Goodreads Ireland discussion

starting plan for 2018 challenge
countries that lie on the lines longitude (meridians) which pass through Ireland

from 10th West to 7th West - 16 countries
Ireland - TBC
🗹 Morocco - The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles
🗹 Mauritania - Angels of Mauritania and the Curse of the Language by Mohamed Bouya Bamba
(got a pointer from Ann Morgan's A Year of Reading the World blog)
🗹 Mali - Book Smugglers of Timbuktu by Charlie English
🗹 Guinea - The Dark Child by Camara Laye
🗹 Liberia - Journey Without Maps by Graham Greene
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha - The Monsters of St. Helena
Antartica - TBC
Norway (Island of Jan Mayen) - TBC
Spain - TBC
Portugal - TBC
Northern Ireland - TBC
Algeria - TBC
🗹 Ivory Coast - Allah is Not Obliged by Ahmadou Kourouma
Faroe Islands - TBC
Scotland - TBC

if it goes OK will add the antipodean meridians to complete great circle
from 170th East to 173rd East - 4 countries
Russia - TBC
Kiribati - TBC
New Zealand - TBC
Marshall Islands - TBC

That's a brilliant idea. Like Ann Morgan, Sophie of Portal in the Pages is also doing the around the world challenge this year. So she may suggestions for some of the more unusual locations.

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2...

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...

Here's her list of books. There's a colour code scheme which I have forgotten.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/o9nzw6cr51y...

cool - thanks Maria

Andy, this is a fantastic challenge! Best of luck with it.

Andy, you are way more ambitious than I am. Happy reading.

Thanks Bookworm with Kids, Susan
hope haven't bitten off more than can chew, should be fun

my Mali book, The Fortunes of Wangrin has fallen through - 2 copies in Irish libraries, both marked as lost :(

Thanks Declan, I'm also on a no book buying challenge on account of full shelves (and not so full wallet), so trying to go with library, but might have to compromise here

not fussy on sequence Declan, will leave until later, hopefully will come through

finished Allah is Not Obliged for Ivory Coast

fictional first person narrative of child soldier wandering between factions and warlords in Ivory Coast and Liberia
tough read
definitely not something I would have picked without the challenge

4 stars

Morroco
The Sheltering Sky

interesting western view of post WWII Africa

4 stars

Mali - Book Smugglers of Timbuktu - 4 stars

fascinating- juxtaposes early European myths about the city and explorers efforts to reach it with modern tale of those struggling to protect historical documents from fundamentalists

Liberia - Journey Without Maps - 2 stars

inter-war colonial view of the region and country - did not get into much detail on this unique country

great autobiographical account of boyhood in Guinea
The Dark Child -5 stars

Andy, I am enjoying your reading challenge. Thanks for sharing so I can live vicariously.