Reading the World
Reading the World is a challenge to read more diversely. There are 195 countries in the world and I am aiming to read a book for every single one!
So if that sounds exciting join me for a world tour of fantastic books from every corner of Earth.
Books read so far
If I have read more than one book from a particular country, I will list the book that has made the biggest impact on me or the one that has the most cultural relevance in terms of what it can teach a non-native about the country it is set in.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini - Afghanistan
New Animal by Ella Baxter - Australia
Dream Story by Arthur Schnitzler - Austria
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho - Brazil - Didn’t like this, so I’ll replace it with a different Brazilian book in the future
The River has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar - Canada
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu - China - Epic Sci-fi
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka - Czechia - Perhaps the most powerful exploration of depression I have ever read.
The Faces by Tove Ditlevsen - Denmark
The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter - England - Stunning Gothic fairytale reimaginings
The Summer Book by Tove Jannson - Finland
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert - France
Going to the Dogs: The Story of a Moralist by Erich Kästner - Germany
Oedipus the King by Sophocles - Greece
The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturlason - Iceland - Historical collection of Norse Myths
Normal People by Sally Rooney - Ireland
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino - Italy
Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami - Japan
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran - Lebanon - I will replace this with an author who lived longer in Lebanon as Gibran relocated to America at the age of 12
Adèle by Leïla Slimani - Morocco
Diary of an Oxygen Thief by Anonymous - Netherlands (allegedly)
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe - Nigeria - staggering work on the effects of colonialism!
Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel - Northern Ireland
The Bell in the Lake by Lars Mytting - Norway
The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski - Poland - I will be finding another book as I didn’t really like this.
Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugastsky - Russia - Formerly USSR
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle - Scotland - I hated the book, though, so I’ll read another at some point.
The Vegetarian by Han Kang - South Korea
A Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih - Sudan
Doctor Glas by Hjalmar Söderberg - Sweden
The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon - Trinidad and Tobago
Passing by Nella Larson - USA
Rest and Be Thankful by Emma Glass - Wales
