Around the World discussion

I just saw that underneath your own progress, you can check out the group's progress. Some people are amazingly ahead *cough* Chrissie *cough*.

Is there a way to view the whole group? I can only see the last 50 people to join the challenge (probably since I am one of the last 50).

Diane wrote: "Is there a way to view the whole group? I can only see the last 50 people to join the challenge (probably since I am one of the last 50)."
Not sure. I'm looking here. I see my friends in the challenge first, then "community" members.

Jenny wrote: "Diane wrote: "Is there a way to view the whole group? I can only see the last 50 people to join the challenge (probably since I am one of the last 50)."
Not sure. I'm looking here. I see my friend..."

Wow, I still only see the last 50 (including myself) and no participating friends. Not really a whole lot of progress in the last 50 compared with the other 119 or so. Bummer. Must be another bug...

I am just wondering: if one reads several books for a country, should each one count as a book read? I have NOT done that. I have read several books for a given country, but I only count them as one book for the challenge because they represent one country.

How are other people doing this? Do we count the books or the countries?

Once I have "visited" a country, I have wanted to read more than one book....

I'm counting countries rather than books too, Chrissie. There are countries that I'm continually revisiting. I have visited and revisited those countries before participating in this challenge. I want to try to expand my horizons. So I'm not counting multiple visits to Japan, for example. That wouldn't be satisfying my goal for the challenge.

Shomeret, nice! We reason in the same manner.

Chrissie wrote: "I am just wondering: if one reads several books for a country, should each one count as a book read? I have NOT done that. I have read several books for a given country, but I only count them as on..."

To Chrissie and Shomeret, I do as you do. For the challenge I want to read one book per country, but I have multiple book for the same country on my list. So far I visited 16 country and I have read lot of books I wouldn't have read, if I hadn't entered the 'competion'.

Sylvia, thanks for explaining what you do. Nice to know that my reasoning wasn't off kilter.

Judy, I know we each may do as we like! I love that there are no rules, except for the links. I was simply curious to know what others were doing. Me, I am not worrying about the total. It ends up where it ends up. For me the point is to read books that interest me, not to reach a certain number.

I'm counting each book separately so I feel better about the time I'm spending, but in the end I will reflect both on countries visited and total number of books read. I didn't want to exclude books from my Around the World shelf simply because they weren't the first book I read from a country.

I only count one book per country, even though there are countries that I have read more than one book from. The first book I read from a particular country gets shelved for the challenge, the extra books I type into my posted tbr list. I am trying not to have too many duplicates, but I am finding that harder and harder to do as I read more books. I did count England, Scotland, and Wales separately, even though they are all part of the UK. I had too - there are just too many books from the UK!

Same for me, which is why I'm reading constantly but my count for this challenge isn't increasing at the moment.

Diane wrote: "I only count one book per country, even though there are countries that I have read more than one book from. The first book I read from a particular country gets shelved for the challenge, the ext..."

That's what I'm doing. One book per country for this challenge and then all others read for the same country still go towards the GR challenge, but not towards this one.

Once I'm in a country then I tend to like to stay there a bit and delve deeper into the culture.

Now, once read, I might switch books in a country if I feel that one better meets my goal of learning about it's history and people. Does that make sense?

I am in the process of deleting my excess books per country so now I am back in line with everyone else. I think I have now recorded 18 read books.

Lesley, heck, you didn't have to change your system! As Judy so correctly noted, this is the "only one rule - book link group". I hope it didn't take you tons of time altering methods.

It is fun knowing how others are thinking......

No, it's cool. Now I'm close to my original list which is good as it motivates me to read books which have been on my TBR last year. So it's all good.
I just get distracted by new books....

Great fun to read how everyone is using his/her own idea about traveling around the world and reading books. I love the way my fellow readers fill in this challenge. Already I have found such a lot of interesting books, thanks to all of you.

Lesley wrote: "No, it's cool. Now I'm close to my original list which is good as it motivates me to read books which have been on my TBR last year. So it's all good.
I just get distracted by new books...."

LOL I get distracted by new books, too! :)

I'm just taking this challenge as it happens...I'm reading books that interest me and if they happen to fit in with the challenge then all the better. I know I won't finish it this year, maybe not even next..but I'll have fun on the journey :)

I see the logic of counting countries rather than books. I have now moved any second books from a country off my 'world tour' shelf, so they don't count towards the challenge.

My stats are completely wrong anyway. It says I have read 23 books, which I haven't yet.

Are you shelving them on your shelf for this challenge even if they're not yet read?

Wow! And I reduced my challenge because I couldnt find books that I listed. What was I thinking?! I would go and change that now and hope that I'll be able to fulfil my challenge. I am way way wayyy behind :/

I've about 70 books on my challenge list. I set my challenge stats to 52. So far I read 20 books of different countries, which is shown on my stats. I shelve the books as to-read and challenge-2012 and this works perfectly fine. I put several books of the same country so I can choose, or in case I can't find the book in the Netherlands, but I don't read 2 books for the same country. I leave the second book on to-read.

I chose to go with 52 books by authors born in 52 different countries as my interpretation of the challenge and I am pleased to have read 29 of them so far. The thing that is driving me is the desire to finish the challenge so I can read some other books that are just begging me to read them!

The challenge has left me in two minds, it has lead me to read and enjoy books that I would have never have normally chosen but I do have some great books just waiting on my shelves as I have already read a book by an author from the same country. I fear that I would never complete the challenge if I just read them in the order I would really like to.

You're doing awesome, Simon. You've got twice as many read as I do.

I'm starting to apply the books I'm reading for other commitments to this challenge instead of the books I had originally listed. My book club read The Sandalwood Tree last month. I applied that to India and crossed off my original pick, What the Body Remembers: A Novel.

Don't you hate it when a book starts to beg?

Simon wrote: "I chose to go with 52 books by authors born in 52 different countries as my interpretation of the challenge and I am pleased to have read 29 of them so far. The thing that is driving me is the desire to finish the challenge so I can read some other books that are just begging me to read them! ..."

29 book is great! I've got the opposite problem -- no discipline and that's why I keep getting stuck in certain countries.

It's fine, though, my first goal is to enjoy the reading and hopefully pack in a bit of learning along the way.

Jenny wrote: "I just saw that underneath your own progress, you can check out the group's progress. Some people are amazingly ahead *cough* Chrissie *cough*."

I feel that I'm just where I should be. I posted to my blog about being at the halfway point in this challenge today. It's the latest post at http://www.maskedpersona.blogspot.com

Oh! It is cool that you are tracking eras as well as countries. Do you have a goal with time as well?

Re tracking eras for challenge books--No, it's not a challenge goal. I'm a historical fiction fan. I keep track of when a book takes place because it interests me.

Finished yesterday :)

I have read books and learnt things that I would never have done without accepting this challenge so it has definitely been worthwhile. My favorite country visited was Poland Story of a Secret State. I knew a reasonable amount about the second world war but had not really considered the incredible journey that Poland went through and it took this book of an individuals efforts to really bring home to me the suffering that occurred.

I think I am going to take a year off challenges now and clear my bookshelves of those books that have slowly been stacking up over this year waiting to be read!

Yay Simon! That Polish book sounds fascinating too. Shall add it to my shelves.

Enjoy clearing those bookshelves!