Saturday 4 January 2014

Around the World in 12 Books Challenge 2014

Around the World in 12 Books Challenge 2014

I have found another interesting challenge for me for the next year. "Around the World in 12 Books", initiated by the blog "Giraffe Days".

Granted, they have set various different levels - Level 1: "The Happy Camper" requires only two books, Level 2: "The Wayfarer" two more, so four, Level 3: "The Casual Tourist" wants six books - but the one I will be going for is Level 4: The Seasoned Traveller. The requirements for this level are as follows:

"The Seasoned Traveller doesn’t do anything by half-measures: they go the whole hog and the more obscure the better!
•    Read 12 books over the course of the year, each set in a DIFFERENT country
•    Books selected should include ones set in Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia+New Zealand, North America and South America. The Middle East is a bonus.
•    You do not need to plan ahead but it might help you keep on track.
•    No re-reads
•    Any genre is okay (including non-fiction) BUT books MUST be set in a specific country or region with a noticeable attention to the location or environment; some genre books won’t be much use for this challenge."

This sounds very much like my cup of tea.

I will record the list of the books that fall under this category on this post as I read them. I look forward to finding some new ones from the various continents, hopefully also from countries I didn't read anything from before.

Africa
Namibia
Mankell, Henning "Daniel" (also Sweden)

Asia
China
See, Lisa "Peony in Love"  
India

Ruiz Zafón, Carlos "The Midnight Palace"  
Seth, Vikram "Two Lives" (also Germany and UK)
Iran
Nafisi, Azar "Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books"
Israel
Wolff, Uwe "Wo war Jesus zwischen Karfreitag und Ostersonntag? Das Leben Jesu für unsere Zeit erzählt" [Where was Jesus between Good Friday and Easter Sunday? The Life of Jesus told for our time]

Myanmar/Burma
Sendker, Jan-Philipp "The Art of Hearing Heartbeats" (Das Herzenhören)

Europe
Finland
Lander, Leena "The Order"
France
Harris, Joanne "Blackberry Wine"  
Ionesco, Eugène "Rhinocéros" (Rhinoceros)  
Germany
Borrmann, Mechtild "Der Geiger" [The Violinist]
Döblin, Alfred "Berlin Alexanderplatz" (Döblin, Alfred "Berlin Alexanderplatz")
Korschunow, Irina "Von Juni zu Juni" [From June to June]
Münk, Katharina "Die Eisläuferin" [The Ice Skater]
Nietzsche, Friedrich "Also sprach Zarathustra. Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen" (Thus spoke Zarathustra. A Book for All and None

Pamuk, Orhan "Snow" (also Turkey)
Roth, Charlotte "Als wir unsterblich waren" [When We Were Immortal]
Seth, Vikram "Two Lives" (also India and UK)  
Stratmann, Cordula "Sie da oben, er da unten" [She up there, he down there]
Vermes, Timur "Er ist wieder da" (Look who's back)
 
Greece
Hislop, Victoria "The Last Dance and Other Stories
Karystiani, Ionna "The Jasmine Isle
Woodhouse, C.M. "Modern Greece"
Ireland
Joyce, James "Ulysses""
Italy
Fo, Dario "My first seven years (plus a few more)"
Heller, Joseph "Catch-22"
Mann, Thomas "Death in Venice" (Der Tod in Venedig)
Sienkiewicz, Henryk "Quo Vadis"  
The Netherlands
Green, John "The Fault in Our Stars" (also US)
Linthout, Dik "Onbekende buren" [Unknown Neighbours]
Tartt, Donna "The Goldfinch" (also US)
Norway
Gaarder, Jostein "Sophie's World" (Sofies verden)
Portugal
Brizuela, Leopoldo "Lisboa. Un melodrama" [Night over Lisbon]
Russia
Borrmann, Mechtild "Der Geiger" [The Violinist

Münk, Katharina "Die Eisläuferin" [The Ice Skater
Scandinavia 
Byatt, A.S. "Ragnarok. The End of the Gods

Spain
Montagu, Ewen "The Man Who Never Was"
Ruiz Zafón, Carlos "El principe de parnaso" [The Prince of Parnass]

Sweden  
Lindgren, Astrid "Seacrow Island"   
Mankell, Henning "Daniel" (also Namibia)
Switzerland:
Frisch, Max "Homo Faber" (dto.)
Turkey
Pamuk, Orhan "My Father's Suitcase"

- "Snow" (also Germany)
- "The White Castle"
Tanpınar, Ahmet Hamdi "The Time Regulation Institute"
United Kingdom
Aaronovitch, Ben "Moon over Soho"
Bryson, Bill "Shakespeare: The World as a Stage"
Christie, Agatha "Poirot Investigates"
Dickens, Charles "The Pickwick Papers""
George, Margaret "Elizabeth I"

Harris, Joanne  "Blackberry Wine" (also France)
Palma, Félix J. "The Map of the Sky"

Seth, Vikram "Two Lives" (also Germany and India)
Thackeray, William Makepeace "Vanity Fair, or, A Novel without a Hero"

Australia+New Zealand
Australia
Herbert, Xavier "Capricornia"
McCulloch, Colleen "The Thorn Birds"

North America
Canada
Montgomery, L.M. "Anne of Green Gables"
Shields, Carol "The Stone Diaries"  
Guadeloupe
NDiaye, Marie "Rosie Carpe
USA
Baxter, Charles "The Soul Thief"
Berry, Wendell "Hannah Coulter"

Bryson, Bill  "One Summer: America, 1927"
Burgess, Anthony "A Clockwork Orange"
Collins, Suzanne "The Hunger Games"
Eggers, Dave "The Circle"
Faulkner, William "Light in August"
Green, John "The Fault in Our Stars" (also The Netherlands)
Hunter, Stephen "Night of Thunder

Mathis, Ayana "The Twelve Tribes of Hattie"
Nabokov, Vladimir "Lolita"  
Roth, Philip "Zuckerman Unbound"
Tartt, Donna "The Goldfinch" (also The Netherlands)

South America

The Middle East

Extra-Terrestrial
Bradbury, Ray "The Martian Chronicles"


You can find more of the challenges I participate(d) in here.

6 comments:

  1. Glad to see you doing this too. I'll be interested to see what you pick.
    As I am doing two other challenges that are geographic and only allow fiction, I think I will be trying to do nonfiction on this one if possible.

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    1. Thank you for passing on the idea. I will be closely watching you. I will add a few more challenges myself, it always gives me ideas to read outside of my comfort zone. I had to give up my book club for health reasons, so this is sort of the replacement for it.

      Thanks again for your ideas, for your encouragement and, most of all, for your great blog.

      Marianne

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  2. You actually make it appear really easy together with your presentation but I find this matter to be really something which I feel I might never understand.
    Islamic Bookstore This critic of training is fundamentally for two explanations. Instruction and education makes man a right scholar. Remember, without education, nobody can think fittingly in a suitable connection you. Andit advises man how to think and how to settle on a choice.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't know what kind of a problem you have with this. Of course you need an education in order to read. I suppose you just want to make an advert for your Islamic Bookstore. I don't want spam on my page, so if this happens again, the post will be automatically deleted.

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  3. Not much of a joiner so I won't formally join the challenge, but I will, on my own, do the Seasoned Traveller. Just finished a book set in China, so 11 more to go.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And that's alright, Janet. I can understand those challenges might not be for everyone. They give me the opportunity to read a lot of different kind of literature so I don't always stick with my favourites. I found a lot of great books through my book club which I had to give up for health reasons, this is the replacement as I explained above to Shonna whose blog made me aware of this.

      Looking foward to seeing what you'll pick. If you like, you can add your books to this as I don't h ave so many people commenting.

      Have a good week,
      Marianne

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