Read Around the World

Tonight, I started Gabriel García Márquez’s book One Hundred Years of Solitude. As I was reading the first page, I flipped to the back cover to see where the book was written. (There is a discovery of ice on the first page and seeing as it is January in Canada… and I’m thinking of warm, sunny locations around the globe… well, you do the math.) The book was originally published in Columbia.

Why am I telling you this? As I sat there dreaming of sunshine beating down on my skin, I began to realize that in the past year I have read a fair number of books from various corners of the world. A couple of examples: The Girls of Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), The Alchemist (Portugal), Is There Anybody Out There? (Ireland), Divisadero (Canada), Unfeeling (Zimbabwe), and a slew of American literature.

And I ask you, is there a better way to travel the world? To delve so completely into the culture, sounds, smells, beliefs, attitudes or fears of people living across this big blue planet? Is there a better way to taste these differences all while probing around at that undefinable ‘thing’ that underlies life, that something we call humanity?

As I stared at the cover of One Hundred Years of Solitude, I found myself wondering if it would be possible to read my way across the world. Would it be possible to read a book that has been written by a citizen of each of the world’s countries? Could I read books that have made their way out of each and every country across the world and into my hands? A book that has been translated into English? (Because let’s face it, unless it’s a children’s book in Spanish or French, I’m an English-only reader.)

The challenge is on. With no time limit as this could take awhile. (Particularly with commitments to two book clubs, serving as a ThomasNelson book blogger, working on my banned book challenge, and of course, those wonderful books I’m given as gifts or seem to glom onto me as I pass through bookstores and libraries.)

Speaking of children’s books, I am not going to be an adult literature snob. I’m down with any book in published form. It also doesn’t have to be a classic, nor a classic in the making. Remember, I’m a book slut; I’ll read anything. Plus, I read about 300 kids books in a year, so why pass up the opportunity to help boost my stats? A book is a book, right?

Note: Books like Cellist in Sarajevo and Not Without My Daughter do not count as ‘foreign’ lit as they are written by a Canadian and an American, respectively, and not a citizen of the country where the books’ action takes place.

Coming tomorrow… a map (like above). I’m going to go visual on this. I’m going to colour in each country (around 195 of them! This’ll also improve my geography skills–woo!) as I read a book from there. However, I am going to ‘cheat’ a little and play retroactively. That means that books I’ve already read count. Yes, you heard me. The only thing stipulation about previously read books being counted in the challenge is that I have to be able to remember enough about the book in order to be able to give a decent plot summary. So there.

Want in? Misery Reading pleasure loves company.