Reading Around the World Challenge
The Beginning
I was recently scrolling TikTok when I can across a video of a woman reading around the world and doing a round up of all the books of "A" countries she completed. I was intrigued!
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I had recently finished listening to Around the World in 80 Trains and I loved the way it allowed me to experience new peoples, places and things without my couch. I originally read the author’s first book Around India in 80 Trains - which made a train trip in India the top of my list when I visited for the first time in 2023 - but that’s a story for another day!
And thus my commitment to Read Around the World was born.
Turns out, a lot of people have challenged themselves to the same thing. But in order to make this challenge sustainable for myself, I needed to establish some ground rules. I know that I am a mood reader - so reading in alphabetical order, as many do, was the quickest way for me to abandon this challenge. So I am letting myself read in whatever order I want - alongside all the other books I want to read in the growing stack of books beside my bed.
I have decided not to limit myself to the kinds of books I read - fiction or nonfiction, works by authors from this country and even travel diaries will all work. I am also trying to prioritize books by female authors whenever possible.
There are so many previous books that I have read that offered a strong sense of place that I wish I had not yet read so that I could count them towards this challenge. But I am trying to read all new-to-me books as a part of this challenge!
With the pace that I am currently reading, it will take me a couple of years to complete this challenge. But I am excited none-the-less.
I have been working on building a reading list for this challenge and you can view that here.
I could use your help! I would love any and all reading recommendations you may have for my list. You can submit reading recs here.
I will also be regularly adding books to my Bookshop if you would like to purchase any of the books I am reading and read along with me while also supporting independent booksellers.
I will be providing regular reading updates using Substack so please subscribe if you would like to join in this adventure! Can’t wait to see where it takes us.
This post contains affiliate links which means that in some cases I will earn a small commission from the things (books) that you buy at no cost to you! Thank you for trusting my recommendations.
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Good luck!