Around the World discussion

I am very happy to find this group on goodreads! This year I challenged myself to expand my reading and have been keeping a mental list of settings/origins. It will be nice to put this all down in one place.

These books were read in 2013. I hope to continue my travels through next year as well ;)

1. Russia: Crime and Punishment
2. Italy: The Name of the Rose
3. Czech Republic: Ignorance
4. France: The Count of Monte Cristo
5. China: Lost on Planet China: The Strange and True Story of One Man's Attempt to Understand the World's Most Mystifying Nation, or How He Became Comfortable Eating Live Squid
6. England: Moll Flanders
7. Iraq: The Arabian Nights: Their Best Known Tales
8. Japan: Kafka on the Shore
9. Dominican Republic: The Feast Of The Goat

Spain: Don Quixote (Currently reading)

Hi E! Glad to see you've decided to join us in our travels.

Thanks for the welcome!

I am very much enjoying Don Quixote. :) I am working through this one very slowly as I follow along with an open course: SPAN 300: CERVANTES' DON QUIXOTE. The course has been so much fun! I've enjoyed learning about Spanish history/culture in the 16th century, and this context is helping me to fully appreciate Cervantes's achievement.

Yeah Judy, it really has been fun!

Woohoo! I won a copy of The Almond Tree in a Goodreads giveaway that just arrived today. I am SO looking forward to reading this!

I guess the next stop on my tour will be Israel ;)

E :) wrote: "Woohoo! I won a copy of The Almond Tree in a Goodreads giveaway that just arrived today. I am SO looking forward to reading this!

I guess the next stop on my tour will be Israel ;)"

I just checked out the reviews and it sounds like one I would enjoy. I've put it on my to read list. Thanks.

Lilisa wrote: "E :) wrote: "Woohoo! I won a copy of The Almond Tree in a Goodreads giveaway that just arrived today. I am SO looking forward to reading this!

I guess the next stop on my tour will be Israel ;)"
..."
Duh, it's already on my to read list! At least I'm consistent!

Welcome to Around the World in 52 E. Looks like you've got a lot of good classics on your list...and what a great way to read Don Quixote! Have fun! :)

Thanks for the welcome Amanda! I am still enjoying Don Quixote, the lectures, and other background reading. This really has been a fun way to read the novel, but it certainly makes this into a bit of a project. ;) I think I will take a break after I finish book one--I've convinced myself that this is legit since the two books that make up Don Quixote were originally published 10 years apart. ;)

Lilisa, if you are in the US, there seem to be frequent giveaways of The Almond Tree. There is no current giveaway, but it's worth looking into. Unlike many of the drawings in which hundreds enter to win only a handful of books, the Almond Tree giveaway was for 100 books!

10. Palestine: The Almond Tree

E :) wrote: "Thanks for the welcome Amanda! I am still enjoying Don Quixote, the lectures, and other background reading. This really has been a fun way to read the novel, but it certainly makes this into a bit ..."

I'm glad you are still enjoying it. A break after book one sounds legit to me too. That's a long book!

E :) wrote: "Thanks for the welcome Amanda! I am still enjoying Don Quixote, the lectures, and other background reading. This really has been a fun way to read the novel, but it certainly makes this into a bit ..."

Thanks I will check it out!

11. Austria: Thunder At Twilight: Vienna 1913/1914

12. Tunisia: Karama!: Journeys Through the Arab Spring

13. Egypt: Cairo: My City, Our Revolution

14. Turkey: My Name is Red (TBR September)

How was Lost on Planet China: The Strange and True Story of One Man's Attempt to Understand the World's Most Mystifying Nation, or How He Became Comfortable Eating Live Squid? I just finished reading Troost's Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu and found it quite entertaining. I didn't know he wrote a book about China.

I really enjoyed Lost on Planet China, the book was very entertaining and informative!

I guess I will have to keep an eye out for it at the bookstore and add it to my list for next year.

Feast of the Goat is on my TBR pile. I was going to read it this year, but I read two Julia Alvarez books that deal with that period of time, and couldn't face more of Trujillo.

Cairo is on order at my library - how was it? I started one of his other books before we went cross-country this summer, but didn't get it back out...

I'm also moving (slowly) through Don Quixote - it's been so many years since I've read it, and this year it keeps being referenced in other things I'm reading.

...including The Curtain by Kundera - an amazing book about literature. I am thinking, however, that I picked the wrong Kundera work of fiction. ia m slogging through The Joke. Some bits are great, but the overall book has been a bit of a drag.