Talisman Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 2014 is off to a flying start with the completion of my first new country of the year - this time Croatia. The book in question is The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna. Quite a few books that have been on my wish list for a while were reduced during the Christmas and New Year Kindle sale, so having a large amount of Amazon vouchers to spend, I took advantage of this and downloaded most of them. That should keep me in books then for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Congrats on already completing a country! I hope you enjoy all your new Kindle reads . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talisman Posted January 9, 2014 Author Share Posted January 9, 2014 I am sure I will. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julie Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 June I am so impressed by the number of countries you have already ticked off your list ! Great job . Have there been any countries that have been really hard to find books for ? I'm wondering if there are any that won't have a book ? I'm just thinking of the Olympics when they have some tiny little countries with maybe only one athlete representing them, if there might be a country like that too ,that might only have one author or book from it ? Do you already have a list for possibilities for every country you have left ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talisman Posted January 10, 2014 Author Share Posted January 10, 2014 I am nowhere near that organised Julie, but I do have a fairly lengthy wish list on Amazon with quite few countries on it. The most difficult ones I suspect will be the tiny Pacific island states, and a few of the African nations too - there have been many books from some of these places that I would loved to have read, but a lot of them alas are not available on Kindle, so I have to then look for other ones. The most unusual country though that I have managed to do so far would probably be Tristan de Cunha, which is a small island in the middle of the Atlantic. I managed to do that one towards the end of last year. I suspect though that the reasons I am getting through the challenge relatively quickly are twofold - firstly I am specifically looking for these types of books and secondly, I am doing it by country in which the book is set rather than where the author was born. For a lot of the smaller nations it would downright impossible to find any books written by someone born there, especially in Kindle, which is still after all relatively new technology. I have always felt from working with people from all over the world, that because you were born in a particular country that does not make you any more of an expert on that place than someone who has spent time there for other reasons - marrying a native say, or working there. I have worked with people who were born in say Africa or the Caribbean and came here as children, and so feel more British than African or West Indian - I also have a friend who was British born but has lived in Spain for most of her adult life, so is she more Spanish or more British ? She speaks fluent Spanish as do her children, who were all born there. For me then country where the book is set works just as well. if not better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julie Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 Yes, I think since it's your challenge ,then you can set it however you want . You're doing great and learning a lot about other places so I'm sure it's interesting . You can travel without leaving your chair ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talisman Posted January 12, 2014 Author Share Posted January 12, 2014 Finished another country this afternoon - this time Guyana - Kiskadee Girl by Maggie Harris. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talisman Posted January 19, 2014 Author Share Posted January 19, 2014 Finished my third country of the year so far yesterday - A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra for the former Soviet Republic of Chechnya. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talisman Posted February 1, 2014 Author Share Posted February 1, 2014 Finished another country this afternoon - this time The Dove Flyer by Eli Amir for Iraq. Continuing the Jewish theme, prior to this I managed another book set in both England and Israel - The Marrying of Chani Kaufman by Eve Harris. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julie Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 Great job, June ! You're making some major progress already this year ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 Well done on reading quite a few books for the challenge already this year . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talisman Posted February 8, 2014 Author Share Posted February 8, 2014 (edited) I finished yet another country yesterday - Where the Hell is Tuvalu by Philip Ells for the tiny Pacific island state of Tuvalu. Part biography, part travelogue this is about the two years that the author spent working as a lawyer for VSO (Voluntary Services Overseas) in this part of the world. I have just done a quick count and am somewhat astonished to find that I have only have another 3 countries to read before I hit the halfway mark. Edited February 8, 2014 by Talisman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julie Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 I finished yet another country yesterday - Where the Hell is Tuvalu by Philip Ells for the tiny Pacific island state of Tuvalu. Part biography, part travelogue this is about the two years that the author spent working as a lawyer for VSO (Voluntary Services Overseas) in this part of the world. I have just done a quick count and am somewhat astonished to find that I have only have another 3 countries to read before I hit the halfway mark. That's great, June ! When did you start, do you remember ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talisman Posted February 8, 2014 Author Share Posted February 8, 2014 Officially I think it was 2 years ago - unofficially as soon as I was old enough to start buying my own books ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted February 9, 2014 Share Posted February 9, 2014 I have just done a quick count and am somewhat astonished to find that I have only have another 3 countries to read before I hit the halfway mark.x That's pretty amazing, congrats ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talisman Posted March 23, 2014 Author Share Posted March 23, 2014 After a bit of a slow start to the year, I have managed to complete three more countries. On the Trail of Genghis Khan by Tim Cope for Mongolia and Kazakstan (the book also features Russia and Ukraine, countries I have already covered, as well as the Crimean peninsula) and Hotel K by Kathryn Bonella for Indonesia That brings the total to 8 countries for this year so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talisman Posted April 1, 2014 Author Share Posted April 1, 2014 (edited) I finished another anthology yesterday - Because I am a Girl compiled and partly written by (amongst others) travel writer Tim Butcher. It comprised of stories about the lives of girls and women from 7 different countries - Togo, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Cambodia, Brazil, Uganda and Dominican Republic. I have already covered all bar one of these countries - Ghana, but it was interesting reading nonetheless. Proceeds from the book go to Plan, a charity aimed at improving the lives of women and girls in 66 different countries around the world. There were some very moving stories in there - the one that affected me the most was probably the one from Brazil. Edited April 29, 2014 by Talisman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talisman Posted April 16, 2014 Author Share Posted April 16, 2014 I finished another one of those travel books at lunchtime today that covered most of the old Yugoslav Republics - Jason Smart's The Balkan Odyssey. Smart has written a whole series of these type books which are great for me as they are relatively short and are a great way of getting through all the different countries quickly. This one covered Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania. The next one of his I shall read will probably re the Russian one, which covers all the former Soviet Republics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talisman Posted April 23, 2014 Author Share Posted April 23, 2014 I finished my 18th country of the year at lunchtime today - a really different and fascinating book set in the small African island nation of Sao Tome and Principe - Sao Tome - A Novel by Paul D Cohn. I thought from the name, it was a French speaking island and therefore a former French colony, but it seems that it was actually Portuguese (the name is Portuguese for St Thomas). The book is a fictionalised account of what could easily have been a true story, based on the islands past. It seems that in the late 15th Century the Portuguese, who were in the grip of the Inquisition (say no more), started to ship Jewish children to their African colony, separating them from their families under the guise of turning them into "good" Catholics. This was really though a ruse to use them as unpaid labour (slavery by any other name) to work the sugar plantations. The character in this book, despite these circumstances, made the island his home and actually became quite prosperous in his own way. His downfall was his objection to black slavery and his support of the black Bishop who as an African himself was also against this practise. I will say no more, as it will only spoil it for those who may wish to read this remarkable book, which for me is easily the best I have read this year so far. It was not the cheapest book I have read this year, at a little under £8, but I get a lot of my books free anyway, courtesy of doing online surveys, so I didn't have to pay for this one with my own money. It would have well worth it though if I had. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talisman Posted April 29, 2014 Author Share Posted April 29, 2014 (edited) Finished my 2nd Jason Smart book - Panama City to Rio de Janeiro about an hour ago (I read one of his other books on the Balkans earlier this month). They really are great little books for getting through a multitude of countries quickly, many of which are difficult to find books for. This one covered no less than 6 different countries Panama, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil. I have already done Brazil, so that's 5 more countries done in less than 200 pages and about 3 hours reading, which isn't too bad. That brings the total to 126 out of 231 countries now done, which is even better. Edited April 29, 2014 by Talisman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted April 30, 2014 Share Posted April 30, 2014 Wow, well done! You're read about a lot of countries . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talisman Posted May 13, 2014 Author Share Posted May 13, 2014 (edited) I finished my 3rd Jason Smart book at lunchtime today - he has written a series of short travel books based on his whistle stop tours to various parts of the world. This one - Temples, Tuk Luks and Fried Fish Lips featured his tour of the Far East. These are great very cheap books which are a brilliant way of getting through loads of countries very quickly - in this case, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Philippines, Japan, Indonesia and Brunei. Edited May 13, 2014 by Talisman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexi Posted May 13, 2014 Share Posted May 13, 2014 I'm not really interested in how long the challenge takes me, it was more about expanding my reading horizons, so I am trying to read a novel for each country - although I will possibly have to revise that for some of the more obscure nations I suspect The São Tomé one sounds well worth a go, have added it to my wish list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talisman Posted May 14, 2014 Author Share Posted May 14, 2014 To be honest, once I have completed the challenge I think I will still read and look for books from different countries, so I don't really see it ever ending. At the moment it is in a way just ticking boxes. That Sao Tome book was good though - probably the best I have read this year (so far). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talisman Posted May 17, 2014 Author Share Posted May 17, 2014 Just finished my fourth Jason Smart book - this time The Red Quest. This one features his hair brained scheme to visit all 15 of the former Soviet Republics (I have done 8 of them already anyway) and another 7 of the former Eastern Block countries (I have done 5 of these already too). I will no doubt continue to look for other books from the more obscure places anyway - but the countries covered in this book are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan plus Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and (East) Germany. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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