish a couple of the challenges I've already started.
Updated message 28 with Zimbabwe by way of We Need New Names. I'd say only 50% of the book takes place in Zimbabwe though it's a recurring point of referral for the entire book.
I've been working on this as a yearly challenge in another group. Here is what I've read so far. Continents 7/7
*Europe*
1. UK - England - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 1/4/15
2. Russia - St. Petersburg Angelopolis 1/26/15
3. Czech Republic - Prague - Daughter of Smoke & Bone 2/25/15
4. Italy - Florence - An Appetite for Violets 3/16/15
6. France - Code Name Verity 4/12/15
7. Poland - The Book of Life 5/24/15
8. Denmark - The Copenhagen Connection 6/20/15
9. Iceland - Burial Rites 8/12/15
*North America*
1. USA - The Notebook 3/3/15
*Australia*
1. New South Wales - Sydney - Big Little Lies 4/14/15
*Asia*
1. China - Snow Flower and the Secret Fan 5/20/15
2. Japan - A Tale for the Time Being 6/3/15
3. India - The Marriage Plot 7/30/15
*South America*
1. Chile - Maya's Notebook 6/8/15
2. Ecuador - Nights in Rodanthe 8/13/15
*Antarctica*
1. Antarctica - South Pole Where'd You Go, Bernadette 7/8/15
*Africa*
1. Egypt - The Alchemist 8/14/15
Does anyone still want to do this one? Just curious.
Starting this new for 2016. 1. Australia - The Rosie Project - 1/12/16
2. Europe - UK - London, England - Library of Souls - 2/23/16
3. Europe - Germany - Rose Under Fire - 3/18/16
4. Africa - Morocco - Days of Blood & Starlight 4/30/16
5. Europe - France - The Girl You Left Behind 6/4/16
6. Europe - Spain - Barcelona - The Shadow of the Wind 7/27/16
7. North America - Canada - Anne of Avonlea 9/15/16
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Is anyone still doing this one? Just curious. Am moving it to the archived challenges but keeping the thread open.
Having recently started keeping track, on the Literary Roadtrip Across the USA challenge, of how many U.S. states are represented in the settings of books I've read, I thought it might be fun to do the same for countries of the world. Again, I'm treating this as an open challenge; I'll start by filling in books I've read already, as appropriate, and then gradually add other countries to the list as I read individual books. And again, I'm only reading books I'm actually interested in --not picking titles just because they're set in a country I haven't "visited." :-) (I'll be trying to pick books set entirely or at least mostly in the indicated country, not those set in multiple countries.)Antarctica --At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft
Australia --Best Australian Short Stories, ed. by Douglas Stewart and Beatrice Davis
Austria --Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Canada --Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
China --The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
Cuba --Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
Denmark --Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Egypt --Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters
England --Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
France --The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
Germany --A Handful Of Dominoes by James Leonard Johnson
Greece --Lysistrata by Aristophanes
Holland --Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge
Hungary --The Secret Ways by Alistair MacLean
India --The Dark Horse by Rumer Godden
Ireland --The Distant Tide by Heather Day Gilbert
Italy --The Marble Faun by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Jamaica --Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton
Japan --A Warm Rainy Day in Tokyo by Kana Wu
Kenya --A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiongo
Laos --The Edge of Tomorrow by Thomas A. Dooley
Mexico --Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Morocco --The Serpent's Daughter by Suzanne Arruda
Nigeria --Miss Knight and the Night in Lagos by Vered Ehsani
Norway --Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset
Peru --The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
Russia --The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Scotland --Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
Spain --Crown of Aloes by Norah Lofts
Sri Lanka --Paradise Revisited by Shane Joseph
Switzerland --Heidi by Johanna Spyri
Thailand --Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I: The Complete Book and Lyrics of the Broadway Musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein
Tibet --Tibet: Being the Recollections and Adventures of the Hermit Called Small Ears by Gil Ziff
Ukraine --Zrada by Lance Charnes
United States --The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Wales --Hood by Stephen R. Lawhead
Zanzibar --Devil Dance by Suzanne Arruda
Werner wrote: "Having recently started keeping track, on the Literary Roadtrip Across the USA challenge, of how many U.S. states are represented in the settings of books I've read, I thought it might be fun to do..."Nice!
This is a cool challenge. We did a similar one a couple years ago in another group. I guess this is still ongoing, so I may start this month or in January.
Travel the World in Books Reading Challenge ✔ Afghanistan - A House Without Windows by Nadia Hashimi -- November 2017
✔ Canada - Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery -- October 2017
2020
✔ Algeria - The Attack by Yasmina Khadra - Algerian author - November
✔ Czech Republic - The House on Prague Street by Hana Demetz
✔ Italy - Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman - August
✔ Papua New Guinea - Four Corners: A Journey into the Heart of Papua New Guinea by Kira Salak - June
✔ United States - Gidget by Frederick Kohner - June
✔ Russia - The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden - July
✔ Spain - The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
✔ Syria - Come, Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie - July
✔ Switzerland - To Be Read at Dusk by Charles Dickens - August
✔ Vietnam - The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien - June
This particular challenge had been archived. However, because I'm continuing to occasionally update my post (message 26) as I add books set in new-to-me countries, and because I think others might join in if this thread were more easily found, I've just taken the liberty of moving it back into the Book Challenges folder.
I abandoned this challenge some time ago, but have decided to start again. (message 28)
Good idea, Werner, I was not even aware of the challenge.
I did this one year many years ago for a year with a different group, and it would be fun to do again. Thanks, Werner.
Me too, Connie!I register books on GR shelves which indicate where the book is set. That way, if you are looking for a book set in a particular country you can search on that country's shelf. Maybe this will help others find books for the challenge. Feel free to checkout my shelves.
I think this is a great challenge! Thanks for making it a current one Werner :)
Glad that it struck a responsive chord with some folks, Jean!
Chrissie wrote: "Me too, Connie!I register books on GR shelves which indicate where the book is set. That way, if you are looking for a book set in a particular country you can search on that country's shelf. May..."
That's really handy, Chrissie! Thanks. (I sometimes remember to include the location of the books I read, but I didn't do it originally. I'll try to do that more in the future.)
I started this challenge in 2020.2020: 14 countries
2021: 6 new countries
2022: 8 new countries
2023: 10 new countries
2024: 4 new countries
2025: 4 new countries
Total: 46 countries
Afghanistan - Forgotten War by Don Bentley - Apr 2023
Algeria - Dark Memory by Christine Feehan - Aug 2023
Antarctica - Whiteout by Adriana Anders - 2020
Argentina - Dreidel To The Grave by Yoel Bereket - Apr 2021
Australia - Blazing Fear by Leisl Leighton - 2020
Azores (autonomous region of Portugal) - Crash and Burn by James Rollins - 2020
Brazil - The Medusa Protocol by Rob Hart - Jun 2025
Bulgaria - The Balkan Escape by Steve Berry - 2020
Canada - The Last High by Daniel Kalla - 2020
Cuba - The Chaos Agent by Mark Greaney - Feb 2024
Czechoslovakia (1920s) - The Affliction of Praha by Simon Gillard - 2020
Denmark - The Shadow Murders by Jussi Adler-Olsen - Sep 2022
El Salvador - Quantum Tempest by Mike Maden - Nov 2025
England - A Death in Chelsea by Lynn Brittney - 2020
Finland - The Last Grudge by Max Seeck
France - Straight Shot by Jack Lively - 2020
Germany - The Kaiser's Web by Steve Berry - Jan 2021
Ghana - Sentinel by Mark Greaney - Jun 2024
Greece - Last Seen in Santorini by Vivian Conroy - Jan 2023
Iceland - Cold Fear by Brandon Webb and John David Mann - April 2022
Ireland - The Woman Outside My Door by Rachel Ryan - 2020
Israel - Cave 13 by Jonathan Maberry - Aug 2023
Italy - The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco - Mar 2021
Japan - Blast Wave by Leo J. Maloney - Nov 2022
Korea (Joseon dynasty) - A Song for Lonely Wolves by Lee Evie - 2020
Lebanon - Dead Drop by M.P. Woodward - May 2023
Lithuania - Three-Edged Sword: A Novel by Jeff Lindsay - Nov 2023
Mexico - The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas 0 March 2022
New Zealand - Quiet in Her Bones by Nalini Singh - 2020
People's Republic of China - Thief of Souls by Brian Klingborg - Mar 2021
Peru - The Recovery Agent by Janet Evanovich - Oct 2025
Russia - The Witch and the Tsar by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore - Sep 2022
Saudi Arabia - The End of October by Lawrence Wright - Nov 2023
Scotland - Who's That Earl by Susanna Craig -2020
Serbia - The End by James Patterson and Brendan DuBois - Dec 2023
Sri Lanka - You're Invited by Amanda Jayatissa - Jul 2022
South Africa - Bargain with the Devil by F.J. Chase - Jul 2022
Spain - The Last Hope by Susan Elia MacNeal - May 01, 2024
Sudan - Rogue Asset by Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson (more than 50% of the book takes place in Sudan) 2021
Sweden - In the Name of Truth by Viveca Sten - 2020
Switzerland - Hard Exit by J.B. Turner - Nov 2023
Tanzania - Blood Oath: An Alex Martel Thriller by Steve Urszenyi - Nov 2025
Thailand - Death Stake by Andrew Mayne - Oct 2024
Turkey - Snow by Orhan Pamuk - Jan 2021
Ukraine - Hostile Intent by Don Bentley (more than 50% of the book takes place in Ukraine)- Mar 2022
United States - A Drop of Magic by L.R. Braden - 2020
You're off to a good start, Pam! I'm keeping track of my list in message 26, and I'm up to 30 countries now; but you have a couple of countries represented that I don't have yet. (Since this isn't a time-limited challenge, and I wanted to include a complete "map" of my reading over my lifetime, when I first posted I went back all the way to my childhood for books read. That's the main reason why I have as many countries on the list as I do. :-) )
This looked really interesting so I thought I'd join.America- It
Canada- Obasan
Mexico- Gods of Jade and Shadow722]
Japan- Shinjuku Shark
France- The Nightingale
England- The Other Boleyn Girl
Afganistan- A Thousand Splendid Suns
Sweden- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Germany- Naoki Urasawa's Monster, Volume 1
Scotland- A Double Death on the Black Isle
Denmark- Number the Stars
Italy- Beneath a Scarlet Sky
Russia- The Bear and the Nightingale
India- A Walk Across the Sun
Ghana- Homegoing
Pakistan- I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban
Thanks to these last few posts, I remembered that I had read books from both Russia and the United States. So that is two more to my list, message 28.
Werner wrote: "You're off to a good start, Pam! I'm keeping track of my list in message 26, and I'm up to 30 countries now; but you have a couple of countries represented that I don't have yet. (Since this isn't ..."Thanks, Werner. I went back to the first of 2020. I haven't yet tried to go back any further and I only included books that were single country. There are a few more that I read this year that take place across multiple countries and I wasn't sure how to handle those. Any suggestions?
Pam, good question! For myself personally, I've tried to include just books that take place entirely, or at least mostly, in the indicated country. I didn't make the standard too rigid --The Three Musketeers, for instance, has one episode that takes place in England, but France is certainly the main setting. But I didn't list The Mysteries of Udolpho for Italy; I've read it, and it takes place partly in Italy, but about as much of it is set in France. (Hope that provides some help!)
Amber wrote: "I'm prob going to do mine by where the authors are from as I have gotten books to read from authors from all over the world including Australia, France, Canada, and the UK thus far. we'll see. I ge..."Amber, I like the idea of tying author with the country setting. It makes more sense to me this way (where the author is either a native of or at least has strong ties to the country in question).
Werner wrote: "Pam, good question! For myself personally, I've tried to include just books that take place entirely, or at least mostly, in the indicated country. I didn't make the standard too rigid --The Three ..."That helps, Werner! Thanks.
Here's my list (tentative):Canada - The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy
China - Dragon Seed by Pearl S. Buck
England - London by Edward Rutherfurd
France - Germinal by Émile Zola
India - Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry
Spain - The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Russia - One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
I am not doing this challenge, but stumbled across the thread. If anyone is interested in a writer from Myanmar (Burma), I strongly recommend Ma Thanegi.
Alice wrote: "Amber, I like the idea of tying author with the country setting. It makes more sense to me this way (where the author is either a native of or at least has strong ties to the country in question)."Less than half of the entries on my list (12) are books written by an author who was actually born in, or very closely associated with, the country where they're set. I like the idea of having a challenge that relates specifically just to the countries where the book takes place; that seems more in keeping with the "travel the world in books" theme.
And yet --I also like the idea of having a (separate) challenge to read books by authors who are actually from other countries (by birth, or by very long residence). That's partly because my own reading has tended to be overwhelmingly of books by either American or British authors; so a challenge that encouraged me to expand my range would be good for me! (Some entries in the two challenges, if we created this second one, would be the same; but many wouldn't --authors don't always set their work in their own countries, and they may set tales in multiple countries in one book.) What do you all think?
Werner wrote: "Alice wrote: "Amber, I like the idea of tying author with the country setting. It makes more sense to me this way (where the author is either a native of or at least has strong ties to the country ..."Werner, I've just scrolled back up to message #1 and it says:
"Travel the world in books, of course! Expand your horizons and read books set in or written by authors from countries other than the one you live in. Visit as many different countries in books as you wish."
It would seem to me there's no need to open another thread.
My own two cents in message #45 were offered on the assumption that when one travels to a foreign country, one would welcome the help of a local guide who's familiar with the local language, customs and culture etc.
Ah, I see now where this thread gives the option of books set in different countries or authors from different countries. I did not see that before and am just doing books set in different countries. But it would be great to do authors from different countries too. Two separate threads might make it more clear. Either way is good. But I am not ready to participate in another challenge yet.
Travel the world in books, of course! Expand your horizons and read books set in or written by authors from countries other than the one you live in. Visit as many different countries in books as you wish.
This is done at your own pace.
Determine how many countries you would like to read about during your adventure. What criteria are you using to determine the number of countries you read about (ex. book setting, author background or both)?
How will you track the countries you visited in books? You could create a map in Google Maps, track on a list you create yourself or on a Goodreads shelf.
Determine your book list or genre if you like. Will you be listing specific books you would like to read? Do you aim to read fiction, nonfiction or a mixture of both?
"arrivederci", "bon voyage", "sayonara" Au Revoir and enjoy your travels!