Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

I'm not as well traveled as I'd like to be and therefore I want to start doing a journey of the world (literature).

So this is not a challenge to finish within a year (because I read about 20-30 books a year at the moment. It might take me a while to even find books, I want to read and that are available in a language I know). I could imagine failing this challenge because I'm not able to get a book I can actually read ... so I'll have to figure out, what I will do about it, as I go. If you have any suggestions for countries/territories I haven't found a book for yet, I'll be very glad!

I want to read one book of an author out of every country/territory in the world. Furthermore, I thought of starting with countries that I've been to, which basically means starting with Europe and then working my way around.

This is where I'll take the list from https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lis..., so hopefully it is correct and not discriminating any country.

Overview 3/221
Europe 1/49
Africa 1/56
Carribean, Central and North America 1/41
South America 0/15
Oceania 0/14
Asia 0/46

So apparently the UN is only counting 195 countries in the world, so I might have to check at some point, but I'll do it on the go. Let's call my list "countries and territories" then. https://www.worldometers.info/geograp...

Europe 1/49 - Copied the list on 28.3.2022 out of the link in the first comment - lost the capital cities and some comments, but kept the ** to be able to look up the comments on the wiki page.

1. Albania (Shqipëria)
2. Andorra
3. Austria (Österreich) - Michael Buchinger: Lange Beine, kurze Lügen - Done
4. Belarus (Беларусь)
5. Belgium (Dutch: België, French: Belgique, German: Belgien)
6. Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosna i Hercegovina)
7. Bulgaria (България)
8. Croatia (Hrvatska)
9. Cyprus (Κύπρος)
11. Denmark (Danmark)
12. Estonia (Eesti)
13. Finland (Suomi)
14. France - Christelle Dabos: Les Fiancés de l'hiver
16. Georgia
17. Germany (Deutschland) - Kerstin Gier: Für jede Lösung ein Problem
18. Greece (Ελλάδα) - Athens
19. Hungary (Magyarország)
20. Iceland** (Island)
22. Italy (Italia) - Umberto Eco: Der Name der Rose
23. Kosovo**
24. Latvia (Latvija)
25. Liechtenstein
26. Lithuania (Lietuva)
27. Luxembourg
28. North Macedonia (Македонија)
29. Malta
30. Moldova
31. Monaco
32. Montenegro (Crna Gora, Црна Гора)
33. Netherlands (Nederland)
34. Norway (Norge)
35. Poland (Polska) - Zygmunt Miloszewski: Der Zorn der Vergessenen: Teodor Szacki ermittelt
36. Portugal
37. Romania
38. Russia**
39. San Marino
40. Serbia (Србија)
41. Slovakia (Slovensko)
42. Slovenia (Slovenija)
43. Spain (España) - Carlos Ruiz Zafón: Der Schatten des Windes (Cemetery of Forgotten Books Series #1)
44. Sweden (Sverige) - Fredrik Backman: Und jeden Tag wird der Weg nach Hause länger und länger
45. Switzerland (German: Schweiz, French: Suisse, Italian: Svizzera, Romansh: Svizra)
46. Turkey (Türkiye)
47. Ukraine (Україна) - Yuri Vynnychuk: Im Schatten der Mohnblüte
48. United Kingdom - Rachel Joyce: Miss Benson's Beetle
49. Vatican City** (Italian: Città del Vaticano, Latin: Civitas Vaticana)

To Do:

back up

Africa 1/56 copied the list on 28.3.2022

1. Algeria
2. Angola
3. Benin
4. Botswana
5. Burkina Faso
6. Burundi
7. Cameroon
8. Cape Verde
9. Central African Republic
10. Chad (Tchad)
11. Comoros
12. Republic of the Congo
13. Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire)
14. Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
15. Djibouti
16. Equatorial Guinea
17. Egypt (Misr)
18. Eritrea
19. Ethiopia (Abyssinia)
20. Gabon
21. The Gambia
22. Ghana - Yaa Gyasi: Homegoing
23. Guinea
24. Guinea-Bissau
25. Kenya
26. Lesotho
27. Liberia
28. Libya
29. Madagascar
30. Malawi
31. Mali
32. Mauritania
33. Mauritius
34. Morocco (Al Maghrib)
35. Mozambique
36. Namibia
37. Niger
38. Nigeria - Oyinkan Braithwaite: My Sister, the Serial Killer - Done
39. Réunion**
40. Rwanda
41. São Tomé and Príncipe
42. Senegal
43. Seychelles
44. Sierra Leone
45. Somalia
46. South Africa
47. South Sudan
48. Sudan
49. Swaziland (Eswatini)
50. Tanzania
51. Togo
52. Tunisia
53. Uganda
54. Western Sahara**
55. Zambia
56. Zimbabwe

To Do:

Done:

back up

Caribbean, Central and North America 1/41


Caribbean 0/28 (copied from https://guides.ucf.edu/countries/cari... on 28.3.2022)
1. Anguilla
2. Antigua & Barbuda
3. Aruba
4. Bahamas
5. Barbados
6. Bonaire, Sint Eustatius & Saba
7. British Virgin Islands
8. Cayman Islands
9. Cuba
10. Curaçao
11. Dominica
12. Dominican Republic
13. Grenada
14. Guadeloupe
15. Haiti
16. Jamaica - Marlon James
17. Martinique
18. Montserrat
19. Puerto Rico
20. Saint Barthélemy
21. Saint Kitts & Nevis
22. Saint Lucia
23. Saint Martin**
24. Saint Vincent & the Grenadines
25. Sint Maarten**
26. Trinidad & Tobago
27. Turks & Caicos Islands
28. United States Virgin Islands

Central America 0/7 (copied from https://guides.ucf.edu/countries/cent... on 28.3.2022)
1. Belize
2. Costa Rica
3. El Salvador
5. Honduras
6. Nicaragua
7. Panama

North America 0/6 (copied from https://guides.ucf.edu/countries/nort... on 28.3.2022)
1. Bermuda
2. Canada - Dominique Scali: Les marins ne savent pas nager
3. Greenland
4. Mexico - Silvia Moreno-Garcia: The Daughter of Doctor Moreau
6. United States of America - Ilona Andrews: Clean Sweep Innkeeper Chronicles #1 - Done

To Do:

Done:

South America 0/15 copied the list on 28.3.2022

1. Argentina
2. Bolivia
3. Brazil (Brasil)
4. Chile
5. Colombia - Gabriel García Márquez: Hundert Jahre Einsamkeit
6. Ecuador
7. Falkland Islands**
8. French Guiana**
9. Guyana
10. Paraguay
11. Peru
12. South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands**
13. Suriname
14. Uruguay
15. Venezuela

To Do:


Done:

Oceania 0/14 copied the list on 28.3.2022

1. Australia
2. Fiji
3. New Zealand
4. Federated States of Micronesia
5. Kiribati
6. Marshall Islands
7. Nauru
8. Palau
9. Papua New Guinea
10. Samoa
11. Solomon Islands
12. Tonga
13. Tuvalu
14. Vanuatu

To Do:

Done:

Asia 0/46 copied the list on 28.3.2022
Don't counting the ones, that also were on the European list: Georgia, Russia, Turkey

1. Afghanistan
2. Armenia
3. Azerbaijan
4. Bahrain
5. Bangladesh (বাংলাদেশ)
6. Bhutan
7. Brunei
8. Cambodia (Kampuchea)
9. China - Yu Hua: (To Live/Leben)
10. East Timor (Timor Leste)
11. India - Alka Joshi:The Henna Artist
12. Indonesia
13. Iran
14. Iraq
15. Israel
16. Japan - Haruki Murakami: Hardboiled Wonderland und das Ende der Welt
17. Jordan (Al Urdun)
18. Kazakhstan
19. Kuwait
20. Kyrgyzstan
21. Laos
22. Lebanon (Lubnan)
23. Malaysia
24. Maldives
25. Mongolia
26. Myanmar (Burma)
27. Nepal
28. North Korea
29. Oman
30. Pakistan
31. Palestine
32. Philippines - Rin Chupeco
33. Qatar
34. Saudi Arabia
35. Singapore
36. South Korea
37. Sri Lanka
38. Syria
39. Tajikistan
40. Thailand (Muang Thai)
41. Turkmenistan
42. Taiwan**
43. United Arab Emirates
44. Uzbekistan
45. Vietnam
46. Yemen

To Do:

Done:

back up

one last back up - to be sure

Wow! Definitely finding and reading books from around the world will take time! I think I could tick few from around Europe, Latin America and USA. Hmm... I should check where writers I read are/were from :)

Monika wrote: "Wow! Definitely finding and reading books from around the world will take time! I think I could tick few from around Europe, Latin America and USA. Hmm... I should check where writers I read are/we..."

Yes, that's what I'm doing with my TBR at the moment :) I think I won't be strict on birth place, nationality or current residence. - If I find any connection (not only by family origin but a personal connection of the author), I might still count it. This challenge will be difficult enough anyway haha.

Even for Europe, I'll probably be dependent on recommendations from friends with different language backgrounds.
If you have suggestions, Monika, I'll gladly take them!

For France - Alexander Dumas (classic)
Italy - Umberto Eco
Sweden - Stieg Larsson
England/GB - Philip Pullman, Tolkien, Agatha Christie
USA - Margaret Mitchell and her big story about Scarlett O'hara
Australia - Trudi Canavan, Garth Nix
Colombia - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Peru - Mario Vargas Llosa
Argentina - Julio Cortazar or Jorge Luis Borges
If you like comic books..
Japan - Yukito Kishiro
Belgium - Jean van Hamme

I just finished The Art of war by Sun Tzu ( China)

Hmmm from Poland... Hard to say, depend what you like to read: Andrzej Sapkowski if you are interested in fantasy, Zygmunt Miloszewski or Kataryna Bonds of you prefer crime stories. Malgorzata Musierowicz if you looking something light YA/ teen stuff.

Supposed to be Katarzyna Bonda... My kindle has its own ideas :)

You’re missing many Caribbean countries:
Grenada
Saint Vincent
Saint Lucia
Dominica
Antigua and Barbuda
Saint Kitts and Nevis

Yanique wrote: "You’re missing many Caribbean countries:
Grenada
Saint Vincent
Saint Lucia
Dominica
Antigua and Barbuda
Saint Kitts and Nevis"

Yes, I've wanted to search for the missing countries since the wiki page only said "and many more countries and territories". Thanks!! I'll make sure to add those!

Monika wrote: "For France - Alexander Dumas (classic)
Italy - Umberto Eco
Sweden - Stieg Larsson
England/GB - Philip Pullman, Tolkien, Agatha Christie
USA - Margaret Mitchell and her big story about Scarlett O'ha..."

Thank you! I'll look into those :)

I don't remember to reading any Austrian writer... Who you could suggest?

Little comment for Latin American authors I put on my list, I read them when I was around 20 years old and I had to be in certain mood/ state of mind to understand fully what they wanted to say. Possibly you can try to find someone more modern if I can say that :)

Monika wrote: "I don't remember to reading any Austrian writer... Who you could suggest?"

The (modern) Austrian authors I know are mostly writing humoristic or thriller/crime novels - or both merged together. I usually don't read crime/thriller novels...

Daniel Glattauer is one that is well known in Austria. I remember Gut gegen Nordwind, which has been translated, too. And I wanted to look into Wolf Haas, because a friend recommended him.

Thomas Stipsits is also one, my friends frequently recommend me, but it is not yet translated, but Kopftuchmafia: Ein Stinatz-Krimi is supposedly really great. Although with most of the "funny" crime novels, I'm not sure the jokes would translate well.

I like reading the short stories of Michael Buchinger (genre: comedy - and I'd say some good old Viennese humor) at the moment, but he's not yet has had any of his works translated.

Then of course there are children's book and YA (or rather books for teens) authors Thomas Brezina and Christine Nöstlinger. Maybe you know those?

Monika wrote: "Little comment for Latin American authors I put on my list, I read them when I was around 20 years old and I had to be in certain mood/ state of mind to understand fully what they wanted to say. Po..."

Okay, I'll keep this in mind :) I put some of them onto my list already, because they're available in my online library. But I'll keep my eyes open! :)

Monika wrote: "Hmmm from Poland... Hard to say, depend what you like to read: Andrzej Sapkowski if you are interested in fantasy, Zygmunt Miloszewski or Kataryna Bonds of you prefer crime stories. Malgorzata Musierowicz if you looking something light YA/ teen stuff."

I decided to go with the crime story, since I wasn't into the Witcher novels. Although normally I would rather go for the fantasy novel. ;)

When I was kid we had sci fi stuff to read for lesson. Writer: Stanislaw Lem. Luckily our teacher didn't push for it :) I think we were too young to understand it.

Added writers from your list to my notebook... Maybe it's time to refresh my German :) Didn't use it since uni (over 20 years) LOL!

Monika wrote: "Added writers from your list to my notebook... Maybe it's time to refresh my German :) Didn't use it since uni (over 20 years) LOL!"

I remembered another one, who's got his books translated Marc Elsberg. He writes Science Fiction thrillers.

If you do try reading some books in German and don't understand something, you can message me ;) I want to refresh my French again - it's only been about a 5-year-break for me, and I'm already nervous about it haha so, I totally understand!

For Japan--Haruki Murakami is probably one of the best known speculative fiction writers in Japan--though yeah, like Monika said, there's a ton of manga and light novel writers as well. I've enjoyed Fuyumi Ono and Nahoko Uehashi for fantasy light novels and my favorite manga is 宇宙兄弟 1 Uchuu Kyoudai 1 .

For China, To Live was a really eye opening historical fiction, while I've been wanting to read Broken Stars--a collection of SFF short stories from Chinese authors curated by Ken Liu. And there's always the The Three-Body Problem.

Nirkatze wrote: "For Japan--Haruki Murakami is probably one of the best known speculative fiction writers in Japan--though yeah, like Monika said, there's a ton of manga and light novel writers as wel..."

Sounds great! Thank you!!!

Interesting stuff Nirkatze :) adding to my list :)