I recently realized that what I was trying to accomplish with the Around the World Challenge I set for myself for 2012 would have been better done using my enormous TBR pile and simply keeping track of the countries that serve as the settings for the books I read. Instead, I ended up going to the library, which led to reading non-TBR-pile books that aren't for challenges, the purchase of more irresistible 50 cent Library Sale paperbacks (which swells my TBR pile rather than reducing it), etc. etc.
To remedy this situation, I decided to create another, similar challenge, which I'll call the Planet Earth Challenge. This challenge will be to keep track of the countries that serve as settings for the books I read, with the goal of someday reading a book set in each country on the list of world countries I used for the Around the World Challenge. To qualify, a book must have at least 75% of its action take place in the country I'm claiming for it; for example, although a small part of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo takes place outside of Sweden, at least 75% of the book is set in Sweden, so I'd use it for my Sweden-set book.
I am not quitting the Around the World Challenge, but I am going to fold those books into this challenge by counting them for this as well.
To make this somewhat fair, I will allow myself to go back to January 2012 and count the books I've read so far this year for this challenge, since the Around the World Challenge was originally begun in January 2012; 2011 books will not count.
I'll keep track of the books for this challenge in this post, using the number of the country on the list, so the numbers will be all out of order until I read them all!
As always, feel free to join me in this, or let me know if you've been doing something similar so we can compare notes!
This is the site I used as my list of countries.
15. Australia - Lights Over Emerald Creek - Shelley Davidow
31. Botswana - A Carrion Death - Michael Stanley
45. Cayman Islands - Cayman Islands - Tricia Hayne
46. Central African Republic - Culture and Customs of the Central African Republic - Jaqueline Woodfork
49. China - Years of Red Dust - Qiu Xiaolong
63. Cyprus - Othello - William Shakespeare
65. Denmark - The History of Danish Dreams - Peter Høeg
71. Egypt - Palace of Desire - Naguib Mahfouz
82. France - The Man in the Iron Mask - Alexandre Dumas
86. Gabon - Gabon, São Tomé and Príncipe - Sophie Warne
94. Greece - A Dark Enchantment - Roland Vernon
109. Hungary - Ballad of the Whiskey Robber - Julian Rubinstein
111. India - Sacred Games - Vikram Chandra
113. Iran - Embroideries - Marjane Satrapi
114. Iraq - Late for Tea at the Deer Palace - Tamara Chalabi
115. Ireland - In The Woods - Tana French
121. Japan - Plum Wine - Angela Davis-Gardner
132. Laos - The Merit Birds - Kelley Powell
147. Mali - White Leopard - Laurent Guillaume
172. Nigeria - Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
176. Norway - Sophie's World - Jostein Gaarder
178. Pakistan - Moth Smoke - Mohsin Hamid
184. Peru - Touching the Void - Joe Simpson
193. Russia - Snowdrops - A.D. Miller
202. São Tomé and Príncipe - Gabon, São Tomé and Príncipe - Sophie Warne
206. Seychelles - Seychelles - Sarah Carpin
215. Spain - Captain Alatriste - Arturo Pérez-Reverte
221. Swaziland - Sangoma - James Hall
222. Sweden - Let The Right One In - John Ajvide Lindqvist
225. Taiwan - Taroko Gorge - Jacob Ritari
227. Tanzania - Green Hills of Africa - Ernest Hemingway
228. Thailand - 4,000 Days - Warren Fellows
233. Trinidad and Tobago - Hungry Ghosts - Kevin Jared Hosein
235. Tunisia - Benny and Omar - Eoin Colfer
236. Turkey - My Name Is Red - Orhan Pamuk
238 +. Tuva - The Blue Sky - Galsan Tschinag
243. United Kingdom
243a. England - The Coma - Alex Garland
243b. Wales - How Green Was My Valley - Richard Llewellyn
243c. Scotland - The Blackhouse - Peter May
256. Zambia - In My Family Tree - Sheila Siddle with Doug Cress
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