Time to signup for Gilion's European Reading Challenge for the new year. Hers is one of the best challenges going as far as I'm concerned, and I won't be missing it this year. The idea is to visit unique European countries by book, and I'll sign up at the Five-Star/Deluxe Entourage level once again for five books, but suspect once again I'll go past that. I never know what my books are going to be but I'm pretty sure the first country will be France, because I'm likely to finish Malcolm Cowley's Exile's Return about the Lost Generation authors in France later this evening.
Any European books in your future?
I'm *trying* to read my way around the world (fictional locations) so Europe inevitably shows up quite a bit!). My aim is to add at least two places per year with my target (probably unachievable at this point) of 100+ countries. For "reasons" the list is updated annually at the end of March, so I have a little while longer to add my 2nd new country - which is likely to be Cyprus.
ReplyDeleteI've never made an effort to do anything outside of Europe--or even kept track. I wonder how many world countries I've read without actually thinking about it.
DeleteI just looked at your list from last March and looking forward to your update.
I have actually read a Cyprus book--Lawrence Durrell's Bitter Lemons. It was pretty good, but it was pre-blogging.
Good luck! And I hope you find a new country to visit this year. And lots of good books. :D
ReplyDeleteThanks! Maybe this is the year for the Vatican City...
DeleteYou've been doing this challenge for years, have you ever thought of "forcing" youself to choose countries you haven't read from yet? Or, maybe that's just not possible, given how long you've been doing it! I'd probably only have Spain, France, maybe Portugal, one of the Scandi's with a mystery, and of course the U.K. at the top (usually English, this year maybe more likely Irish).
ReplyDeleteI read Pope Francis' memoir Hope early last year--pretty good, actually!--and I meant to blog about it, but never got to it. I've still got Durrell's Pope Joan floating around, and an eBook of Pope Pius II's Renaissance novel. Maybe this year.
DeleteBut Andorra, Lichtenstein, San Marino? They'd be hard! There's only a few other countries I've never done. Finland's probably the largest.