Around the World discussion

I started this new thread because I’m having a profound moment and there was nowhere else to talk about it.

Last year, I think, we were discussing the film Lion and the book upon which it was based, A Long Way Home. We also had a chat about Anh Do and his TV series, Anh’s Brush With Fame.

Well, this week, the two have intersected and I’ve just watched Anh interview and paint Saroo Brierly. Wow! Just wow! I’m not sure whether I want to watch the movie again, re-read the book, or adopt a child. What an amazing story that is.

Once again I am reminded that real life is so often more fantastic than any fiction.

Thx for sharing Andrea. Yes, we were, and coincidentally a group of us are going away for a weekend in August. We’re reading the book (re-reading for me) and then watching the movie (re-watching!) the movie together so we can discuss it. Okay, I’m not adopting a child! :-) I might have to suggest reading Anh Do’s book together, although we don’t get his series here. What a great intersection!

Yay for random thought threads. I didn't catch Brush With Fame this week, but I will check it out Andrea. Thanks for the heads up!

Lilisa, you can probably find some episodes on youtube. Or if anyone has a VPN that can route through Aus (PIA VPN has some Aus routes), you can watch on https://iview.abc.net.au/show/anh-s-b...

I’ve been in such a reading slump for several months. I got a huge book from the Library in January this year, maybe 900+ pages. Written by Armistead Maupin, “Return to Barbary Lane” was Book 7-9 of a long series. I was thoroughly enjoying it and then I hit the “Reading Wall”. I had it reissued every month and only finished it last week when I was on holiday!!!!!!

Anyway, back into Goodreads recently I saw a recommendation from someone and I can’t remember which topic it came under, Maybe Where InThe World. Anyway, I ordered the book, despite the fact I have a stack of 50 or more waiting TBR.

The book in question is set in Turkey/Greece, it is called The Golden Letter, by Lena Manta. It’s a family saga covering early 1900 to 2016. I’m enjoying the story immensely and the history of that era as I’ve read a few of Louis Berniece’s books set in that area and time frame and loved them.

Lena Manta also wrote “ The House by the River” also Set in Greece which I’ll try to get to eventually.

Thank you whoever led me to this book and I’m sorry I can’t remember the name. I’m determined to get back my Reading Mojo and reduce my TBRP before this time next year.

Carol wrote: "I’ve been in such a reading slump for several months. I got a huge book from the Library in January this year, maybe 900+ pages. Written by Armistead Maupin, “Return to Barbary Lane” was Book 7-9 o..."

Great to hear you’ve got your mojo back, Carol! Actually I think Claire was reading The Gold Letter recently, and I thought it sounded really good too. Now with your recommendation I’ll need to track it down soon. I haven’t been to Greece so far this year 😁

Thanks Andrea and thanks to Claire for the recommendation. Hopefully, I shall be commenting a lot more as I progress through my reading pile.

Welcome back to the reading world, Carol! Good to know you enjoyed The Gold Letter. I have The House by the River - need to get to it some day.

Well, here it is 1st of September. Is anyone else, like me, already thinking of themes or plans for next year’s literary travels? 😆

Time and tide wait for no man! Continued attempts to knock off the oldest books on my TBR from around the world and focus on more translated books. How about you?

I've got a couple of ideas bubbling away. One really lends itself to ATW, and that's the theme of food; cooking, eating, selling, growing, catching. I've already started to compile a bit of a mental list, and I've set a couple of books aside recently when I started them and realised they were going to have a food focus. The other one is gothic fiction, which might work better for my personal challenge rather than ATW, although it might be interesting to see what I can find that intersects.

We have a thread that someone started about food - it might have been you?..have a few.

I couldn’t help myself - I’ve just spent half an hour building a food shelf. It contains both Read and TBR titles. I’ll add any specific recommendations to the food thread as I go.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...✓

Great list - I'm stealing! I don't always remember my food tag but did remember to for With the Fire on High - it's a great read too - it's YA, which I generally don't do much but Elizabeth Acevedo I love. You may want to check it out. I think you'll enjoy it.

Lilisa wrote: "Great list - I'm stealing! I don't always remember my food tag but did remember to for With the Fire on High - it's a great read too - it's YA, which I generally don't do much but [..."

It sounds good - added!

👍 fingers crossed!

I decided to pace myself with the Kathmandu book shopping, so today I’ve only been to Vajra, the little shop owned by the publisher Vajra Books. But I bought 3 books! It’s little, but they stock some real gems and I love the randomness of their shelving.

I bought Seasons of Flight (Nepal), which was on my TBR, Murder in the Monastery (Sikkim) which I just picked up and thought sounded quite good, and finally Voices in the Dark: A Century of Classic Nepali Stories about Women (Nepal), a new Vajra publication recommended by the owner.

Tomorrow I plan to while away an hour or two at Pilgrims. I had a good trawl through their kids’ section at the start of my trip, but this time I’ll be looking for books for myself.

Sounds wonderful, Andrea. Enjoy the book hunting, and the surrounds!

Andrea wrote: "I decided to pace myself with the Kathmandu book shopping, so today I’ve only been to Vajra, the little shop owned by the publisher Vajra Books. But I bought 3 books! It’s little, but they stock so..."

Nice haul, Andrea. Murder in the Monastery sounds interesting.

A typical random grouping of books at Vajra:

Just checking in - keen to know how all members are coping with our strange, new world.

Here in Australia, although different states have different rules, I think it’s fair to say that each and every day is bringing a new level of urgency to the way we are dealing with the situation. For example, in Victoria, all entertainment venues are now closed, but I’m still allowed to go outside for a walk/run provided I observe the social distancing guidelines. This afternoon I intend to do just that, because by tomorrow I may no longer be able to.

I always thought when it came to this that I’d be happy to sit inside and read without guilt. But I’m finding it difficult to concentrate, with one eye on the page and the other watching the TV news for the latest updates. So rather than burrowing into the latest Mantel, I’m thinking of sticking to crime and some lighter reading material for the time being.

What’s happening in your part of the world? And more importantly, are you OK?

We have a similar situation here in the Netherlands. All restaurants, cinemas, and schools are closed, and events are canceled. Everyone is asked to work from home when possible, so I've been doing that for a week now. It's not my first time working from home, but I must say doing it for a whole week is different than a sporadic one day at home. It can be quite boring at home, and I kinda miss my colleagues (never thought I'd say that ;)).

Unfortunately not everyone seems to understand the urgency of the situation. Last Saturday, the weather was nice and the beaches and parks were full of people!

On Sunday the municipality closed down some parking garages near the beach and set some police officers to discourage people who drove to the beach, but they couldn't do much more than that because there are no rules that forbid people to go.

Lots of ministers and mayors are not amused with this behavior. We'll see if this will lead to a total lockdown or not (I certainly hope not!).

Stay safe everyone!

Vya wrote: "We have a similar situation here in the Netherlands. All restaurants, cinemas, and schools are closed, and events are canceled. Everyone is asked to work from home when possible, so I've been doing..."

A similar thing happened here at Bondi Beach on the weekend - hundreds (thousands?) of people crowding the beach to enjoy the good weather. It’s been a major factor in the escalation of our shutdown. And today all the restaurants and cafes closed, only allowed to offer takeaway. When I went for my very solitary run this afternoon I walked past a group of about 20 people sitting together on the steps of a closed public monument, eating from their Uber Eats paper bags! I can only assume these people are not watching the news.

Yeah. Some people don't seem to understand the impact of their behavior for others. The longer this virus goes on, the more devastating the impact will be, for the people in the risk groups, but also for the economy.

All good here in Canberra, Aus. We are making the decision whether to start working from home or not. I think my office will rotate through one or two people per day actually on campus. But so far, okay. Schools are moving to pupil free days tomorrow for the two weeks before Easter holidays. I think people will start going a little stir crazy once everyone's been locked in the house for a while.

Mind you, seeing we spent over 30 days of summer unable to go outside due to hazardous air, I think us Canberrans may be ahead of the game on this whole isolation thing.

The hardest hit states so far here in the U.S. are Washington State (first state to see COVID-19 hit), California and New York State. State, county, and local government officials are issuing varying degrees of shelter in place/stay at home, gathering of no more than xx people allowed, social distancing, etc. In the last week, many states have issued shelter in place or stay at home orders - only allowed out for essential services such as groceries, checking on loved ones, or working in essential services such as healthcare, infrastructure, groceries, etc. Like what you both said, it’s astounding how people are not observing the social distancing and stay at home rules - the beaches were packed over the last couple of weekends and many mayors of beach and coastal towns have had to institute bans on visitors giving anyone other than local residents 24 hours to leave. The photos of packed beaches were shocking. Most folks who can are working from home - those whose jobs don’t allow them to have had to be laid off :-(, restaurants and most stores are closed, and thousands already have filed for unemployment. And then of course there’s the typical squabbles and pointing of fingers - the fed and the states, and within states between governors and large city mayors as you see in New York State, etc. Most importantly, there are all those who are working tirelessly and around the clock - healthcare workers and all of those supporting that infrastructure, public health officials, and a host of others, as well as many who are performing acts of kindness and generosity in their communities.

I'm in the San Francisco area, and my county is one of the hardest hit. I walk in a nearby off-leash dog park that's 23 acres and everybody is social distancing. We're lucky that our area is mostly low-density housing (single family or apts with just a few units) so there's not a huge population descending on a local park. My heart bleeds for high rise apt. dwellers in the big cities.

Watching the dogs play with each other is such great relaxation therapy. So is petting other peoples' dogs, although fewer people are doing that now. My two dogs are big social butterflies, so I've started rubbing down their heads and backs with disinfecting wipes when we get home.

Rusalka wrote: "seeing we spent over 30 days of summer unable to go outside due to hazardous air, I think us Canberrans may be ahead of the game on this whole isolation thing..."

I hadn’t thought of that 😝

After the fiasco of the queues of people waiting to sign up for unemployment benefits yesterday, it was really heartening to see some positive changes around workforce movement today. Hopefully a lot of the people who have lost their traditional jobs can be shifted into the new areas where people are desperately needed 🤞

My uni just shutdown this arvo until July, so working from home. It will be an interesting time...

Wow until July! That’s major.

Well, end of June. Next date in is July. But this is the start date of our Semester 2 (remember us Aussies start our academic year in Feb).

But it's a daunting timeline!!

Ah, got it, but who knows...

So I have a few questions, but I'm not sure where to put them so I'll just put them here to start with at least. Since it's not fair for me to ask somewhat personal questions without answering myself I've put my answer alongside them. Although I don't feel that any of them are breaking any rules of the group, Goodreads, or moral conduct.

1. What age or about what age were you when you started your Around the World Journey?

My answer: I'm in my early 20s and I just started planning my journey a few days ago. While I have read a few books by authors in other countries, I would say that 95% or more of the books that I have read in my lifetime have been by American authors.

2. On your Around the World Journeys so far what have been your favorite countries that you have visited and/or books that you have read? If you haven't been on your Around the World Journey for very long which country and/or book are you most looking forward to visiting/reading?

My Answer: I'm not sure exactly how to word my answer to this question since mine isn't exactly due to the enjoyment I'll get. It also isn't a country that I would ever want to visit in my lifetime due to what would happen if I did. However, I would like to learn about North Korea.

3. How do you decide on what countries to visit if you don't plan to visit any place in real life soon?

My answer: While I'm not exactly sure of the answer to this question yet and this is in fact part of the reason that I am asking it, I'll do my best. First I listed all the UN members and observers. Then I eliminated ones that had less than 500,000 people before finally making groups of countries. These groups were meant to incorporate countries that had between 500,000 and 1 million residents. However, I chose to add back in places that had less than 500,000 people if they fit in one of the groups. Unfortunately I still have more groups and places than I can read books for in a year. Therefore, I would like to know how other people choose to hopefully get a few ideas.

4. Is there a place where we can make lists that correspond to countries we would like to visit in later years?

My Comments I don't know the answer to this question at all but I'll explain why I'm asking the question. First there are a number of books that correspond to another country that I plan to read in a later year. Second, I feel it would be a lot easier to have my books for later years in a post rather than on a bookshelf or on the same post as the books that I plan to read this year. Third, it seems like many users of this group do multi-year journeys so it may be helpful to them as well and not just myself. :)

Rachel wrote: "So I have a few questions, but I'm not sure where to put them so I'll just put them here to start with at least..."

Some interesting questions there Rachel. I think I've always been fascinated with other cultures. Even before I was old enough to read, I had a fascination for those collectible dolls in national costume. As I've got older, the more time and money I have for books, the more I have enjoyed reading about our great, wide world. I read a lot of books set in Australia, UK, USA and often seek out books set in India, France and Ireland. I also go through phases - a while back I couldn't get enough of Middle Eastern women's fiction! I'm keeping a map of my literary travels (which is posted in my Personal List) and hope to plug some of the gaps in Africa and South America over the next few years.

Although I like to plan ahead, I choose my next book based on how I feel at the time, which is probably why I keep gravitating back to the same countries over and over.

As to your last question, feel free to manage your Personal List however you like. If you want to document your plans for future years, you can post your ideas in your Personal List thread, then next year just pick them up and paste them into 2021. The way this year is going, I think my 2020 plans are likely to roll over, so that's what I'll be doing.

Thanks for the two reply message posts that you sent tonight. I've loved being a part of this group so far and I'm excited to continue my journey with other book lovers who want to expand their horizons. Also another shout out to Karen who has provided a lot of help by answering most of my questions and who I've already "stolen" a few books from that she has read. We seem to have similar tastes in literature and I hope that I've helped her too. I know she already is looking into one of the books that I've read Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn

In my quest to find other groups that fit my needs I ran across another group. They are called Pick a Shelf. While they have several challenges, mostly for getting your TBR actually read, I was particularly intersted in one challenge, Bookopoly. Basically it takes the dice roll and the concept of landing on different squares meaning different things and applies it to TBR lists. It's a bit complicated but it sounds like a lot of fun. Since dice rolls will be making some of the decisions for me I mostly need to figure out between 30 to 90 books that I want to read and add them to a shelf. Most of these books will be ATWs but I few in a couple that I recieved as recommendations as well. I think it will provide a good compromise between choice fatigue and reading what I want. The later of which shouldn't prove much of a challenge.

Anyways, thanks again both to you and Karen for the welcome and help. I'm sure we'll "meet" again on our journeys.

Hi Rachel, welcome to the group!
Interesting questions, great to get to know each other better. :)
Here are my answers:

1. What age or about what age were you when you started your Around the World Journey?

I've only started a couple of years ago, so when I'm around 40 years old.
I must say, when I was (muuuch) younger, I read much wider than after. Many children books are from Scandinavian authors, and besides that, I've read a lot of Asian books also.
After college, I hardly read any fiction anymore, and only began to pick it up again when I got interested in writing.

2. On your Around the World Journeys so far what have been your favorite countries that you have visited and/or books that you have read? If you haven't been on your Around the World Journey for very long which country and/or book are you most looking forward to visiting/reading?

I don't really have favorite countries. I guess it all depends on the authors and the genre. I personally enjoyed fantasy, poetry-form story, and memoir. My great recent read are:
- Cuba The Firefly Letters YA poetry
- Malawi The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope memoir
- Somalia Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Journey Of A Desert Nomad memoir
- Vietnam Inside Out & Back Again middle grade poetry

3. How do you decide on what countries to visit if you don't plan to visit any place in real life soon?

I usually look at which countries I haven't read before, especially from regions/continents I haven't read much, and google it, then add the interesting books to my list. But, like Andrea, the one I actually pick up depends on my mood.

Thanks for your reply Vya. I already have The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope on my ATW to be read list, I think I may have taken it off of yours. I've looked into Desert Flower previously but one sentence makes me a bit concerned. "...for anyone who has ever wondered about the beauty of African life, the chaotic existence of a supermodel, or the joys of new motherhood."-Goodreads summary of Desert Flower
I'm interested in learning about African life but I'm not interested in supermodels and I'm not really in a place in my life right now where the joys of new motherhood interest me either. Do I need to be interested in the second two in order to fully enjoy Desert Flower? Should I hold on to it until I'm a little older, a few years from now, and read it then when I may be more interested? The rest of the summary makes the book sound really interesting and it has great reviews but I'm on the fence.

Those two topics only made a small part of the book, and are mostly included to show her journey into the Western world. It's still interesting how different her perspective is from other models, for example. To be honest, I can't remember much about her motherhood story, so it must have been very trivial.

Vya wrote: "Those two topics only made a small part of the book, and are mostly included to show her journey into the Western world. It's still interesting how different her perspective is from other models, f..."

Thanks for the info. I just added it to my Around the World list. As long as those two things don't compose half the book or more, I think that I will love it.

Question: Are we allowed to make new topics in old folders?

Details: I noticed that you guys used to do group reads. Unfortunately though it seems that the last one was in January and other than that one I don't see any from after 2014. I think it would be a lot of fun to read some of my books with a buddy or a group especially if they want to read books from ATW. Since, many of the books that I have added so far to my list I have "stolen" from other people's lists I think it's possible that others in this group would be interested in reading the same book with me.

I think the best place to add a list of possible buddy or group reads would be in a new topic under the Grouup Reads thread. This way it would be easy for others to let me know that they are interested without cluttering up my personal list Creating a new topic under the Group Reads thread would also make it easy for others to post a list if they have any books that they are interested in doing a group or buddy read for. After a buddy or group read would be decided upon then a new topic would be created with that book to avoid cluttering up the topic/thread with comments on books. The rules of the buddy or group read would likely be decided upon between the buddies/group before the book is started.

If we aren't allowed to do buddy or group reads in the Around the World group does anyone know if another group like this exists? I would still stay active in this group but I would really like to be in a group that does ATW buddy/group reads too. I have found a couple of groups that do group reads but the books are all voted upon by members. I have also found one or two groups that include buddy reads but usually people in both types of groups aren't very interested or at all interested in reading books from around the world. They instead are almost always are only interested in books from the US, UK, and other large countries in the anglosphere. Countries like the Cook Islands, Kirbati, Paulu, Lesotho, and French Guiana? Forget it. :(

Rachel wrote: "Question: Are we allowed to make new topics in old folders?

Details: I noticed that you guys used to do group reads. Unfortunately though it seems that the last one was in January and other than ..."

You are welcome to create new topics in current folders. Anything is fair game - as you probably figured out by now, this group is pretty laissez faire. We all ramble at our own pace. Re: group reads - I think Andrea and a few of us did one a while ago. Someone suggested it and asked if anyone would be interested and off we went - feel free to do the same - there may be folks who’d love to hop on a group read! Hope this helps.

You are welcome to create new topics in current folders. Anything is fair game- as you probably figured out by now, this group is pretty laissez faire."

Thanks for the reply. Yes I have definetly figured out that this group is pretty laissez faire but I know that almost all groups have rules against creating a new topic without pre-approval or asking a moderator first. Therefore, while I figured it was ok, I thought I would just make sure first.

"Group reads...someone suggested it and asked if anyone would be interested and off we went-feel free to do the same"

It's good to know that initiating group activities isn't always dependent upon or available to group mods. I definitely plan to do the same. Thanks for the help.

How many James Patterson/Paterson writers are there? I know that James is a common name, and Paterson is fairly common as well, but even so. Perhaps some people have decided to capitalize on the fact that their name is James Patterson or something similar. I have already found James Patterson James Patterson Jr. James Paterson James Paterson Jr. James Pattersenn Jr James Pattersenn Jr. and James Pattersenn If count the ones with more than ones last name such as James Patterson Smith and James Patterson Miller then there are tons more. Note that there are name repeats, but I tried my best to avoid any profile/person repeats.

I initially thought that James Patterson, the world-famous one, just created a ton of different accounts since I know that he has written a ton of books. However, at least, for the most part, this doesn't seem to be the case as his James Patterson profile lists over 700 books. Some of these are duplicates that he either has a box set for or previews for but by no means all twenty-six pages. Plus, being the world's bestselling author, I don't think he would be able to "get away" with this.

Realizing how many works are on his profile brought another question to mind as well. How many books is an author allowed to have on their Goodreads profile, or is there not a limit? If you have over X amount, do you and your readers need to get super special permission to add more? Finally, one last question. Does anybody know exactly how many books, novels, etc. that the world-famous James has written or co-written? I can't seem to find a straight answer on the internet, most likely because he's written so many and is still writing even more, as shown on his profile.

Rachel wrote: "How many James Patterson/Paterson writers are there? I know that James is a common name, and Paterson is fairly common as well, but even so. Perhaps some people have decided to capitalize on the fa..."

https://www.brighthubeducation.com/ho...

Interesting article...

Do you get frustrated trying to remove stickers from your book covers? I know I do. A little while back TripFiction.com asked its Facebook followers for tips on how to do this successfully, and they've just collated the responses into a blog post.

https://www.tripfiction.com/those-pes...

Do you have a favourite method that's not included?

I usually use double-sided tape. Tap it repeatedly to the residue, after some time, everything will stick to the tape.

These methods are usually suggested in the Netherlands, but I've never tried it myself: nail polish remover, terpentine, and even... peanut butter! :)

Andrea wrote: "Do you get frustrated trying to remove stickers from your book covers? I know I do. A little while back TripFiction.com asked its Facebook followers for tips on how to do this successfully, and the..."

I used to volunteer for our giant literacy association's annual book sale and they would use goo gone on the easier ones but then WD40 and razor blades for the rest. Maybe paint thinner. It did the trick! I got pretty good at the razor blade part.

I sometimes buy used hardcover library books with mylar covers. I can't bear to keep them on and look like a library thief. They're glued to the inside covers and I can find no other way to get them off except to yank, which and rips away some of the paper too. It's not visible from the outside of the book, but it's a sad mutilation anyway. :(

You can do that and then replace the end papers, if it's a boook you really want to look nice. I learned how to do that in a one-day binding/mending workshop.

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "You can do that and then replace the end papers, if it's a boook you really want to look nice. I learned how to do that in a one-day binding/mending workshop."

Duh! I didn't think of replacing the end papers - usually they're just plain anyway.