Wednesday, July 18, 2012

The Planet Earth Challenge

I am a total dummy.

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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