The Next Best Book Club discussion

Our challenge has now moved into it's own group! Follow this link to check us out:

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/5...


New 2011/2012 Challenge Will Be Starting October 1st!!!!!!

(Changes to new challenge are in bold print.)


Around the World in 80 Books Challenge Rules


1. Anyone can participate in the challenge and can join in at anytime. The official start date will be October 1, 2011. The end date will be Sept. 30, 2012.

2. The object of this challenge is to read books that take place in 80 different countries of the world, of your choosing, starting with your home country. During your journey you would have to visit countries within the following 8 regions: North America, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Oceania/Australia. You are welcome to visit Antarctica during your travels, but this is not required since there are few books from here. It will be counted as both a continent and a country.

3. Books must actually take place within the country. Reading a book written by an author from a country does not count unless the book is specifically written about that particular country (example: Paul Coelho is from Brazil, but many of his books have settings in other countries). It is also not necessary that both the author and the book setting are the same.

4. Some books contain more than one location. It is not required that the entire book take place exclusively in that one country. However, a significant portion of the book must be set in the country to get credit. Also, in the case where a book takes place in more than one location, the reader may only take credit for one country (example: In the book “Eat, Pray, Love”, the author’s time is divided between Italy, India, and Indonesia. You may only choose one of those destinations).

5. There are close to 200 recognized countries in the world. However, for the sake of the challenge, you will not be held to using only independent nations. It is perfectly acceptable to using territories, constituent countries, islands, and independent states (not US). If you need some help, here is a handy website: http://worldatlas.com/nations.htm

6. Re-reads are perfectly acceptable, as are audio books.

7. All books must be at least 100 pages in length, or the equivalent.

8. Reporting: Please start a new topic with your name and whether you are a Trekker or a Frequent Flyer. You will make all updates under your own thread. Please state the region (see #2), the country, the book title, and the author during each new post. I will be posting a list of countries and their regions, as well as some book ideas to get you started. Important: You must make a new post with each new addition, bringing your thread to the top of the list. I am unable to tell when a post is edited, and you may subsequently not receive credit for all the books you have read.

9. There will be two different challenge tracts:

1) Trekker (more difficult)

• Assuming that you are using the modes of transportation available during Jules Verne’s’ time, you will travel in consecutive order to countries adjacent to each other or directly accessible over bodies of water. This would follow a logical trip itinerary of circumnavigation, with limited “zigzagging” between destinations.
• You may need to “travel” to a given country more than one time during your itinerary. You can go to any one country as many times as you like, but it will only count once.

2) Frequent Flyer (Easier)

• Even though you still have to start at your country of origin, you are free to travel at random around the globe with no specific route or itinerary.
• You must still visit countries in all 8 specified regions.


BONUS (optional): Countries A to Z. There are countries for every letter except X. Try to include at least one country for each letter of the alphabet during your reading journey! New! I will accept the names of provinces in Canada and China as well as Mexican states for use in the A to Z Challenge. These, however will not count as individual countries in the country challenge.

50 States Bonus Challenge (optional): Read a book from each of the fifty U.S. states

Have fun with this! Hopefully you will visit new and exciting places during this challenge, and even read some books you otherwise might never have read. Please feel free to share your opinions of the books you are reading.

If you are interested in participating, start a new topic with your name. This is where you will post your continuing progress (If you need an example of a way to chart your progress, click on my entry under "Diane - Frequent Flyer").

Previous Challenge Participants Only! For those of you who participated in the 2009/2010 or 2010/2011 challenges who are interested in continuing on to the rest of the world, I have added a separate category. Here you will be able to add onto the countries you have already "visited" and continue forward with your country and/or state count. Any previously unread destinations can be added to both lists. If you read a book from a country you read in the previous year, it will only count toward the 2010/2011 80 country list. (Example: Say the first two books I read are from France and Pakistan. This will be my first book read from Pakistan during either challenge, so I will be able to count it in my 2011/2012 AtWi list AND my continuation of the 2010/2011 list. France, however, is a country of which I read in the 2010/2011 list already, so now I will only be able to claim it in my 2011/2012 AtWi list. It sounds a lot more confusing than it actually is.) If you are planning to add on to last year's list please continue reporting in the same thread you used for this year's challenge.

Fun challenge. I like the "trekker" option.

Just one question to see if I've understood it well, if I want to attempt the trekker challenge, do I have to read the books in order? For example, if I want to start my journey in Greece, then go to Bulgaria, then to Turkey, then Iran, do I have to read a book set in Greece first, then one set in Bulgaria, then one set in Turkey, etc. or can I read them in a random order?

You will need to read them in order, or wait to post them until that leg of your travels is complete. As a Frequent Flyer, you can read the books in any order you choose.

Okay, thank you for clearing that up. :)

Wow this looks really interesting. Not sure if I'll participate, but definitely a neat idea.

Oh I love this! Now I just have to decide whether I can hold up to being a Trekker or if I should just fly... :)

This does sound pretty neat, doesnt it? I know I wont be able to participate, but I will have fun seeing what books everyone is reading for it :)

Diane this challenge sounds wonderful!

Quick question: Is there any restriction on when the book was written or when the events of the story take place? For example, if I am reading a book about the Civil War, can I still count that as a book about the US? Perhaps this is a silly question, but I just want to be sure.

Jessica wrote: "Quick question: Is there any restriction on when the book was written or when the events of the story take place? For example, if I am reading a book about the Civil War, can I still count that as..."

Good question. The book can take place at any time in history, including the future.

Anybody need suggestions for more obscure countries? I've been reading a book by an author from every country and may be able to provide ideas.

Shoshanapnw wrote: "Anybody need suggestions for more obscure countries? I've been reading a book by an author from every country and may be able to provide ideas."

Absolutely! I made a post with a list of countries with some book ideas. Feel free to add to it! I would love to hear what you have found!

I'd like to join in with this challenge. I'll be taking the frequent flyer route!

If you'll point me to your list, I'll see what I can add.

I don't think I could do it but I will def try to read some of the books on this list. I like to read a lot of books about different cultures. Maybe I can add some too!

Shoshanapnw wrote: "If you'll point me to your list, I'll see what I can add. "

I will bump the topic up to the top for you.

Thanks. Impressive list. I will be away for several days but I'll try to add to it when I'm back. I'm reading an author per country and some write about that country while others don't. I immediately see a few suggestions I can make (including, after much searching, Liechtenstein).

Katie wrote: "On the countries A to Z list bonus... Do articles count at the beginning of the title, or can we ignore words like The? I know I'm jumping the gun on this one, but thought I'd ask early on... Thank..."

"The", "A", and "An" do not count, so "The Passion" would count as P and not T.

Katie wrote: "On the countries A to Z list bonus... Do articles count at the beginning of the title, or can we ignore words like The? I know I'm jumping the gun on this one, but thought I'd ask early on... Thank..."

Actually, I misunderstood the question. The A-Z refers to the starting letters of each of the countries (excluding X). So you would read a book (any title) from a country starting with A (i.e. Austria), then B (i.e. Bolivia), and C (China), etc.

Ooohh! I want to do this! I'll be a frequent flyer. Since I just started Little Women (a re-read) this morning, can I count that as my U.S. book? Or do I need to wait until Sept 15th? Actually Water for Elephants is next on my list too, so I'm covered. This is great! Thanks Diane!

P.S. I'm going to invite my sister-in-law to do this too. She might enjoy it.

You can also use Google Maps or/and Google Earth to plan and to plot your trek, adding links to reviews, etc.

This is what it can look like : My Around the world in 80 books map

oh, wait. This doesn't start until next week. I just read a novel set in France, and two set in India, in the last two weeks. Can I include them? Also, what about cookbooks? I know, that's kind of a dumb question, but many cookbooks are like travelogues, and I often read them cover to cover...

Writerlibrarian wrote: "You can also use Google Maps or/and Google Earth to plan and to plot your trek, adding links to reviews, etc.

This is what it can look like : My Around the world in 80 books map

"
wow,that's a very impressive map thing. is that hard to do?

Writerlibrarian wrote: "You can also use Google Maps or/and Google Earth to plan and to plot your trek, adding links to reviews, etc.

This is what it can look like : My Around the world in 80 books map

"

Wow! That's great ~ I'm going to make one too!

It's not hard to use Google Maps. Google Earth is a little more complex but not a lot more.

If you have a Gmail you can create personal maps and share them with other either by link or making them public. You find the Maps button on the Google page and you start looking for the places your books are from, plot a placemarker, add some links, etc to the descriptions and once you start reading you join up the placemarkers. That's it.

Writerlibrarian wrote: "It's not hard to use Google Maps. Google Earth is a little more complex but not a lot more.

If you have a Gmail you can create personal maps and share them with other either by link or making the..."

Okay, so I've created one .. and I figured out how to use the placemarkers, but how to I set them in a specific location? For example, I can see how to set one in Italy, but is there a way to search specifically for city?

Kaliki wrote: "Writerlibrarian wrote: "It's not hard to use Google Maps. Google Earth is a little more complex but not a lot more.

If you have a Gmail you can create personal maps and share them with other eith..."

Never mind. I figured it out .. just had to zoom. :)

Oh, this sounds like such fun! I'd love to do trekker, but I think cause of time I will have to be a frequent flyer...damn school and work :P

Wow, this is becoming bigger than I imagined. A map that you create to track your travel and log your books.... Im almost upset that I wont have time to participate!!!

Cynthia wrote: "oh, wait. This doesn't start until next week. I just read a novel set in France, and two set in India, in the last two weeks. Can I include them? Also, what about cookbooks? I know, that's kind of ..."

The official start date isn't until the 15th. Cookbooks are acceptable to use, as long as they are at least 100 pages long.

What a neat idea! I can't join this particular challenge b/c I have a few too many already going on and am getting a little overwhelmed trying to multi-task and cross-reference them all. However, I am definitely going to keep this in mind and try to do it someday. I love the idea of mapping it as I go too, that's a neat trick - gotta love the wonders of Google!

This looks neat!

Diane,
Can we reiterate that the challenge doesn't start until Tuesday? Looks like maybe some people thought they started already. Thanks :)

I'm going to give this a go, it sounds really fun! Awesome idea.

I'm going to jump in on this also. But definitely as a frequent flyer. Can't wait to see how I can juggle this with other challenges, school and work but what the heck!

Diane wrote: "I made a post with a list of countries with some book ideas. Feel free to add to it! I would love to hear what you have found! "

Diane, I'm going to join as a frequent flyer. Where is your post with the list of countries and some book ideas. That will be a great help. I'm going to set up a new topic now, so I'll be ready to go on 9/15/09! Thanks for setting this up. It's a great challenge!
Karen

Diane, Never mind. I just found the various country lists.

I'm jumping aboard!!!

Question, can you switch from trekker to frequent flyer or vice versa during the challenge? Maybe if became overwhelmed with trekker or fine out you have more time than you thought to do frequent flyer? Just out of curiosity, I didnt notice that anywhere.

Cindy wrote: "Question, can you switch from trekker to frequent flyer or vice versa during the challenge? Maybe if became overwhelmed with trekker or fine out you have more time than you thought to do frequent f..."

Absolutely.

I wanted to be cleared up about one thing. As a trekker if I read a book now that takes place in a country that I'm not adjacent to yet, later in the year when I become adjacent to that country can I then add it? There was a post earlier that made it seem like we could but I'm not sure if it was definitive. Thanks :)

Country of origin...is that birth or where you live now?

Madeline wrote: "I wanted to be cleared up about one thing. As a trekker if I read a book now that takes place in a country that I'm not adjacent to yet, later in the year when I become adjacent to that country ca..."

As a trekker, you need to post them in order of your itinerary.

Tanja wrote: "Country of origin...is that birth or where you live now?"

Tanja,

The country where you live now.

I 'm definetly jumping aboard! What a great idea.I will be a flyer.

I was considering reading Lian Hearn's Across the Nightingale Floor which I have always been told is set in feudal Japan. However today when I was doing some research on it I found out that it seems to be set in a fictional country based on Japan. What do you think? Can this be claimed as Japan or not? I'm not worried either way I just thought I would check before starting it.

Tanya wrote: "I was considering reading Lian Hearn's Across the Nightingale Floor which I have always been told is set in feudal Japan. However today when I was doing some research on it I found out..."

I'm pretty sure the whole series is set in Japan. I would definitely count it as such.

Hello Diane: I've never done any kind of challenge on GR. I'm a very slow reader, but I jumped into this because it looked like a fantastic way to read more books I wouldn't normally read. I joined as a frequent flier and I think it's going to be fun, but I was reading something on another thread about challenges and just wanted to let you know that I'm truly trying to participate even if I don't do well.
I hope that's OK.... (I noticed on the leader board that every one else is region/country but I'm country/region so hope I'm posting correctly)

On Board. Thanks for the challenge.